Killing The Passion

Bible translations abound in our day and age, along with thematic Bibles for men, for women, for teenagers, children, parents, for armchair archaeologists and coffee shop philosophers, for people 'who really want to go on with God,' to those special Christians among us who seem to have God sitting on their shoulder and chatting away all the live-long day. The list seems endless and as long as there is a niche market and money to be made they'll keep coming I imagine.

Then there are the paraphrase Bibles, useful in their way, but surely not for the pulpit (but oh, we've seen it done). It is hard to get people to understand that they are supposed to come to the Bible, not the other way around. They are meant to sit under the teaching of the Bible, the Bible is not meant to bend itself out of shape to suit their preferences or play to their ignorance. Any good Bible translation will speak to your heart and there is no need for your Bible to talk down to you.

The Passion Translation

Then there's the Passion 'Translation' (TPT). This is brought to us by Brian Simmons, an 'apostle' in certain circles who claims direct access to heaven, and a heavenly commission from Jesus himself to produce this translation. See him talk about a visit to heaven here. What is claimed for the Passion Translation?

“The Passion Translation is an excellent translation you can use as your primary text to seriously study God’s Word ... the text has been interpreted from the original language, carrying its original meaning and giving you an accurate, reliable expression of God’s original message”

This is neither a translation, nor a decent paraphrase, but a thoroughgoing gloss on the text. All sorts of concepts and ideas that don't even belong in footnotes are inserted though not found in the original language. It seems designed specifically to reflect the ideas of one particular group. As the New World Translation is biased towards Watchtower teaching, so TPT is heavily biased toward the teachings of the New Apostolic Reformation. One of the leading lights in the movement, Bill Johnson, endorses it wholeheartedly and preaches from it regularly.

There are any number of reviews of TPT. You can find some good ones.

What's Wrong With the Passion Translation by Andrew Wilson is thoughtful and balanced.

Why Christians Should be Concerned About the Passion Translation by Alisa Childers is very informative and helpful.

Holly Pivec over at Spirit of Error has put together A Passion Translation Factsheet that is very helpful.

It Says What!

Here we begin a series looking at verses from TPT and compare them with legitimate translations produced by qualified scholars. Hopefully, it will drive us back to the Word, in a reliable translation, and kill the Passion.

Today we look at a familiar verse from the psalms and see what TPT makes of it - Psalm 46:1

'God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.' ESV

'God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.' NIV

'God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.' NASB

You're a proven help in time of trouble-more than enough and always available when I need you.' TPT

Where did all those extra words come from??

Notice the text in other translations uses the plural first person pronoun 'our' while TPT uses the first person singular 'I' 'when I need you.' This is the 'Jesus and me' error many Christians make with such Bible texts. They take a text that refers to a group 'us' or even 'them' and make it personal. It is a common enough error and easily corrected by good preaching and teaching. This text in the TPT puts God at my beck and call 'always available when I need you.'

The text is actually addressing the security God's people (plural) will know as a community even in difficult and testing times. This is because God is our refuge and strength not because he comes when he is called. This is so because God dwells among his people (plural) and goes with them, has made them (plural) his holy habitation (v.5) To remove the plural sense is to rob the psalm of its purpose and meaning.

God is the Maker and sustainer of all things, not the Butler.

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Mormon Christians? Whats in a Name?

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You know those moments when you look at something you’ve looked at a thousand times before and suddenly see something new? I was looking at a blog I found via the Google Blog Alerts service and it told the familiar story of the Mormon “ Plan of Salvation”; you can read it here. There really was nothing surprising until I started thinking about what people might think if a family they knew conducted themselves the way the Mormon “family of God” do in this story. People from abusive backgrounds have problems enough with the idea of God as a Father but this story would put anyone off the idea forever! As I recount this story think about what the typical dad would do as his kids are growing up and compare it with this “exalted man.” According to Mormonism “ God created our spirits” and we lived with him in a pre-mortal existence (Mormons say “pre-existence” but it is not possible to pre-exist, i.e. to exist before you exist. The noun “existence” has to be have the prefix “pre” othe

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