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No Scripture, No Church: The Urgency of Bible Translation · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. Today we have a we are
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undertaking a massive deep dive into a critical dilemma facing
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global missions. We are pulling directly from the
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excellent source material provided by Mark Tatlock and
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Christ Burnett. Our goal for this analysis is to
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unpack a specific, highly challenging tension.
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We are looking at the realities of Bible translation and how
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this massive effort fits into God's sovereign plan of
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redemption. The thesis we are examining is
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stark. Getting the translated
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scriptures into every single language spoken on earth is
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undeniably A spectacular goal. But achieving that goal without
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tethering the translation process to the local church,
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specifically to church planting, rigorous discipleship, and
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precise pastoral training, creates a massive, debilitating
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disconnect. We want to investigate this from
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a robust, confessional, Protestant perspective.
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We're going to look at how the historical realities of language
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relate to the grand narrative of redemptive history.
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When you look at the landscape of modern missionary work today,
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you see an enormous push for linguistic acquisition.
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People are rushing to translate texts as quickly as humanly
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possible. But we have to stop and ask Abe
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a very basic question. Why could handing someone a
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translated Bible ever be considered a problem?
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If we isolate the text from the believing community, we risk
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leaving cultures with words on a page but no local manifestation
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of Christ's bride to shepherd the flock.
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The text becomes an artifact rather than the living,
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breathing word administered through the ordinary means of
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grace. For those who might not know,
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when we say ordinary means of grace, we are talking about the
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primary tools God uses to grow our faith, specifically the
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reading and preaching of the Word, the sacraments of baptism
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and communion, and prayer. Setting the stage for this
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discussion requires us to look through a firmly reformed
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theological lens. We have to acknowledge from the
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very first minute the absolute sovereignty of God in all human
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affairs, including the development, the fracturing, and
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the scattering of human dialects.
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The Great Commission given by Christ to his church mandates
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the making of disciples of all nations.
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This inherently means we must bridge the language gap.
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We have to overcome linguistic barriers to communicate the
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gospel. But we must be very precise
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about what true discipleship actually entails.
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It is not. It is not simply a matter of
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securing A rudimentary intellectual agreement to a few
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basic propositions. True discipleship requires
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teaching the nation's to observe all the Christ commanded.
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To do that, the Church needs accurate, strictly inerrant
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texts in the target language. The Westminster Confession of
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Faith states clearly that the Scriptures in their original
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languages were immediately inspired by God and by His
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singular care and Providence kept pure in all ages.
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Therefore, the task of bringing that pure word into a new
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language is a weighty responsibility.
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It demands absolute fidelity to the authorial intent of the Holy
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Spirit. If a translator lacks an
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orthodox understanding of God's sovereign decrees, the covenant
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of grace, or the total depravity of man, their theological
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deficiencies will inevitably bleed into the text they
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produce. The source material brings this
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to light. Clearly, overcoming the language
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barrier is not just a linguistic puzzle to be solved by
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academics. It is the theological necessity
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bound up in the progress of God's redemptive plan.
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I think that is a perfect setup. We cannot understand the
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solution without first understanding the root of the
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problem, and that takes us all the way back to the book of
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Genesis. We need to look at the contrast
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between God's original creation mandate and the reality of human
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sin. In Genesis 1.2628, God gives a
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clear, unambiguous command to humanity.
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He says to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and
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subdue it. The design was for mankind to
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spread out, exercising righteous dominion over the entirety of
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creation as God's image bearers. But when we arrive at Genesis
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11, following the catastrophic flood, we see Noah's descendants
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doing the precise opposite. We are given a stark anatomy of
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human rebellion. Mankind gathered in one specific
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place, the Plain of Shinar, to build a city and a tower with
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its top in the heavens. Their stated goal was to make a
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name for themselves lest they be dispersed over the face of the
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whole earth. You can see the total depravity
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of the human heart on full display right here.
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Total depravity, meaning that every single faculty of the
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human mind, will and heart is corrupted by sin.
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This is the same sinful inclination seen in the Garden
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of Eden and in the days before the flood.
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It is the creature seeking to usurp the glory of the Creator.
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They wanted sensualization, autonomy, and self exultation.
