Last week I was at week 2 of the Next Gen conference (what used to be KYLC), leading a Strand 2 group. The topic was "Spirit empowered life", because the five morning talks were on John 14-17, where Jesus prepares his disciples for his departure, and along the way says a fair amount about the Holy Spirit.

However as I reflected on the camp, I realised that the talks didn't really say much about the "Spirit empowered life" at all.

In fact, they said practically nothing at all about the "Spirit empowered life".

Sure, the speaker did talk about the person and work of the Holy Spirit. But what the speaker focussed on in terms of the Spirit's work was twofold, really. First we were told that the Holy Spirit connects us to the Godhead so that we participate in the inner life of the Trinity. And second we were told that the Holy Spirit works through the Scriptures so that we can know what is true. Now both of these are entirely right - but there's something missing here...

In what sense is this Spirit empowered life? If anything it is the Spirit directed life. If anything the Spirit tells us what we should do (through Scripture) - and in terms of empowerement, it's up to us to now obey the direction of the Holy Spirit (in Scripture). To put those instructions into action by our own effort. And for many Christians, this is exactly how they understand the ongoing work of sanctification. We are told what to do in Scripture (and understand it with the help of God's Holy Spirit) - and now it's up to us to go and do it. With our own power.

If you ask someone at your church, "how do I deal with a particular sin?" they would probably shrug and say, "well, you just remember that it's wrong, and you ... stop doing it, I guess." As though a lack of information was the main factor in people sinning. And as though merely by knowing more, our will would automatically choose the godly and pleasing thing. We just have to be strong and disciplined and try a little bit harder.

However this is not the case. The human empowered life may be good enough to deal with small sins and small changes - but the human empowered life is nowhere near powerful enough to deal with large sins and changes that need to take place in the ongoing work of sanctification! We really need God to work in us - and he does, by his Holy Spirit. We really do need the Spirit empowered life, not merely the Spirit directed life.

How then is the Holy Spirit involved in the life of the believer? More on that next post!

[ PS: what would you say to someone who asked you how to deal with sin? ]

I've been reading a very detailed journal article about the history of the Chinese Bible. Very few people - including Chinese Christians themselves - know much about the history Chinese Bible translation, so this will probably be of great interest to many.

You can find "The Bible in Chinese", by Wang Weifan in vol. 8 of Chinese Theological Review (1993). Unfortunately you can't just go straight to the article - you have to download the whole volume here (PDF file).

Wang Weifan traces the history from Nestorian times forward, including efforts by both Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries. He also examines the history of translation into various dialects (Wu, Min, Shantou, Hakka etc.), though you need to realise this article was written in 1993. By including translations that were completed, but never published, Wang Weifan has produced an incredibly detailed picture of Chinese Bible translation.

Here are some recurring themes in the history of Chinese Bible translation.

There is evidence of the Bible being in the possession of emperors from the 7th century, but being in Syriac, was unable to be read and understood by anyone. Kublai Khan even once sent a letter to the pope asking him to send a hundred scholars to explain the Christian religion, because the books they had were in Syriac!

Sometimes Bible translations differ because of denominational-organisational loyalties. This is apparent in the translation of God's name (where Roman Catholic, American Protestant and British Protestant translations differ between Tian, Tianzhu, Shen, Shangdi and Shangzhu), as well as the translation of 'baptise' (where Baptists tended to differ with others over xi or zhan). Other significant words were 'church' and 'Holy Spirit' (Sheng feng, Shengshen or Shengling).

Sometimes translations were held back from general availability because of miscommunication - particularly in the case where Roman Catholic missionaries thought they would not be allowed by Rome to translate the Bible - when in fact it had been allowed, but simply were not told!

Just like the history of English Bible translation is closely linked with the development of the English language, Chinese Bible translation also contributed significantly towards the spread of written Chinese. The romanisation used by missionaries to translate dialects is actually the forerunner of today's pinyin system.

The Union Version, that is now the most commonly used translation, began as a collaboration in 1890 between the American Bible Society, British and Foreign Bible Society and the National Bible Society of Scotland, and resulting in its publication in 1919.

However as you would expect, the article only treats the Cultural Revolution period with one brief paragraph. And while discusses the number of Bibles published by the Amity Foundation (which prints Bibles within China), doesn't talk a lot about how easily available they are...

[ PS: have a read - but be aware that there are a lot of facts and figures... ]

Have you noticed? Off-the-shelf curriculum for children's ministry usually do a terrible job of handling the Old Testament. Yet we keep on teaching it to young children.

We know that we should use biblical theology in handling the Old Testament, but generally people throw up their hands in despair when it comes to children's ministry, and make do with pre-packaged material that often applies the Old Testament in moralistic ways.

