Tyndale Chapel Podcast

Thank you so much, Paul, and thank you, again for the opportunity to be here today. It's very, very special. Good morning, everyone.

I spent the last 20 years of my life working with Wycliffe Bible translators to help bring God's word to language communities who don't have it, and I've been told by many people here in Canada, that I'm wasting my time. And here's some of the things that they say to me. Their languages are dying. It's not worth it. Teach them English, they need to know it anyways, because of globalization. You can't put the Bible into those languages because they're too primitive. And this is my personal favourite. The only translation of the Bible anyone should be reading is the King James Version anyways, since it's the only correct one. Just a quick question to get a sense of who I'm talking to. I just wonder how many people here today have somehow been directly impacted by Bible translation ministry? It's a trick question, folks. If your hands not up, you've either never read the Bible, or you're fluent in classical Hebrew and Koine Greek. In 2011, a very special anniversary passed by. I didn't hear too much about it. But it marked 400 years. Mark that 400 years prior and 1611, the King of England James the First, published the authorized version of the English Bible. I have my I brought my my New King James Bible here with me today. But this was not just something that happened out of thin air, it wasn't just a decision he made when he woke up one day. It came after more than 200 years of intense persecution for anyone who dared to translate the Latin scriptures into the English language, be it on paper, or even the spoken word. And by the way, today is going to be more of a history lesson than than a sermon, so I hope you'll give me a bit of leeway.

Long before 1611, in the late 1300s, a man by the name of John Wycliffe, translated the Bible into English from the Latin Vulgate, which at that time was the only biblical text authorized for use in churches by Rome. Wycliffe was a professor, he was a theologian, and he taught at the University of Oxford. But he was eventually kicked out of Oxford, because he disagreed with a number of the Catholic Church's teachings. Furthermore, because of all the common people in his day couldn't read the Bible in Latin, he set out to translate it into English. Now getting this first translation of the English Bible out to people was no small task. It took 10 months to hand copy the translation, there were no printing presses then, and each copy would cost about six months wages. Wycliffe, and his followers, succeeded in getting copies all over England. But wherever they were found, they were immediately seized and burned by the educated church leaders who considered the translations to be heresy, and the product of a heretic. Anyone caught working with Wycliffe and involved in the translations were seized and publicly executed by being burnt alive at the stake for heresy. The church was so incensed at Wycliffe, that 44 years after his death, the pope ordered his remains to be dug up, burned, and the ashes thrown into the river Swift, as a very public notice of what would happen to anyone who ever dared translate the Bible into English again. It's amazing a law was actually passed in 1407 that made it illegal to translate the Holy Scriptures into the language of the common people. And those days Smithfield, just near to the famous Tower of London, was filled with people who were burned to death. Why? So that you and I could have the English Bible.

On April 4, in 1519, in a place called Littlepark in Coventry, close to Smithfield, six working class men and a widow were publicly executed by burning to death for just teaching their children the Lord's Prayer in English. In the 100 years following Wycliffe's death, two major events took place that changed history drastically. The city of Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire. Today, of course, we know it as Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey. The fall of Constantinople was significant because the resulting diaspora allowed for the spread of Greek culture and language all across Europe. The second huge thing that happened that changed history was a fellow by the name of Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press. And this intervention changed the history of mankind, even more so than the iPhone. And by the way, does anybody know what the very first book to be printed was? Yeah, the Gutenberg Bible. Latin, of course. You guys still with me?