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They completely rejected the command to fill the earth,
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choosing instead to consolidate their efforts in direct defiance
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of the Sovereign Lord. What fascinates me is the
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mechanism they used to pull this off.
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You have to have how they coordinated such a massive
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unified rebellion. Great, and the source material
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draws our attention to Genesis 11.1 to answer that very
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question. The primary external factor
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enabling this collective act of rebellion was the use of 1
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common language. The text says the whole earth
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had one language and the same words.
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Because there were no communication barriers, humanity
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was completely unhindered in its ability to persuade one another
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into collective, unified sin against God.
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Total depravity means that our communication is tainted by the
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fall just as much as our actions in this unified state.
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Their shared language accelerated their rebellion.
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It was a catalyst. God's intervention, therefore,
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is a fascinating display of both judgment and severe mercy.
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Instead of wiping out the power or destroying humanity again
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with another flood, God introduced a permanent reality
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into the human experience, which is linguistic diversity.
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Genesis 11.6 to 9 details how God confused their language so
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they could not understand one another's speech.
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This divine act of judgement scattered mankind over the face
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of all the earth, abruptly halting their unified project of
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self glorification. This event birthed the table of
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nations described earlier in Genesis 10.
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The source quotes scholar John Goldengay, who observes that at
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the end of the history of the world's origins, the Bible opens
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up the problem of language. God deliberately created
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distinct people, groups and cultures through this linguistic
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fracturing. This establishes the primary
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hurdle for all future missionary work.
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The language barrier is not a random accident of human
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evolution. It is a direct result of a
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sovereign decree to restrain human wickedness.
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The pastoral challenge we face today in cross cultural missions
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is direct inheritance of the judgement at Babel.
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So to summarize that thought, the language barriers we face
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today in missions are not an accident of geography.
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They are a divine guardrail instituted to slow down human
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sin. That is a massive paradigm shift
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for how we view cross cultural ministry now.
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Right after humanity shatters into all these distinct confused
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linguistic groups, what does God do?
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We shift to the very next chapter in the biblical
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narrative, Genesis 12. Multiple linguistic and cultural
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groups now exist across the globe because of God's
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scattering at Babel. From these fracture, alienated
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and confused nations, God sovereignly selects one single
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man, Abram, from UR of the Chaldeans.
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The contrast here is incredibly striking.
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The builders of Babel sought to make their own name great
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through their own unified effort and architectural prowess.
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But in Genesis 12.2, God approaches Abram and says, I
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will make your name great. This is the core essence of the
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covenant of grace. Salvation and exaltation are not
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achieved by the works of man, but are freely given by the
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sovereign choice of God. He chooses a man from a Pagan
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background, enveloped in the darkness of a fractured world,
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and issues a unilateral promise. This demonstrates that God's
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redemptive plan was actively moving forward despite the
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catastrophic judgement of Babel. He initiates a covenant that
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will eventually address the very divisions he instituted.
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But we know this promise to Abraham was not just about one
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man or one future nation. Not at all, and we must
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carefully unpack the phrase found in Genesis 12.3 where God
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tells Abraham in you all the families of the earth shall be
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blessed. This explicitly clarifies that
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the blessing promise is not exclusive to the physical nation
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of Israel. The scope of redemption is
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global. The families of the earth, or
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the very same fractured, linguistically divided groups
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that walked away from the unfinished tower in the previous
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chapter. We can tie this directly to the
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New Testament commentary on this passage, specifically Galatians
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3.8 to 9. The apostle Paul explains that
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the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles
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by faith, preach the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying,
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In You shall all the nations be blessed.
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The primary blessing intended for the nations is redemption,
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the justification of sinners and the complete reversal of the
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false catastrophic effects. God set apart the nation of
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Israel for a highly specific instrumental role in advancing A
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redemptive plant that intentionally crosses all the
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linguistic borders established at Babel.
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Israel was meant to be a Kingdom of priests, a light to the
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nation's, holding the oracles of God until the sea Jesus Christ
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would come to secure salvation for His elect from every tribe
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and tongue. I really appreciate how the
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narrative threads tied together so perfectly.
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The division of language of Babel is immediately met with a
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promise to bless all those newly divided families.
