WINTER 2009
THE QUARTERLY MISSIONS JOURNAL OF FIRSTBIBLE INTERNATIONAL
Ulrich Zwingli IN THIS ISSUE: • Introducing Zwingli and the Reformers • A Thumbnail Sketch of God Moving in Human History • Historic Meeting in Western Asia
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BIBLE TRANSLATING
eDItOrIaL
serMOn
A gathering momentum toward unreached people groups will require us to step up our efforts toward Bible translation.
Travel with Dr. Charles Keen through a 600 year timeline of the Reformation, the Renaissance and the Revivals to see God at work to turn the church toward the goal of world evangelism.
Necessity of Bible Translation
20 TURK
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God Moving in Human History
tHe reFOrMers
Biographical sketches of those God used in a critical period of history to get the Word of God translated into the language of the plowman and chambermaid.
21
EY
2008
tHe LOCaL CHUrCH
Follow Dr. Charles Keen’s Scriptural essay contending that the local Church is the tool of God’s choice in world evangelism and its major assignment is Church planting.
HIstOrIC MeetIng
a neW Heart
A gathering of students from Georgia, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Turkey participate in a training week with the goal of impacting the Muslim world.
With 40 countries having a Muslim population of 85% or greater, the church needs a new perspective and new determination to reach them with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In Western Asia
Unpublished WORD EDITOR: ASSISTANT EDITOR: CIRCULATION/ADVERTISING: GRAPHIC DESIGN:
Dr. Charles Keen Ken Fielder Jerry Rockwell Steeple Press Publications, Jody Powers, Murfreesboro, TN PRODUCTION/PRINTING: Clark’s Printing Co., Ventura, CA
For Reaching Muslims
Some of the authors and their material featured in UW Journal are not necessarily in agreement with the theological position of the UW Journal. Their writings are included because of their insight into the particular subject matter published in the UW Journal. The Unpublished WORD Journal is a quarterly publication of FirstBible INTERNATIONAL. All correspondence should be sent to the editorial officers at: FirstBible INTERNATIONAL, 3148 Franklin Road, Murfreesboro, TN 37128 (615) 796-0043 ∙ info@firstbible.net ∙ www.firstbible.net
FirstBible INTERNATIONAL is a ministry of Franklin Road Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee
∙
Dr. Mike Norris, Pastor Unpublished WORD [3
eDItOrIaL
BIBLE TRANSLATING: Stepping Up Our Efforts This issue of the Journal is dedicated to the necessity of Bible translation as it relates to the progress of the gospel. Bible translation has been a long overlooked activity among fundamentalists. It has not been neglected out of indifference or rebellion, but perhaps out of a lack of awareness. Or perhaps it is because of the lack of qualified people to translate or the lack of trustworthy institutions to train translators. One thing is certain, it has not been an issue kept at the forefront of our mission discussion. We have been trying to reach the world with the gospel. We just have not been presented with a viable strategy through which we can really accomplish our goal which includes Bible translation. Considering that a copy of God’s Word in the heart language of the people we are trying to reach is a vital necessity for successful church planting and national training, it is time for us to take ownership of the responsibility. We must acknowledge that unless we address this issue, our progress in reaching the uttermost will be severely hindered. The Apostle Paul faced language obstacles in traveling to the “regions beyond” as in Acts 4:11 where we find “the speech of Lycaonia” and as he expressed his heart’s desire to go to Spain, a Latin speaking nation. The uttermost is our responsibility to reach and they represent thousands of languages and dialects. I believe God is pleased with the awakening that is taking place in our ranks. Many of our churches are responding to the unreached people group need. Some have adopted people groups, language projects or even whole countries. There is a wonderful momentum gathering which now requires us to step up our efforts for new language translations. The good news here is that hundreds of thousands of dollars have been committed to the establishment of Bible translation departments in our colleges. One of those is at Crown College in Powell, Tennessee, where Dr. Keen and FirstBible are presently committed to develop a program that will grant recognized degrees in Linguistics and Bible Translation. Another will soon be underway at South India Baptist Bible College in Coimbatore, India. FirstBible will be hosting a Pastor’s Conference there in February with the goal of stirring Indian pastors to catch this vision. In support of this strategy toward Bible translation, we need only to look back in history at the men who gave their lives for this very purpose and the place in history they hold. The contributions of Wycliffe, Huss, Luther, Tyndale, Zwingli, Erasmus and others are of great value in the history and the doctrinal purity of the church as well as the spread of the gospel. Today, for many groups, the goal of Bible publishing is financial profit. The goal of Bible translation for the Reformers was a desire to supply the Scriptures to the plowman and chambermaid. We certainly do not agree with all the doctrinal positions of the aforementioned men, but we do need to catch their vision in the area of Bible translation for those people groups and languages that are still waiting.
