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Do We Have an Eternal Soul?

I frequently hear Christians say, 'We have an eternal soul!' But is that a) Greek philosophy or b) biblical teaching? It is mainly the former, and we have read it into our Bibles, a process called eisegesis (as opposed to exegesis - reading out what is there). There is no clear teaching in the Bible on this issue. Nor is there clear teaching that humans are tripartite in nature: body, soul and spirit. Grudem quotes Berkhof: 'The tripartite conception of man originated in Greek philosophy, which conceived of the relation of the body and the spirit of man to teach other after the analogy of the mutual relation between the material universe and God.' Grudem, Systematic Theology , p481 The fact that the Hebrew word nephesh is often translated 'soul' does not help. In fact it should be translated something like 'inner being' or 'life-breath'. Though there are some verses that talk about a dead nephesh - i.e. a corpse (Lev 21:11; Num 6:6).

Indiana Jones and the Lost Scriptures of XXX

In this clip from the Indiana Jones film Raiders of the Lost Ark we see the Ark of the Covenant getting archived. Click on the link below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRP0MBNoieY  (watch from 1.05) Often in Scripture engagement work, the Bible or New Testament is produced, printed and then 'archived' in the cupboard or back room of one denomination's church. Or an audio recording of a gospel (e.g. Luke) is made and the 'archive' is kept on someone's hard-drive in Texas, North Carolina, or wherever. We're good at producing materials, but not very good at promoting them. Nor are we good at helping people engage with them. Producing materials is just the first stage. On top of this we need to distribute, promote, and then relate to those who are engaging with the materials in order to answer their questions. This then helps us refine not only those materials but any future ones we produce. These materials need to be in a variety of media, oral, dig

More Than a Prophet

In Islam Isa 'Jesus' is considered to be a prophet. Some Christians find that offensive. But actually he was a prophet, simply not only a prophet. He was also priest (see the book of Hebrews) and king ( Masih 'Messiah', as well as the fact that as king he brought in the kingdom of God ( Mark 1:14-15 )). Nevertheless, many of us give him the honorific Masih in our Scripture engagement work. The other prophets shared between Islam and Christianity are Adam, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, Jonah, Elijah and many more. Some of us aren't used to, for instance Moses being called a'prophet', but in fact he is, in Deu 34:10 . David is never called a prophet, because by the the roles of king and prophet had separated out, but he listened carefully to the prophet Nathan. In any case, it is sometimes good to use the honorific 'prophet' with e.g. Jonah. There are many Jonahs living in the Muslim world, and it's good to specify we are talking about the o

Why Our Goal Isn't Producing New Testaments & Bibles

In SIL you would have thought our ultimate goal is to produce New Testaments and Bibles (not necessarily in that order), but that is not so. If the outcome you write up in your plan is 'members of the language communities are actively involved in producing appropriate high quality Scriptures and Scripture products and increasingly own the process of making them available', as it is in one SIL group, then although that may look good to funders and supporting churches, it isn't necessarily what's needed. The end (ultimate goal) of translation is transformed communities/lives , therefore we need to merge Scripture engagement and translation into one outcome, which would be something like: 'Through engagement with available and accessible Scripture products and Scripture-based products, communities are internalising the good news and demonstrating it in their daily lives.' The actual work of Bible translation leads to that outcome. Therefore translation tea

The Importance of Accessing the Bible in a Language You Know Well

Despite what I posted earlier about people having several mother tongues, it's still a fundamental belief of ours that people need to access Scripture in a language they know well, that they are fluent in. Today I was asked in an email for articles that back this up. In fact, here is the question: 'I’m writing a paper based on my research about the impact of reading the Bible in English versus mother tongue, and wondered if you have articles to hand or Wycliffe/SLI (sic.) statements of values which might outline why we believe that having the Bible in one’s heart language/mother tongue is important (even if the English translation is available).' The question was written by a PhD student. By SLI she means SIL , I think. Wycliffe is short for  Wycliffe Bible Translators . TBH I was slightly confused by the question. Why 'English'. Did she mean 'the Language of Wider Communication' (Spanish, French, Russian, Classical Arabic... )? Here is my reply:

Making Water Flow Uphill

If some people have started speaking the language of wider communication, we in the Bible translation world are often affronted. 'Why would they desert their mother tongue for such a (boring?) language? We must encourage them back to the true path!' After all, we have believed our own publicity about the need for Scripture in the so-called heart language (people often have several of these). So, why is it people start speaking these lingua francas ? Often it's a desire for education, self-improvement, and for a better job. Their parents may have put them in a school where the LWC was used. It's not that the children dislike their mother tongue, they just see it as the language they spoke to Mummy and Daddy before they started school and learnt their grown up language. What should we do about this? Try and encourage them to revert to their mother tongue? That would be like trying to make water flow uphill. Instead we need to recognise the language shif

There is no Panic Button!