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This historical progression brings us directly to the New
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Testament, specifically to Acts chapter 2, to Pentecost and the
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reversal of Babel. Let us picture the scene in
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Jerusalem. The setting is the celebration
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of Passover and the Feast of Weeks.
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This massive festival brought Diaspora Jews and Jewish
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proselytes from every known linguistic group in the Roman
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Empire back to Jerusalem. These individuals have been
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scattered over centuries of exile and persecution.
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They lived among different cultures and spoke the local
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languages of their respective regions.
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Then the Holy Spirit is poured out upon the Apostles.
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The source material notes the specific prejudice against
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Galileans mentioned in Acts 2.7. The crowd was utterly shocked
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because Galileans were considered uncultured and
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uneducated backwater citizens. That would be like a group of
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uneducated fishermen suddenly standing up in a public square
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and perfectly delivering an academic lecture in Mandarin,
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Swahili and Russian. The crowd was not just amazed,
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they were utterly baffled. They heard these specific
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unlearned men speaking the mighty works of God in their own
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foreign dialects. The crowd asks, are not all
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these who are speaking Galileans?
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And how is it that we hear each of us in his own native
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language? This was a staggering moment in
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redemptive history, and the theological weight of the
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specific word used for language here is incredible.
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Yes, the analysis provided by Daryl Bach in the source
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material is highly instructive for understanding this moment.
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He points out that the word dialect in Acts 2.8 derived from
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the Greek dialectos, specifically refers to native
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languages. God utilized the most familiar
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linguistic means possible, the heart language of the listeners,
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to communicate the Gospel message.
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He intentionally bypassed the lingua franca of the day.
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For those unfamiliar with the term, a lingua franca is a
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common bridge language used by people who do not share a native
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dialect, much like English is often used in international
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Business Today. In the 1st century, that was
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Coin Creek. God could have easily just had
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Peter preaching Greek and most of the crowd would have
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understood the basic concepts, but the Holy Spirit chose to
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speak directly into the specific native tongues of the Diaspora.
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There are two massive theological lessons we must
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unpack from Acts 2. First, it demonstrates the
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biblical pattern of salvation going to the Jews 1st and then
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through them radiating outward to other linguistic groups.
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Second, it clarifies that the biblical gift of tongues
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displayed here was the Speaking of actual known human languages
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designed specifically to advance the Gospel.
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This miraculous event act as a preliminary reversal of the
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curse of Babel. At Babel, a single language was
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confused to scatter a rebellious people.
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At Pentecost, multiple languages were spoken by the agency of the
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Holy Spirit to gather a redeemed people into one unified body,
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the Church. The Holy Spirit utilized the
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very divisions created at Shiner to orchestrate the gathering of
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the elect. So to put it simply, Babel was a
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scattering through confusion, while Pentecost was a gathering
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through miraculous clarity. God meets people in their native
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tongue to bring them into one spiritual household.
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It is absolutely brilliant. Now let us look at the end of
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the story. We turn our attention to the
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Book of Revelation, specifically chapters 5 and seven.
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We are looking at the eschatological fulfillment of
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this redemptive storyline. Eschatological simply meaning
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the study of the end times, the final destiny of humanity.
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The apostle John, exiled on the island of Patmos, is given a
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vision of the heavenly scene at the conclusion of human history.
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What is fascinating to me is that God retains a focus on
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distinct languages even at the end of all things.
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The linguistic diversity created a Babel is not erased or
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homogenized into one single heavenly language.
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We do not all revert to speaking Hebrew or some angelic dialect.
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Instead, that diversity is redeemed and brought into the
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throne room of God. In Revelation 5, John sees the
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Lamb who is slain. The song sung in heaven declares
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that the Lamb was slain, and by his blood he ransomed people for
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God from every tribe and language and people and nation.
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It is an incredible picture of substitutionary atonement
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applied globally, and the contrast John makes here between
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the Lamb and the rest of the world is a vital point to
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investigate. The commentary on Revelation 5.9
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to 10 from Craig Custer, which our sources highlight, provides
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an excellent contrast. To answer your question, he
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contrasts the Lamb, who purchases a specific people with
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his own blood, against the beasts and world empires of
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Revelation that conquer through violent battle and subjugation.
