There is a new initiative called “Insider Movements” (IM) and “Muslim Idiom Translations” (MIT) that present a distorted and incomplete portrayal of the person and work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. For a list of leadership team members and contributors, please visit the Biblical Missiology website.

I have come across this youtube which speaks about the very problems that I have pointed out at the beginning of this post. In this youtube, a term C4 and C5 is used, and I wasn’t sure of the meaning. Also this “Insider Movement” was news to me. First watch this youtube, then I will give you a link to the meaning of C4 and C5 and this “Insider Movement”

Here’s the explanation regarding C4, C5 and the “Insider Movement”

I have just chosen a few paragraphs from this Fact Check, which are outline below. But may I suggest that you read it for yourself so that you can understand the perplexities of this subject. Below it speaks of a petition concerning this translation, and if you feel that this translation obfuscates the triune nature of God and does NOT help Muslims understand the basic fundamentals of Christianity then you can go HERE to sign the petition.

Fact Check
This must be clearly stated at the outset: the “impression” of the reader never justifiesreplacing or removing “Father,” “Son,” or “Son of God” from the text of Scripture, regardless of the reader’s misunderstanding or objections. The nature of the reader’soffense has no bearing on what God actually says and means in his Word. And in the matter of the self-revelation of God, his Word is abundantly clear: “We have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confessesthat Jesus is the Son of Go, God abides in him, and he in God.” (1 John 4:14–15,emphasis added). We are not to take away from his Word (Deut. 4:2). “Father” and “Son”are not metaphors. They refer to who God is eternally, in his very being: one God in three persons, Father, Son and Spirit. We cannot change these eternal terms for God.

The only justification Wycliffe has given for removing Father-Son terms from the Bibletext for Muslim audiences is their assertion that those terms mean to Muslims that Godhad sexual relations with Mary. This “justification” surfaces several times in Wycliffe’s
response to the petition and it is the basis for their translation policy that facilitates the MIT practice. However, their assertion is not valid theologically or linguistically. Evidence of this truth comes from many native speakers of Arabic, Turkish, Farsi, Dari,Urdu, Malay, and many other languages of Muslim-majority nations who insist that“Father” and “Son” are valid and accurate terms to use in their own languages. The following are just a few examples from native speakers of Middle Eastern and Asianlanguages who signed the petition:

•“Arabic is my native language so I can affirm that there is no valid reason to changethose terms in Arabic.” (Jihan Husary)

•“Urdu is my native language, there is no offense in the words currently being used”(E. Nisar Khan)

•“No compromise. For ages world has preached these terms and they have understoodresponding for a decision to follow THE SON.” (David Diwan-Masih)

•“As a former Muslim, I can attest that a literal translation of filial terminology inMuslim languages will provide the clearest gospel picture for Muslims. It will alsohelp dispel the Muslim misconception that Christians have tampered with the Bible.”(Fred Farrokh)

•“Manipulating with the Word of God is exactly what the Qur’an accuses People of theBook of doing. The Bible stands on its own and Muslims are coming to Christwithout this manipulative scheme.” (Atif Debs)

•“I myself am a Bible translator into North-Levantine (spoken Syro-lebanese) and Iam the son of a Muslim father, and I preach to Muslims. I am shocked at the theology behind such replacements for the terms ‘son’ and ‘father’. I think it is much better tohave an explanation in a footnote than removing such words. Muslims who have problems with these terms have been brought up with polemic indoctrination, and nomatter what we change in our translation they will not accept it as authoritative beforethey actually read it with an open heart asking God to reveal the truth. But whatmakes this worse, is that all these attempts at making Muslims accept the Bibleactually give them more reasons to reject the Bible, because when they see howdifferent all the translations are, they can’t stop thinking something is very wrong.”(Arkan Zaki)

Again, misunderstandings or objections of the reader never justify changing “Father,” “Son,” and “Son of God,” even for Muslims’ actual offense to these terms. The testimony of those who work with Muslims, as well as that of former Muslims, is that Muslims’ primary objection to “Father,” “Son,” and “Son of God” is theological, cannot have a Son because that would imply that God is more than one. Further, the Son of God taking on human nature would mean God is “one of us.” Muslims strongly object to these theological ideas. Indeed, Christians have been wrestling with these mysteries ever since Jesus’ incarnation. But our difficulty in comprehension, or our offense, does not mean we can change the terms God has given us. There simply is no justification to replace “Father” or “Son” in the text of Scripture with other words that we might think are more acceptable. If there are misunderstandings, then they must be explained, either in the footnotes or verbally. God’s Word must not be changed.

