Leaders Urge Boycott of New Gender-Neutral Bible

LEAD STORY: by Andy Butcher (Charisma News)

Critics say Today's New International Version not 'sufficiently trustworthy'

A broad coalition of church and ministry leaders has urged a boycott of the controversial new gender-neutral version of America's best-selling Bible.

More than 100 influential pastors, theologians and ministry heads -- from conservative evangelicals to Pentecostals -- have united to sign a statement saying Today's New International Version (TNIV) is not "sufficiently trustworthy to commend to the church."

Objecting to the TNIV's replacing masculine references with gender-neutral expressions in places where they maintain that important meaning is lost, they say the new version is unsuitable for use in church preaching and personal study.

Signatories include Christian Broadcasting Network founder Pat Robertson, senior Foursquare leader Jack Hayford, former Southern Baptist Convention president Paige Patterson, theologian J.I. Packer, Prison Fellowship founder Charles Colson, Promise Keepers founder Bill McCartney, Focus on the Family president Charles Dobson, "Prayer of Jabez" author Ken Wilkinson, and Concerned Women for America president Sandy Rios.

Issued yesterday, the statement broadens one issued in January -- when publication of the TNIV was announced -- by 30-plus scholars who said the version "should not be commended to the churrch." Released two months ago, the TNIV has been produced by the International Bible Society (IBS), whose New International Version (NIV) has sold more than 150 million copies worldwide in the last 22 years. The full TNIV Bible is due to be published in 2005.

The TNIV critics -- drawn together by the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) and FamilyLife Ministries -- say the TNIV's use of gender-neutral language is more important than in other previous Bible versions because it might ride on the reputation of the NIV to "vie for a place as the church's commonly accepted Bible."

While accepting gender-neutral expressions are appropriate in some instances, they say the TNIV "has gone beyond acceptable translation standards in several important respects," detailing examples where such changes mean important meaning is lost. Translating "saints" as "believers" in passages in Romans could "sacrifice precious connotations of holiness," they say. "To justify translating 'saints' as 'believers' because it refers to believers is like justifying translating 'sweetheart' as 'wife' because that's who it refers to."

IBS today dismissed the new statement as an attack that "continues to misrepresent" the TNIV, and pointed to its own "continually growing" list of supporters. Among those who have endorsed the TNIV are leading megachurch pastors Jim Cymbala of the Brooklyn Tabernacle in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Ted Haggard of New Life Church, Colorado Springs, Colo., preacher John Stott, and author Philip Yancey.

IBS said that the latest CBMW-sponsored statement inaccurately reflected gender changes in the TNIV. The version replaces masculine nouns and pronouns, where they are used generically, "with more precise language" such as "people" instead of "man," but keeps masculine language if the text specifically refers to men.

"While these changes impact less than 2 percent of the text, they improve the reader's understanding of Scripture," said IBS, adding that it "continues to receive strong support" for the TNIV.

The January announcement of the TNIV's publication sparked controversy, with opponents claiming that IBS has gone back on an agreement signed in 1997 -- when news of the gender-neutral translation effort first broke -- to shelve plans for an inclusive-language version of the NIV. IBS said that the TNIV will not replace the NIV but will be sold alongside it.

Former Crack Addict-Turned-Evangelist Leads Revival
LEAD STORY: by Jerrell H. Miller (Charisma News)

His meetings in Mississippi church have featured salvations, miracles

A former crack addict-turned-evangelist is leading a revolving series of meetings in a small southern Mississippi Pentecostal church. Salvations and reports of miracles - characteristics of revival - are occurring constantly, say observers at the House of Praise church in Hurley, Miss.

Evangelist David Piper has been visiting the church once a month for the last year. In 1998, Piper -- then a crack-cocaine addict -- traveled from his Tifton, Ga., home to Orlando, Fla., to attend a Benny Hinn crusade where he was set free from his addiction. The automotive consultant said he quit his job to go into full-time ministry.

