What's the worst mistranslation of Christ's teaching?

Could it be saying that Christ commends unrighteousness, in Luke 16:8-9? 

NKJV: So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail [or “it fails”],  they may receive you into an everlasting home.

Proposed solution: And the master approved of the house-manager of the unrighteousness, because he acted shrewdly, because the sons of this aeon are shrewder than the sons of light, in their own generation. And I say to you, “Make friends for yourselves from the mammon of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they should welcome you into the eternal dwellings!”?

Importance: The dominant translation tradition describes the Lord Jesus Christ as recommending that his disciples act like the house-manager who first squanders his master’s property, and then when caught, pulls other people into fraud, lying, and stealing.

For analysis, read on at A Guide to Misleading Bible Quotes

The perfecting symmetry: an example from the Psalter

"Virtuous is a man who is being gracious and lending;

he will steward the accounts of his with judgement."

                            Psalm 112 (LXX 111), verse 5

"By doctrines changeful and strange do not be carried away..."

From The Letter to the Hebrews, chapter 13:

7  Remember them leading you, whomever has spoken to you the Word of the God, of whom—examining carefully the outcome of the conduct—the faith imitate.

8  Jesus Christ yesterday, and today, is the same, and into the ages.

9  By doctrines changeful and strange do not be carried away. Good, indeed, it is for the heart to be established by grace*, not by foods, by which they walking in accordance with them have not been profited. (CFB)

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Notes

* The Ancient Greek word used here is cháris, which has many possible meanings. The sense of "thanks" or "gratitude" can have been meant instead of or in addition to "grace".

CFB: Scripture quoted from the Christ Family Bible. Copyright © 2017 by J.J. Thomas. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Theological views on the "sustainability problem"

Update: I no longer believe the claims made in the paragraph marked now in brown text below.

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Theology gives us important principles through which to view the problem that societies are locally and globally undermining the environmental-economic-social-institutional basis for future generations. 

(1) Rationality is guaranteed only to people who "deem God worthy to have in knowledge" (Romans 1:28-31). Compare with the Lord's teaching that the Spirit of the Truth will only be given to those who keep the commandments of Jesus (John 14:15-17).

(2) Divine wrath is expressed in part through mega-scale environmental-economic-social-institutional disasters (Revelation 7-18). 

(3) The divine "economy" (or "plan of salvation") explicitly details that God does not direct the global human society toward sustainability (Matthew 24, Revelation 7-22). This current period of history is a time of testing, focused on the salvation of souls for eternal life, not focused on building an earthly (material) prosperity.

A brief look at sustainability over the past 2000 years (the aeon, or historical period, starting with Jesus's resurrection) shows that sustainability is better achieved by societies that are obedient to Christ's commands, especially Christ's command to make disciples of all nations. 

These theological principles can be summarized:

(1) The Christus Rex Principle

(2) Limited Sustainability Principle

Why is the NT ambiguous?

Why is the New Testament ambiguous?

The simple answer is: God has allowed it for some reason, given that nothing happens without the consent of God, who is all-powerful (Matt. 10:29, 2 Cor. 6:18, Rev. 1:8, 4:8, 11:17, 15:3, 16:7, 16:14, 19:6, 19:15, 21:22).

The detailed, studied answer is that the New Testament—the 27 texts that constitute the New Covenant through Christ Jesus—is  sometimes ambiguous due to a "competitive principle"* explained repeatedly in the Holy Bible.

[1] In Christ Jesus's teaching
"And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: for this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them." (Matt. 13:10-15, AKJV)

"Go in through the narrow gate, because wide is the gate and roomy the way leading away into the destruction and many are the in-goers through it, because narrow is the gate and hard-pressured the way leading away into the life and few are the finders of it.." (Matt. 7:13-14, CFB)

[2] In Isaiah

"Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed." (Isa. 6:10, AKJV)

[3] In the Psalter
"a good understanding have all they that do his commandments..." (Ps. 111:10, AKJV)

"with the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure;
and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward."
(Ps. 18:26, AKJV)

"Who is the human who is fearing the Lord?
He will furnish law for him, in a way that He selected.
The soul of his will lodge among good things,
and the seed of his will inherit land.
The Lord will strengthen them fearing Him,
[and the name of the Lord, them fearing Him,]
and His covenant He will make known to them."
(Ps. 25:12-14, CFB)

[4] In Proverbs "Wisdom's beginning is fear of God,
and good comprehension is to all them practising it [wisdom].
And piety unto God is perception's beginning,
yet wisdom and fostering impious people will hate." (Prov. 1:7, CFB)

[5] In Ecclesiasticus / Sirach
"When ye glorify the Lord, exalt him as much as ye can; for even yet will he far exceed: and when ye exalt him, put forth all your strength, and be not weary; for ye can never go far enough. Who hath seen him, that he might tell us? and who can magnify him as he is? There are yet hid greater things than these be, for we have seen but a few of his works. For the Lord hath made all things; and to the godly hath he given wisdom." (Sir. 43:30-33, AKJV)

