Wycliffe Reaffirms It Did Not Delete ‘Father,’ ‘Son,’ From Bible Translations By Michael Gryboski

Wycliffe Bible Translators denied allegations that it removed the terms “father” and “son” from Bible translations meant for Muslim countries and said any problematic texts are no longer being distributed.

Russ Hersman, senior vice president of Wycliffe Bible Translators USA, told The Christian Post that many of the works that critics like the organization Bible Missiology have pointed to as changing familial terms for God and Jesus have either done no such thing or have already been pulled from circulation.

“[Lives of the Prophets] was an audio drama that originally substituted inadequate familial terms in the mid-1990s. Since that time, the translation has been removed from circulation and will not be re-released until it has been corrected and revised,” said Hersman.

Biblical Missiology created an online petition demanding that Wycliffe Bible Translators and its partners stop the production of certain Arabic and Bengali translations of the Bible, believing them to have eliminated familial terms to describe God and Jesus.

“Apart from the recent statements, most of them do not clearly state that … the divine familial terms are NOT removed but rather that they are committed to ‘accurately conveying’ the ‘meanings’ of this terminology,” said the Rev. Adam Simnowitz, a minister with the Assemblies of God of Dearborn, Mich., who is part of Biblical Missiology.

According to Simnowitz and others, Wycliffe and its partners are removing familial terms to describe God and Jesus from their translation of the Bible in order to appease Muslim communities. Examples pointed out by them include replacing “Son of God” with “Messiah of God” and “God the Father” with words like “guardian.”

 

“Western missions agencies Wycliffe, Frontiers and SIL are producing Bibles that remove Father, Son and Son of God because these terms are offensive to Muslims,” reads Bible Missiology’s online petition.

“By replacing or removing ‘Father’ or ‘Son’ from the text of Scripture, these translations fail to portray God as who he is: the familial, eternal, loving God the Father, Son and Spirit.”

Among the projects mentioned that Wycliffe Bible Translators and its partner Summer Institute of Linguistics have released included the Bengali Injil Sharif and Wycliffe’s “Lives of the Prophets.”

Dustin Moody, a spokesman for Wycliffe, told CP that “Wycliffe had little direct involvement with those two particular projects.”

In the past couple weeks, both Wycliffe and SIL released statements officially denying that their translations headed for Islamic countries removes familial terms to describe God and Jesus.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/wycliffe-reaffirms-it-did-not-delete-father-son-from-bible-translations-68836/

Komen official quits over Planned Parenthood dispute (OneNewsNow.com)

Komen official quits over Planned Parenthood dispute (OneNewsNow.com).

Grieving as a Christian and a Misplaced Comma by Mark D. Roberts

1 Thessalonians 4:13-14

And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-14

Today’s reflection is a postscript to our recent study on Lamentations. Before we press on to our next book, I want to think with you a little longer about grieving.

As I have shared before, I grew up in a family, culture, and church that were reticent when it came to grieving. If ever somebody around me was sad, my job was to “cheer them up.” I can’t remember if anyone at church ever actually said grieving was sinful, but that was certainly implied. Many of my elders in church would have been influenced by the King James Version of 1 Thessalonians 4:13: “But I would not have you be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.” According to this translation, Paul wants us to “sorrow not.” As Christians who have hope, we should not be sad even when ones who are dear to us die.

The problem here is with the comma. To use the language of the New Living Translation, we have a choice: “so that you will not grieve, like people who have no hope” or “so that you will not grieve like people who have no hope.” The first says we should not grieve at all. The second says that we should not grieve like hopeless people. By implication, we are free to grieve, but in a new way because of our hope.

You’ll notice that the NLT, along with almost all modern translations, leaves the comma out. The translators of the KJV misinterpreted Paul’s meaning by adding a comma that was not suggested by the original Greek. Today, commentators and translators rightly understand Paul to be prohibiting hopeless grief, but allowing hopeful grief.

Hopeful grief! Now that sounds almost like a contradiction, doesn’t it? How can we grieve and be filled with hope at the same time? In tomorrow’s reflection, I’ll offer further thoughts about this. For now, I’d encourage you to think about how hope and grief might co-exist, and what might happen when they do.

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION: How can we grieve and be filled with hope at the same time? How might hope affect our grief?

