The Remedy

by Timothy R. Jennings

God is love, and love is not self-seeking. (1Jn 4:8, 1Cor 13:5) Love, rather than seeking self, is the principle of beneficence or giving. God, when He built His universe, constructed it to operate upon this principle of giving, an expression of His character of love. Harmony with this principle is life. Disharmony is death. Every breath you take you give away carbon dioxide to the plants which give back oxygen to you, a never ending circle of giving life is built to operate upon. You are free to transgress the law by tying a plastic bag over your head and selfishly hoarding your carbon dioxide to yourself. But, the wages of doing so is death. Thus, the Bible teaches sin is lawlessness and breaking the law results in death. (1Jn 3:4, Rom 6:23) Sadly, after Constantine converted, Christianity changed its view of God’s law from the law of love, the design protocol for life, to an imperial Roman imposed law construct, in which the law has no inherent consequence and thus requires the ruling authority to inflict externally imposed punishments upon lawbreakers. Christianity changed from an organization of people who had such love they would lay down their lives for others (Jn 15:13) to a system that carried out the Crusades, Inquisition and burned dissenters at the stake. Why? God’s design was replaced by an imposed law construct. All Bible translations have been done in the aftermath of Constantine’s conversion and the acceptance of the imposed law construct. This has resulted in unintended misunderstanding of the message of Scripture. The Remedy refocuses our mind upon God’s character of love and His law as the design protocol upon which He constructed life to operate. As such, The Remedy is exactly that, a New Testament paraphrase that communicates God’s remedy for our sin-sick terminal condition. I invite you to partake The Remedy.

380 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2017

About the author

Timothy R. Jennings, MD has been in private practice as a Christian psychiatrist and certified master psychopharmacologist since 1997. Board certified in psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, he is a specialist in transcranial magnetic stimulation, a drug-free treatment for depression. Dr. Jennings is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, Fellow of the Southern Psychiatric Association, and past president of both the Tennessee and Southern Psychiatric Associations. He has spent more than two decades researching the interface between biblical principles and modern brain science and is a highly sought after lecturer and international speaker and the author of The God-Shaped Brain and The God-Shaped Heart. He is in private practice in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Reviews

[Nikaley Chandler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a paraphrase and not a translation.

[Tom Law · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an outgrowth of the author’s psychiatric practice, he has spent a lot of time analyzing and studying the brain and how humanity relates to each other and God. In his book, The God-Shaped Brain: How Changing Your View of God Transforms Your Life, the author outlines how lies, deception, and selfishness are at the core of humanities problems. He goes on to point out, “The only power in the universe that can heal our hearts and free us from fear is the power of love. Our fear-ridden hearts cannot produce this love, we can only receive this love from God and let it flow through us to others.”

The ideas presented in this book, serve as a springboard for the development of this paraphrase of the New Testament. He points out that once Christianity became the state religion, under Constantine, the lens through which it was translated and through which we understand it was clouded by the legal system. His contention is that even today, modern translators continue to skew the original understanding based on legalism.

As Jennings states in the Preface, “Amazingly, the early church understood that Christ’s mission was to rebuild humanity back into God’s original design. They realized that God’s law of love was the template on which He built His universe, and rightly realized that – in order to save humankind – the law on which life is constructed to operate had to be restored into humanity. Christ’s mission was to restore humankind back into harmony with God.”

Jennings goes on to say in the Preface, “The Remedy is an expanded New Testament Bible paraphrase in which interpretation is filtered through the lens of God’s design law of love – the template on which life is built. This paraphrase is intentional in its focus to re-orient the Christian mind to God’s character of love and His mission to heal and restore humankind, as taught by the early church.” It is his goal to use the paraphrase to draw us back to what God originally intended when the Scriptures were written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

The author has done a masterful job of helping his readers see Scripture from another perspective. I would have preferred for him to use a more conventional book format instead of the traditional “Biblical” format of columns, chapters, verses, and red letters. The paragraph and chapter format found in most books would have broadened his audience past the traditional church crowd, allowing a new generation of reader to see the Scriptures in a whole new light. It would also allay the confusion some might have since this, as the author points out, is a paraphrase and not a translation.

[C. Aamold · Rating 5 out of 5]

A translation that helps you understand His love and His design for us.

[Edmer Raros · Rating 5 out of 5]

A modern day scholarly translation of the Holy Scriptures that would edify the faith of the true Christians. (Hebrews 12:22-24)