Paul sent this e-mail to the editors of Despatch magazine:
The following letter was written in reply to one complaining to us about our occasional use of The Message in our writings and letters. The woman complaining sent us a link to your site as support material for her argument, so I am forwarding our responses to you as constructive comments that could lead you to repentance from worshipping the Bible, particularly the King James Version. Also the following writings are pertinent:
Is the King James Authorized Version the Perfect Word of God?
Answer to an Apologist for Worship of the KJV
To see what was sent, read the first letter from Debra Lynn and Victor’s and Paul’s responses to that letter.
A reply from Wendy Howard:
A copy of this correspondence will be sent to Berit Kjos, who is the actual author of the material on our website re the heretical Message by Petersen, we hope she will also have time to answer you from her busy schedule.
Wendy Howard…despatch magazine
Dear Sir,
It is ridiculous to suggest that we worship the King James Bible! We worship the Lord God Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth and glorify His Son our Saviour. Christ is TRUTH and so we embrace and desire Truth in the Word, not deliberate falsification and demonic lies masquerading as “bibles.”
The Message is a strange and nasty little paraphrase, that has hidden occult meanings and misleading comments throughout. Note this shocking “hidden” meaning as a starter to your research. The Message paraphrases Colossians 1:16 thus:
“ For everything, absolutely everything, ABOVE AND BELOW, visible and invisible…..everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him.”
The King James correctly has:
“ For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by, and for him.”
The “as above, so below” statement is OCCULTISM! Peterson uses it again in the Lord’s Prayer etc. “Above and Below” is a NEW Age term often and commonly used. Matthew 6:9-13. It means that as God is so are we, we are gods, all around us is “god” as in pantheism. Go to Google and trace up “as above, so below” and see that there are countless occult references to this. Here is one only:
“ This phrase comes from the beginning of THE EMERALD TABLET and embraces the entire system of traditional and modern magic which was inscribed upon the tablet in cryptic wording by HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. The significance of this phrase is that it is believed to hold the key to all mysteries. All systems of magic are claimed to function by this formula. ‘That which is above is the same as that which is below’….The universe is the same as God. God is the same as man…”
Alice A Bailey has this “esoteric” teaching, a hidden mystery. We have hidden occultism throughout the New Age “Bible” versions! In the Luciferian The Secret Doctrine this “as above, so below” mystery comes out:
“ Above, the Son is the whole KOSMOS;
Below, he is MANKIND.”
I am rushing as we have to attend an important forum this weekend, so I will be brief. I am trying to help you!
Another horrible hidden meaning in another Bible was this. Instead of Christ is “within the veil”, as in Heaven with the Father, in the holy Place, the New Age Bible said:
“ BEHIND the veil is the PRESENCE.”
Now in Satanism the Presence with a capital “P” refers to SATAN! Can’t look up which Bible for now, too busy.
Get immediately the books In Awe of Thy Word by G.A. Riplinger, A.V. Publications Corp, and Deceived on Purpose, by Warren Smith, Mountain Stream Press – if you are sincere and really want to serve God and His Truth. If you don’t then, wallow away in the Satanic deceptions that are massed in the New Age Bible versions you are reading. If you are truly saved you have to give an account of this at the judgement seat of Christ, the Bema Seat. So pray and think carefully, these are serious matters. I could write so much more, but time does not permit just now. Write again if you want more. God does not want you to be deceived, He loves you and wants you to have TRUTH. Take no notice of Rick Warren, he is an occult PLANT, a facilitator. He is a member of the Freemasonry’s, “Council on Foreign Relations”, he is high Illuminati. He pushed the Message heavily.
I am praying for you,
Wendy Howard, editor of Despatch magazine.
Paul’s reply:
Wendy,
Berit has been in touch with us. I am carbon copying her here so she may see what I have to say about your arguments against The Message and where you think to stand.
