Introduction

Brief Overview of the Son of God Crisis that is Facing the Church

Dear brothers and sisters of God’s true Son,

Wycliffe Bible Translators and other mission organizations have been supporting and producing translations that change or remove “Son” and “Father” from the Bible text for Muslim audiences when those terms refer to Jesus and God the Father. Here is a link to SIL/Wycliffe's August 2011 translation policy statement, which enables translation teams to remove “Son” and “Father” from the Bible text.

In June 2011, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) passed Overture #9, entitled "A Call toFaithful Witness", which rejects the above practice of removing Father-Son terms from the Bible text and calls for PCA congregations to stop supporting organizations that are involved in the practice. For a look at the PCA’s reply to Wycliffe’s rejection of Overture #9 see this introductory article and the PCA’s full reply. If you are unable to read the entire article, at least see the beginning and the section about the Bengali Christian leader on pages 18 and 19.

Bethlehem Baptist Church (with John Piper) believes that “it is not biblically justified to...remove or replace “Father” and “Son of God” in translating Biblical revelation of God and Jesus Christ in any language.” For more details of their solid stance see this article.

For other related information:

Christianity Today’s February 2011 cover story, "The Son and the Crescent", was the first to bring into public view this practice, which had been hidden for years.
WORLD Magazine’s May 2011 article, "Inside Out", shows how this practice is related to the wider "Insider Movement".
For an overview of the issue that exposes many of the false premises used to justify removing Father-Son terms: "Jesus, the Son of God: Biblical meaning, Muslim Understanding, and Implications for Translation and Bible Literacy "
The following video shows that the "Insider Movement" is mostly a Western idea which has been rejected by the true indigenous Church in Islamic areas:

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Article by missionary David Irvine; he and his wife recently left Wycliffe over this matter.
Muslim Idiom Translation (MIT) leaders' latest article now posted by Wycliffe Bible Translators on their websites to justify their practice of removing ‘Father’ and ‘Son’ from the Bible text.
An online petition has been started, demanding that Wycliffe, SIL and Frontiers immediately cease removal/replacement of "Father", "Son" and "Son of God" references from biblical text.

Please pray that this inaccurate Bible translation practice will be stopped and that those who are supporting it will realize their error and return to sound translation principles that accurately preserve and communicate God's message, especially the truth about His Son.