Since Piper began his visits to House of Praise, many healings have been reported, including several among crack addicts. On one Sunday night, Piper asked people in the congregation who had been healed to stand. Those who responded reported being relieved of cancer, painful spines and deafness.

Some who attend House of Praise meetings attribute the presence of God in the church to the original worship songs composed by pastor William Hancock. "The pastor has a touch with God," said attendee Sandra Pruitt of Lucedale, Miss. "He knows how to stir to bring God into a service. What we have is special and is one of the best guarded secrets on the Gulf Coast."

Some think Hurley, famous for its pine trees and wide-open spaces, could become another small-town revival center as Smithton, Mo., was. Visitors already are traveling across state lines from Mobile, Ala., to attend meetings. "There's not another church in the river of God in this area," one Mobile visitor said. "We make the trip because we want to be in God's presence. We are hungry for God."

"It is easy to preach in this church because of the glory of God that is here," Piper said. After finishing one Sunday service, he went to a Biloxi Hospital to pray for another crack addict.

"I'm just happy to be in this full time now," Piper said. "God opens the doors, and I go through them, whether they be an individual who needs prayer or a church who calls upon me." Each month an increased sense of the Holy Spirit's presence is felt in the service because of the people's hunger for God, Piper said.

Piper's ministry was influenced by the late revivalist Ruth Heflin, whom he came to know after attending a revival meeting in Brunswick, Ga. While he was there, someone told him he should visit Heflin's campground in Virginia. "When I first met [her], she spent 20 minutes with me and was led to pour her life into mine," Piper said.

"My mother died when I was 9. From [the time I met Ruth] until her death, pastor Ruth and I would talk on the phone at least once a week so she could speak into my life seeds of greatness. She was just that kind of person. She became my spiritual mother."

Two Men Deported from Saudi Arabia for Owning Bible, Christian CDs

According to a press release from Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW),
two Filipino men who were caught in possession of a Bible and some
Christian CDs when police raided their room in March 2001 in Saudi
Arabia have been deported to the Philippines. A local court had
sentenced Filipino Christians, Danilo de Guzman, 38, and Benjamin Diaz,
40, to a month's imprisonment in April 2001 and a higher court increased
their sentence to include 150 lashes in January 2002. CSW reports that
de Guzman was not given a lawyer and that only his company liaison
officer was present during the hearings. In addition, de Guzman paid
fines for the pocket Bible and each CD. The men were spared the lashes,
but were deported last week instead.

Pastor Fined $1,000 for Rebuking Lewd Woman

Yesterday in Dane County Circuit Court, Judge Paul Higginbotham fined
Pastor Ralph Ovadal $1,000 for rebuking a lewd-acting woman on the
parking lot of the state-run Mazomanie nude beach and preaching the
gospel of Jesus Christ to her. The Judge also added court costs to the
fine. Pastor Ovadal's "victim," Nancy J. Erickson, had asked the court
to fine Pastor Ovadal the maximum possible ($1,000), put him in jail for
90 days, and then on probation. The Judge declined the probation, saying
it would be too expensive to the State and would no doubt do nothing to
change Pastor Ovadal's behavior anyway. Both the D.A. and the Judge
stated that they had considered putting Pastor Ovadal in jail, but they
are afraid it would make him "a martyr."

During the sentencing hearing Judge Higginbotham gave a long
dissertation on his religious beliefs and stated to Pastor Ovadal, "I
think you and I have different thoughts on what is preaching. . . . Yes,
I called your conduct cruel, savage, truculent . . . it wasn't
preaching."

Judge Higginbotham's decision will be appealed. Immediately after the
trial, Pastor Ovadal and the Christians on hand to support him went to
the state headquarters of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
to picket and hand out a flyer titled "Is the Department of Natural
Resources a Protector of Perverts and Child Abusers?"