Ken Fielder
Assistant Director FirstBible INTERNATIONAL
4] Unpublished WORD
Interested in serving the Lord with FirstBible? FirstBible International does
not practice ministry recruiting. We do have a policy of making needs known and trusting God to work in the hearts of men of His choosing. The following are areas of need at this time with FBI: 1. PROFESSIONAL PRINTERS: SHEET OR ROLL FED PRESS OPERATORS On-the-field training of nationals in India or Mongolia. Must be selffunded. Time commitments range from 1 to 6 months. 2. STATESIDE MISSIONARIES Represent India and/or Mongolia in North America for FBI in Baptist church affiliation. You must raise your own support. Training is available. Please send résumés by mail to: FirstBible International Attn. Ken Fielder 3148 Franklin Road Murfreesboro, TN 37128 or by email to: info@firstbible.net For questions, you may call the office at 615.796.0043.
$75,000.00 Matching Funds Gift Due to the generosity of a Christian businessman who wishes to remain anonymous, we have been given a $75,000.00 Matching Funds Challenge. You may have received a letter asking you to participate in this wonderful opportunity to give a gift that has double impact. Every dollar you give becomes two. Great and effectual doors have been opened to us such as: • The Mongolia Bible Translation Project fully underway • The opening of a Translation Training Center in South India Baptist Bible College • Bible Distribution into closed Muslim countries • National Training Programs in closed Muslim countries Many have already responded as shown below. Would you please consider becoming a partner with us in reaching the unreached people groups of our world? The need has never been more urgent to get the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who have never heard His name. Your gift could make an eternal difference for them.
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Unpublished WORD [5
A Thumbnail Sketch of
God Moving in Human History by Dr. Charles Keen
In
this first issue of the Unpublished WORD Journal for 2009, we want to give you a glimpse of the activity of God in history (His-Story), from the Middle Ages of the 13th century to the 19th century. It is what missiologists call “the great century for protestant missions.”
John WYCLIFFE John HUSS
ERASMUS
Martin LUTHER
If we stand back and get the big picture, we can see God at work on the stage of time with a global goal of world evangelism. Keep in mind their eras of time. We fade from one period into the next. For example, the end of the Renaissance overlaps into the beginning of the Reformation Era, etc. Ulrich ZWINGLI
ANABAPTISTS
William TYNDALE 6] Unpublished WORD
Along with our travel through this 600 year long timeline, we also want to give you a thumbnail sketch of the actors in the drama, see pages 9-13. (In reality we are trying to exalt the Director and Producer of this historical drama, for the glory of God and not for the cast of characters in it.) This historical trek is not an endorsement of men or movements. The discussion of the characters in this article does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of their doctrine, affiliations or lifestyle but reveals their effect on church or world history. Also note the lack of details. We are condensing 600 years of church history into a three page document. Our best hope is that we can furnish you a grid upon which you can hang facts from your own personal research which we hope this article will inspire.
John CALVIN
RENAISSANCE: We see God using men like John Wycliffe and John Huss to wake up our race from the long night of the Dark Ages by giving the people of this era a thirst for knowledge and a hunger for individual significance, delivering them out of the Feudal System mentality of their day. At this time, the thinking was that the masses existed for the betterment of the very few or elite. With the realization of the value and worth of the individual came also a thirst for knowledge. We see the hand of God in the same time frame leading Johannes Gutenberg in the invention of the moveable type printing press. With this discovery, which allowed for the mass production of books at a manageable price, man could feed that thirst for knowledge and realize he had a meaningful purpose on earth beyond serfdom. In tandem with man’s thirst for knowledge and the discovery of the moveable type printing press, God had been burdening men over the centuries: Wycliffe, Huss, Erasmus, *Luther, Tyndale,
etc., to translate the Bible into the mother tongue of the plowboy and chambermaid so they could read God’s Word for themselves. In the providence of God, the first book that Gutenberg printed was the Bible, and it became the most read book in the last days of the Dark Ages and in the early days of the Renaissance. As the Renaissance man became better educated in the Bible, the corrupt teaching of the Roman Catholic Church became obvious, causing it to lose its power over the people, and resulting in the Reformation. REFORMATION: Discovering the false doctrine within the church as exposed by the Scriptures led to the Reformation: a throwing off of the Roman Catholic Church’s dominion and a calling for a new authority, the Scriptures as well as soul liberty for the believer, the priesthood of the believer, salvation by faith alone, and the establishment of indigenous churches. This reformation came into full bloom in the late 1500’s with Martin Luther nailing his Ninety-Five Theses to the Church in Wittenberg. John Calvin in France, Zwingli of Switzerland and others were mirroring throughout Europe Luther’s efforts in Germany. (Basically the only country not affected by the Reformation in Europe was Austria.) The Reformation spawned the **Pietism Movement, which was a revolt against the dead orthodoxy that the Reformation had incubated. The Pietists saw Christian doctrine as more than an academic exercise locked up in classroom and theological debate. They believed it was a life and heart experience to be lived out in daily obedience (which of course would include our Lord’s words on the Great Commission given five different times between His Resurrection and Ascension). From this fertile ground grew the… REVIVALS: These are the Revivals of the 1700’s, known in America as the Great Awakenings and in England as the Great Evangelical Awakening. These mighty cross-continental movements of God were felt in both England and America under the leadership of men like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield and the Wesley brothers, John and Charles. The natural outgrowth of a revived church is always a renewed vision for world evangelism. This one was no different, and a dedication to global evangelism soon surfaced.