[6] In Baruch
"But they were destroyed, because they had no wisdom, and perished through their own foolishness. Who hath gone up into heaven, and taken her, and brought her down from the clouds? Who hath gone over the sea, and found her, and will bring her for pure gold? No man knoweth her way, nor thinketh of her path. But he that knoweth all things knoweth her, and hath found her out with his understanding: he that prepared the earth for evermore hath filled it with four-footed beasts.... He hath found out all the way of knowledge, and hath given it into Jacob his servant, and to Israel his beloved." (Bar. 3:28-32, 36, AKJV)


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Notes

* In the language science of Pragmatics, the Competitive Principle is a corollary (and competitor) to the Gricean and Neo-Gricean hypotheses about a Cooperative Principle that guides human communication. It appears that many Biblical texts, not least St. Paul the Apostle's texts, are guided by a Competitive Principle, made explicit in several places (cf. Matt 13:10-15; Mark 4:10-12; Luke 8:10; John 6:22-68). For further discussion, see "A Competitive Principle Hypothesis", "What can language sciences do for readers of St. Paul's letters?", "A Christian reflexion on Pragmatics", "Sanctification methods, the Competitive Principle, etc.", "Reading the Holy Bible sympathetically".

CFB: Scripture quoted from the Christ Family Bible. Copyright © 2018 by J.J. Thomas. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

AKJV: Scripture quotations from The Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press.

The New Covenant through Christ Jesus is not unconditional

Update: It would be better to list the conditions named by the Lord Jesus and then in a separate list the conditions named by Paul and others in the Bible, due to the potential differences (on which, see my Translator's Preface to The Christ Family Bible.)

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[1] Jesus Christ's teaching in the Sermon on the Mount

"Not everyone who is saying to me 'Lord! Lord!' will enter into

the kingdom of the heavens, but the one who is doing the will

of the father of mine who is in the heavens." (Matt. 7:14, CFB)

[2] The apostle St. Paul's warning in 1 Corinthians

"Or do you not know that unrighteous people will not inherit God's kingdom?

Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, 

nor adulterers, nor malakoì,* nor arsenokoîtai,*

nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor the abusive, 

nor the rapacious will inherit God's kingdom." (1 Cor. 6:9-10, CFB)

[3] The apostle St. Paul's warning in Galatians
"Now the works of the flesh are obvious, which are 

fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, pharmakeia,*

enmity, strife, rivalry, rages, factiousness, divisions, heresies,

envy, bouts of drunkenness, revelries, and the things like these,

of which I say beforehand to you, just as I said before, that 

they practicing the things like these will not inherit God's kingdom." (Gal. 5:19-21, CFB *This term had multiple senses. Possibly meant here is use of poisons and use of sorcery.)

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Notes

1 Cor 6:9-10  The Greek term malakós (plural: malakoí) has a large number of senses (refer please to Liddell Scott Jones for a description of these). It is not clear what sense, or senses, that St. Paul means here in 1 Corinthians 6:9. The immediate context and the New Testament give the best support for the sense of "cowardly". The term arsenokoîtai is a compound of the terms for "male" (ársen) and "sexual intercourse" (koíte), and the leading hypothesis among dictionaries (e.g. Thayer's, LSJ, DGE) is that it refers to men having sex with each other.

CFB: Scripture quoted from the Christ Family Bible. Copyright © 2017 by J.J. Thomas. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Expect perfect governance systems from God for His people

Update: I no longer believe that the Lord wants for there to be elevated positions of authority in churches such as pastors or elders or deacons, given the commandments of the Lord Jesus in Matt. 23 and John 21. 

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The New Testament warns repeatedly about false preachers, false teachers, false evangelists, false missionaries, using strong terms like "wolves" (Acts 20:29) and "self-destruction" (2 Peter 3:16). It is reasonable to expect, therefore, that God would provide church-governance systems that would protect God's people. Read the New Testament and consider whether you see divinely intelligent, even perfect governance systems. 

Consider for example these governance structures specified in the New Testament:

(1) Obedience to Christ and His apostles is the foundation of the church. 
"If they listened to Me they will listen to you", Jesus observes, in John's Gospel (15:20). 

We have the 27 books of the NT as the word of Christ's apostles. This is where the New Covenant between God and humanity is described. 

(2) A huge range of types of divine evidence of church obedience and church disobedience is clearly described.
See for example John 8:31-47; Romans 1:16-31; 1 Corinthians 11:30-32; 2 Corinthians 3:1—4:6; Galatians 5:19-24; James 5:14-18; Revelation 2:19-23.

(3) Highly qualified elders pastor and oversee the church.
The necessary qualifications are listed in 1 Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9. The NT describes a powerful and elegantly simple church-governance model: co-elders pastor and oversee together, they shepherd and manage God's household to be obedient, and the ones who are doing their work well are given a double honour (1 Tim. 5:17-18).

