Jesus Always - September 30th
There Are Always Exceptions
Part I - God's Glory & Capitalization
In book "Should You RUN From Jesus
Always?" we examine several Jesus Always devotionals
and find every one we look at contains unbiblical teaching.
In a three part series here we examine the September 30th devotional
in-depth and find that it has a number of problems and unbiblical
teaching throughout.
I am not searching out "problem" devotions
in an effort to make Jesus Always look bad. These are
essentially randomly selected devotions, including one Sarah
Young picked. In the book we look at September 5th, a devotion
Sarah Young identified as being one of her favorites.
This abundance of unbiblical teaching should
be of concern and result in every Christian rejecting Jesus
Always as NOT being a Christian devotional. This is a book
all Christians should avoid.
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In the book Should You RUN From Jesus Always several
Jesus Always devotions are compared with scripture revealing
that what Jesus says is not Biblical. The Jesus
who is speaking in the Jesus Always devotional clearly does
not understand scripture.
Several statements are made in the Should I Run From Jesus
Always book that are generalizations. And there always will
be some special cases that are exceptions. The September 30th Jesus
Always devotion provides a good example for examining problems
with Jesus Always as well as several exceptions. Let's start
at the beginning of this devotion. Here is the first paragraph:
THE RICHEST TREASURE I offer you is the Light of the gospel
of My Glory. This is what makes the gospel such amazingly good
news. It opens the way to My Glory! Sarah Young, Jesus Always,
September 30th, 2016, page 285
What is this paragraph teaching? I don't know. It strings
together some good sounding words, but there is not much that is Biblical
here. Yes, the gospel is amazingly good news. That's a true statement.
But how does it open the way to My Glory? What does opens
the way to My Glory mean? I don't know. But I also know
that it leaves to door open to whatever YOU want it mean.
"Opens The Way To My Glory"
Let's see if we can figure this out. What is the relationship between
the gospel and God's glory? What is this way that is being
opened? Why does it need to be opened?
God is glorified through the gospel. More than anything else, the
gospel glorifies God. Why?
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through
the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall
be saved by His life. - Romans 5:10
Because God took people who hated him... those who were His enemies...
those who had turned their back on Him and totally rejected Him...
and God showered His grace and mercy on them. For their benefit, He
paid the ultimate penalty, taking the full wrath of God on Himself,
the penalty these wretched sinners had justly earned. He died the
second death so they could live. That's why God is glorified through
the gospel. He gave us a priceless gift we did not deserve.
The gospel brings God more glory than anything else. Does
the gospel open the way for God to be glorified? No! That makes it
sound as though, through the gospel God may or may not be glorified.
The door is open, but maybe no one walks through the door. No! That's
not glorifying God to the max.
The gospel directly glorifies God. We're dead in our sins. Be can
do nothing. We can't even walk through an open door. God saves us.
He choses who He will save and He does 100% of the saving. Everything
is done by God, and it is all part of the gospel, and as a result
God is glorified.
Unusual Capitalization
In the book "Should You RUN From Jesus Always?"
I point out that words we would not normally expect to be capitalized,
such as Joy, Peace and Love are capuitalized. This is a sign of New
Age theology and that you are reading something that is not Biblical.
Let's look at this in a little more detail:
The September 30th devotion starts with a quote from scripture: the
Light of the gospel of My Glory. That's from 2 Corinthians
4:4 where Paul writes:
...in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds
of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the
gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
- 2 Corinthians 4:4 (NASB)
First, notice that Light is capitalized in the devotion,
as well as Glory. Why is that? Because in New Age theology
god is in everything and everything is in god. So god is in glory,
and glory is in god. That means glory should be capitalized. This
is not what scripture teaches, which is that God has glory. And God
is glorified. But, "glory" is not God.
Note: Capitalization of words referring to God,
such as He and Him, is a human decision. It is done to help the
reader know when a pronoun is referring to God and to show reverence
for God. Not all Bible translations capitalize pronouns that refer
to God. (see: https://gotquestions.org/capitalizing-pronouns-God.html).
Some New Age authors follow this convention and capitalize words
such as Glory, Joy, Peace, and Presence because in New Age theology
these words are direct references to God. In Christian theology,
with some exceptions, these words are not a direct reference to
God. So we see a sharp contrast between New Age theology and Christian
theology. For example, the word Glory is not capitalized anywhere
in scripture, except in one case in which Majestic Glory is used
as a name for God. "Glory" is capitalized throughout Jesus
Always, revealing its New Age theology.
Looking at 2 Corinthians 4:4 you see that light is not
capitalized. We could leave it at that, and point out the error of
capitalizing "Light" in this quotation from scripture. But,
let's dig deeper and look at an exception. There are instances when
the word light is capitalized in scripture. For instance:
This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you,
that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
1 John 1:5 (NASB)
I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk
in the darkness, but will have the Light of life. John
8:12 (NASB)
So why is the word light capitalized in scripture
here? And why is it wrong to capitalize it in 2 Corinthians 4:4.
To answer this questionwe'll need to understanding howt the word light
is used in the New Testament.
New Testament references to light are often figurative.
- Tyndale Bible Dictionary, 2001, page 818
The Tyndale Bible Dictionary definition of light goes
on to say that scripture emphasizes that Christ brought a
revelation from God, but He was more than a revealer. He himself was
that revelation. (page 819) This helps us make sense of
1 Peter 2:9 which refers to Jesus, but light is not capitalized.
so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called
you out of darkness into His marvelous light; - 1 Peter 2:9
In this verse Peter is talking about believers having been called
out of darkness... meaning to be called out of moral darkness... called
out of a sinful condition. What are we being called into? We are being
called into His kingdom.
When believers receive Christ's light, He illuminates
their minds so they can discern truth, and He changes their souls
so they are able to apply it. They receive both the intellectual
light of God's truth and the righteous desires to obey it, neither
of which they had before conversion. John MacArthur,
New Testament Commentary 1 Peter, 2004, page 131
As you see, the word light in 1 Peter 2:9 does not refer
to revelation, but to intellectual illumination. Thus, the translators
of the NASB chose not to capitalize it.
But, when light refers to revelation, as it does in John
8:12, it is pronoun that directly refers to God. Since Jesus is the
revelation personified, the word "Light" (referring to this
revelation), following the conventions of the NASB, should be capitalized.
If we think of light as referring to revelation, meaning
new information that results in a better understanding of what scripture
had previously revealed, then all of this makes sense. Jesus is that
revelation (Light), and He also walks within the knowledge of that
revelation meaning all of His words and actions are in accordance
with the revelation, and are actually a part of the revelation.
This also fits with Paul talking about mystery in Ephesians
by revelation there was made known to me the mystery
(Ephesians 3:3).
So scripture is saying Jesus is the Light... He is the Revelation.
He is the Revelation that gives life. Light is capitalized
because it is a pronoun referring to the Son of God. In New Age theology,
Light is capitalized for a different reason. "Light"
is a noun naming something that is god. God is light and light is
god. New Age and Christian understandings of this are very different,
and the New Age theology and capitalization practices are definately
not Biblical.
The bottom line? When you see words capitalized, that normally
are not capitalized, be wary. Be on the alert. What you are reading,
with just a very few exceptions, is probably based on New Age (non-Christian)
thinking.
Go to: Part 2 - September
30th Jesus Always Devotion