REACH (MISSIONS): Through the spiritual influence of the Great Awakenings, men like William Carey went to India and later Hudson Taylor to China, both from England. Adoniram Judson went to Burma from America. These men owned verses like Acts 1:8. A burden and vision for the uttermost was birthed that lasted a hundred years and saw thousands of men and women like C.T. Studd, David Livingstone, Henry Martyn, Amy Carmichael and Lottie Moon march in lockstep to the “regions beyond,” recapturing stolen ground from the Prince of Darkness and returning it and many of its inhabitants to the rightful Owner, the Prince of Peace, until Christianity became the faith system embraced by most people in the world and became the fasting growing “religion” and Jesus became ruler over the largest single kingdom on earth. AMEN! Church historians call, and rightly so, the 19th century one of the greatest, if not the greatest, century in world evangelism. The argument still rages among church historians today as to whether there could have been a Reformation without a Renaissance. We will leave that discussion to men better qualified than myself. I do suggest the big picture reveals to us the hand of God was at work over the centuries in world evangelism efforts. I believe He is still moving in a structured way toward closure of the Great Commission. Do we see “a little cloud… like a man’s hand…” on the mission horizon? I think so. William Carey led the church of his day to world evangelism that pretty much was a coastline effort and Hudson Taylor a hundred years later led the church of his day to go beyond coastal evangelism to the reaching of the inland cities of the continents. In each case God was leading them to the Pauline method of going to the regions beyond, “To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man’s line of things made ready to our hand” (II Corinthians 10:16). “Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man’s foundation: But as it is written, To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see: and they that have not heard shall understand” (Romans 15:20, 21). Is God leading the church of our day to go beyond costal evangelism and beyond inland city evangelism to the remaining unreached people groups areas of our world? Ninety-six percent of all unreached peoples live in what we call the 10/40 Window or 3.7 billion individual souls, Unpublished WORD [7
which represent about 6000 people groups that the Bible indentifies as “nations” that do not as yet have a Bible, gospel or self-functioning church. May I suggest some loose and general application be made to our day? Let us ask the question: Can we do missions without the same spiritual process our forefathers experienced and should we seek for a repeat of the big picture, at least in some small way? Renaissance (renewed thinking) led to Reformation (doctrinal based ministry). Revival (personal application of holiness/obedience) launched us into a major and unified effort in global Reach (missions). Is this a time for some new Wycliffes, Luthers, and Careys and their messages? Not disbanding our Jerusalem efforts, let us add the uttermost to it in a
unified effort to complete the Jesus given assignment, “…both…” I believe a three-fold cord is not easily broken and I think it will take a cooperative and unified effort between the pastor, evangelist and missionary. *Some of the men honored as reformers were friendly to our spiritual fathers, the Anabaptists. We do not believe we (the Baptists) are the outgrowth of the Reformation. Neither does FBI believe in apostolic succession, but we do believe in doctrinal succession. **A study of the Pietism movement as the basis of the 1700’s Great Awakening will be forthcoming in a later issue of the Journal.