Finally, Wycliffe’s assertion that “traditional translations” of Father and Son “give readers the impression the translation is corrupt” is outlandish. If that were the case, then Bibles in every language should remove these terms because of some reader’s objections. What reinforce Muslims’ understanding that the Bible is corrupt, however, are these new translations that are radically different in content and meaning from existing accurate translations. In the words of a former Muslim and native Arabic speaker who signed the petition…

“To even flirt with changing, let alone removing, such language does violence to the text and will have precisely the opposite effect than what is intended. Muslims
will not see the beauty of the Godhead and they will be reinforced in their longstanding, but incorrect belief that Christians are at liberty to tamper with God’s
revelation to suit their needs. God forbid that it should ever be so.” (Abdu Murray)

Wycliffe’s assertion that True Meaning “defines ‘Son of God’ at great length in ways that accord with both evangelical biblical scholarship and the interpretive tradition of historic Christianity” is simply not true. While “Son,” “Son of God,” and “Son of Man” are most often translated literally, these terms are redefined in the footnotes or other explanatory material. For example, a footnote about “Son of God” in this translation says,

…”This metaphorical title points to the chosen king which had to be from the descendants of the Prophet David. This is what Luke, who recorded the inspired message, intended and this is how the Jewish hearers at that time also understood it.”

The note makes no mention of Jesus’ deity, which is an integral part of the meaning of “Son of God.” By describing Jesus’ Sonship as a metaphor, Jesus is portrayed only like a son to God, rather than God’s actual Son. Footnotes like this one reinforce Muslims’ belief that Jesus is merely a human being, which is what the Qur’an teaches them.

“As a Turkish pastor in Izmir Turkey, a graduate of Westminster Seminary, a trained philologist and linguist, and a graduate of Aegean University, I am a
highly-qualified translator, and am currently working on ‘the essentially literal’ Turkish translation of the Hebrew Masoretic Bible. . . . We are not questioning
your footnotes or your Greek in your interlinear. We are challenging the islamicised Matthew. . . We—Turks—are questioning the Turkish translation. . . .
If you want the Turkish to really mean ‘πατερα µου – My Father’—you wouldn’t use ‘Mevlam’. However if, like Muslims, you already have a problem with the words ‘My Father’ the word Mevla would do the trick. But it does not mean ‘πατερα µου – My Father.’ . . . Muslims don’t perceive the word ‘Mevla’ as Father, but a protector! . . You also mention that ‘Son of God’ is translated as ‘Allah’ın Vekili’ which actually means ‘Allah’s Representative’!!!”

SIGN THE PETITION!

We have had many attacks on the bible, over many centuries. But in this day an age they are getting worse. I have heard about replacing the word ‘Father’ representing God with ‘father/mother’ god. The so called ‘gender neutral’ bible. I have heard of many teachers using ‘The Message’ to teach unsound doctrine. To me, ‘The Message’ is NOT the bible, but just a paraphrase and a very poor one at that.

But look what we have now. We have the bible including the name Allah in place of the ‘Father’, ‘Son’ and ‘Son of God’…

A controversy is brewing over three reputable Christian organizations, which are based in North America, whose efforts have ousted the words “Father” and “Son” from new Bibles. Wycliffe Bible Translators, Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) and Frontiers are under fire for “producing Bibles that remove “Father,” “Son” and “Son of God” because these terms are offensive to Muslims.”

