THE LORD’S PRAYER
After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. (Matthew 6:9-13)
The dumbing down of America has affected every aspect of our society and its effects upon the church-going public has been devastating. We have repeatedly been told that we are too stupid to read the KJV Bible, so we need something written in language aimed at semi-literate simpletons. Instead of getting made at this insult, most American Christians have nodded in agreement. Of course, those who have rewritten God’s Word for this alleged purpose apparently felt that many entire verses and verse sections were too hard for Americans to read, so they left them out entirely. In other examples this alleged simplification of the language has led to foolish, crude and vulgar paraphrases that do not even resemble the original text that they profess to be following. One of the most egregious examples is found in Eugene Peterson’s vile contortion of the Lord’s Prayer.
The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6, except for perhaps a few partial verses like the first half of Luke 4:4, is probably the best known part of the Bible. A substantially large percentage of the population know this prayer, including many non-believers, scoffers, apostates and New Agers. To some it has been reduced to an incantation. To others it is a prayer spoken in times of desperation. To those who are truly born again they are truly deep and powerful, spiritual words, but not a substitute for repentance and accepting Christ as one’s Lord and Saviour. Many corrupt the verse concerning the forgiveness of debts by substituting trespasses — the discussion of which I will save for the future — but the eloquent translation of the King James Bible is well known and firmly established. Efforts to revise this prayer do not only dishonor God’s Word, but they attack a long established part of our culture. No one ever got saved by just reciting the Lord’s Prayer, but it has always been there as a reminder to the public who is in command, whether or not they choose to accept this fact. Any toying with this prayer going to lead the gullible to confusion. No one has done a better job of confusing the Lord’s Prayer than Peterson.
Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are:
Set the world right;
Do what’s best
as above, so below
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You’re in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You’re ablaze in beauty!
Yes. yes. yes.
Reveal who you are?
How does one derive that from “hallowed be thy name.” If you wanted to paraphrase the verse you could say may thy name be sanctified, treated as holy, or something in that order. Where does reveal come from? Peterson suggests that he not only does not understand the verse, but he does not know who God is. If he were to read the Bible instead of making up his own book from the perverted Bibles of others, he would know who God is. The Greek word’s for hallow, name and the genitive second person are all in this verse. Not one Greek equivalent word from Peterson’s edition is found in his rendering. This is not a paraphrase; it is a fabrication. I do, however, suspect that Peterson does think that he knows to whom he is addressing his prayer.
Set the world right
Do what’s best
Once again there is no correspondence between the two languages, and this is not a paraphrase at all.
as above, so below
It has been pointed out by astute commentators that this is a common phrase used by witches and satanic rock and roll bands. It certainly has no correspondence with any original text, including the corrupt ones. Certainly heaven is above earth and the earth is conversely below heaven, but it is equally true that earth is above hell and hell is conversely below earth. Could this verse not be interpreted as saying as on earth, so in hell? Since it is a well-established satanic phrase that shows up in a wicked attack against God’s true Word, that is undoubtedly what is being said here, whether Peterson intended it that way or not.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Where on earth is three square meals mentioned in the original language? Bread has the broader connotation of nourishment in general, but what does square meals have to do with it? The idea of so-called square meals was a scheme that was generated by the U.S. federal government. The Lord’s prayer asks God to supply our dietary needs, and it does not say anything about three times per day.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Not surprisingly the word debts is left out. Peterson even omits the corrupted substitution of trespasses here. For what is Peterson saying that we should be forgiven?
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
Here Peterson follows the common corruption of replacing evil with the Devil, or the Evil One. This is a funny corruption after his quotation of one of the favorite phrases of Devil worshippers.
You’re in charge!
You can do anything you want!
The true verse is an exhortation that we want and accept God’s will to be carried out. It is not a statement of fact. God knows that he can do anything that He wants. He does not need us to tell Him that.
You’re ablaze in beauty!
Many Bible perversions leave out the last verse completely. This outrageous insertion is worse than leaving it out. Who is he describing? Diana, Venus, Ishtar, Isis, or the Tantric concept of Shakti? This looks like it was lifted right out of a Sanskrit or Babylonian prayer to a goddess! How does beauty fit in with the idea of God’s kingdom, power, and glory enduring forever? He has taken a clause that contains 15 Greek words in the Textus Receptus and replaced them with 4 English words, none of which match a single one of the Greek words! Of course, Peterson follows the corrupt texts of Westcott and Hort, which leave this verse out entirely. In this case, he has replaced nothing at all with 4 English words. So whether you are coming from the perspective of a Bible believer or a Bible perverter, there is no question as to the complete lack of integrity of Peterson here.
Yes. yes. yes.
This is perhaps the most truly perverted part of this ludicrous pseudo-paraphrase. Amen may mean yes, in a sense, as it means that it is surely so; but why is it repeated three times? Amen is a very common word in the English language that does not need to be defined, and certainly requires no paraphrasing. Yes, yes, yes is indeed an awkward replacement for amen. I many never be able to prove it, but I suspect that this is an obscene reference to sexual activity. Hollywood has made this phrase very well known in a sexual context, and I strongly suspect that this wicked Bible perverter is very aware of that. This may explain Peterson’s absurd distortion of verse 13. Therefore, this “Lord’s” Prayer may be a veiled prayer to “the Goddess” as witches describe their false deity, or to a Hindu goddess such as Khali. It does not resemble anything that is found in the Bible. Is this perhaps why Peterson asks the deity whom he is addressing to reveal himself, or rather, herself?
The first time that I looked at The Message of Peterson was in the work place when I was on a temporary job. A gentleman had been given a copy, or sold one, at a Billy Graham Crusade in Columbus, Ohio, and he said that it was intriguing. He also told me that he was not smart enough to be able to follow the KJV — which was odd since he was an accountant — and he trusted Rev. Graham. This may help to explain why tens of thousands of Billy Graham Crusade bumper stickers were seen all over Columbus for months, and the town has continued to be one of the most wicked and perverse cities in America. I believe that it was the first city in America to have a sodomite rainbow flag hung on the flagpole of a state capitol building. It hosts an annual sodomite parade in which thousands show up and they leave the sodomite flags hanging until after the Fourth of July parade that follows the same route. It also is one of the most ill-behaved and discourteous cities in the country that I have ever seen, and I’ve been in just about every major city in America. The only thing worshiped in any number in Columbus is a bunch of college students who play a kid’s game. Billy Graham’s alleged conversion of tens of thousands of Columbus citizens had about as much an impact on the city as a raindrop on the Sahara desert. I wonder why.
John Hinton, Ph.D.
Bible Restoration Ministry
A ministry seeking the translating and reprinting of KJV equivalent
Bibles in all the languages of the world.