PRAYER: Gracious God, how I thank you for the freedom you give me to be a human being. I know that sounds silly, especially since you made me. But, sometimes it seems like the culture in which I live, including the Christian culture, seeks to deny my humanity…especially when it comes to the matter of grief. Thank you for the permission I receive from your Word when it comes to feeling sad and expressing my sorrow.

Yet, I know my grief should be shaped by the reality of your presence and faithfulness. Grieving, for a Christian, is gospel-shaped grieving. I need to learn more about this, Lord, so that I might live each moment as an expression of the good news. Teach me, Lord!

I pray today for my friends who are grieving, that they might not grieve hopelessly. Rather, may their grief be flavored with the confident hope you give them, through your Word and by your Spirit. In the name of Jesus, Lord and Savior, I pray. Amen.

http://www.thehighcalling.org/reflection/grieving-christian-and-misplaced-comma

Yesterday’s Gone · Max Lucado

Yesterday’s Gone · Max Lucado.

Great Is Your Reward

Many businesses have “points programs” that offer rewards to loyal customers. You can stack up these rewards by using their companies’ services, like eating at local restaurants, staying at certain hotels, or flying on particular airlines. Choosing to spend your money this way makes a lot of sense.

God has a rewards program as well. Jesus often spoke of His desire to reward us for loyally serving Him. When we are persecuted for His sake, for example, He says to “rejoice . . . for great is your reward in heaven” (Matt. 5:12). In contrast to the Pharisees’ pious habit of giving, praying, and fasting in public, Jesus instructed us to do these things privately, because “your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly” (6:4,6,18). When it comes to living for Jesus, faithfulness never ultimately puts your life in a deficit position, regardless of what it costs.

But we don’t serve Jesus for the rewards. When He died for us on the cross, He did far more for us than we deserve. Loyalty to Him is an act of worship that expresses our loving gratitude for His love toward us. In return, He delights to encourage us with the assurance that ultimately His rewards will outweigh whatever we have given up for Him.

Live for Jesus—regardless of the cost.

http://odb.org/2012/02/07/great-is-your-reward/

An Absurd Abortion Argument by Peter Wehner

On his blog, Andrew Rosenthal of the New York Times writes, “Abortion is legal. It is a safe medical procedure. And it is rare. That’s exactly how it should be. Government has no business violating women’s privacy rights and making decisions about their reproductive rights. It is the worst kind of ‘big government’ imaginable.”

On the claim that abortion is a “safe” medical procedure: it isn’t a particularly safe medical procedure for the unborn child being aborted. As for abortion being rare, there are roughly 1.2 million abortions performed in the United States each year, meaning more than 3,000 per day, and approximately 50 million since the legalization of abortion in 1973. According to the Guttmacher Institute, nearly half of pregnancies among American women are unintended, and about four in 10 of these are terminated by abortion. Twenty-two percent of all pregnancies (excluding miscarriages) end in abortion.

 

But let’s focus most of our attention on the claim that conservatives who believe a society should protect life, including innocent, unborn life, are acting in a profoundly un-conservative way by supporting “the worst kind of ‘big government.’”

To begin with: Does Rosenthal believe government should take a stand against abortion when it comes to children in their eighth month in utero and/or children who were marked for abortion but were delivered alive? If Rosenthal believes government should be neutral on such matters, his views are monstrous and radical. If, on the other hand, Rosenthal believes government should say “no” to some abortion procedures, he is acknowledging that at some point the protection of the unborn is, in fact, a state interest. The difference he therefore has with those in the pro-life movement is where he draws the line, not that a line needs to be drawn.

Which brings me to the matter of line drawing. Where does Rosenthal propose to draw it? What objective criteria should we use when it comes to the point at which unborn life should be protected? Brain waves and brain activity? Substantial development of the nervous system? When the unborn child feels pain? When organs, arms and legs develop? Heartbeat and blood flow? Sentience? Rationality? Viability outside the womb? In the second trimester? The third? And then ask yourself this: What medical or moral basis is there to say the state should protect unborn life during the second (or third) trimester but not during the first? The answer is: There is none.

Critics of the pro-life movement, when pressed on the matter, simply throw a dart on the board and decide, for entirely arbitrary reasons, when human life has sufficient value to warrant protection from the state.