“I totally disagree with those who are unwilling that the Holy Scriptures should be translated into every day languages and read by unlearned people. Christ wished his mysteries to be made known as widely as possible. I would wish even all women to read the gospels, and the letters of St. Paul. I wish that they were translated into all the languages of all Christian people – that they might be read and known not just by the Scots and Irish, but even by the Turks and Saracens. I wish that the farm laborer might sing parts of them at his plough, that the weaver might hum them at his shuttle, and that the traveler might ease his weariness by reciting them.” - ERASMUS John Wycliffe was born in 1324. He was declared a heretic at the Council of Constance. He held that Christ
gave the church authority only in spiritual matters and not in temporal affairs. He believed that the fall of the church occurred when Constantine endowed it with wealth and power. In 1378, Wycliffe brought out On the Truthfulness of Holy Scriptures. This was the Magna Carta of Wycliffe’s reform. For Wycliffe the authority of the Bible was supreme. Grosseteste, the bishop of Lincoln, greatly influenced the early development of Wycliffe’s theology. The difference was Wycliffe saw the Bible not just as one authority among many—i.e., tradition and the church; it alone stood above all other authorities. “Neither the testimony of Augustine nor Jerome, nor any other saint,” he wrote, “should be accepted except in so far as it was based upon Scripture.” Along with Wycliffe’s principle of Sola Scriptura went the conviction that the Bible was intended for everyone. To the objection that laypersons could not understand the Bible, Wycliffe answered that the Holy Spirit is able to give understanding: The New Testament is of full authority, and open to the understanding of simple men, as to the points that be most needful to salvation…The Holy Ghost teaches us the meaning of Scripture as Christ opened its sense of His Apostles. Since most Englishmen, like most Europeans, could not read Latin, Wycliffe realized that if the Bible’s message were ever to penetrate the English mind and influence the church, the Bible would have to be put into the language of the people. Thus in 1380, he and some trusted colleagues began to do exactly this. Just how much of Wycliffe’s Bible was actually the work of the reformer is debatable. It was not long until Wycliffe’s followers, with the help of the English Bible, were far more knowledgeable about the Scriptures and its teachings than most priests and not a few bishops besides. All the evidence shows that Wycliffe’s plea for the reading of the Bible by the laity was a revolution, not an extension of an existing practice. Wycliffe’s influence and teachings lived on in his followers. It was at Lutterworth that he began to prepare a small group of Oxford priests to carry on his reformatory efforts after his death. Wycliffe’s followers were called “Lollards,” a term taken from Dutch meaning “mumblers or mutterers of prayers.” 8] Unpublished WORD
Wycliffe’s influence was by no means confined to England, though the pervasiveness of that influence varied widely. Lollards carried his message into Scotland only to suffer martyrdom. It was Bohemia that was destined to feel the most lasting impact of Wycliffe’s teachings through the writings and preaching of John Huss.
John Huss
There is no question that Huss, along with Jerome of Prague, was one of the most dedicated disciples of Wycliffe, but he was far more than that. Little is known of John Huss before the time he became a student at the University of Prague in 1390. He was born about 1373 in a town in south Bohemia called Husinec. His mother was apparently very devout. By 1394 Huss had earned his bachelor’s degree, and two years later, his Master of Arts and he began studies in theology and received his bachelor of divinity degree in 1404. In 1402 Huss was appointed preacher at Bethlehem Chapel, which had been the center of the Bohemian reform movement since 1391. Wycliffe’s books had been known in Bohemia since the 1380s. Wycliffe’s writings were probably introduced to the students and faculty of the University of Prague by some of these returning students. At this point it is evident that there was a revival fortified by the teachings of Wycliffe in the earnest preaching of the young Prague professor John Huss. It was Milíc of Kromeríz (d. 1374) who is considered the father of the Czech reform movement. He appealed to the Scriptures as the highest source of authority and attempted to call the church away from the subtleties of philosophy and back to the simple gospel of Christ. In Huss the native reform movement and the teachings of Wycliffe coalesced to produce Bohemia’s most effective spokesman for reform. His influence was enormous. Apparently Huss was in the good graces of the archbishop until some parish priests lodged the charge of heresy against him in 1408.
Huss wrote Hübner a letter in which he defended the memory of Wycliffe and his teachings from the charge of heresy. Stanislav also wrote a treatise entitled On the Body of Christ, in which he defended Wycliffe’s teaching. Archbishop Zbynek suspended Huss’s right to preach and ordered the confiscation of Wycliffe’s books. The archbishop secured a papal bull backing his efforts to suppress the reform movement in Bohemia. In addition to censuring Wycliffe’s books, the bull forbade preaching anywhere except in the cathedral, parish churches, and monasteries. The bull, obviously directed against Huss, whose congregations were said sometimes to number ten thousand, failed to silence the reformer. Huss had now become the major symbol of the reform movement in Bohemia. As one might suspect, scholars differ widely in their judgments of how heavily Huss depended upon Wycliffe. Huss had made the writings and thoughts of Wycliffe so much his own that he failed to indicate what was from Wycliffe and what was his own. The Council of Constance (1414-1418) The next day Huss was led to the cathedral, where the sentence was read. He was condemned to death for being a stubborn disciple of Wycliffe and a rebel against ecclesiastical authority, and for unlawfully appealing his case before Jesus Christ. After being ceremonially debased, he was led outside the city gates past a cemetery, where his books were being burned, to the stake. Here straw and wood awaited the executioner’s torch. A last attempt to secure his recantation failed. As the flames engulfed his body, he cried out, “Christ, Thou son of the living God, have mercy on me.” Thus he died a reformer who never felt himself to be a heretic but only a priest whose earnest desire was to see the church cleansed of iniquity and once again obedient to her Lord.