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Earthly empires force assimilation.
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They conquer a people, erase their culture, and force them to
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speak the language of the empire.
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The Lamb's victory is entirely different.
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It is substitutionary and redemptive.
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He buys His people back from the curse of the law and He
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preserves their distinct created identities, including their
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languages. Notice the elevated status of
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these purchased people. Verse 10 says He has made them a
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Kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the
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earth. When we move to Revelation 7, we
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see the shift from the specific numbering of the 144,000 Jews to
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the vision of a great multitude that no one could number.
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This uncountable throng is explicitly described as coming
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from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and
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languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb,
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crying out in loud worship. This is the direct, unassailable
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fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham back in Genesis 12.
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The families of the earth divided by language in Genesis
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11 are now unified in faith and worship, retaining their
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distinct tongues but sharing 1 confession.
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Connecting this to the mandate for today, we must recognize
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that because we possess the closed, inerrant Canon of
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Scripture, translating these sacred texts into this multitude
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of languages is a paramount requirement.
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We must reach those who cannot yet read the good news,
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gathering the elect from every tongue so they might join this
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heavenly chorus. That is a staggering reality.
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The very linguistic barriers that God set up to judge sin are
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the exact same barriers we are now commanded to cross with the
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translated Word of God to gather His people.
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With that massive theological foundation laid out, we need to
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bring this down to the ground level and confront the current
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statistical reality of translation in our modern era.
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The source material provides us with some highly specific, mind
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boggling numbers from the year 2022.
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There are 7388 spoken languages in the world right now.
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Of those, only 724 have a full completed Bible.
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Another 1666 languages have a complete New Testament, while
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12,248 have a portion of Scripture translated.
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Most notably, 3266 languages have translation work currently
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in progress. The pace of this work is
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accelerating at an unprecedented rate.
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The data shows that a newly translated Bible or New
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Testament launches almost every single minute.
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We are also seeing the largest annual increase on record, with
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367 new languages starting translation projects in a single
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year alone. On the surface, when you hear
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these statistics, you might feel a sense of absolute triumph.
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The numbers are staggering, the logistical output is massive,
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and we are utilizing technology to speed up the process.
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But you mentioned earlier that there is a danger in simply
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handing out books. These massive statistics
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actually hide A functional problem on the mission field.
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Yes, the sources warn us of a severe pragmatic trap hidden
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within these encouraging numbers.
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Organizations engaged in this massive translation work often
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view linguistic acquisition as a standalone first step.
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The methodology frequently involves sending specialized
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linguistic workers to remote locations, but these workers
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often possess minimal biblical, theological, or pastoral
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training. They are freely skilled
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technicians of language. They understand syntax, grammar,
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and phonetics brilliantly, but they're not necessarily stewards
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of the mysteries of God. They lack the theological depth
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required to shepherd a flock. This approach effectively
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isolates the translated text from the believing community.
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The pragmatic mindset running these massive statistical
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operations says just get the text translated as fast as
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possible, hand it over to the locals, and move on to the next
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unreached language group. But from a Reformed perspective,
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the Word of God is meant to be read, preached, and applied
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within the context of the local church.
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The Westminster Larger Catechism asks how the Word is made
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effectual to salvation, and the answer highlights the reading,
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but especially the preaching of the Word.
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If you drop a translated text into a culture without
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simultaneously planting a church, training elders, and
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establishing A framework for discipleship, you are failing to
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fulfill the Great Commission. The bottom line is that
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translation without the local church is not a finished
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mission. It is an abandoned project.
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You are providing a book, but you are not establishing the
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household of faith. You are giving them the manual,
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but providing no teachers to explain it, no elders to protect
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the flock from heresy, and no community in which to practice
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the one another commands of the New Testament.
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This leads us directly into a very serious concern,
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highlighted in the sources, regarding the threat of
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ecumenism and doctrinal compromise and translation work.
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When you decouple translation from robust confessional church
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planting, strange theological alliances start to form.
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The source provides historical data to illustrate this drift.
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Looking back at the 1982 United Bible Societies data, there were
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574 translation projects underway globally, representing
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200 different denominational groups.