(4) The entire Holy Scriptures, especially the New Testament, are taught to the church.
Knowledge of the Scriptures by the members of the church is vital for governance. Church members understand what is sin (and needs to be challenged), what is false teaching, who qualifies to be an elder, etc. 

"The Word of the Christ must dwell abundantly in you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing yourselves, with psalms, with hymns, with odes spiritual in gratitude singing in the hearts of yours to the God." (Col. 3:16, CFB) 

"All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work." (2 Tim. 3:16-17, NRSV)

(5) Elders are rewarded (or penalized) through performance-based honours. 
Consider for example 1 Timothy 5:17-18.

Οἱ καλῶς προεστῶτες πρεσβύτεροι διπλῆς τιμῆς ἀξιούσθωσαν,
"The elders who are leading well must be deemed worthy of double honour,

μάλιστα οἱ κοπιῶντες ἐν λόγῳ καὶ διδασκαλίᾳ·
especially they who are working with the word and the teaching. 

λέγει γὰρ ἡ γραφή· Βοῦν ἀλοῶντα οὐ φιμώσεις,
For the Scripture says, 'An ox treading you shall not muzzle',

καί· Ἄξιος ὁ ἐργάτης τοῦ μισθοῦ αὐτοῦ. (SBLGNT)
and, 'Worthy is the worker of his wage.'" (1 Tim. 5:17-18, CFB)

This is a commandment that church members—not evangelists like Timothy, or the elders themselves!—have to carry out. 

(6) Sin by members (or by elders) leads to explusion unless there is repentance.

See for example Matthew 18:15-17; 1 Corinthians 5:9-13.

(7) Christians are required to endure any consequence for the sake of love, work that includes the rebuking of false preaching. 
See for example John 15:9-14; 2 Timothy 4:1-2.

In sum, layers of defence is what one finds. Furthermore, these layers of defence are mutually reinforcing. 

But it all depends on knowledge of the foundational texts, especially the New Testament. One could say that disrespect of God's Word carries with it disaster, because perhaps none of the layers of defence will work without complete knowledge of the New Testament. 

Indeed God's Word warns: "God opposes the arrogant, but gives grace to the humble" (Jas. 4:6b, CFB), and "Just as they did not deem the God worthy to have in knowledge, the God gave them over to an unworthy mind" (Rom. 1:28, CFB). 

Mutually reinforcing layers of defence for churches:
(1) A brief text (circa 138,000 words) describes the New Covenant.

(2) All church members are to be taught this text.

(3) All church members are given a duty by Christ to prosecute sin until there is either repentance or expulsion.

(4) Elders must have multiple qualifications listed in the text.

(5) God provides evidence of obedience and disobedience to the New Covenant. This too is described in the text. 

(6) Church members must doubly honour elders working well, especially those working with God's Word and teaching. 

(7) Christians are commanded to give up anything and everything in order to protect each other's eternal salvation.

Now take a good long hard look at systematic deception. How are people led away from the New Covenant? How are people made defenceless?

Fraudulent "retailers" of God's Word (2 Cor. 2:17) pervert the church-defence system, by teaching a message that is at odds with the New Testament. Then people develop perhaps not at all as Christians, and could hardly ever hope to, so long as they believe in an anti-gospel, a false version of the New Covenant that sets itself in opposition to the actual New Covenant. 

For example:

"Christ demands nothing from you except belief that He died for your sins."

"Obey your priest and your church, because only we can guarantee eternal salvation."

"We're all sinners and must not judge others. Only Satan wants us or others to feel guilty."

Such false preaching is the norm today. It is astounding to see the continual bassooning out of radically false, perverting, misleading messages about the New Covenant. It is rare to hear any opposition, in the form of a person quoting the New Testament accurately in order to lead people back into following Christ Jesus as lord, shepherd, king of kings, God in fact. 

How often do you hear for example these warnings by Christ?

"Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God." (Rev. 3:2, NRSV)

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven." (Matt. 7:21, NRSV)

"If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love." (John 15:10, NRSV)

Astounding as the oceanic proportions of false preaching are, Christ Jesus warned of this from the start, as did other apostles like Paul and Peter:
"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it." (Matt. 7:13-14, NRSV)

"And if our good news is also veiled, it is veiled among those perishing, among whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unfaithful, so that the light of the good news of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine." (2 Cor. 4:3-4 CFB)

"For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths." (2 Tim. 4:3-4, NRSV)

"But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive opinions. They will even deny the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Even so, many will follow their licentious ways, and because of these teachers the way of truth will be maligned. And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced against them long ago, has not been idle, and their destruction is not asleep." (2 Pet. 2:1-3, NRSV)

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Notes

CFB: Scripture quoted from the Christ Family Bible. Copyright © 2017 by J.J. Thomas. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

NRSV: New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

SBLGNT: Scripture quotations marked SBLGNT are from the SBL Greek New Testament. Copyright © 2010 Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software.