Regardless of how one may feel about Erasmus, he is inescapable. In spite of his disclaimers and studied attempts to disassociate himself from Luther and the Reformation, he and his humanist followers helped to create a climate that made possible the Reformation of the sixteenth century. Erasmus was born in Rotterdam on October 27 or 28 probably in the year 1467. His father’s name was Gerard. Margaret, his mother, was the daughter of a physician. They named their second son Erasmus. He attended the famous school of St. Lebwin’s in Deventer, the earliest and one of the better schools operated by the Brethren of the Common Life. Monastic life was not his first choice. He would have much preferred to attend the university, but now both he and his brother had absolutely no money and so were at the mercy of their guardians. It was Mountjoy who sponsored Erasmus’s first visit to England in 1494, when he met his new English friends, Thomas More and John Colet. But it was John Colet who was to influence Erasmus and his subsequent career more than any other person, ancient or contemporary. Unpublished WORD [9
In October Erasmus moved on to Oxford for the Michaelmas term; there he discovered that Colet was lecturing on Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. Colet received both his Bachelor of Arts and his Master of Arts degrees at Cambridge. Although he had not begun studying Greek until he was thirty-three years old, his progress was rapid. Erasmus had seen a vision of the reform of Christendom that would be accomplished by calling the church back to the sourcebook of its faith—the Bible. The means by which reform will come, Erasmus says, are spiritual. First Erasmus recommends prayer. Then he recommends knowledge, in which he includes above all, knowledge of the Scriptures. All truth, wherever found, belongs to Christ. Here the major features of his philosophy of Christ are beginning to take shape. Christ is supreme, not the Christ of the scholastics but the Christ of Scripture. Erasmus’s trip to Italy was crowned with success. He received a doctor’s degree in theology, which he had long sought, from the University of Turin. In Bologna his knowledge of the Greek language was greatly increased. His most important contribution to the church was his translation of the Scriptures in 1516. It was a difficult role he had designed for himself. While he refused to become Luther’s disciple, he steadfastly defended him, even after the bull of excommunication had been issued.
Martin Luther Martin Luther (November
10, 1483 – February 18, 1546) was a German monk, Father of Protestantism, and church reformer whose ideas influenced the Protestant Reformation and changed the course of Western civilization. Luther’s theology challenged the authority of the papacy by holding that the Bible is the only infallible source of religious authority and that all baptized Christians under Jesus are a universal priesthood. According to Luther, salvation is a free gift of God, received only by true repentance and faith in Jesus as the Messiah. At the Diet of Worms assembly over freedom of conscience in 1521, Luther’s confrontation resulted in his being excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church and being declared an outlaw of the state as a consequence. His translation of the Bible into the vernacular of the people made the Scriptures more accessible to them. It further influenced the translation of the English King James Bible. His hymns inspired the development of congregational singing within Christianity. Luther sought assurances about life, and was drawn to theology and philosophy. He believed human beings could learn about God only through divine revelation, and Scripture therefore became increasingly important to him. He decided to leave his studies and become a monk, later attributing his decision to an experience during a thunderstorm on July 2, 1505. A lightning bolt struck near him as he was returning to university after a trip. “I will become a monk!” His father was furious over what he saw as a waste of Luther’s education. In 1507, he was
10] Unpublished WORD
ordained to the priesthood. Tetzel was sent to Germany by the Roman Catholic Church to sell indulgences to raise money to rebuild St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. On October 31, 1517, Luther wrote to Albrecht, Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg,The Ninety-Five Theses. Luther objected to a saying attributed to Johann Tetzel that “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.” According to Philipp Melanchthon, writing in 1546, Luther nailed a copy of The Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg that same day, an event now seen as sparking the Protestant Reformation. The Ninety-Five Theses were quickly translated from Latin into German, printed, and widely copied, making the controversy one of the first in history to be aided by the printing press. Within two weeks, the theses had spread throughout Germany; within two months throughout Europe. Luther became convinced that the church had lost sight of what he saw as the major truth of Christianity, the doctrine of justification — God’s act of declaring a sinner righteous — by faith alone through God’s grace. Luther’s writings circulated widely, reaching France, England, and Italy as early as 1519, and students thronged to Wittenberg to hear him speak. Luther went to Augsburg in October 1518 to meet the papal legate, Cardinal. The argument was long but nothing was resolved. He risked excommunication unless he recanted 41 sentences drawn from his writings, including The Ninety-Five Theses, within 60 days. That autumn, Johann Eck proclaimed the bull. Luther, who was sent a copy, publicly set fire to the bull at Wittenberg on December 10, 1520. As a consequence Luther was excommunicated by Leo X on January 3, 1521,