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Astonishingly, 133 of those projects involved Roman
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Catholics working alongside Protestants.
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From a strictly Protestant confessional standpoint, this
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presents a monumental problem. When you adopt an ecumenical
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approach to translating the errant Word of God, meaning you
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partner with groups who hold fundamentally different views on
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salvation and biblical authority, it's inviting severe
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compromises to textual accuracy. Viewing this through a Reformed
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lens makes the danger acutely visible.
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The doctrine of sola scriptura demands that Scripture alone is
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our final, ultimate authority in faith and practice.
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We do not look to a Pope, a council, or a human tradition to
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validate the Word of God. The text is the final arbiter of
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truth. But when translation teams
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include denominations with a low view of Scripture, such as
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liberal Protestant groups that deny the historical realities of
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the text or reject inerrancy, or groups like the Roman Catholic
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Church, which elevates its own magisterial tradition to the
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level of biblical authority, interpretive biases inevitably
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creep into the text. Translation is never a purely
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mechanical process of simply substituting one word for
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another. You cannot just swap a Greek
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word for a Swahili word and call it a day.
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It requires heavy interpretive decisions based on context.
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If a translator does not believe the text is the breathes out
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infallible word of God, or if they believe church tradition
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holds equal weight to the biblical text, they will
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translate theological terms in a way that accommodates their
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erroneous presuppositions. A Catholic translator might
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translate the word for repentance, as do penance, which
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entirely changes the gospel. The source material also
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critiques the hands off approach, which is the massive
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flaw of separating translation from evangelism, discipleship,
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and elder training. Waiting until a complete text is
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printed to even begin the ministry of the Word risks
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leaving a culture with a stalled project, a failed publication,
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and absolute spiritual silence. Without the active vocal
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preaching of the gospel accompanying the translation
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effort, there is no actual gospel witness established in
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that culture. You just have a secular
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linguistic experiment. I think that perfectly sets up
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the critique offered by DA Carson and our sources.
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The issue of theological inadequacy among translators is
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a massive hurdle we have to acknowledge.
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Carson, who is a highly respected biblical scholar,
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offered a friendly but incisive critique of massive
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organizations like the Summer Institute of Linguistics and
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Wycliffe Bible Translators. Carson acknowledges that their
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linguistic work in challenging, often hostile circumstances is
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highly admirable. They are doing extremely
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difficult work in remote areas. However, he points out a glaring
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deficit. Very few of these translators
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possess a Master of Divinity degree or advanced rigorous
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training in exegesis and systematic theology.
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They are absolute experts in the mechanics of syntax and grammar,
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but they lack the theological framework necessary to handle
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the word of truth accurately. If these translators are out
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there doing this incredibly difficult linguistic work,
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sacrificing their comfort to live in remote villages, we have
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to ask why Carson is critiquing them.
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The actual ground level danger if they lack an Mdiv or deep
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theological training is a serious issue to analyze.
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Carson observes that translators lacking deep theological reading
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and systematic categories tend to take an atomistic approach to
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translation challenges. We need to unpack what that
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means for a moment. An atomistic approach basically
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means looking at the tiny isolated pieces, like analyzing
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individual words or single verses without ever seeing the
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whole theological picture on the box Is like trying to build a
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jigsaw puzzle while staring at a single piece through a
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microscope. When you lack an understanding
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of unified biblical theology, how the covenants connect across
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thousands of years, how the Old Testament sacrificial system
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typifies the work of Christ, how the doctrine of justification is
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woven through the entire Canon from Genesis to Revelation, you
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will make translation choices that obscure these realities.
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The source material warns about the danger of expediency in this
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exact area. There's a popular motto in
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modern mission stating that we can complete the work of Bible
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translation in our lifetime. This turns a noble goal into a
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slave to haste. The desire to cross the finish
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line quickly leads to cutting corners.
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When accuracy is sacrificed on the altar of speed.
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It leads to severe misinterpretations of key
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biblical doctrines. If you mistranslate the words
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for propitiation, justification, or the nature of God's
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sovereignty because you're in a rush to hit a deadline, you
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cause massive confusion for generations to come.
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You effectively discredit the Bible in those new cultures
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because the text you handed them is doctrinally contradictory.
