Brian’s Perspective - Old Blog

I had no idea. My American vision has clouded my true vision many times, and this is just one of those times. For some naive reason, I thought that when a bible was translated into another language it meant the whole Bible. Not so, according to this article from Christianity Today:

The Whole Word for the Whole World - Christianity Today Magazine

Fewer than 10 percent of the world’s languages have the Old Testament. But that’s about to change.

Christians have long upheld the value and interconnectedness of both testaments, at least since Marcion’s denial of the Hebrew Scriptures was rejected as heresy in the second century. Yet the missionary translation boom of the 20th century largely ignored the Old Testament.

“The assumption was that the New Testament alone was adequate, because it held the gospel message and would be sufficient for evangelization,” said Ralph Hill, international translation coordinator for Wycliffe Bible Translators. The focus on evangelism over church growth, coupled with shortages of personnel and resources and the Old Testament’s sheer, intimidating size, created today’s gap between the testaments.

It is a shame that for so long the Old Testament, which built the need for Jesus, which told of our origins, has been neglected in so many places around the world. Of course, it has been neglected here, too. Some ministers focus too much on the New Testament to the exclusion of the Old Testament. Others use the Old Testament, but only for illustrations and stories to talk about the New Testament. If you want your congregation to know God, you must begin in the Old Testament. If you want your congregation to know about where it came from, you must begin in the Old Testament. If you want them to know why Jesus had to die, the nature of sin, the compassion of God, and the holiness of God, you must begin in the Old Testament.

This is the time of year when many ministers and preaching teams are formulating the lessons for next year. Maybe it would be good if we dusted off that Old Testament and began to teach American Christians, some of the most selfish Christians in the world, what it means to serve a Holy, Living God.