in the bull as ordered before the Diet of Worms. Johann Eck, presented Luther with copies of his writings laid out on a table, and asked him if the books were his, and whether he stood by their contents. He confirmed he was the author, but requested time to think about the answer to the second question. He prayed, consulted friends, and gave his response the next day: “Unless I shall be convinced by the testimonies of the Scriptures or by clear reason, I neither can nor will make any retraction, since it is neither safe nor honourable to act against conscience.” He also added. “Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.” The Edict of Worms was issued on May 25, 1521, declaring Luther an outlaw, banning his literature, and requiring his arrest: “We want him to be apprehended and punished as a notorious heretic.” It also made it a crime for anyone in Germany to give Luther food or shelter. It permitted anyone to kill Luther without legal consequence. On the evening of June 13, 1525, Luther married
Katharina von Bora, Katharina was twenty-six years old, Luther forty-two. Melanchthon, called it reckless. Luther and Katharina moved into a former monastery “The Black Cloister,” and embarked upon what appears to have been a happy and successful marriage. From 1531–1546, his health deteriorated. His last sermon was delivered at Eisleben, his place of birth, three days before his death. On February 15, 1546, at 1:00 A.M. he awoke with more chest pain and was warmed with hot towels. He thanked God for revealing his Son to him in whom he had believed. His companions, Justus Jonas and Michael Coelius, shouted loudly, “Reverend father, are you ready to die trusting in your Lord Jesus Christ and to confess the doctrine which you have taught in His name?” A distinct “Yes” was Luther’s reply. He died in Eisleben shortly afterwards at 2:45 A.M., February 18, 1546, at age 62.
Ulrich Zwingli, the Reformer of Switzerland, and Luther met face-to-face only once at Marburg in 1529.
Instead of providing an occasion for a meeting of the minds, the colloquy turned out to be a confrontation in which each Reformer sharply rejected the theology of the other. Luther had become a Reformer out of a deep travail of the soul, Zwingli, on the other hand, trod a humanist path to reform. In the early stages of his ecclesiastical career, Zwingli was a disciple of Erasmus, just as Luther was a disciple of Augustine. Ulrich Zwingli was born on January 1, 1484, approximately seven weeks after the birth of Luther. Zwingli’s first attempt, in 1498, to pursue university studies was brief. Soon after he entered the famous University of Vienna, he was expelled. Besides having a well-known academic reputation, the university, like those of Oxford and Paris, was infamous for student brawls, drunkenness, and immorality. Zwingli left Vienna for Basel sometime before October 1502. Basel was certainly no Vienna, and its university was a proud but small institution with only about a hundred students—but it was Swiss. It could boast that it was one of the first universities north of the Alps to embrace the Renaissance. In retrospect Zwingli attributed to Wyttenback his first awakening “to several abuses of the Church, especially the indulgences,” and claimed that Wyttenbach “taught him not to rely on the keys of the Church, but to seek the remission of sins, alone in the death of Christ…” There is no doubt that during his Basel years Zwingli was introduced to Aquinas and consequently to Aristotle. Glarus was a town in the Swiss Alps near the headwaters of the Rhine, about forty-three miles southeast of Zürich. The coming of a young new parish priest to Glarus was a major event in the town of thirteen hundred inhabitants, especially since the men of Glarus felt they had a hand in Zwingli’s selection. At Glarus, Zwingli began to acquire a library. He purchased every available work of Erasmus, and he actually began to teach himself Greek in order to be able to read the Greek New Testament when it appeared. Zwingli was so inspired by the work that before the end of the year he made the long and difficult journey to Basel just to talk with Erasmus personally. Zwingli had become increasingly enamored with Erasmus. He tried to read everything Erasmus wrote and, he also became an accomplished Greek scholar. It was while he was chaplain in Einsiedeln that Zwingli had his first skirmish with Berhardin Samson, a peddler of indulgences like Tetzel, his German counterpart. In retrospect Zwingli claimed to have begun to preach the gospel as early as 1516. He wrote, “I began to preach the gospel before anyone in my locality had so much as heard the name of Luther.” Unpublished WORD [11