Concerned Christian missionaries, Bible translators, pastors, and national church leaders have come together with a public petition to stop these organizations. They claim a public petition is their last recourse because meetings with these organizations’ leaders, staff resignations over this issue and criticism and appeals from native national Christians concerned about the translations “have failed to persuade these agencies to retain “Father” and “Son” in the text of all their translations.” [source]

And just check this very well known verse…

Matthew 28:19

A hurried decision not to de-commission the USS Ponce helicopter marine carrier after duty in Libya – but to refit it for deployment by May in the Persian Gulf as a floating base for commando teams – was confirmed by the US Pentagon and Navy Sunday, Dec. 29. This transportable floating base will expand the commandos’ range in coastal areas and support counter-measure against mines which Iran has threatened to plant in the Strait of Hormuz in reprisal for the US-EU oil embargo. The SEALs will also take on Iran’s menacing fleet of military speedboats. [source]

Atheists have long criticised devout followers of faith. But now it seems Atheism is stealing from that very religious tradition by erecting a temple of worship.

Author Alain de Botton announced plans to build an Atheist temple in the U.K., reports DeZeenmagazine.

A collaboration with Tom Greenall Architects, the structure will be built in the City of London.

Dedicated to the idea of perspective, the black tower will scale 46 meters (150 ft), with each centimeterhonoring earth’s age of 4.6 billion years, notes Wired. [source]

As one facebooker said…An Interesting revelation, are the purported Atheists actually Gaia Pantheists?
One of the things worth remarking about the “Progressives” is the view of Wholism, seeing individuals, groups, animals, plants and the environment as one living whole.

This is in line with the totalitarian view of Ecology, Green versions of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and of course the Bahais, the planet is a Collectivity where its parts ‘us’ submit to. This is the religious view on the Singularity of Transhumanists.
The Earth in Balance is Homeostasis of the scientific Systems Theory. 

If you’ve got your eye on a new cell phone purchase in 2012, chances are, it will be equipped with a technology called Near Field Communication (NFC).  NFC is technology’s next giant leap forward.

It’s not too risky to say that your cell phone is going to replace your computer and your Internet service.  You’ll know it the moment you activate an NFC-enabled device.  From it will emerge a new generation officially known as the Internet of Things (IoT).

To describe IoT is to understand that every object around us will take on its own digital description and geospatial location – added or edited by anyone.  Know a good burger joint?  Just write it up, give it a geo-location by pointing your camera at it, snap and upload.  That image just became a Thing on the IoT.

[...]

We have improved our possibilities for relating to each other beyond the limits of direct physical relations.  We can go beyond the anthropological limit of 150 people with whom we can keep in direct contact.  The Internet of Things will make it possible for objects to get information about their position in the world, to interact with other objects and to have access to comparative information for data gathered in their vicinity.

With this unbridled power of IoT and Augmented Reality there is a real threat that this new capability could destabilize governments, or worse, governments could usurp the freedoms of people if they tried to own control over it.

Welcome to 2012.  It’s going to be an interesting year ahead. [source]

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) new emergency preparedness campaign has received support from pastors who advise others to be ready for anything.

Israeli officials told visiting USS Chief Joint of Staffs Martin Dempsey that it would give President Barack Obama no more than 12 hours notice if and when it attacks Iran, The LondonTimes reported Sunday.

The Netanyahu government also will not coordinate with the United Statesan attack on the Islamic Republic, according to the report, the latest in a number of suposed scenarios concerning cooperation or lack of it between Jerusalem and Washington. [source]

Something is stirring for sure. It’s time we took notice of these thing as the chess pieces are all in place for an all out war. Time to pray, and to get right with God!

George Soros is no stranger to Blaze readers. The billionaire currency speculator and philanthropist has long been in the news, especially since the fateful day in 1992 when he helped crash England’s economy. In fact, since that day, he has been commonly referred to as “the man who broke the bank of England.”

Soros is shrewd, he has a keen eye for investments, and he knows how to play the markets. Therefore, when he makes a prediction, it might be safe to say it’s worth a listen. After all, his predictions (among other things) have made him the multi-billionaire he is today.

So you might want to pay attention to a recent story from The Daily Beast that claims George Soros is nervous about the future of the global economy and that he warns of dark things to come.