We often think we can leave Scripture engagement until our product is finished in its entirety. We translate the whole Bible or New Testament, then about six months before it is published we hit a large panic button, which connects us to the Scripture engagement department. 'Please come and make sure our Bible is used!' It's as if we still think there is a cavalry that might come over the hill any minute armed with magic Scripture engagement advice and techniques to rescue us! Instead it's better to plan SE into the project from the beginning: Make sure you are engaging with the whole community, or at least key members of it (church leaders, linguists, journalists, good speakers, elders, elder women, parents, the youth, children... ) Try to use participatory methods if possible. You can use appreciate enquiry ('What do you like about your community?') and also find out what the needs are. Involve a wide spectrum of community members Include arts in y

Chosen in Christ

I had a chat with Graham Tomlin one time at New Wine after a seminar he led, and he really helped me regarding the New Testament teaching about predestination. His comment was this: that we are chosen in Christ . So what does that actually mean? In the Old Testament Israel was God's chosen people. You were saved in Israel   e.g. from the last and worst plague in Egypt, as long as your family had slaughtered a lamb and smeared the door jambs and lintel with its blood. As followers of Jesus we are saved in Christ . This is an eternal salvation. This means we are part of God's chosen people, which consists of those who are in Christ. We (as a whole) are predestined to be saved in Christ. Read Ephesians . Two groups are in focus, Jews and gentiles. Those who follow Jesus from either background are saved by grace. Our salvation has been won by Jesus the Messiah/Christ (Christ is the Greek for Messiah). This means it is Jesus who is the chosen one, first and foremost. That

Ways to Reduce the Power Gap Between Consultant and Consultees

Translation consultants are often seen as the 'experts', coming in to a project to 'check' their work and improve it. There is a danger that we are continuing colonial practices by doing this. So, here are a few suggestions (this is not a comprehensive list) of ways to reduce this power gap. Learn from the team. It's their language, not yours Have a humble attitude Make an introductory statement such as 'I am not here to criticise your work...' Encourage the team to discuss any problems/issues in their language, rather than yours. You can always ask for a summary of their discussion. Stay locally with believers in the area (not in a hotel) Give positive feedback when they are seeing local support come in for the project, whether financial or other Praise their translation - look for good aspects, not only things that need improvement Mentor a local consultant to take over from you Ask them for their feedback at the end of the consultation (ways y

Local Mission vs. Worldwide Mission

The other day a colleague of mine heard her pastor preach a sermon saying something like, 'Mission isn't about going somewhere else, it's about reaching people here at home!' We have also heard the same from mission boards here in the UK. 'We want to focus more on local mission.' Why the switch from overseas mission to local mission? I think there are several factors we need to consider: Our God is too small, to paraphrase J. B. Phillips. We believe God can help us reach folk in our neighbourhood, but the idea of going somewhere completely different, with another culture and language, seems too far fetched. Also, deep down we may believe that, actually, they are OK with their beliefs and practices, and we have little to share with them. This is tantamount to believing that each region has its own god, and ours is only in charge of the local patch. We have believed the lie that short-term is better than long-term mission. This has turned mission service

Can We Be Saved by Law?

Can we be saved by law? Paul says many times that we are saved by grace, not law. He even says Christ is the end of the law: Since they [Israel] did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Romans 10:3‭-‬4 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/rom.10.3-4.NIVUK. There are two things we need to think about first, before we jump to conclusions on this issue: 1. The word nomos 'law' could refer to several different things (Gal 2:19 illustrates this point) 2. The word telos 'end/culmination/goal' also needs interpreting On the first question, Paul, in Romans 10, is likely to be referring to the Mosaic law, with its regulations to offer sacrifices and so on. We cannot be saved by keeping all of the teaching of the Torah. Neither are Jews saved simply by having this teaching. Having a Bible doesn't s

