Making and Maturing

Eternity and the Endless Communication of God’s Glory

Forgive me for two posts in one day.  This is from “The End for Which God Created the World” by Jonathan Edwards.  I wrestled with it again today in my study of Exodus 7:5- The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.  Note the communication idea in “The Egyptians shall know that I am Yahweh.”  Edwards always blows me away.  I read it like 300 times and I’m still working on it.

“As there is an infinite fulness of all possible good in God—a fulness of every perfection, of all excellency and beauty, and of infinite happiness—and as this fulness is capable of communication, or emanation ad extra; so it seems a thing amiable and valuable in itself that this infinite fountain of good should send forth abundant streams.”

Summary: Because God is infinitely good, the communication of his goodness is good. 

“Thus it is fit, since there is an infinite fountain of light and knowledge, that this light should shine forth in beams of communicated knowledge and understanding; and, as there is an infinite fountain of holiness, moral excellence, and beauty, that so it should flow out in communicated holiness. And that, as there is an infinite fulness of joy and happiness, so these should have an emanation, and become a fountain flowing out in abundant streams, as beams from the sun.”

Summary:  The knowledge of God’s infinite greatness flows from him in communication.

“Thus it appears reasonable to suppose, that it was God’s last end, that there might be a glorious and abundant emanation of his infinite fulness of good ad extra, or without himself; and that the disposition to communicate himself, or diffuse his own fulness, was what moved him to create the world.”

Summary: God created the world so that he would be able to communicate his endless greatness.

All of God’s acts are ultimately designed to communicate his glory, and the joy of learning of his greatness will never end because his greatness never ends.  I have no idea what this will be like, but I can’t wait.

A Real Banquet

And they all ate and were satisfied. Mark 6:42  

It doesn’t take long to be involved in a church to realize that any church event must be accompanied by food.  The old McDonald’s slogan “food, folks, and fun” was often applied to church life.  There is nothing wrong with eating at church events- it is very Biblical (consider that the Lord’s supper was just that- a meal shared together vs. bits of cracker and half a swallow of juice).  But sometimes food can get in the way of ministry. 

In the gospel of Mark the story of the feeding of the 5,000 is presented with some subtle but important Marcan peculiarities.  Most notably Mark adds a crucial piece of background information at the beginning of his (Peter’s?) version:  And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they h

ad no leisure even to eat (Mark 6:31).  The disciples were worn out.  They had just returned from their first two by two preaching mission.  The entire reason they headed to an unpopulated site on the Sea of Galilee was to eat and get some rest.  Jesus’ popularity was peaking, however, and they would get no such chance.  Indeed, people from near Capernaum literally tracked on land where Jesus and the disciples were headed by boat.  The crowd only grew.

By the time we get to the miracle itself, the disciples are frustrated that they won’t be able to eat.  They are not interested in hosting an impromptu banquet.  On the contrary, they just want a quiet meal!  Jesus, however, had compassion on the crowd.  He gave them spiritual instruction, with no regard for food.  As you no doubt know, a talking stomach is hard to ignore.  The disciples could not focus on the spiritual because they were concerned about temporal matters… in this case food.

Is this not our battle?  Temporal concerns, like food, cause us to miss the spiritual.  We are distracted.  Jesus realized the issue, and did not miss an opportunity to teach an eternal truth through a temporal medium.  5 loaves, 2 fish, and over 10,000 happy customers later the point was made.  When we focus on the spiritual with Jesus, he takes care of the temporal issues.  That’s a real banquet.

For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18).

Bible Translation Controversy (!)

I first heard it like this: “Pastor Ryan, did you hear that Wycliffe Bible Translators is doing a translation that changes “son of God” to something else so it won’t offend Muslims?”

Wycliffe has gone liberal!  Wycliffe denies the gospel!  Wycliffe is probably a terrorist sleeper cell just waiting to strike!

Let’s all just pause for a moment.  Before writing off the folks at Wycliffe we should at least consider what we do know about the situation.  In the interest of full disclosure I should mention that as part of my seminary degree in Biblical exegesis and linguistics I was required to take classes at the “Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics” which is an academic institution that serves Bible translators.  I took classes like “Theory of Translation” and “Semantics and Pragmatics” alongside present and future Bible translators, many from Wycliffe.

What Happened?

In 2005 the Bengal Injil Sharif translation team translated the phrase “son of God” with the word for messiah.  They consulted with an expert from SIL (a sister organization to Wycliffe) and decided to change the word to a phrase which reads “God’s Intimately-Unique Love One.”  This translation team is not officially associated with Wycliffe Bible Translators, but rather is part of Global Partners.  Yes, this was 7 years ago.

What’s the Issue?

Translation is hard.  Nailing down word meanings is hard enough- but finding the right word in a different language is flat out exhausting.  Not all words share the same “range of meaning.”  A great example of this is the German word schadenfreude which takes an entire paragraph in English to explain.  The issue at hand revolves around the word “son.”  The English word “son” seems very simple, but some cultures have two or three different words for son which indicate biological sonship versus social or legal sonship.  In some cultures the only or most common word for “son” only means biological son. 

Enter the phrase “son of God.”  What does this phrase mean when it refers to Jesus?  It at least refers to the intimate relationship between God the Father and Jesus.  It certainly does not mean that the Father literally sired Jesus with a human mother (think Greek mythology).  The Bengal translation team was trying to ensure that their translation did not give the impression that Jesus was physically the son of God the Father.  After consulting with an expert, they were able to find a better alternative to their initial choice “Messiah.”  They tested their translation and changed it to make sure that the understood meaning matched the original Greek thought.

What about Wycliffe?

Although Wycliffe was not officially involved in the Injil Sharif translation, they have been deemed by many as guilty by association.  Wycliffe is not liberal.  They are not changing their translations to be less offensive.  In fact, they are continuing to labor intensively at the work of Bible translation.  They and other Bible translator groups need and deserve your prayer, your support, and your money.    

Don’t Be a Statistic

One word of caution.  The statement “Wycliffe is going liberal” smells like conspiracy theory alarmism more than thoughtful, gracious, academically honest consideration of the issues.  Before we get caught up in a controversy and worst case gossip or slander our brothers and sisters let us first go the source.  As people we can do better than get swept away by a tidal wave of controversy.  As Christians, we must.

For more information on the difficulty of translating divine familial terms see here.  For the official word from Wycliffe Bible Translators see here.

Our Kids Listen to Us

I had to share this.  Recently, Zoe, a 7 year old girl at our church, had a playground accident and broke her arm.  She was brave and endured the pain.  Her 8 year old brother, Jack, helped to get the ambulance and even got Zoe a stuffed animal so she would be comforted.  That alone is enough to make any parent proud!  Before the ambulance left for the hospital Jack said to his sister- “Don’t worry Zoe, by His stripes we are healed.”

This is what I call the parental payoff.  Jack and Zoe’s parents are faithful Christians.  I know that they have spent time trying to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ to their children.  They are also “normal” – which means I am sure at times they wondered if anything is getting through.  Here, in a crisis moment, their son Jack recalled 1 Peter 2:24, and comforted his sister with truth from God’s Word.  What a joy!

As a parent who sometimes wonders if his children are receiving the spiritual instruction given to them I was greatly encouraged by this family.  If anything it reminds us to continue to train up our children in the instruction of the Lord.  I wonder if my brother was laid up in an ambulance if I would have thought to use 1 Peter 2:24 as encouragement.  I will now.  Thanks Jack and Zoe!