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The translation of Sacred Scripture requires painstaking
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diligence, massive theological oversight, and careful review,
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not a stopwatch. So if the modern pragmatic model
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is flawed, we have to ask what the path forward is.
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The source material contrast 2 very different philosophies of
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missions. The modern pragmatic proponent
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operates under the motto to bring the Bible to unreached
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people groups. It sounds fantastic on a bumper
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sticker, but it lacks ecclesiological depth.
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For those listening, ecclesiological depth means
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having a robust biblical understanding of the local
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church and its designated role in the world.
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The biblically sound mission motto rooted heavily in the New
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Testament pattern we see in the book of Acts, is this.
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Mature churches become sending churches become translating
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churches. We must shift our focus from a
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para church corporate model of missions to a local church
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driven model. The local church is God's
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ordained institution for safeguarding the truth.
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It is not an outside linguistic agency.
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The local church has elders who are tasked with guarding the
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flock from false doctrine. If we believe that, then this
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completely shifts our practical approach to who actually does
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the translating on the field. The role of the national
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believer is central to this biblical model.
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Taking the Longview of missions means recognizing that dialect
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translations are best handled by local indigenous believers
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rather than foreign missionaries who are largely cultural
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outsiders. The ideal scenario laid out in
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our sources is that the most accurate and faithful
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translations come from nationals who are themselves pastorally
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and theologically trained. Imagine a man who grew up in the
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target culture, whose native tongue is the specific dialect
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in question, but it was also been rigorously trained in
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Greek, Hebrew, hermeneutics, and systematic theology.
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But faithful Orthodox missionaries?
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He knows the idioms, the linguistic nuances, and the
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hidden cultural assumptions of his people intimately.
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He knows how his people think, but because his conscience is
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bound by the authority of Scripture, and because he
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understands Reformed theology, he will absolutely refuse to
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accommodate the culture at the expense of scriptural fidelity.
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He will not soften the hard edges of the gospel to make it
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culturally palatable. He will faithfully render the
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inerrant Word of God into his own tongue, and then he will
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stand in the pulpit of a local church and preach it to his own
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people. This is the biblical pattern.
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This ensures the tax is accurate, the church is
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established and the flock is fed by an under shepherd who
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understands them perfectly. As we synthesize everything we
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have covered today, the main take away is undeniable.
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Absolute accuracy in translation is not an academic luxury for
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nerds in a library. It ensures that national pastors
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can preach from a faithful text. When a pastor stands before his
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congregation with a Bible he knows is the accurate Word of
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God, it instills unshakable confidence in the congregation.
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It aids in the sanctification of the believers because they are
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being washed by the pure water of the Word.
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In short, theological precision on the translation desk leads to
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spiritual vitality in the Pew. Furthermore, church leaders and
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mission boards must carefully, critically investigate the
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translation agencies they are financially supporting.
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They must ensure proper stewardship of the resources God
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has given them, refusing to fund pragmatic or ecumenical efforts
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that compromise the integrity of the Scriptures.
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We cannot just write checks because an organization has a
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good slogan. We must inspect their theology.
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Now I want to direct a question to you, the listener.
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Evaluate your own relationship with the translated Scriptures
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you hold in your hands. Do you recognize the immense
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theological labor, the providential preservation, and
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the sheer weight of glory contained in those English
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pages? Do you treat your Bible with the
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reverence it demands, knowing that it is the very breath of
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God communicated to you across the centuries?
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I will leave you with a final thought to carefully consider as
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you go about your day. We have seen how the diversity
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of human language was originally born out of sinful rebellion at
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Babel, a severe judgement upon a proud and arrogant people who
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sought to make their own name great.
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But consider the sovereign brilliance of God.
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What if that very division was designed by God all along in His
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unsearchable eternal decrees to maximize his own glory?
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God orchestrated the fracturing of language so that at the
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consummation of all things, the final worship in heaven would
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not be a monotone champ at an infinitely vast chorus.
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He designed history so that the throne room would echo with
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thousands upon thousands of distinct redeemed tongues, all
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declaring in their own native speech the salvation
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accomplished by the blood of the Lamb.
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The judgment of Babel set the stage for the magnificent,
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multifaceted worship of Revelation.