Challenging Times

I was an ‘early adopter’ of the New International Version. Back in the 1970s, I bought my first NIV New Testament even before the whole Bible was published, and I’ve been using the NIV ever since.

Until recently. A few years ago, someone introduced me to the New Living Translation, and I started using it for my own personal Bible reading. Now I find I’m using it more and more in my teaching and preaching.

People get incredibly heated about which Bible translation to use. I’ve met people who honestly seem to be more concerned about this than they are about the doctrine of the atonement. I’ve come across people in church who (I think) wouldn’t notice if I was preaching heresy, as long as I used the right Bible translation to do it. I’ve also met at least one person who said, in all seriousness, that the Authorised version was good enough for Paul so it should be good enough for me too!

For me, the decision to use the New Living Translation is first of all a missional decision. When I teach and preach, more than anything else, I want people to understand what the Bible says and how it is relevant to their lives. (What they then do with this is down to the work of the Holy Spirit and their own consciences.)

So clarity and understandability (- if there is such a word -) are centrally important. And that’s why I use the New Living Translation.

I’ll admit that I’m odd. I read three or four books a week. I stumble through the New Testament in the original Greek. This doesn’t make me clever (although it may make me pretentious). More than anything else, it makes me peculiar. Most people don’t read very much – even intelligent and well-educated people. Many people in our churches don’t read a single Christian book in a year. Many people only read one or two books a year in total. And because of this, it’s easy for preacher-types like me to over-estimate people’s literary capabilities.

I know there are some people who appreciate the Authorised Version for the beauty of its English – in much the same way as they perhaps appreciate Shakespeare. I could care less about the beauty of the language. I want people to understand the message. In fact, I don’t want them to be able to avoid understanding it.

And the New International Version is increasingly beginning to look old-fashioned.

For example, in Matthew 5:40, in the NIV, Jesus says ‘if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.’

I don’t know too many people today who wear tunics or cloaks. They’re the sort of thing you find in ‘Lord of the Rings.’ It’s just unnnecessarily archaic English. (The New Living Translation says  ’If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too.’)

In Matthew 6:9, in the NIV, the Lord’s prayer begins with ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.’ I suggest that most people today don’t know what ‘hallowed’ means. The only people who do are regular watchers of ‘Stargate,’ where the priests of the Ori regularly say ‘Hallowed are the Ori,’ and this is distinctly menacing. (The New Living Translation says ‘may your name be kept holy.’ This is still problematic, but not as problematic as ‘hallowed.’)

Why use archaic language? Why throw this kind of sand in people’s eyes?

More, the language of the NIV is often cumbersome, even when it is not archaic. In Matthew 6:13, the NIV has Jesus saying ‘lead us not into temptation.’ This is just clunky. Nobody forms sentences like that today. (NLT has ‘Don’t let us yield to temptation.’)

So I use the New Living Bible because it’s clear and contemporary, and this is a missional decision.

Of course it isn’t perfect. There are places where I cringe at the translation. But no Bible translation is perfect. People who believe their favourite translation is above reproach are heretics. They are elevating the traditions of men above the word of God.

More about the New Living Translation.

Two approaches to Bible translation

The venue for Mike Frost’s meeting in Bristol on the evening of Wednesday 8th October has now been confirmed as Redland Parish Church. The meeting will start at 7.30 pm.

Tickets are not needed for this event – just walk in! (An offering will be taken towards the cost of the event.)

I’ve just started reading Ed Stetzer’s ‘Planting Missional Churches.’ Initial impressions are very positive, and I’ll review it when I’m finished.

Stetzer quotes some research which shows that younger churches are significantly more effective in evangelism than churches that have been around for a while:

• Churches under three years of age win (on average) ten people to Christ every year, for every hundred church members
• Churches three to fifteen years of age win an average of five people per year…
• Churches over fifteen years of age win an average of three people per year for every hundred church members

Put this together with some earlier research by Christian Schwarz. He found that smaller churches grow faster than larger churches, and that the ideal size for a church to grow is around fifty people.

So if you want your church to grow, aim for small and young. In other words, church-planting is a no-brainer.

We’re now offering a special discount rate for students for the Future Church with Mike Frost event at Central Hall Southampton, 3-4 October.

If you’re a student at university, Bible College, sixth form college or other FE/HE establishment, you can buy a ticket for £8.00 (normal price £15). Proof of student status (e.g. an NUS card) may be required on the door.

Go here for student discount tickets.

If you would like to book for the ‘Future Church’ event with Mike Frost at Central Hall Southampton on 3-4 October, but you aren’t happy with giving your credit card details online, we’ve now posted an off-line booking form. You can download this, print it out, and mail it with a cheque.

Go here for the offline booking form.

I’ve suggested that many contemporary ‘evangelical’ Christian writers will talk about the Kingdom of God coming, and about social justice here and now, but they seem to have lost sight of the question of the individual’s fate after death. And I’ve suggested that we’ve played down the importance of individual sin, either by not mentioning it at all, or by playing up structural (institutional) sin.

I also notice in a lot of contemporary ‘evangelical’ Christian writing a tremendous reluctance to say anything about God’s judgment. (In fact – cart before the horse – I believe the reason people are reluctant to say anything about sin is that it carries with it some implications about judgment).

But the Bible is never so squeamish. In Ephesians 2:3, Paul says bluntly that we were by nature objects of God’s wrath.

Well, OK. Maybe that’s just Paul.

Or not.

In Matthew 5:7, Jesus tells his followers:

‘Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the pharisees and teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.’

A couple of verses later (verse 22) he warns that anyone who is angry with his brother will be in danger of judgment, and anyone who calls his brother a fool will be in danger of the fire of hell.

It makes me feel deeply uncomfortable – but I can’t get away from the fact that Jesus said it. It wasn’t in the middle of a parable. As far as I can see, it wasn’t a metaphor for something. In chapter 7, he says (v. 13-14):

‘Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.’

However politically incorrect it is, however disturbing, when I try to read the Gospels as open-mindedly as possible, I can’t escape the conclusion that Jesus believed that all people will be judged by God, and that some people will ultimately be rejected by him. I find this a terrifying thought.

There’s an old saying that the Good News is only Good News in the context of the bad news that precedes it. Is one of the reasons we’ve lost the plot about the Good News that we don’t have the courage to say anything about the bad news of God’s judgment?

The Slipstream podcast for August is now online, featuring Mike Frost, author of ‘Exiles: living missionally in a post-Christian culture,‘ and co-author (with Alan Hirsch) of ‘The Shaping of Things to Come: innovation and mission for the 21st-century Church.‘

I asked Mike, ‘If you could say just one thing to the next generation of Christian leaders, what would it be?’ His reply was:

‘… that we re-discover in Scripture God’s great missional plot, that begins at the very moment of creation, and runs like a thread through the whole of Scripture, culminating in the person of Jesus, and then continuing to unravel even to this day.’

Go here to listen

This programme also includes a review of Mike’s book ‘Exiles,’ by Fiona Stewart, and the web page has an extract from ‘Exiles,’ where Mike talks about third places.

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