After over a decade of making a living on balloon twisting, I decided to design this website to help rookie balloon twisters who are trying to get into the field of balloon modeling and have no one to teach them the skills necessary to advance as a professional balloon twister.
Source: Balloon Twisting Fun
No matter how I twist the balloons these days, they all come out shaped like question marks.
I’ve been fuming for days about Queen Victoria. It’s not her exactly but the chain of events that should have led to a different Victorian England but didn’t. You see, Tyndale got his wish and every ploughboy understood the Bible better than the bishop. Soon England was flooded with the Bible in everyone’s heart language. But then my model of Bible translation goes all wobbly. Instead of a culture transformed by the presence of God’s Word turning bad people into good we see societal trends, urbanization, human self-interest and downright evil holding sway for another two centuries and beyond. We let Jane Austen tell the story when we should be listening to Charles Dickens. 200 years after the King James Bible was published, children were working in coal mines, and slaves were being beaten in the empire where the sun never set.
The guiding legend of our mission is William Cameron Townsend trying to sell a Spanish Bible to a Guatemalan Indian. The Indian quipped, “If your God is so great, why doesn’t he speak our language?” This encounter set in course the largest Bible translation movement in history. Now in thousands of languages around the world, Wycliffe personnel can answer that question in the affirmative, “But he does speak your language!” Still there have been disappointments in following this mad quest. First, translated Scripture has not always resulted in the type of cultural transformation Townsend hoped for. And as a Mozambican translator told me, “Translating the Bible is like sifting rice. The more you do it, the more pebbles you find.” As the task was undertaken it became increasingly complex. And not only that, language groups kept popping up where we didn’t know about them and disappearing just as a translation was going to press. This is certainly frustrating for a movement that is vaguely based on an apocalyptic motivation for Bible translation, to wit, “This gospel shall be preached to every creature and then the end shall come.”
But, and this brings us back to Queen Victoria, the “heart-language” theory of Bible translation leading to societal transformation is a rather clunky collection of non sequiturs if you think about it. Did the Cachiquel Indian actually want God to speak his language or was he just putting off a salesman? Did Uncle Cam translate the Bible so that its words might speak in the heart-language of Guatemala or so that he could sell more Bibles? These kinds of cynical ruminations are not heresy in Wycliffe. Instead, people have been trying to prop up the shaky bridge between Bible translation and spiritual change for a good long time. These days the buzz words are “Scripture Use” and “Scripture Impact” which are in essence problem based management approaches to Scripture. Moving away from the franchising of the Bible and its mass production in the 50’s, Bible translation now looks a lot like a “felt-needs” campaign in which issues of social injustice are addressed by specialty publications based on Scriptures. It’s a good trend. Still I’m bothered by the coal mines and sweatshops of Victorian England. If I could see somehow that Wilberforce, Nightingale and the like were in fact motivated by Christian theology rather than secular humanism I might be able to breathe easier. But I’m not seeing it. And even fast-forwarding to our present situation I’m seeing ample evidence that Bible translations are routinely ignored while self-interest and materialism fuel the ambitions of pagans and church-goers alike.
If I sound confused it’s because I’m genuinely puzzled. I want to believe that Tyndale and Townsend’s premises were correct and that Gospel light will dawn on a bright era of cultural transformation but I’ve got a nagging suspicion that Bible translation and evangelism are most effective when they are subversive and revolutionary.
Well done for asking the hard question. When you put it that way it’s obvious that the Bible doesn’t automatically change the society. However, could society be changed without it?
I think we need to change some of our publicity material:
Translated Scriptures Transform Lives*
*Your mileage may vary.**
**Or whatever is the culturally appropriate equivalent of this phrase.
1) Wasn’t Wilberforce motivated by Christian belief?
2) Yes, the world (even a nominally Christian society) remains fallen even with the Scripture in the heart language. Does this contradict Scripture? I don’t think so.
Unless the recent film “Amazing Grace” is entirely fictional, Wilberforce was certainly motivated in his campaigns by his evangelical Christian convictions, and by those of John Newton and others who supported him. Lord Shaftesbury was one of several other 19th century social reformers to be motivated primarily by evangelical Christian faith.
