Page 39 - LD215 History of the Church in Africa A4 final

The Time Had Fully Come

Paul and his companions did not need to learn another language to
communicate the life-giving message of salvation. Greek could be used
everywhere in the Roman Empire. The language used in philosophy
became the language of Christianity. It was the language God chose for
the writing of the New Testament. The Jews used it for the translation of
the Old Testament from Hebrew (called the Septuagint) that was used by
Jesus and His disciples.

For many years, I have been intrigued with the study of Swahili,
a language used by more than a hundred million people in East and
Central Africa. One of the greatest privileges of my life was learning the
language well enough to be able to teach classes in a Bible college. It was
equaled only by the joy of seeing people come to a personal relationship
with Jesus Christ as I prayed with them in their language. Some secular
scholars teach that Swahili developed for commercial purposes and
intertribal communications. While this is true, even more important is
the fact that the Bible has been translated into Swahili, the vernacular of
the common man, and it is used to communicate the gospel.

English, French, and Portuguese were imported to Africa during
the colonial period. As Greek was employed by the common man and
used to advance the kingdom of God, English, French, Portuguese, and
other major languages have been used in Scripture translation and the
proclamation of the gospel in Africa.

When Mao Tse-tung and his forces conquered China, the nation was
fragmented and the Chinese people used many languages. Mao insisted
that Mandarin Chinese must be learned and spoken by everyone. In
doing so, he believed that one language was the critically important
tool he needed to unite the people under Chinese communism. He did
not know he was uniting the people for a common translation of the
Scripture and communication of the gospel. The church, especially in
the form of house groups, is very strong in China today because the
gospel can be communicated more easily since the majority of the
people speak Mandarin Chinese.

Greek Philosophy

In the Greek and Roman world, especially among educated people,
philosophy was a religion:

::: 29 :::