Pearcey Report

Pearcey Report

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

sic et non

The Voice New Testament

“The Voice™ is the product of the best minds in this emerging generation of Christian leaders.” (So notes Amamzon.com in their Editorial review section.)

Have to admit I am a latecomer to this series, now completed as The Voice New Testament.

The editorial review comment on Amazon.com states The Voice to be a new translation of the dynamic equivalent philosophy.

Having received my copy yesterday, I read through Matthew, portions of John, Acts, Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians. Hebrews, 2 Timothy, 1 & 2 Peter, 1 John, Jude and The Revelation. My plan will be to continue during my morning reading til completed.

To be sure, it is very readable and I found the screen play dialogue format helpful. The side-bar boxes containing informative data are also helpful. Commentary within the context of the passages can be helpful, but also subject to mis-leading, i.e. the reader thinking it to be actually part of the text!

Couple of things bumming me out at this point: changing a noun into a verb in 2 Tim. 4:7. The Voice reads, in part, “…I have kept believing…” when the text says Paul “…kept the faith… (NASB, NIV, ESV, and a host of others).

I understand the concern for gender but fail to grasp why “brothers” in 1 John is translated “brothers and sisters” in most places, and “fathers” is translated as “fathers and mothers”, yet children is not translated as “boys and girls” nor is “young men” translated as “young men and women”. Hey, let’s be consistent in our gender inclusively!

In Matthew: I can’t seem to recall anywhere in the Greek text where John is ever called the teacher or teacher and prophet? Also the sidebar comment about Mary never having kissed a man caught me off guard. How is this ever known? Yeow!

Still, for reading I would class this with The Message, a good read but one to avoid when one is interested in studying the text.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Governmental Compassion

Now, there’s an oxymoron!

A gun to the head of one who seemingly “has”, and the “gunner’s” handout to the one who has not!

The only one who really benefits is the “gunner”: he takes what is yours, gives it to another in need and is thought to be The savior.

In the end, the government gains more power and the “robbed” is rendered more powerless.

We hide such tyranny under the euphemism of “Compassionate Conservatism”.

Give me a break!

Odds are, if the governmental tyrants would leave us, those in need would benefit to a greater extent and experience real compassion.



Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Duh?

Re-stating the obvious in an engaging and entertaining manner is both an art and a science. In each case, Andy Stanley, IMHO, is a Master Craftsman.

Direction Determines Destination.

Duh?

must be written on our given the Imagio Dei (image of God). Still, time and again we lean on the corrupted heart inherited from Adam rather than disciplines ourselves to orient our lives in harmony with God’s word.

Andy’s use of personal “failings’ and other life experiences seasoned with “salt” and relating to serve to help us say, “Hey, wait a minute! I did that very thing!” or “That’s exactly where I am at this moment!”

Two of Andy’s observations resonated with me as I read: 1) Not being on a Truth Quest and, 2) What you won’t know. The latter observation reminded me of the Apostle Peter’s observation in 2 Peter 3:5 about being “willingly ignorant”. Once that fatal decision is made, the Truth Quest is impossible.

Great read and one to periodically utilize as a refresher for the typical mistakes we tend to make when initially charting a “direction”.