Keeping the church family together

Adventist News Network (may 2002)

In the face of tremendous church growth, are Adventist leaders around
the world doing what needs to be done to preserve the church as one
family--united in both faith and mission? This question was the focus
of a 10-day Field Conference in Theology, held late April and early May
at various biblical archeological sites in Greece and Turkey. The
conference brought together some 45 top church administrators from most
of the 12 divisions, the General Conference, and from a number of
Adventist universities and colleges.

Through a series of theological presentations, discussion periods, and
devotionals, leaders reflected on the identity of the Seventh-day
Adventist Church. They examined what it means to be an Adventist in a
postmodern era, and asked whether the church is being faithful to its
mission and heritage.

"These matters do not take care of themselves," said GC president
Pastor Jan Paulsen in his keynote address May 1. Pastor Paulsen gave an
overview of what he called a "theological landscape" of current issues
that impact the church's mission and identity. He spoke about the
second coming of Christ, the idea of the remnant, and inter-church
relations, emphasizing that "we are a community of Christians with a
very specific and defined identity."

Being an Adventist, as opposed to a Christian of another denomination,
is a choice people have made for some very good reasons, he said.
"Therefore, the question which every Seventh-day Adventist has the
right to ask is: Do we continue to profile the Adventist identity from
our pulpits, in particular, but also in the classroom and in our
journals, as we should?"

"When was this issue an item on the agenda of your executive committee
or board?" he asked church administrators. "If not specifically
nurtured and projected, identity cannot be preserved."

"I believe that it is God's plan that we should be uniquely one around
the world," said Pastor Paulsen. Maintaining this "oneness" is not only
the responsibility of administrators, but also of teachers, writers,
communicators, pastors, and local church leaders, he said. "The moment
a church member accepts a leadership office--whether as a local church
elder, or as a union or division administrator--he or she also takes on
a responsibility to the whole worldwide church."

But Pastor Paulsen also urged church leaders to recognize that the
Adventist world community "contains both diversity and unity within the
one body." Calling diversity of race, language, and culture a "reality
of life," Pastor Paulsen said that "people inevitably must be the
children of their own soil." This simply has to do with "being
natural--being alive and belonging," he said.

While Pastor Paulsen emphasized a number of core theological and
structural elements necessary to unity, he said it is also important to
identify those matters that can be "deferred to local judgment and
defined locally."

"Where the inspired word does not give a clear 'yes' or 'no,' we need
to legitimize the fact that there will be variances," he said, "and not
make the occurrence of such variances apostasy."

Dr. Angel Rodriguez, director of the GC's Biblical Research Institute
and one of the main organizers of the conference, said the purpose of
this unique event was to "draw leaders into a discussion on the
importance of preserving unity, and to explore ways to accomplish that
huge task."

"It's easy to maintain unity in a church of 1 or 2, or even 3 million
people," he said. "But today, with the tremendous influx of new
members--and we're talking millions over the past few years--there
comes the concern of nurturing and educating these new believers;
establishing them in the message and mission of the church." It is also
important to deal with other threats to unity, added Dr. Rodriguez,
which continue to come from both extremes of the theological spectrum.

At the end of the conference, the group put together a statement
acknowledging the need to study this subject more carefully, and
calling on church administrators, workers, and members to work toward
greater theological and doctrinal unity.

The full text of Pastor Paulsen's address will be published as a
supplement in the June 13 edition of the Adventist Review, and the
group's consensus statement will be published in the June 20 edition

The public expression of religious belief other than Islam is forbidden
in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, reports CSW, but senior Saudi officials
have repeatedly stated that non-Muslims are free to practice their faith
in the privacy of their own homes. Over the summer months of 2001, 14
expatriate Christians were detained in connection with their Christian
faith in a spate of arrests. The last of these detainees was finally
deported at the end of March this year. According to CSW, three men
suffered 80 lashes each, even though none appeared before a court and
they were not formally charged with any crime. (Source: Christian
Solidarity Worldwide)