"David was kind to his friend Jonathan. Children, when we are kind to our friends, we make God happy," we repeat from the teacher's handbook. And we teach it because it's much easier for us that way. That's because there are three things that make biblical theology for children's ministry difficult:

• teachers - teachers don't know how to do biblical theology themselves;
• children - teachers aren't sure if children can understand biblical theology;
• curriculum - teachers feel hesitant changing material because it can affect later lessons, or other elements of the curriculum (eg. the craft, or the songs).
  

However consider this: by not using biblical theology in children's ministry, we are essentially preaching a different gospel to children. We are telling them that God accepts them on the basis of their works - and not by faith alone! We are telling them that by being kind to their friends, they can make God happy; that by obeying their parents, they can make God happy; that by helping others in need, they can make God happy.

We applaud the desire of curriculum writers to study the Old Testament and make it applicable to children. But when they do it in this way, they are teaching children that salvation is by good works. And when it's done week after week, and year after year - it reinforces this false gospel in accepting and uncritical minds.

The instinctive reply of most teachers is, "but it's just too hard." Well, it is hard - that's what makes children's ministry such a challenge. But simply because it would take some effort to rethink and repackage material is no reason to feed children poison instead of food.

I would much rather teachers just teach the story without applying it, than even once feed children the posion of a false gospel. At least the children will remember that story for later on in life.

And ideally, I would prefer that teachers teach simple biblical theology. If they reinforced that the Old Testament is about Jesus and the salvation we find in him. Imagine if, instead of week-by-week being told a false gospel of salvation by works, teachers reinforced that "this story actually shows us what Jesus will be like". Or "this story tells us about Jesus." Or "Jesus saves us, just like this." It would build in young minds the superstructure of biblical theology - the details of which they can fill out later in life.

But realise what's really being taught in so much off-the-shelf children's ministry material - and let's not teach children a differeng gospel!

[ PS: KYLC / Next Gen had a children's ministry strand 1 this year, and next year will have both strand 1 and 2 for children's ministry! ]

We're used to the doctrine of Justification by Faith (JBF) coming under fire in the West. Things like Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT), the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ), the debate on Lordship Salvation and the New Perspective have all been relatively 'recent' attacks on JBF in the West.

But did you know that JBF is also under attack in China as well?

I was recently going through some journal articles from the Chinese Theological Review, hoping to find some good theological reflection on Chinese cultural issues. Instead I came across not one, but three articles written in 2004 advocating for a de-emphasis on the doctrine of Justification by Faith in the Chinese church (all of them in vol.18). They are:

• "On Justification by Faith", by Li Weizhen
• "De-Emphasizing Justification by Faith: Theological Reflections", by Ouyang Wenfeng
• "De-Emphasis on Justification by Faith: An Instance of Theological Adaptation", by Wang Guanghui

They're not very long articles - you'll probably find them quite easy to read.

This was precipitated by a speech by Bishop K.H Ting in 2000 entitled "De-Emphasizing Justification by Faith". In that speech, he said:


The idea here is that by emphasising Justification by Faith, they are consigning the vast majority of the Chinese people (and indeed members of the Communist Party, who are meant to be unbelievers) to hell. They are afraid that this makes Justification by Faith a policial issue - which they want to avoid. Not only that, they consider the idea that so many millions of Chinese might go to hell simply for not believing in Jesus abhorrent, especially if they are quite decent people. The first author writes,


Not only that, the second author argues that to emphasing Justification by Faith will leads to Christians neglecting morality.


The first author reveals that where they want to head is in the direction of Vatican II, with Karl Rahner's concept of anonymous Christians. This is the idea that there are people out there who are not Christians, nor who would call themselves Christians, but who, in keeping the law of their conscience are pleasing to God and will ultimately be saved.


The articles try to show exegetically that biblically, justification is not on the basis of faith alone, but on faith plus works. If you read their articles though, you'll find that their exegesis is really bad. Context just goes out the window as they try to make their point that people are equally justified by their works.

The second writer shows that part of this is also driven by the idea that Justification by Faith stands in sharp contrast to the love of God. Somehow, JBF no longer flows out of the goodness and graciousness of God - but is opposed to it!


Already you can see that there is some serious misunderstanding of the doctrine of justification going on here!

All this is also due to a desire for the Chinese church to develop a truly 'Chinese theology'. The idea here is that the Chinese church is still too much influenced by the West, and needs to develop it's own distinctive brand of theology - as though there is such a valid thing as an ethnic theology. The third writer aruges that in order to develop such a theology, Christianity in China needs to adapt by absobing Chinese culture and changing.


And the first casualty of this theological reconstruction is the doctrine of Justification by Faith.

You can see that these authors are driven by a real desire to have the Chinese church engage with the people around them, instead of simply becoming enclaves that deter others by their exclusivity. They dearly want their unbelieving countrymen to see that Christians are good and useful and pleasant people in society. They want to remove any reason for the Communist Party to shut down churches and impede its work.

But this pragmatic goal is their main driving force - and the believer's humble submission to God's word has to give way to that.

[ PS: Chinese Theological Review is published by the China Christian Council, with Bishop K.H Ting as its president... ]