Pure Church

MSNBC reports that the NIV and TNIV are to get a facelift. A major updating with "everything on the table" regarding gender revisions is planned. At this point, CBMW and others are remaining open to the full review process. Ligon Duncan, chairman of CBMW, responds here. Al Mohler weighs in here. Concluding paragraph from Mohler:

In the end, the update of the NIV to be released in 2011 will have to stand on its own. Those of us who have had significant concerns with the TNIV should communicate these concerns respectfully, candidly, and directly to the Committee on Bible Translation, to Zondervan, and to Biblica. When released, the updated NIV will deserve and require the attentive study and review of all committed evangelicals. We must hope and pray that this updated NIV will be found both faithful and useful. For now, the decisions that will determine the faithfulness and usefulness of this updated edition are in the hands of the Committee on Bible Translation. We must all pray that their work will produce an updated translation we can greet with appreciation and trust. We must take the members of the Committee on Bible Translation at their word that they will consider these concerns. To fail to pray and to act in this way will be to fail at a basic Christian commitment. The issue is not only the integrity of a Bible translation, but our integrity as Christians.

The more I preach, the more I passionately agree with Piper in this short video. And I agree with him not because I'm a Greek scholar and can work in the original text. I can't.

But that's why I agree with him; that's why I need and want English translations that give me the words. I want to know the word of God and I don't want the translators and editors making the interpretive decisions for me. Give me all the words!

For all the men who don't have Greek and don't do their work in the original languages, for the integrity of the Scripture itself, for the average joe confounded by the different renderings offered by paraphrase v. word-for-word translations, preacher use a translation with all the awkward, difficult, inconvenient, puzzling, wonderful, transitional, connecting words of Scripture.

I appreciate the readability of the NIV. For now, that's what we use here. But that video captures one of my biggest pet peeves with the NIV--the constant practice of dropping necessary little word like gar (for, because, etc.). So much of the text turns on little two and three-letter words that we need them!

For various reasons, maybe you'll stay with the NIV. Maybe we will, too. But, oh, to have all the words spoken by a Holy God!

What if Philippians were our only Bible?

Colin has a helpful tip for preparing sermons or for regular Bible reading. Play 20 observations.

My wife just sent me this ecnouraging reminder:

"And if it be deemed a great wickedness to contaminate any thing that is dedicated to God, he surely cannot be endured, who, with impure, or even with unprepared hands, will handle that very thing, which of all things is the most sacred on earth. It is therefore an audacity, closely allied to a sacrilege, rashly to turn Scripture in any way we please, and to indulge our fancies as in sport; which has been done-by many in former times."


--John Calvin (in the Epistle Dedicatory, Dedication to Simon Grynaeus, in his Commentary on Romans)

Grudem's chapter in Preach the Word offers some helpful reminders on correctly interpreting the Scripture.

Celucian provides a helpful roundup of talks from Mark Noll on race, religion, and American politics.

Part 1: ``The Bible, Slavery, and the Irrepressible Conflict`
Pt 2 - The Churches, `Redemption,` and Jim Crow'
Pt 3 - `Civil Rights, the Republican Alliance, and the Endurance of Evil in the Land of the Free`

Worth It?
Skimming the web tonight, I came across this rather interesting project: a new dramatized reading of the Bible featuring 250 African-American actors, entertainers, and religious personalities, including: Angela Bassett as Angel of the Lord (okay... that's interesting), Cuba Gooding Jr. as Judas Iscariot, Samuel L. Jackson as God (anybody remeber Samuel as the Scripture quoting hitman in that Tarrentino film?), Bishop T.D. Jakes as Abraham, Blair Underwood as Jesus, Forest Whitaker as Moses, Star Jone Reynolds as Jude, and Eriq La Salle as Pharisee. The Bible Experience looks like it could be worth the purchase price. The clips at the website are engaging, which was the producer's aim... to deliver an audio version of the Bible that rivets. The Charlotte Observer featured an article on the project that gives a good overview. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Not Worth It.
In other news, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Henry J. Lyons, the once-discredited and imprisoned former president of the National Baptist Convention USA, is in the news again. Some of you may recall the situation leading to his arrest and conviction:

Lyons was known as a charismatic preacher who was fond of an opulent lifestyle. His world began to unravel in 1997 when his then-wife, Deborah, set fire to a $700,000 Tierra Verde home the minister owned with another woman. Investigations by authorities uncovered a series of financial improprieties surrounding Lyons and Bernice Edwards, his alleged mistress with whom he owned the Pinellas County house. At the time, Lyons was head of the NBC and pastor of Bethel Metropolitan Baptist Church in St. Petersburg.
In 1999, Lyons was convicted on grand theft and racketeering charges and found guilty of bilking the religious organization, its corporate partners and donor charities of millions. He also pleaded guilty to federal charges and was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in state prison.

Lyons is now two years into a new pastorate and a new marriage and seeking the presidency of the Florida state convention of the NBC. The most disheartening thing about the article is not Lyons' bid for the presidency; it's the response coming from some quarters of the convention stressing a shallow, sub-biblical notion of forgiveness. A sad example from an employee of the state convention: "If people know the Bible, they know that most of the people the Lord used were all tainted, but the Lord turned them around. What the devil means for bad, the Lord can turn around and make anything good. That may just be the case with Dr. Lyons."

Maybe. But then again, maybe not. "If people know the Bible," a surer test would be to compare the man to the list of qualifications for leadership in 1 Tim. 3. Let's assume that if he doesn't meet those qualifications, the Lord is not calling him to either the pastorate or convention leadership. To assume otherwise is folly.