It’s worth pointing out as well that on the matter of abortion, we’re dealing with human life. That’s not a “religious” judgment; it’s a scientific one. The fetus is indisputably alive and, if it comes to full term, it won’t be a giraffe or a coyote; it will be a human child. Infants are released from the hospital to go to a home, not a zoo. The question, of course, is at what point in the developmental stage one ascribes moral significance and the protection of the law to unborn life. Intelligent and honorable people disagree on this matter. But even liberals writing for the New York Times must acknowledge, at least to themselves, if not publicly, that at some point the entity in question has a legitimate moral and legal claim on society; that at some point puncturing the skull of an unborn child and sucking out her brain is an act a decent society should oppose. And even Andrew Rosenthal, if he can escape for just a moment from his left-wing catechism, would see how misguided it is to insist that having government protect the most defenseless members of the human community is not the “worst kind of ‘big government’ imaginable.” There are, in fact, horrors even worse than defending unborn children.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/02/06/andrew-rosenthalsabortion-argument/

Tozer Devotional-Persevering Strength Produced Through Trials

Persevering Strength Produced Through Trials

The whole Bible and all past history unite to teach that battles are always won before the armies take the field. The critical moment for any army is not the day it engages the foe in actual combat; it is the day before or the month before or the year before. It is an old saying that the wars of England were won on the playing fields of Eton. The experience of hard training, tough competition and sportsmanship gained in their school years prepared the young men for real war when it came. Again that rule holds for all of us everywhere, even up on the high levels of spirital warfare. It did not take Moses long to lead the children of Israel out through the Red Sea to deliverance and freedom; but his fittedness to lead them out was the result of years of hard discipline. It took David only a few minutes to dispose of Goliath; but he had beaten the giant long before in the person of the lion and the bear. Elijah faced a sulking King Ahab and stared him down in the name of Jehovah, but we must remember that his courage to stand before kings was the result of years spent in standing before the King of kings. Christ stood silent in the presence of Pilate and for our sake went calmly out to die. He could endure the anguish of the cross because He had suffered the pains of Gethsemane the night before; there was a direct relationship between the two experiences. One served as a preparation for the other.

http://www.cmalliance.org/devotions/tozer?id=452

Spiritual+Dejection

Spiritual+Dejection.

Remember to Apply the Blood

Matthew 27 : 50 – 53, And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. NKJV
There isn’t much said about the blood of Jesus at His crucifixion. However, we can certainly see the effects of it at Calvary when He had yielded up His Spirit. Two miracles of great significance occurred; one happened shortly after Jesus died, and the other one after He returned to earth in His glorified body.
The first miracle occurred when the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom and the second when the graves of many burst open and those who were dead got up and walked through Jerusalem. Why did God allow these miracles to take place? They were manifested so that He could confirm from heaven that the blood of Jesus was sufficient for the sins of man. Now we can enter the holy place where God dwells in heaven; death no longer has dominion over believers in Christ.
The writer of Hebrews teaches us, without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission of sins. So if a person never confesses the name of Christ, or he chooses to reject the gift of His life on the cross, he won’t have the power to experience God’s forgiveness (even though in Christ, his sins are already forgiven) nor will he experience freedom in his heart from the bondages of sin and death.
The shed blood of Jesus purchased our salvation. God, through Christ has ransomed or redeemed us back from sin and from having to live under the dominion of Satan‘s lies. “Whom the Son of God sets free, they are free indeed.” Let me ask you a couple of questions. Have you applied the blood of Jesus to your heart and life through faith in Christ? As a believer in Christ, do you have something that is trying to hold onto your life or robbing  you of your abundant life in Christ? If so, it is a thieving spirit that has violated the blood-line of Christ, which was spilled for you, your family, and your life in this world.
Remember to apply the blood; remind the enemy, who is trying to rob you in the spirit realm, that the blood of Jesus is against him as well. You took a stand of faith for your soul’s salvation, now you must take another for your freedom in the area that Satan has stolen from you. The blood of Jesus is our freedom from the curse brought on by the sin of Adam and Eve. In Christ, you are blessed! Satan can’t do anything about it!
I Plead the Blood of Jesus, Pastor Asa Dockery

http://pastorasadockery.blogspot.com/2012/02/remember-to-apply-blood.html

The Daily Spurgeon: That great division

The Daily Spurgeon: That great division.