Sorry for all the history, but I've just set the background so I can introduce to you my, my greatest earthly hero. His name is William Tyndale. And I encourage you all to have an earthly hero. I also encourage you to choose the dead ones, because they're far less likely to let you down. Although in the last few years, I might have to reconsider that discourse. William Tyndale was a phenomenal Greek scholar. It's said that he was so well spoken in eight different languages that nobody knew what his mother tongue was. Tyndale is famous for a quote, which was in response to an arrogant clergyman who told Tyndale this, "We're better off with the Pope's laws than with God's". And Tyndale responded in this public setting. "I defy the pope in all His laws. And if God spares my life, and many years, I will cause the boy that driveth the plough to know more of the scriptures than thou dost". You have to say that with an English accent, but can you imagine in the climate of his day, setting out to translate the Bible? I mean, this was a very, very educated man. When Tyndale set out, he started by asking the Bishop of Durham. This is the head of the the the church in England, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England. Cuthbert Tunstall, and he asked him to help him translate the Bible from Greek to English, and he did this because the bishop, he was also well educated, but Tunstall was furious with him. And as news spread about Tyndale's ambition, a price was put on his head. Tyndale wound up exiling himself out of England to mainland Europe. And I think, I've been, as I've been researching the history of his life and trying to fill in the gaps. I really believe in that time he connected with Luther as well, who was translating the scriptures into German. Lots more to dig into there. But as a result of Tyndale's commitment and faithfulness, in 1525, miraculously, the Tyndale New Testament became the very first English Bible to go into print. Yeah, yeah, you can say amen to that. With help from some good friends in the ports, he smuggled these Bibles back to England in sacks of flour and cotton. I've heard different stories about this and read different things. But the most common ones that the leaves, the pages of the Bibles were put in between sheets of cotton, into big sacks that were being shipped back to England. They spread all over England, and Tunstall became furious. He enlisted a man by the name of Augustine Packington to buy up all of the Bibles and bring them back to St. Paul's Cathedral, where they would be burnt. I don't know, I grew up in a day when churches would put signs out on the front lawn and would have the title of the, the event on Sunday or the sermon. I'm trying to picture this. Come this Sunday, 9am, two services, and 11, burning Bibles. I visited St. Paul's Cathedral. It's just incredible to think that this is an actual part of our history. What Tunstall didn't know, however, was that this person Augustine Packington was Tyndale's good friend, and that they were in cahoots.

Packington basically overcharged Tunstall for the Bible, so that for every one Bible purchased and burnt, three more were printed. The bishop Tunstall was funding the whole thing. That's some good God math, good God funding right there. Eventually Tyndale was betrayed and handed over to the church authorities. He was strangled and burned at the stake in 1536. You can see artists renderings of Tyndale on the stake, but also with a rope tied around his neck while people pulled as he burned. Tyndale's last words were recorded. As he was there, the flames consuming him literally shooting up off of his body. The last thing he was heard saying was, oh Lord, open the king of England's eyes. This prayer was answered. And just three years later, in 1539, when King Henry the Eighth finally allowed, and even funded, the printing of an English Bible known as the Great Bible. Now, we won't get into the whole side story there, lovely lady Anne Boleyn. And the backstory around that, but let's just leave it at that, that God works in mysterious ways. Throughout the rest of the 16th century, the status of the English Bible wavered back and forth until 1604, when King James the first commissioned a new translation into the English language. I asked Geoff earlier, if he could maybe throw up a picture that I took this summer of myself, I was able to go back and attend my graduation ceremony at the University of Bristol, in the UK this year, and I took a drive because, just between Bristol and Gloucester, there is a little tiny town. The name sounds tiny, Nibley, and this is the town where Tyndale was believed to have been born. And there are some local farm houses that argue about where he was born. But off the beaten path, about a kilometer hike through the woods, beautiful walk if you're ever there, if you ever in Nibley, England, there's just a tiny little sign that says Tyndale monument. It's not well marked or known. And I hiked up there and I don't know if you can see but I'm wearing my Tyndale University t-shirt in front of the Tyndale monument and everybody who came up there was asking me about it, and I made sure I put a CANIL sticker on the sign down on the road. Just had to share that with you. I thought that was fun.

In Wycliffe, and Tyndale's day, English was the language of the common man. It was, and of course still is, quite a mishmash of numerous languages that came together over history. I don't know, the church leader's efforts to eradicate any translation of the Bible into English can only be defended from the perspective of a misguided or twisted respect for God's Word, and their own disdain towards the English language. Today, in 2022, in stark contrast, from the 15th and 16th centuries, English has become the language of academia, the language of business, the language of politics, and the language of power. No matter where you live in the world, it has become the must know language for everyone. Today, the teaching of English as a second language is one of the largest industries on this planet. There are now more people who speak English as a second language than as a first. There are more people who speak English in India than in the United States. It truly is amazing what the English language has become. And you are free to call me crazy, but I believe that the translation of the Bible into English played a key role in its development into what it is now. But today, we see history repeating itself in terms of language attitudes. And this couldn't be more obvious than it is in the comments I hear over and over, comments such as the ones that I shared at the outset of this talk. The languages that still need translations of the Bible, are small, and in many cases, are so marginalized that they are forgotten by the rest of the world. They represent some of the most remote, uneducated, impoverished, hungry, exploited, friendly, hospitable, cheerful, intelligent, tenacious, resilient, and incredibly humble people in our world. And they are also the most unreached. By the way, this word unreached gets thrown a lot, gets thrown around a lot these days, but there are many and varying definitions of what it means to be unreached.

