Why Scripture That Refuses to Soften God’s Voice Feels Offensive
Submission Before Comfort and What Translation Philosophy Reveals About the Church
Translation Philosophy Is Never Neutral
Every Bible translation makes judgments. Those judgments are not limited to grammar or syntax. They reflect assumptions about authority, clarity, audience, and purpose. A translator decides whether Scripture should sound commanding or conversational, weighty or casual, covenantal or therapeutic. These decisions shape how readers hear God speak.
Translation philosophy therefore reveals theology. When Scripture is rendered with precision and consistency, the reader is placed under the text. When Scripture is rendered with smoothing and adaptation, the text is placed under the reader. This distinction reaches beyond technique and exposes a spiritual posture.
Scripture presents itself as the voice of God, not as a religious resource to be curated. “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12). That sharpness belongs to the way God has chosen to speak and stands as part of His design.
The Modern Expectation That Scripture Should Accommodate
Many Christians today approach the Bible with an unspoken expectation. Scripture should feel accessible, emotionally safe, and immediately affirming. When it does not, discomfort follows. That discomfort is often explained away as a translation issue rather than received as a theological confrontation.
This expectation has trained readers to evaluate faithfulness by tone rather than truth. Passages that command obedience, pronounce judgment, or expose sin are judged by how they feel rather than by what they say. Scripture is weighed against modern sensibilities, and any friction is treated as a flaw in the text rather than a feature of God’s authority.
The prophet Isaiah addresses this instinct directly. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord (Isaiah 55:8). Scripture speaks to accomplish God’s purposes and form obedience, not to preserve human comfort.
What the Legacy Standard Bible Intentionally Preserves
The Legacy Standard Bible provides a useful case study because of what it refuses to do. Its translation philosophy prioritizes formal equivalence, consistency in key theological terms, covenant language, and grammatical transparency. It aims to present the text as it stands rather than as readers might prefer it to sound.
This approach does not make the LSB spiritually superior. It does, however, make its theological posture clear. The goal is submission to the text, not mediation of it. The translators assume that God’s words carry authority as given and that the task of the church is to hear them faithfully.
That commitment can feel confrontational to readers accustomed to smoother renderings. Commands sound like commands. Judgment sounds like judgment. Covenant language remains covenantal. The text refuses to negotiate its own weight.
Why This Feels Confrontational
Unsoftened Scripture unsettles modern readers because it disrupts a therapeutic framework. Therapeutic Christianity treats Scripture as a source of reassurance before it treats it as a source of command. The fear of the Lord fades, and the expectation of comfort rises.
Jeremiah records the Lord’s rebuke of this impulse. “Is not My word like fire?” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock?” (Jeremiah 23:29). Fire and hammers exist to do work, to break, to refine, and to shape what they strike.
When Scripture confronts, it exposes resistance in the heart. That resistance is often misidentified as a preference issue. In reality, it is a question of submission.
Submission Before Understanding
Scripture has always confronted before it comforted. Israel encountered God’s law before enjoying His rest. The prophets spoke judgment before restoration. Christ preached repentance before announcing consolation.
Jesus ends the Sermon on the Mount with a clear dividing line. “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does them may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matthew 7:24). Obedience follows hearing. Comfort follows faithfulness.
Understanding grows within submission. Scripture exercises authority through trustful submission, with confidence rooted in God’s Word rather than emotional resonance.
The Danger of Wanting a Curated God
When believers prefer softened Scripture, they are often seeking a curated God. A God who affirms before He commands. A God who explains before He judges. A God who comforts without confronting.
Psalm 19 presents a different vision. “The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul” (Psalm 19:7). Restoration flows from perfection, not accommodation. Scripture restores because it speaks with clarity and authority.
A curated God trains believers to bargain with obedience, while the God who reveals Himself commands it.
The Real Question for the Church
The issue at stake is larger than translation preference. The question is whether Christians desire God to speak as He has spoken or as they wish He had spoken. Scripture remains profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). Those functions require weight, clarity, and authority.
Scripture addresses the reader with the aim of transformation, bringing life under the authority of God rather than preserving personal comfort. When God’s voice feels offensive, the offense lies not in the text but in the posture of the heart.
The church flourishes when God’s Word is received with submission and obedience, rather than reshaped to soften its authority.