Evolutionary Theory

Another point I made in my blog on syncretism in the Western church is this: 'A kind of intellectual belief in evolution that makes us want to believe any advance is good, not only in technology, but also in morality, world view, spirituality, and so on. There is no biblical basis for this. In fact the Bible tends to view many so-called 'advances' as moves away from God. For example, when the people of Israel asked for a king, so they could be like other nations, the prophet Samuel (in 1Sam 8 ) told them very clearly what that would mean for them, and it wasn't an upgrade!' At the end of the 19th century, beginning of the 20th century there was enormous optimism in Western culture. We seemed to be making many discoveries, documenting all known life-forms, and progressing at a tremendous rate in terms of scientific progress. Underlying much of this optimism was a belief on evolution - not just evolution of species but evolution of civilisations. We believed th

I Believe in Miracles - Syncretism in the Western Church, Part 1

In my previous post I said that the Western church exhibits: 'A certain cynicism about miracles, so healing is thought not to be real, but in someone's imagination. This is a result of secularism, and what Paul Hiebert called 'the flaw of the excluded middle' in his article on the subject, which shows that Westerners don't believe in the middle realm between supernatural and natural. The Bible, however, constantly mentions dreams, angels, unclean spirits, and so on, which are very much to do with this middle realm.' This shows itself in two, rather extreme ways. The first is to deny that miracles happen. This is the secular approach to miracles. They don't happen now, they didn't happen then i.e. in biblical times and therefore somebody must have made them up, we think. It is possible to find a whole host of literature in theological libraries that is written from this position. Miracles are something outside our experience, which is much more re

Is the Western Church Syncretistic?

It's almost Easter, but here I am writing about a serious topic - how the Western church has become syncretistic i.e. it has mixed the surrounding culture in with its culture to form a mix of biblical Christian beliefs and secular beliefs. Here are some areas where I think we are being invaded by the surrounding world view: A certain cynicism about miracles, so healing is thought not to be real, but in someone's imagination. This is a result of secularism, and what Paul Hiebert called 'the flaw of the excluded middle' in his article on the subject, which shows that Westerners don't believe in the middle realm between supernatural and natural. The Bible, however, constantly mentions dreams, angels, unclean spirits, and so on, which are very much to do with this middle realm A kind of intellectual belief in evolution that makes us want to believe any advance is good, not only in technology, but also in morality, world view, spirituality, and so on. There is no b

What to Preach on Easter Sunday

I don't know if you're preaching on Easter Sunday? And I don't know what your congregation is like, but imagine you're preaching in an honour-shame context on Easter Sunday. What would you say? How would you explain the efficacy of the work of Christ on the cross? You wouldn't mention Christ 'paying the price for our sins'. Noooo You would mention restoration to a new family, the family of God You would mention a sense of belonging to that family You would mention that Christ's death took away our (collective) shame and restored honour to both God and to us (collectively) You might mention that Christ (as representative of a new humanity) succeeded where both Adam (representative of humans) and Israel failed You might mention that as our elder brother Christ paved the way for us to share the honour that belongs to him You probably would mention that we now have access to the Father, and have the same right to the privileges that Christ won fo

On Pruning

The other month I pruned our apple trees. I did this not just because they were out of control, too tall, ungainly or too wide. I did it because I want to get more fruit next autumn. I like apples! Note that I did not chop the trees down and they were in no way harmed. In fact, now it's Spring, they are budding and beginning to look beautiful. John 15.2, below: He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.NLT https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.15.2.NLT ...is a verse many people struggle with because they (in my view correctly) assume the vine is believers, plural, and they think some branches i .e. individuals will be thrown out of the kingdom. The trunk, and the roots, are Christ. It's from him that we get our nourishment. It's rare that a gardener will chop off and remove a whole branch. Usually the branches are pruned. We may have to let some things in our lives

Bible Translation and Kudos

Photo taken from Toyota UK website Do you know people who drive a 4x4 just to get the kudos of owning such a safe, expensive vehicle? Probably we all do. We don't do Bible translation so as to get kudos. Or do we? The number of times I have heard people talk about 'proper Bible translation' is amazing. What do they mean? They're usually talking about working on one of these products: A print Bible A print New Testament Print books from the Bible e.g. Proverbs, Luke & Revelation In contrast people working on Scripture-based products such as stories (booklets, apps), videos, and audio recordings (of stories) are seen as somehow second-class. Not working on the real thing. Doing something temporary that will be replaced by the real thing later on.  There is, of course, some truth in the fact that a print Bible will be more likely to be used by believers in churches in the long term (if it is in the right language, has the appropriate style, etc. etc.