It is not ridiculous at all to say that you worship the Bible. You seem to be entirely unfamiliar with the fact that many do worship the Bible, and that those who do so think to be worshiping God. The Lord spoke to such, as recorded in the Gospel of John:
“ You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and these are they which testify about Me. But you are unwilling to come to Me, so that you may have life” (John 5:39-40 EMTV).
They would have said the same thing to Him that you say to us. “But we are the people of God, we worship Him, keep His Law, etc, etc.” However, our trust and faith is not in what people claim about themselves, but in what the Lord has to say about them, and the fruits they display tell us what kind of tree they are. We know you by your fruits.
You have gone astray thinking to have found “Truth in the Word.” The Truth can never be found in the letter, which is what you are referring to by “the Word.” The Truth is found in the Word made flesh. That is what Jesus was saying to the Jews who were also thinking they had “Truth in the Word.”
“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me. And ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life” (John 5:39-40 KJV).
We, however, understand the Bible because we know and hear the Voice of the living Word of God, the One of Whom it testifies.
You write that you do not embrace “deliberate falsification and demonic lies masquerading as ‘bibles.’” Firstly, let me say that we are not apologists for The Message. We quote from it where the originally intended meaning has not been altered, but has been made more accessible by frank, non-religious language, which we have found at times to be very helpful in getting the message across. We do find errors of interpretation in The Message, which we also find in the King James Version and other Bibles.
If you would read the articles I sent you, you would see what I mean. It is quite ignorant of you to talk about what we are saying when you do not even bother to find out what it is that we are saying. Pray for us? How about knowing what you are talking about before concluding anything? How about looking before you shoot? In your case, shooting is not even called for, as we are friends, servants of God, bringing you the Truth from His lips. Not good fruit, Wendy; you are not displaying the fruits of His Spirit.
Admittedly, The Message is not a verbatim translation, so the main question is whether Peterson gets the meaning right. While he is not always right on, and is sometimes way off, he is often right on, and we, by the Spirit of God, appreciate the refreshing Truth and cannot call His intended meaning “unclean,” as you, in your ignorance, do. Neither do we see the “deliberate falsification” and “demonic lies” you claim are there. Making such an accusation without proof is reckless, and is certainly not a fruit of Christ. In fact it is slander, bearing false witness against your neighbor. That is a fruit of the flesh, and of carnal religion of the type practiced by the Catholic Church in the Inquisition.
You attribute errors of intention to Peterson, like “hidden occult meanings and misleading comments throughout.” Let’s examine your first and foremost example to see how accurate and valid your accusation is. You say the following:
“Note this shocking “hidden” meaning as a starter to your research. The Message paraphrases Colossians 1:16 thus:
‘For everything, absolutely everything, ABOVE AND BELOW, visible and invisible…..everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him.‘”
You claim that saying “as above, so below” is occultism. First of all, those were not the words used in the Scripture quote. Second of all, are the words Peterson used not true in context? Is that not what matters? Whereas we see those words in their purity, for what God has given them to mean, you see them in corruption, according to the interpretation of devils. Why is that? And why do you force your interpretation of devils on others? Is it not to give you power and make you right? It certainly is not for Truth’s sake.
We have a choice here. We can see what is said in the Light of Truth, or we can defile ourselves by those who determine the words to be a lie, based on the corrupt meaning others might have given them. The corrupt, in your mind, usurps all possibility of the pure existing or being used. But we ask you, who are we to follow, the Light or the liar? Consider by what spirit you are interpreting things.
I walk into a room and see a briefcase. I envision using it to carry writings about the walk with God. You see the same briefcase and, having heard that pornographers have used briefcases to carry their wares, declare it to be a tool of the devil. Who is right?
Satan enticed Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, not by denying God’s existence or His words, but by questioning His motives. “Yea, has God said…?” Now you come, having been eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, where Satan put it into your mind that unless the words appear exactly as they do in the KJV, they are suspect, and you call them evil. You say to us, “Yea, hath God said?” using the KJV as your standard, rather than the living Word of God. You forget or never knew that the letter kills. It is the Spirit that gives life.
