da.rryl.me

Observation on knowledge levels

I just ran across this thread on a site I never knew existed until tonight.  Interesting thread. Please note that I don’t want to be seen to be calling any one stupid in this post – that is not my intention, I’m trying to make a bigger point.

Divorcing myself from the accuracy of the questions and answers for a moment (as I’m sure most readers of this blog would answer the questions differently), it paints an interesting question about the level of understanding that many people have.

There are a lot of people in the west who have either limited or no knowledge of their world view (or that they even have one), and are thinking about spiritual things on a basic level.

One question is – why are these people thinking at this level – rather than at a deeper level?  I think I know the answer…. but feel free to contribute yours.

More importantly, what are we believers doing to reach out to these people?  We focus on the intelligent design vs evolution debate and deep philosophical matters (which I don’t oppose – they are good things to consider) without sparing a thought for those who have no idea what we are talking about and who are intimidated by our intellectual arguments that they don’t understand.  This intimidation can sometimes (often?) lock us out of having the opportunity to have these discussions.

Thirdly, with Christians (letting the term stand for the sake of my point) with this level of knowledge, it illustrates the incredibly sad state of affairs in churches with regard to the teaching and understanding of the word of God.

Often we lose sight of the big picture as we focus on the detail we are involved in, and we need to be able to reach people where they are at too, even if that means dramatically simplifying the message so that it is easily understood.

The Holman Christian Standard Bible

Last night I briefly related to the bible study group that meets here that I’m really becoming quite fond of the Holman Christian Standard Bible (or HCSB).

There are a number of reasons I like it.  One of them is it’s readability – this is IMHO more readable than the NIV, while at the same time it has often proven that it is a very literal translation.

For instance, one of the things commonly done in an English Bible translation is to translate the Greek word doúlos as servant when it refers to a station or position.  This is primarily done (from my understanding) because of the stigma associated with slavery.  However, slave is the intended meaning behind the Greek word.  To write it as slave can cause considerable error for us today as we distinguish a slave from a servant by saying a servant is paid for their work.

To see how this makes a difference, take a look at the following verses in any other English translation – Rom 1:1, Phil 1:1, Titus 1:1, James 1:1, 2 Peter 1:1, Jude 1, Rev 1:1 – in each case the word is the same – the author is calling themselves a slave of Christ – one who is in involuntary service.  In the Roman times slavery was legal and common – so when the Apostles referred to themselves this way they intended the understanding of a Roman slave to be how they regarded themselves. 

In addition to being the only modern English Bible translation to translate doúlos as slave, the HCSB also has some easy to understand language.  For instance Matthew 5:22 in the HCSB says:

But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Fool!’ will be subject to the •Sanhedrin. But whoever says, ‘You moron!’ will be subject to •hellfire.

If you compare this with most renderings you’ll notice that the last phrase is actually quite easy to understand.  I understand what I mean when I call someone a Moron – I understand the attitude I’m going to have behind it, and therefore, I find it quite easy to understand what Jesus was saying in this passage.

Now given few other translations have the word "moron" in there, you could be forgiven for thinking that they’ve taken some artistic license to the word to make it more understandable.  However, you’d be wrong.  The Greek word here is actually the word mōrós from which we get the English word "moron".  Perhaps the only difference between the intended meaning and our use of the word "moron" is that mōrós refers to not only the persons intelligence (which is perhaps what we might consider "moron" to mean) but to their character and their heart.

Next, in the passage quoted above, you may notice before the words Sanhedrin and hellfire that there is a little dot.  The purpose of this is to take words that may not be intuitive to new readers and to point them to a mini-dictionary in the Bible to help them understand these (what new Bible reader knows what a Sanhedrin is?).  This dot appears the first time the word appears in a chapter.

The addition of this dot (in addition to its readability and accuracy) makes the HCSB a great Bible for new believers.

Finally – in many cases the HCSB takes the title Christ and uses Messiah instead.  This can take a bit of time to get used to, but for me, I found this extremely refreshing and takes me back to the Jewish promises and reinforces the purpose for Jesus’ advent – to save the lost.  Take the following verse for example:

12 At that time you were without the •Messiah, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, with no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of the •Messiah. (Eph 2:12-13)

FWIW, I still use a number of other translations including the ESV (which I also love), the NASB and a variety of others on a variety of occasions.

However, I’ve been using the HCSB for my devotional reading for several months now and I’m loving it.  If you are after a modern, readable and refreshing translation I recommend you give this a go.

Your church in perspective

Twelve years ago, I was a young man.  As if that isn’t funny enough, I was also quite despondent due to frustration with the church that I was saved in and attending at the time.

If this sounds familiar, I’m not surprised.  I don’t think that this is an uncommon theme amongst young Christians – particularly among the males.  Young men have a drive to see things moving, to change the world and to make a difference – I know – I was (am?) one of them.

No matter how good the church is that you go to, there always seems to be something wrong with it.  There are people who are in sin, marriages in turmoil (or worse), people who will not submit to the God given authority of the elders or a worship service just seems lifeless.

But – compare your church to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians.  What does your church suffer from in this list?  They had:

• Quarrelling and division (1 Cor 1,3)
• They were proud and boastful (1 Cor 4)
• Incest – a man was sleeping with his fathers wife (1 Cor 5)
• They were taking each other to court (1 Cor 6)
• They were causing one another to stumble in their trust in Christ (1 Cor 8)
• They were partaking in idol worship at the local temples (1 Cor 10)
• They were getting drunk at the Lords table while others where going hungry (1 Cor 11)
• They were misusing spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12-14)

Just to name a few.

Even if your church is this bad, look at what Paul said about them at the beginning of 1 Corinthians:

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus (1 Co 1:4)

How did Paul give thanks for this church as he begins a letter to chastise them for their shortcomings?

This is the question that C J Mahaney tackled recently at the recent Resurgence conference.  The lesson for us is two fold – regardless of how bad things might seem in your church, they are probably not as bad as 1 Corinthians, and yet as Paul considered the grace of God and the work of God that was being done in them he could thank the Lord for that work.

The lesson for me (and probably you) is: How often do I stop to consider the work of God in the lives of those that I am working with?  How often do I stop to consider the work of God in the lives of people I’m not working with?  How often do I step back look at the big picture and thank the Lord for the work He doing in the community through the people who go along to the church I attend?  We often don’t look beyond the problems in the church and our attitudes suffer for it.

For me, this is quite a mind change.  We are very good at seeing where God is needed, but we are pretty poor at recognising the work he is doing.  We often recognise this work when it is dramatic and undeniable, but what about when it is subtle?  What about just for the people who love the Lord enough to want to spend time in His word daily?  That is probably a good place to start.

If you are working with young people who are despondent with the church – I recommend that you listen to this hour and fifteen minute sermon.  Click here to download it or use the control below to play it in your browser.

[mp3:http://theresurgence.com/files/audio/cj_mahaney_2008-02-25_audio_tnc_pastoral_character_and_loving_people.mp3]