“At times like these, survival is the most important thing,” Soros said.

As he sees it, the world faces one of the most dangerous periods of modern history—a period of “evil,” writes the Beasts’ John Arlidge. “Europe is confronting a descent into chaos and conflict. In America [Soros] predicts riots in the streets that will lead to a brutal clampdown that will dramatically curtail civil liberties [emphases added]. The global economic system could even collapse altogether.” [source]

Speaking of brutal clampdown… I have a post coming up for all of you that I want you to read. It will be about something that has long been considered a conspiracy, but I just want to share a few links and quotes with you so that you can make up your own mind on the matter.

Watch this space!

He was tempted in every way, just as we are…yet was without sin. Hebrews 4:15. Therefore in all of our sorrows we have his sympathy. He knows them all….temptations, pain weakness, weariness, poverty…for He has felt them all. He in His Holiness past the test of temptation. His way was much rougher and darker than mine. Did Christ, my dear lord, suffer? Should I still whine? [John Newton]. Jesus came to earth to identify with us in our humanity so we could identify with him in his holiness. He came as 100% human so we could identify with Him, and He came 100% as God, so that we could know Holiness.

Then they asked why would God punish us when we do wrong if He is so loving. The answer is this. He is a Father. A good Father would rather discipline his children and raise them in a way that is better and more righteous. Would you rather be with children who have never been disciplined? Don’t those children end up being self absorbed, me, me, me…. kids who have no idea of consequences or responsibility.

Anyway, in the book, people are bred not in the woman’s womb, but in some kind of techno-womb… Natural reproduction has been done away with and children are created, ‘decanted’ and raised in Hatcheries and Conditioning Centres, where they are divided into five castes (which are further split into ‘Plus’ and ‘Minus’ members) and designed to fulfill predetermined positions within the social and economic strata of the World State. [wikipedia]

As technology progresses, answers to ethical questions cannot keep up. We have scientists talking about transhumanism, this topic is so vast that I don’t want to get into that discussion in this post. But, if you have never heard of this before just check out this link. Even “Creation Ministries International” have touched on this subject!

The Technocrats

During the Great Depression (early 1930s) a social movement called Technocracy became highly popular in the USA for a brief period. The Technocrats proposed dealing with the crisis of the Great Depression by replacing politicians with scientists and engineers who supposedly had the technical expertise to manage the economy.

The Technocracy movement may be traced to the progressive engineers of the early twentieth century such as the writings of Frederick W. Taylor (who introduced the concept of scientific management). Although there were a variety of Technocratic groups and organisations in a number of countries, its most visible figurehead in the US was Howard Scott, who popularised the writings of Technocrats like Thorstein Veblen, a professor and published economist.

And what was at the root of the concepts championed by Veblen? As Geoffrey M. Hodgson (Research Professor in Business Studies at the University of Hertfordshire) made clear in his article Thorstein Veblen and Darwinism:

“ … Thorstein Veblen understood and applied Darwinian principles to his analysis of the evolution of socio-economic institutions. … Veblen knowingly applied the Darwinian principles of variation, inheritance and selection to institutional evolution.”

Great 21 century thinkers, such as Thomas Sowell has said that when you have intellectuals  influencing policies that that is a dangerous mix.

The influence of intellectuals is not only greater than in previous eras but also takes a very different form from that envisioned by those like Machiavelli and others who have wanted to directly influence rulers. It has not been by shaping the opinions or directing the actions of the holders of power that modern intellectuals have most influenced the course of events, but by shaping public opinion in ways that affect the actions of power holders in democratic societies, whether or not those power holders accept the general vision or the particular policies favored by intellectuals. Even government leaders with disdain or contempt for intellectuals have had to bend to the climate of opinion shaped by those intellectuals. [Intellectuals and Society - by Thomas Sowell]

If you want to hear Thomas Sowell explain this in further detail there is a 30 minute video that you can watch HERE. I have also bought the book about this, and it is a real eye opener at how the world is quickly changing because of science and the belief in our evolutionary process which can only march forward if we are to embrace science and all that it offers.

