Disrespecting Scripture

I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book. (Revelation 22:18-19, NASB)

From Marisol, writing at Jihad Watch, we have a report that three Christian organizations have banded together to re-translate the Bible so that it doesn’t offend Muslims.

Anybody hear that noise? That was the sound of this idea backfiring.


What we have here, in fact, is three so-called Christian organizations – Wycliffe Bible Translators, Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL), and Frontiers - bastardizing Scripture by "producing Bibles that remove "Father," "Son" and "Son of God" because these terms are offensive to Muslims."

First problem: How is anyone using this translation for evangelism supposed to convince non-believers of the Bible – Muslim or what have you – of the veracity of those Scriptures if the translators and the folks disseminating the information look to be questioning the veracity of Scripture themselves by having the audacity to re-write God’s word?

Second problem: How should someone trying to use this new translation answer the following remark: ‘Your Bible is not right – it does not say, as all other Bibles do, that there is a Father and a Son.’? Or how should they answer this question: ‘Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of the Father God?’ With this new translation, they can’t say they do and back that statement up with Scripture, because it’s not in there.

Third and most deadly problem: One of the arguments used by Muslims against the Bible is that Jewish and Christian Scriptures are a corruption of the ‘correct’ version, which Allah gave to Mohammed. By re-translating the Bible, they’ve simply confirmed this accusation: either the original was right and they corrupted it, or the original was corrupt and they’ve further corrupted it.

This is not evangelism. This is not proselytization. This is political correctness run amok. If the translators refuse to respect Scripture, they cannot expect anyone else to respect it, either.