You act as a minion of the devil, promoting man’s self-righteousness and carnal understanding of the Word of God. You have a form of godliness (the KJV), but deny the power (Spirit) thereof. You have made God in your image, in paper and ink, an impotent idol that snares your soul and makes you as your idol- deaf, dumb and blind.
Blind fool! Can your King James Bible speak to you? Can it know your heart, as we do by the Spirit of God, and tell it to you? Can it forgive your sins, or bind them upon you? In your idolatry you fulfill the Scripture:
“Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:22 KJV).
Or, as Peterson so aptly puts it:
“They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life” (Romans 1:22 MSG).
Getting back to “above and below,” the actual phrase you claim is used by occultists is “as above, so below,” as I mentioned, which is entirely different than the one you just criticized and condemned in The Message. Is this not hypocritical of you? You say wording is very important, even going so far as to say that the King James is the “God-approved” version with the correct wording of Scripture, and then you condemn someone else for something they did not say, changing their words. This is not a fruit of the Spirit. Does this not perfectly describe you?:
“Mean-spirited ambition isn’t wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn’t wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn’t wisdom. It’s the furthest thing from wisdom–it’s animal cunning, devilish conniving” (James 3:14-15 MSG).
You say that Peterson uses this phrase, “as above, so below” again (which is not true, it is for the first time) in “the Lord’s Prayer,” which I quote:
“Set the world right; Do what’s best– as above, so below” (Matthew 6:10 MSG).
What is so nefarious about God setting the world right, and committing oneself to the fact that He will do what is best – as He does above in Heaven, so on earth below – to achieve that? You go on with immaterial information about magicians using the phrase in question as a formula for whatever it is that they do. So what? Who cares? Should I let a magician’s evil thinking inform me? No sir. We are here to reclaim from the devil the land he has polluted. Get behind us, Satan. We claim for God what you have polluted at the hand of man. No more.
You quote from someone or somewhere another example of the plot to infect our minds with New Age ideology, “Above, the Son is the whole KOSMOS; Below, he is MANKIND.” Do not the Scriptures say that He is before all things, and by Him all things consist (Colossians 1:17)? Do they not also say that He was given by God to taste death for every man (Hebrews 2:9)? Is not Jesus Christ what everything is about, including and particularly mankind? So, aside from what anyone meant by the above phrase, I will take the opportunity of the truth therein to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, Who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe (1 Timothy 4:10).
You write:
“Instead of Christ is ‘within the veil’, as in Heaven with the Father, in the holy Place, the New Age Bible said:
‘BEHIND the veil is the PRESENCE.’
Now in Satanism the Presence with a capital “P” refers to SATAN! Can’t look up which Bible for now, too busy.”
I quote the Scripture:
“Which [hope] we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; Whither the forerunner is for us entered, [even] Jesus, made an High Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec” (Hebrews 6:19-20 KJV).
I do not have the “New Age Bible” you are talking about, but I do know that the Greek word for the coming of the Lord is “parousia,” which means “presence.” The Presence in His coming is Him. He is the Presence within the veil. Who else do you expect there? The Message reflects this truth, which you, on the other hand, concede to Satan:
“It’s an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God where Jesus, running on ahead of us, has taken up His permanent post as High Priest for us, in the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 6:19-20 MSG).
Your busyness is not doing you any good, Wendy, as it keeps you busy playing lackey to Satan, sitting in his sewer while you reject all wholesome Truth. You need a major reorientation of your world. It is called repentance. I do not care how long you think to have been a Christian. You are all the harder and less teachable for it, and so you will break before you are broken, just as Jeremiah was instructed by God to demonstrate before the elders of his people, who also were idolaters and hardened in their ways:
Jeremiah 19:1-15 MSG
(1) GOD said to me, “Go, buy a clay pot. Then get a few leaders from the people and a few of the leading priests
(2) and go out to the Valley of Ben-hinnom, just outside the Potsherd Gate, and preach there what I tell you.