Two comments by his contemporaries help put Zwingli’s self-understanding in proper perspective. Beatus Rhenanus, one of Zwingli’s friends, wrote on December 6, 1518, “For it does not escape me that you and those like you bring forth to the people the pure philosophy of Christ, straight from the fountain, uncorrupted by interpretation….” In the same vein Casper Hedio wrote on November 6, 1519, after Zwingli had gone to Zürich, “I was greatly charmed by an address of yours, so elegant, learned, and weighty, fluent, discerning, and evangelical such a one as plainly recalled the energy of the old theologians…” The Beginning of the Reformation in Zürich was in 1519 and apparently Zwingli did not intend to start a religious revolution with this deviation from tradition, but he did. He was still working within the context of Erasmus’s concept of reform, which called for a cleansing of the church through a return to Scripture and canon law. Apparently at this time Zwingli saw no basic difference between Erasmus and Luther. Zwingli could not have been unaware of what was happening in Germany at the time. By 1521, Luther’s books were circulating freely in Switzerland, and all of Europe waited anxiously for news from the Diet of Worms. Whether or not Zwingli had so intended, he had launched the Reformation in Zürich from his pulpit. Zwingli’s preaching became his most effective means of advancing the cause of reform. His style was more informal and extemporaneous than that of Luther. Even though his voice was not strong and his delivery was rapid, he enlivened his sermons with humor. Zwingli was drawing up a petition. This petition carried eleven signatures, including Zwingli’s. At this time Zwingli was quietly acquiring another weapon besides preaching with which to carry on his warfare - the printed page. Zwingli set forth the claims of Scripture over the authority of the Roman Church, which claimed the exclusive right of interpreting Scripture. By the end of 1522, Zwingli’s carefully thought-out reformatory methodology was beginning to take shape. Since the previous September, Zwingli had been acting more and more like a Reformer. He had actively pronounced the distribution of Luther’s tracts and German New Testament. The Bishop of Constance was invited to Zürich for the First Disputation, for which Zwingli had prepared Sixty-Seven Articles. The bishop declined the invitation but sent his very able vicar general, Johann Faber along with lesser-known and less able colleagues. On January 29, six hundred men turned out for the occasion.
Anabaptists It was Zwingli who first gave his
former Swiss Brethren disciples the name (Anabaptists). Bullinger asserted that Anabaptist had originated in Zürich, but by 1570 he had succeeded in tracing the beginnings of the movement to Thomas Müntzer. The beginnings of the Anabaptist movement were hardly indicative of the popular appeal it was to have. It was born in the minds of no more than fifteen. But when these zealous advocates began preaching about their new faith, it soon demonstrated its popular appeal. From its very beginning the theology of baptism among the Anabaptists implied incorporation into a witnessing community of believers. In Switzerland and most other European states, this meant that Anabaptism was to remain a small minority composed of recruits from the ranks of the humbler sort. Few people of wealth and position cared to break with the state churches and risk losing everything, including their lives.
The fate of the Anabaptists of St. Gall became to some extent the Anabaptist story. It is a history of martyrdom. Clasen indicates that there were 370 known executions from 1530 to 1539. In Switzerland executions took place as late as 1618. Anabaptists continued to be the objects of persecution and imprisonment in the canton of Bern until Napoleon’s armies brought religious liberty to Switzerland in the nineteenth century. The execution of Michael Sattler became the best known of that of any sixteenth-century Anabaptist. The fact that the authorities wanted to make Sattler an example compelled them to make something of a production of his trial, which lasted for two days. Afterward Sattler was subjected to prolonged torture then burned alive. His courageous defense and valiant death created a boomerang effect that Rottenburg had not anticipated. Perhaps no other martyrdom of an Anabaptist so publicized the faith and faithfulness of Anabaptists to a German-speaking audience. Sattler was sentenced on May 18 and executed two days later. The torture, a prelude to the execution, began at the marketplace, where a piece was cut from Sattler’s tongue. Pieces of flesh were torn from his body twice with
12] Unpublished WORD
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They are on His heart & in our hands. HINDU RATHIA OF India
JANUARY
Population: 652,000 Religion: Hinduism Language: Hindi
Tucked away in the beautiful state of Himachal Pradesh are the Rathia people. They believe that their origins are from Rathor, a Rajput clan. They speak Gadiali, a language which belongs to the Pahari group of the Indo-Aryan languages. Their livelihood is from agriculture and sheep-rearing. Check this box when you pray.