C. S. Lewis preached: “The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire.” And Jerry Bridges likes to quote his friend Jack Miller: “Preach the gospel to yourself every day.” And Mother Teresa who prayed, “Sweetest Lord, make me appreciative of the dignity of my high vocation, and its many responsibilities; never permit me to disgrace it by giving way to coldness, unkindness, or impatience” also said “We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless; the poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty; we must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty” and “We are all pencils in the hand of God.” And my own missionary daddy who’s brought the gospel to many many many people in their own tongue now daily quotes to himself his friend Peter Lord: “We practice daily what we believe; all the rest is religious talk.” And my own on-going problem is I still don’t know enough of Mark’s Greek or John the Baptist’s Jewish Hebrew-Aramaic to translate μετανοειτε και πιστευετε εν τω ευαγγελιω in my very own heart (language). I always think that “change your mind and believe in the gospel” must be for everybody else. Thank you very much for your post, Lingamish!!
Of course Dickensian Englishmen would have been much better off if they could have swapped places with their 13th century forebares. Not! Given a choice of being poor in 1299 or 1899 I know which I’d prefer.
A self-described athiest journalist went on a tour of Africa to see what his missionary parents had been about. Result, an athiest who thinks preaching the gospel in Africa makes things better, even if he still thinks the message is a lie.
Yes, slaveowners used the Bible to support their sinfulness. As somebody else reminded you we klive in a world twisted out of shape and spoilt by sinfulness. They were also defeated by a bunch of Bible-bashers.
Will translating the Bible into every tongue on earth bring about the kingdom of God on earth? Of course not, but it may make things a bit better while we continue to pray “Maranatha! ASAP”
This is certainly frustrating for a movement that is vaguely based on an apocalyptic motivation for Bible translation, to wit, “This gospel shall be preached to every creature and then the end shall come.”
It is said that Cam Townsend believed that translating the Bible for all tribes who need it would hasten the return of Christ. I don’t know whether or not he truly believed that. I know that some people do. I do know that it is not a uniformly held belief by everyone in the Bible translation movement. I, for one, am motivated to help bring the Bible in translation to others because it has a message that can help free them to become the people God created them to be. I personally believe that translating the Bible is only *part* of worldwide evangelism that can take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. And I don’t find in any current Bible translation mission statements that we are motivated to help translate for Bibleless groups to hasten Christ’s return (”and then the end shall come”).
And even fast-forwarding to our present situation I’m seeing ample evidence that Bible translations are routinely ignored while self-interest and materialism fuel the ambitions of pagans and church-goers alike.
It’s always been that way, that self-interest, materialism (and other forms of idolatry), abuse, power grabs, etc. abound when people do not follow the life-changing message of the Bible. It is not the fault of the Bible nor of the Bible translation movement, but, rather, of humans who ignore what the Bible says or twist it to fit their own cultural presuppositions. It is true that the Bible translation movement can do more to help those who receive translated Bibles understand them better and experience changed lives. And that is the very goal of “Scripture Use” initiatives.
PS maybe this post from a mate of mine may help: http://www.humanitarianchronicle.com/2009/07/kibera-and-the-reality-of-the-gospel/
It needs to be read with his first post as counterpoint: http://www.humanitarianchronicle.com/2009/07/nairobi-my-introduction/
Thanks for the link.
I feel so privileged to bounce ideas off you folks. I realized a while ago that I don’t blog for the masses but for a small set of really interesting (and sometimes weird) people. Thanks for reading my blog.
Thanks for raising these issues David, they are important and it is good that they are not taboo in our work.
You have prompted more thoughts than I can put into a comment, so I’ll be blogging on this on and off for the next few days. What a shame you don’t show pingbacks!
I seem to have a problem with trackbacks and am trying to get it straightened out.
“I want to believe that Tyndale and Townsend’s premises were correct and that Gospel light will dawn on a bright era of cultural transformation…”
I’d conclude it will make a difference, but it won’t bring perfection.
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