(3) “Say, ‘Listen to GOD’s Word, you kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem! This is the Message from GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel. I’m about to bring doom crashing down on this place. Oh, and will ears ever ring!
(4) Doom–because they’ve walked off and left Me, and made this place strange by worshiping strange gods, gods never heard of by them, their parents, or the old kings of Judah. Doom–because they have massacred innocent people.
(5) Doom–because they’ve built altars to that no-god Baal, and burned their own children alive in the fire as offerings to Baal, an atrocity I never ordered, never so much as hinted at!
(6) “‘And so it’s pay day, and soon’–GOD’s Decree!–‘this place will no longer be known as Topheth or Valley of Ben-hinnom, but Massacre Meadows.
(7) I’m canceling all the plans Judah and Jerusalem had for this place, and I’ll have them killed by their enemies. I’ll stack their dead bodies to be eaten by carrion crows and wild dogs.
(8) I’ll turn this city into such a museum of atrocities that anyone coming near will be shocked speechless by the savage brutality.
(9) The people will turn into cannibals. Dehumanized by the pressure of the enemy siege, they’ll eat their own children! Yes, they’ll eat one another, family and friends alike.’
(10) “Say all this, and then smash the pot in front of the men who have come with you.
(11) Then say, ‘This is what GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies says: I’ll smash this people and this city like a man who smashes a clay pot into so many pieces it can never be put together again. They’ll bury bodies here in Topheth until there’s no more room.
(12) And the whole city will become a Topheth.
(13) The city will be turned by people and kings alike into a center for worshiping the star gods and goddesses, turned into an open grave, the whole city an open grave, stinking like a sewer, like Topheth.’“
(14) Then Jeremiah left Topheth, where GOD had sent him to preach the sermon, and took his stand in the court of GOD’s Temple and said to the people,
(15) “This is the Message from GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies to you: ‘Warning! Danger! I’m bringing down on this city and all the surrounding towns the doom that I have pronounced. They’re set in their ways and won’t budge. They refuse to do a thing I say.’“
You try to warn me about Rick Warren. Have you red my article about his teachings? The Purpose Driven Life: Promoting Christianity Without Christ
Wendy, your fruits are not good. You do not know what you are talking about, as we have clearly shown here for those with eyes to see. You do not believe. Your eye is not single. You serve other gods. You are the negative fulfillment of this Scripture:
“ Unto the pure all things [are] pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving [is] nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God; but in works they deny [Him], being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate” (Titus 1:15-16 KJV).
Or, in other words that may help get through your KJV-induced, drugged stupor, where hearing you do not hear, and seeing you do not see:
“Everything is clean to the clean-minded; nothing is clean to dirty-minded unbelievers. They leave their dirty fingerprints on every thought and act. They say they know God, but their actions speak louder than their words. They’re real creeps, disobedient good-for-nothings” (Titus 1:15-16 MSG).
You will prove us right, won’t you?
“So you don’t have the Father’s message within you, because you don’t believe in the person He has sent” (John 5:38 GW).
Wendy’s response:
Dear Paul,
I was sadden at the ungodly tone of your E-mail!
These are serious times, when Christians must seek a Holy God with all their hearts, Paul. You do not have to lower yourself to be insulting. There are none so blind as those who do not want to see. With no trouble at all you could read and study and find out the dangers of The Message for yourself, there are many enlightening critiques on internet, and many who will help you to escape the errors you are embracing. So there is no excuse for remaining caught up with deceptions and lies. Don’t let a fear of humiliation stop you from seeking enlightenment from God.
I have a magazine to prepare and another large forum to attend next weekend, so I have little time to spend on this. Get back to the BIBLE, the KJV. You need a good cleaning out of your mind, and then the good pureness of God’s Word to feed upon. REPENT! You know little of the One Who declares I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH and THE LIFE. The Lord Jesus Christ lived with and by the Word of God. He, Himself and the written Word are all the counsel of God. Jesus said of the Word of God:
“ I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.” John 17: 14-19.
