Title: A biased and dangerous paraphrase
Product review: The problem with reading a paraphrase of the Bible is that you are getting the views of the one who is doing the paraphrasing on each individual passage, and never the unadulterated biblical text. Readers of The Message should be very aware of the fact that this is nothing less than the views of Eugene H. Peterson passed off as the Holy Scriptures. The most disturbing thing about this paraphrase is that it warps the gospel message into something entirely different. Instead of being declared righteous through simple faith in Jesus Christ for eternal life, through reading The Message one could easily get the idea that salvation is by works or by faith plus works (For a clear treatment of the Gospel and just a great book, see Confident in Christ by Bob Wilkin). Mature students of the Word could use the Message as an interesting commentary alongside the Scriptures, but not by itself. I recommend sticking to a good translation (Like the NKJV).
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