This weeks Ask at the Cathedral was a bit unusual. I played the Jordan Peterson video and then spoke about how it illustrates Ecclesiastes and how the burden of truth can set free.
ASK at the Cathedral – A New Opportunity for Sydney
An Open Letter to Jordan Peterson – CT
Jordan Peterson provides us with some sobering details on ( for want of a better term ) the Eugenic Economy :
Is “eugenic economy” your phrase or does Peterson use it?
Translation “set free” is so wrong. AV correctly says,
” If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” John 8:36.
Loosing an un-regenerated man from his constraints solves nothing. We must be made born again.
” Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
I’m curious as to why you think there is any significant difference between ‘set free’ and make free’. What is the original Greek which makes you so certain that there is? Your second sentence doesn’t make sense…Indeed we must be born again (not made born again!). But loosing from the constraints of sin and a dead heart – is precisely what setting free means…
The KJV, like the NIV, ESV and numerous others is a translation – it was not handed down to us on tablets of stone. Sometimes it gets the translation wrong to. I do hope that you are not one of those who simply believes that if it is KJV then it must be right….
I’m not convinced that, “loosing from the constraints of sin and a dead heart – is precisely what setting free means” because Lazarus wasn’t “set free” of his grave-clothes until after he was first “made free” from death when Christ raised him. So “made free” implies much more than removal of constraints, it denotes a substantial change in character and status. To be “made free” is what the Lord does for us by the supernatural new birth. It is an important distinction since many people have the notion that Christianity is simply turning over a new leaf – to merely be “set free”. St Peter described those that merely “escape the pollutions” around them (2 Peter 2:20) yet they remain inside an unregenerated “dog” or “sow” (2:22). That describes a person “set free” temporarily by cleaning up his surroundings, but wasn’t really “made free” permanently within by becoming alive as one of Christ’s sheep – i.e., by genuinely being born again.
So what seems like a quibbling difference at first glance is actually a quite important difference. And I think you will agree this is relevant to the Jordon Peterson issue.
By the way, I have seen enough similar examples in word-choice to become convinced that the KJV should simply be trusted and believed as written in English. Cheers.