Wednesday, February 1, 2012

De-Christianizing the Bible to Avoid Offending... Muslims?

It's almost unbelievable:


Mainline Christian organizations are changing their holy scripture to avoid offending Muslims. Not only does this violate their scripture, but it also defeats the purpose of their mission--to share the Gospel. If mainline Christian organizations fear Muslims so much that they have to edit what they believe to be the Word of God, how far can they be from submission? Where are the righteous, the outraged, the proud?
It is Islamic authorities who should be excising the quran and hadith of the ideology that calls for jihad, genocide, subjugation and oppression of women, Jews, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and all non-Muslims. It is the ummah who should be calling for sharia bans. Instead, the Christians are bastardizing their scripture?  The Muslims refer to Christians in their daily prayers as "those who are led astray" (Muslims curse Christians and Jews multiple times in daily prayers). This madness validates their contempt and supremacism:
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.”

Read the rest here.

10 comments:

Jeffrey L Watts said...

Will Muslims follow suit with the Koran?

USA_Admiral said...

This is what you get when someone who is not an American gets elected.

Woodsterman (Odie) said...

I give up. Let's all go back to the caves and submit to the Taliban.

Brooke said...

Jeff: I would advise you not to hold your breath.

Will this 'Bible' be de-Christianized enough that the Saudis will let it in their country, I wonder?

USA: I can't believe Bible companies are doing this. I don't know that it has anything to do with Obama.

Odie: Dhimmitude most foul!

Always On Watch said...

What?

WHAT?

I'm going to have to turn off my computer right now, or I'm going to EXPLODE!

Mr. AOW said...

Inch by inch, Islam is winning. Insane!

Brooke said...

AOW: I almost had a fit. Literally.

I would love to see this up at your site, just to see what Ducky and that other apologist (his name escapes me at the moment) would say about this.

Mr. AOW: It certainly seems that way, God help us.

Alligator said...

Hebrews 3:12 - See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

Matthew 5:13 "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

2 Peter 1:20 - First of all, you must understand this: No prophecy in Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation.

2 Peter 2:1 - But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them--bringing swift destruction on themselves.

That is all this exercise will bring about - swift destruction. It will not placate Muslims in any way shape or form and it makes the adherents of these "changes" apostates in peril.

Brooke said...

Absolutely. To think that this will change the mind or convert a single Muslim is farcical, and even if one did convert it would be under a false, watery gospel.

The ones doing this do so at their own peril, as you said, but I hope they don't deceive anyone who is innocent with it.

Dave Miller said...

As someone currently serving as a missionary in another country I can fully understand what these new translations are about... Making sure that when the bible is read through the cultural eyes of the potential new believer, it is understandable to him or her.

There is nothing new going on here. The words on paper have been adapted for hundreds of years as the Bible has been translated into different languages around the globe. But the Word remains unchanged.

The groups you cite, Wycliffe and SIL are great organizations who have helped literally millions of people around the world know Jesus.