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The Turkish Church Responds, Warns of "Great Harm"
Read their full letter here.
Dear Friend of Biblical Missiology,
Thank you so much for your signature on the Biblical Missiology petition, "Keep Father and Son in the Bible."Because of you and thousands of others, we are closing in on 14,000 signatures!
Read their full letter here.
Dear Friend of Biblical Missiology,
Thank you so much for your signature on the Biblical Missiology petition, "Keep Father and Son in the Bible."Because of you and thousands of others, we are closing in on 14,000 signatures!
As you know, one of the agencies that is the subject of this petition is Frontiers, an interdenominational mission agency which produced "Muslim Idiom Translations" in both Arabic and Turkish.
As a church planting mission that says it believes "Christ commanded the Church to go into all the world and make disciples of all peoples, baptizing and teaching all who believe," Frontiers says it recognizes that baptism represents public identification with visible body of Christ, itself composed of persons who, "through saving faith in Jesus Christ, have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit and are united together in the body of Christ."
Despite this noble and biblical aspiration, Frontiers continues to defend its translations, including the translation of Matthew that is strongly opposed by Turkish pastors, believers, and in fact the Alliance of Protestant Churches of Turkey (TeK), a body representing evangelical churches of all denominations across Turkey.
Frontiers has placed the national church in a difficult and awkward position through its continued defense of this translation, in which "Father" is rendered "protector/helper," and Son is rendered "God's representative," and in which baptism is described in terms of Islamic ritual ablutions.
So difficult, in fact, that TEK has taken the significant step of warning national churches about Frontiers' translation, known as "The Meaning of the Glorious Injil from the Pen of the Apostle Matthew."
The letter from TeK, sent to TeK member churches across Turkey, conveys the danger posed by Frontiers' translation. While TeK had warned Frontiers that this translation would lead to "great problems", Frontiers proceeded with printing and distribution, both in hardcopy and online.
TeK's concern is not simply that "Son" and "Father have been mistranslated - but also that Christian baptism had been redefined as Islamic ablution or cleansing - thereby conveying a dangerously false impression of how God's righteousness is accomplished in the life of the believer. In Islamic ablutions, the Muslim is cleansing himself or herself; by contrast, Christian baptism symbolizes God's action in cleansing the believer.
The leaders of TeK recognize the danger posed by Frontiers' translation of Matthew, not simply for those who are believers, but for Turkey's Muslim majority, for whom the translation will cause "greater problems and confusion," and in fact "great harm." TeK writes, "we find this translation that presents the Injil in corrupt terms, to be unacceptable and unusable and that we most certainly cannot approve of it."
Frontiers' translation is opposed not only by the Alliance of Protestant Churches of Turkey (TeK), but also by Turkish Christian television, the director of Turkish Christian radio, as well as pastors, believers, and veteran expatriate workers across Turkey.
Thank you again for your signature on the petition. You are standing not only with the Alliance of Protestant Churches, but with indigenous believers worldwide who are defending the integrity of the Word of God against Western theological compromise and error. Please share this message, and especially the links to the TeK letter, with other Christians who need to be made aware of this threat to the Word of God.
Thank you!