Kwame Bediako, a great African theologian and missiologist, wrote in 2001, that no language group should be considered as reached until they have the scriptures available in their mother tongue, as the foundation for building sustainable Christian thought, life and community. And I can say that having seen firsthand the impact of bringing God's word to people in their own language, I would have to agree. I had the incredible privilege of, in my first six years, being part of a workforce strategy that launched 19 Bible translation projects in Tanzania. And over the last two years, I've been seeing those New Testaments being dedicated one after another. And I'm so proud of that, because the speakers of those language communities number four and a half million. That's close to the province, the population of the province of British Columbia, where I live, and to think of the entire province of BC getting getting their first ever alphabets, getting their first ever storybooks, or dictionaries, or scriptures, is just, I can't even wrap my head around it.

Of the world's 7388 languages, approximately 1680 language communities today, spoken by 130 million people, still have absolutely no way to access the scriptures independently. And in sharing that information today, I urge you, all of you here this morning, to consider what your response needs to be to that. Please do one or all of the following. Pray, give or go. But I beg you, I beg you, I beseech you today, don't walk out of this room and dismiss all of this. I believe with all my heart that your generation can finish this task. When I joined in 1989, when God called me in 1989, there were well over 3000, it was close to 3800 languages that still needed Scripture. Today that's down to 1680. Your generation can finish this off. And I firmly believe that, and I invite you to look at the training that we offer because it is in Applied Linguistics, which teaches you to do hands on things with language, a number of different things that you can do. But our desire specifically with this program is that it prepares you to do all of the tasks like language development, orthography development, and, and translation, and literacy, and even survey work, and all the supporting things that go on. We offer courses in all of these things. Please pray and ask God, how you need to respond to the reality that 130 million people have no way. Historically, there have been over 400 translations of the Bible into English. Different kinds. Today in Christian bookstores, we can choose from 40 different flavours. I think that's awesome. But it kills me that, in 2022, there are still 1680 languages with nothing. And you can play a part in ending Bible poverty for those people. And the thing I love about what's happened in Tanzania is every child born now in those language communities will not grow up without God's word, without access to God's Word in their lives.

I want to close with a passage of scripture from Isaiah 55, 10 and 11 one that you all know so well. And I love this verse because God puts two laws right beside each other and shares them with the Prophet. These are laws, these are these are principles, these are things that happen. One is as a physical law, scientific law, if you will here on Earth. And then he he compares that to a spiritual law, because he knew that the Israelites would understand this, this scientific law, because their lives depended on it from year to year, season to season, cycle to cycle, and then when he presents the spiritual law beside it, you get the sense of how real and how guaranteed this is and it goes like this. Isaiah 55:10. And I'm gonna read, actually from King James today, the New King James. Because as much flack as it's taken, in recent history, the role it has played, this translation of God's word has played in history is phenomenal. So I still have great respect for it. This is the New King James. Because I need you to understand it. "For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater". We all get that. Water, seeds, plants, fruit, year in year out, this is how it works. "So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please. And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it". When you participate in any kind of effort that brings God's word out and into people's lives, it will bear fruit. It will transform. It will do what God intends for it to do. And I invite you to be a part of that process that has guaranteed results. God bless you.

Let's pray. Our gracious lord and saviour, I thank you so much for your Word. I thank you for the way that your Word has impacted. Each and every one of us here today. This building wouldn't be here, we wouldn't be here if it weren't for the words that have been given to us. Yet God, still today, so many have yet to even receive it. A single verse. And I know Lord, that that breaks your heart. And so I pray that you would empower us and resource us and call us to step into this gap, and do everything that we can to bring it to an end, and end Bible poverty here on Earth. I thank you for the ongoing projects all around the world right now. I thank You, Lord for the growth of the movement that that now there's over 120 different organizations participating in this. But Lord, the harvest is ripe and the workers are still few. So I pray that you would move in people's hearts today. And that God, you would bring about more people, more prayer, more resources to get this done. In Christ's name we ask. Amen.

Thank you