Dystopian societies feature different kinds of repressive social control systems, various forms of active and passive coercion. Ideas and works about dystopian societies often explore the concept of humans abusing technology and humans individually and collectively coping, or not being able to properly cope with technology that has progressed far more rapidly than humanity’s spiritual evolution. [wikipedia]

It is obvious to me that science is amoral and this raises ethical questions which are not being answered because of our post-modern, pluralistic society.

Now, if this all seems a little too far fetched, here is a news article about extreme feminist who says that babies should NOT be born from woman, but instead from artificial wombs…

NORWICH, U.K., January 23, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In remarks that critics have said are disturbingly reminiscent of Aldous Huxley’s famous dystopian novel “Brave New World,” a UK ethicist has argued that since pregnancy causes “natural inequality” between the sexes, women must be liberated from the “burdens and risks of pregnancy” through the use of “ectogenesis”, or artificial wombs. [source]

We know live within a society that is fast approaching a very different reality. The interesting thing about this is when I investigated a bit further I found out about a theory called “Cyborg theory”…

Cyborgs not only disrupt orderly power structures and fixed interests but also signify a challenge to settled politics, which assumes that binary oppositions or identities are natural distinctions. Actually those oppositions are cultural constructions. Haraway underlines the critical function of the cyborg concept, especially for feminist politics. The current dualistic thinking involves a “logic of dominance” because the parts of the dualisms are not equivalent. Thus, the logic produces hierarchies that legitimize men dominating women, whites dominating blacks, and humans dominating animals. Instead, Haraway suggests that people should undermine these hierarchies by actively exploring and mobilizing the blurring of borders.^[3]

Donna Haraway’s cyborg is an attempt to break away from Oedipal narratives and Christian origin doctrines like Genesis; the concept of the cyborg is a rejection of rigid boundaries, notably those separating “human” from “animal” and “human” from “machine.” In the Cyborg Manifesto, she writes: “The cyborg does not dream of community on the model of the organic family, this time without the oedipal project. The cyborg would not recognize the Garden of Eden; it is not made of mud and cannot dream of returning to dust.” [source]

As one Facebooker said concerning all of this…

New Feminism can be traced to the writings of certain intellectuals behind the Cyborg Manifesto, equal rights are not the rationale behind Progressive Politics as such, but outsourcing human reproduction to produce eugenic humans by the State. The goal is to perfect humans into gods through science. Yes In-vitro kids was the beginning under the guise of helping sterile couples, there is more.

More indeed! It is Satan’s lie to mankind. That we can become gods! The lie is that we are now able to mess with the natural balance that God intended for us. That as God is our creator and He is a triune God, we will soon be able to upset that balance of Male, Female and child, which as a perfect picture of the family unit, one made up of three. His image is being messed with because of so called scientific progressives — the technocrats!

We are entering into NOT a Brave new world, but a very SCARY one that is dictated by an amoral scientific movement that is influencing social and political policies.

I realise this is a long post, and a lot to take in. But this isn’t science-fiction any more. These possibilities are being discussed all over the world. Just the other day on the radio, I heard a neuroscientist state that… in the next 10-20 years we will be able to grow a copy of your brain in a vat and add to it all wonderful possibilities that only geniuses have had in the past. You can be anything you want. You will be able to literally change who you are (though not the essence of who you are, you will still be you, but an enhanced you) in ways that are incomprehensible, this possibility is not outside of the realms of a scientific reality. Humankind is on the path of a huge evolutionary leap, towards a singularity!

It seems to me that in a world without absolutes, Satan’s lie is quite enticing to those who see a confused messed up world. I see this everyday on Facebook, with those who deny God and with those who have fallen for the Zeitgeist movement. This path is a dangerous one, that will lead the world towards something very close to what Aldous Huxley wrote about. A world where science was God.  As in the book… Henry Ford, become a messianic figure to The World State. “Our Ford” is used in place of “Our Lord”, as a credit to popularizing the use of the assembly line.

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins [ Rudyard Kipling's 1919 poem The Gods of the Copybook Headings]