History is Calling. Will you Answer?

July 23, 2019 9:51 pm Published by Grace Fabian 1 Comment

As history recalls, at one time only a privileged few were considered worthy to have Scripture in their own language. The Bible was only available in Latin-the language of the elite- so for the masses, God’s Word remained shrouded in mystery. If you were part of the clergy or nobility, you were considered fit to handle and savor the Scriptures, but if you were a commoner it seemed biblical truth was always outside your grasp. But through the ages, God has always reserved for Himself one or two righteous rebels to challenge injustice. These courageous men and women sacrificed comfort, security and sometimes even their lives, in order to help others receive the Bible in their heart language.

Although English is an accepted language today, it wasn’t always so. In the 1300’s Latin was the language of the elite, but English – the language of the peasant- was considered a throwaway language. Most of the clergy and the nobility didn’t care that the common people couldn’t understand the Latin Bible. They opposed Bible Translation for the masses, saying, “Don’t cast the pearls of the gospel before swine.” Matthew 7:6

So thousands of English speakers had no access to God’s Word, until an Oxford professor named John Wycliffe dared to defy the organized church. John Wycliffe became the first person to translate the Bible into English. The religious leaders were so furious they had him fired from his position at Oxford, even after his 40 years of faithful service.

Even decades after Wycliffe’s death, the religious leaders still hated him. They publicly condemned the translator as a “stiff-necked heretic” and ordered his bones to be dug up, burned and thrown into the River Swift. Shortly afterwards, a poem arose:

The Avon to the Severn,

The Severn to the sea,

And Wycliffe’s dust shall spread abroad,

Wide as the waters be.

These words would prove to be prophetic.

Just as Wycliffe’s ashes reached the ocean and spread abroad, so his vision to spread the Word of God will also one day cover the earth!

Habakkuk 2:14

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.

Isaiah 52:10

The Lord will lay bare his holy arm
in the sight of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth will see
the salvation of our God.

John Wycliffe sacrificed his career, his financial security, and his reputation so that marginalized English speakers could access God’s Word. His selfless spirit still lives on. Today those who go out to translate and serve with Wycliffe Bible Translators and donate to Wycliffe Bible Translators are sacrificing their earthly goods so that minority language communities can have a far more lasting treasure.

Another one of my heroes is William Tyndale. One of the most famous answers to prayer in history was granted to William Tyndale, the scholar who produced the first English Scripture translation from the original languages of the Bible. Because Bible translation was illegal at the time, Tyndale was forced to flee his homeland. For 11 years, he evaded authorities who hunted him. Meanwhile, copies of his banned translation were smuggled into England in bales of cotton and sacks of flour. Anyone caught with a non-Latin Bible risked receiving a death sentence, but people were willing to take the risk if it meant having a Bible they could understand.

Tyndale was betrayed by a friend and arrested. Finally Tyndale paid the ultimate price for his faith. The religious leaders ordered that Tyndale be strangled and that his body be burned afterwards. Before his execution he cried out, “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes!”

Although Tyndale was killed, he could not be silenced. Just three years after Tyndale’s death, King Henry VIII lifted the ban against Bible translation by allowing and even funding an English translation called The Great Bible. Because God heard the prayer of one man, thousands of people were able to receive God’s Word. Today God still answers the passionate prayers of His children as they interceded for the world’s Bibleless people. In response to prayers, God has allowed this generation to witness the greatest acceleration of the pace of Bible translation in history.

The human mastermind behind Wycliffe Bible Translators was William Cameron Townsend. Cam got his start selling Spanish Bibles door-to-door in Guatemala. He was distressed to realize that many of the people he met couldn’t understand Spanish. This tragic need for the Word of God birthed in Cam an all-consuming desire to help minority language communities receive the Scriptures. The kindhearted visionary worked relentlessly for the Bibleless. Even when his wife, Elvira, died, he declared, “If I have been devoted to my Lord’s service in the past, by His grace my devotion shall be a passion from now on.”

It was really a paradigm shift from reaching countries like China- China Inland Mission, Greater European Mission, Africa- Afrrican Indland Mission, to now be specifically focused on each ethnic group.

The next year Townsend remarried a special education teacher from Chicago named Elaine Mielke and together championed the cause of translation and education in nations around the globe. God used the humble Californian farm boy and the printer’s daughter from Chicago to spark the modern Bible translation movement.

In 1982 Cam met his Lord face-to-face. No doubt he was also welcomed in Heaven by scores of saints from the nations where he served. Elaine called his departure from this world his “coronation.” Elaine, until her death in 2007, still signed her letters the same way that Cam often did: “Yours to finish the task.”

The history of Bible translation is filled with intrigue, betrayal and bloodshed. It’s a struggle between God and His sworn enemy. And with more than 2,000 language communities without any of the Bible, the struggle is far from over.

I was one of those crazy people to go to the Bibleless groups in S. Mexico named Juixteco. Then Edmund joined my craziness and we went to the country of Papua New Guinea and translated for the Nabak. Yes, I stand up for the Bibleless.

Are you brave enough to stand up for the Bibleless and come take your place in this ongoing saga?

History is calling.

Will you answer?

Click here to learn more about Wycliffe Bible Translators.