The Lord is saying this to you:
“ And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God? “ Mark 12:24.
And this:
“ Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15.
You, Paul, have joined in with those who corrupt the Word of God!
“ For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.” 2 Cor. 2:17.
The Message fits this description. Worldly philosophy, vainly (empty) deceitful, after the worldly traditions of men:
“ Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” Col. 2:8.
Compare the nonsense of The Message with what the true Bible says about Jesus Christ, the Logos:
“ God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
Hath in these last days spoken unto us by [his] Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
Who being the brightness of [his] glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?
And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.
And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.
But unto the Son [he saith], Thy throne, O God, [is] for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness [is] the sceptre of thy kingdom.” Hebrews 1:1-8.
Get yourself a True Bible and follow these commandments from God:
“ Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.
With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.
Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” Psalm 119:9-11.
I am praying for you and others with you that you may recover yourselves, and come to a knowledge of Truth!
Unless you have a change of heart there is no point in any more of your emails to me.
Wendy Howard.
Victor’s reply:
Wendy, if it is at all possible for you to do so, given your apparent fixation on The Message and Peterson, could you please tell us what error you find in our communications or writing. Thus far, you have faulted us for quoting Peterson but you have not identified any error in doctrine or words we have spoken, quoted from Peterson or otherwise. Is it at all righteously judicial of you to condemn us for speaking error without specifying? If you are prepared to dismiss us simply because we have quoted Peterson (which we have done but on very few occasions – we mainly use the MKJV), although we speak the truth, is that right of you? Would the Lord Jesus Christ approve?
Tell us specifically what we have said or quoted that is wrong in the original communications that have triggered this correspondence. As one professing faith in the Lord and the testimony of the Scriptures, you owe it to us, do you not?
Victor
A letter to Victor from another Wendy:
Dear Victor,
You people wrote to us we did not write to you…we told Paul we did not have time to do any of this, and to write to Berit Kjos the author of the article on our website. If we answer you know at this time then you will be writing back and it absolutely not possible to correspond…we magazine responsibilities and deadlines here.
Berit Kjos is going to do a proper breakdown of the Message and it’s heretic material, please deal with her alone.
In Christ’s Service
Wendy Beuster…publications
Victor and Paul’s reply:
Wendy,
You sign off, “In Christ’s Service,” after having only time to accuse us of falsehood, darkness, and infidelity to God, but no time to come up with substance and godly evidence? You should know that even a heathen court of law would not permit such iniquity, how much less a Heavenly court! What does it matter who wrote who first? The issue is that you conduct yourself in such manner in Christ’s Name.
You have nothing whatsoever to do with Jesus Christ, Wendy, except that you walk as antiChrist, opposing in both spirit and deed, all that the Lord Jesus Christ Is. You have been found out. Get behind us, accuser of the brethren. You are the one in perfect need of repentance toward God.
Victor
That goes for both Wendys. You are obviously in this together, two peas in a pod.
Paul
Wendy’s response:
Grow up Victor, we are just too busy, just accept that, it not that we have left without recourse, you do not want to avail yourself of Berit Kjos’s info.
Victor’s reply:
“And all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said to Him, I have bought a piece of ground, I must go and see it. I beg you, have me excused” (Luke 14:18 MKJV)…
“… For I say to you that none of these men who were invited shall taste of My supper” (Luke 14:24 MKJV).
You have nothing whatsoever to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. We have been sent by Him to speak to you.
While those begged for consent, you have impudently demanded your own way, scoffing. Therefore it will be the worse for you. As you have spoken to and rejected us, so you have spoken to and rejected Him. Go to Victor Hafichuk and see how much “growing up” you have to do.
But before growth comes repentance, then a new birth, both of which are entirely foreign to you. Unless you repent of your arrogance and hypocrisy, you will perish in your sins of fatness, pride and presumption.
Victor Hafichuk