Modern
bible translators continue to blaspheme God’s word:
“And
if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this
prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and
out of the holy city, and [from] the things which are written in this
book.”Revelation
22:19
A
controversy is brewing over three reputable Christian organizations,
which are based in North America, whose efforts have ousted the words
“Father” and “Son” from new Bibles. Wycliffe Bible
Translators, Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) and Frontiers are
under fire for “producing Bibles that remove “Father,”
“Son” and “Son of God” because these terms are offensive to
Muslims.”
Concerned
Christian missionaries, Bible translators, pastors, and national
church leaders have come together with a public petition to stop
these organizations. They claim a public petition is their last
recourse because meetings with these organizations’ leaders, staff
resignations over this issue and criticism and appeals from native
national Christians concerned about the translations “have
failed to persuade these
agencies to retain “Father” and “Son” in the text of all
their translations.”
Biblical
Missiology, a ministry of Boulder, Colorado-based Horizon
International, is sponsoring the petition. The main issues of
this controversy surround new Arabic and Turkish translations. Here
are three examples native speakers give:
First,
Wycliffe and SIL have produced Stories
of the Prophets,
an Arabic Bible that uses an Arabic equivalent of “Lord” instead
of “Father” and “Messiah” instead of “Son.”
Second, Frontiers and SIL have produced Meaning of the Gospel of Christ , an Arabic translation which removes “Father” in reference to God and replaces it with “Allah,” and removes or redefines “Son.”
For
example, the verse which Christians use to justify going all over the
world to make disciples, thus fulfilling the Great Commission
(Matthew 28:19) reads, “Cleanse them by water in the name of
Allah, his Messiah and his Holy Spirit” instead of “baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit.” Rev. Bassam Madany, an Arab American who runs Middle East
Resources, terms these organization’s efforts as “a western
imperialistic attempt that’s inspired by cultural anthropology, and
not by biblical theology.”
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Third,
Frontiers and SIL have produced a new Turkish translation of the
Gospel of Matthew that uses Turkish equivalents of “guardian” for
“Father” and “representative” or “proxy” for “Son.”
To Turkish church leader Rev. Fikret Böcek, “This translation is
‘an all-American idea’ with absolutely no respect for the
‘sacredness’ of Scripture, or even of the growing Turkish
church.”
SIL
has issued a public response stating “all personnel subscribe to a
statement of faith which affirms the Trinity,
Christ’s deity,
and the inspiration of Scripture.” However, in the same statement,
which is similar to Wycliffe’s, it claims “word-for-word
translation of these titles would communicate an incorrect meaning
(i.e. that God had physical, sexual relationships with Mary) [sic],”
thus justifying substituting “Father” and “Son” in new
translations. Calls and emails to Wycliffe and SIL to clarify their
positions were not returned. Frontiers responded to calls with
articles that critics have already dismissed as skirting omissions of
“Father” and “Son” in new Bible translations. source
– Yahoo News - From: nowtheendbegins.com
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