Bono Loves "The Message"

Bono

In an interview with Jenna Bush Hager (President George W. Bush’s daughter) on the Today Show, rock star Bono of the band U2, said that his favorite Bible version, and the one he reads to his children, is Eugene Peterson’s The Message. He also said that his children read “mostly mainstream books,” including Harry Potter. He recommended LifeLines by Martin Wroe and Malcolm Doney, explaining, “It’s a book about faith but it’s not strict or in any sense sectarian or specific” (“Bono reveals the Bible translation he reads to his children,” Christian Post, May 21, 2019). This is Bono Christianity, and it is the Christianity of the vast majority of “evangelicals” today, which is why Bono is a modern hero of the faith even though he does not give evidence of biblical regeneration in his beliefs and rock & roll lifestyle. The late Eugene Peterson was a universalist who worshiped a false god of his own making, a promoter of Catholic contemplative mysticism, and this is reflected in The Message. It is not God’s Word; it has no sense of absolute truth and has zero convicting, sanctifying power. It says everything and nothing. Peterson took the Word of God and bent it like a nose of wax. The Message is the Bible of end-time, New Age Christianity. Consider a couple of examples: “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule” (The Message, Matthew 5:3). “Jesus said, You’re not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation--the ‘wind hovering over the water’ creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life--it’s not possible to enter God’s kingdom” (The Message, John 3:5).

(Friday Church News Notes, January 3, 2020, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

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