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red-hot tongs. He was then tied to a cart. On the way to the scene of the execution he was torn with the tongs five more times. In the market-place and at the site of the execution, still able to speak, the unshakable Sattler prayed for his persecutors. After being bound to a ladder with ropes and pushed into the fire, he admonished the people, the judges, and the mayor to repent and be converted. Then he prayed, “Almighty, eternal God, Thou art the way and the truth: because I have not been shown to be in error, I will with thy help to this day testify to the truth and seal it with my blood.” When the ropes on his wrists had burned, Sattler raised both forefingers, giving the promised signal to his fellow Anabaptists that a martyr’s death was bearable. Then the assembled crowd heard coming from his seared lips, “Father, I commend my spirit into Thy hands.” Three others were then executed. And Sattler’s faithful wife was drowned eight days later in the Neckar. she had refused to recant, turning down an attractive offer of amnesty and a comfortable home in a congenial environment. Sattler’s character lies clearly before us. He was not a highly educated divine and not an intellectual; but his entire life was noble and pure, true and unadulterated. Even if it were possible to arrive at an accurate estimate of the number of Anabaptist martyrs, statistics alone can never tell the whole story. These were individuals who, like all people, were driven by hopes and fears, fortified by convictions. They were young and old, male and female. Children in their teens, even though not yet baptized, testified to their faith before being put to death. The Anabaptists took seriously the Reformation concept of the priesthood of believers. This vocational commitment had both strengths and weaknesses. On the positive side, few religious movements in history have involved laymen so extensively. On the negative side, a theological consensus became increasingly difficult to achieve. Among sixteenth-century Anabaptists there were relatively few theologians who were writers. Among these, three stand out: Balthasar Hubmaier, Pilgram Marpeck, and Menno Simons. Menno Simons, the major Dutch Anabaptist theologian, became an Anabaptist in 1536, some twelve years after his ordination to the Roman Catholic priesthood. He immediately rose to prominence among the Dutch Anabaptists. Even before his death in 1561, the Anabaptists in the Netherlands were often referred to as Mennonites. His conversion and call were such deeply moving experiences that they left an indelible stamp of utter sincerity upon his character and ministry. The cross of persecution was an inescapable reality for Simons. An edict was published in the province of Groningen
on January 21, 1539, commanding all Anabaptists to leave. Menno fled to the Dutch province of Friesland, where he resumed his ministry. For the next two years Menno labored in and around Amsterdam with a measure of success. Those baptized were usually executed. Menno’s major task appears to have been that of a leader intent on calling the Anabaptists back to their original vision.Menno’s writings were voluminous. They were soon printed in half a dozen languages, including English. Menno became the best-known Anabaptist theologian the sixteenth century produced. “Sooner or later, every student of Anabaptism must answer the question: What constitutes Anabaptism and how can it be delineated from other radical groups of the sixteenth century?” If the matter of authority—the Bible versus the magisterium of the church—was the major line of demarcation between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism of the Reformation Era, it appears that the implementation of the believer’s church was that which separated the Anabaptists from the Magisterial Reformation. Historically this was the case. The concept of the church as embraced and established by the Swiss Brethren did involve a number of ideas held in common with the Reformers, but distinctive Anabaptists ideas nevertheless stood out. For example, the Anabaptists held with the Reformers to the authority of Scripture. While it can be argued, as scholars have frequently done, that the essence of Anabaptism can best be seen in a single concept—that of the authority of the New Testament, or baptism, or discipleship, or a two world tension, or the church—it must be admitted that all of these ideas are indispensable for a complete understanding of the Anabaptist teachings. None of them can be left out. Yet in the final analysis, it appears that the concept of the church gave the movement its unique character and separated it from both the Magisterial Reformers and other groups within the Radical Reformation.
Urgent Prayer Request Missionary Martin White was in Mongolia for 6 years. In addition to planting 2 churches and starting a Bible Institute, Bro. White was a vital part of the ministry of FirstBible of Mongolia, particularly in the area of the Printing Ministry. He was recently led by the Lord to return to the states and accept the pastorate of Calvary Bible Baptist Church in Rochester, NY. After only 2 Sundays as Pastor there, at 3:00 a.m. on New Year’s Day he had a massive stroke. According to the latest update at the time of this publication, he is still unconscious and in critical condition. Please pray for his wife, Beth and their 3 children and families. Unpublished WORD [13
William Tyndale (1494 – 1536) was a translate the Bible into English and to request other help from 16th-century Protestant reformer and scholar who was the first to translate the Bible into the Early Modern English. While a number of Scriptures were available, Tyndale’s was the first English translation to draw directly from Hebrew and Greek texts, and the first to take advantage of the new medium of print, which allowed for its wide distribution. Tyndale was arrested, jailed in the castle of Vilvoorde outside Brussels for over a year, tried for heresy and burnt at the stake. Much of Tyndale’s work (some say 80%) eventually found its way into the King James Version (or “Authorized Version”) of the Bible, published in 1611. The work of 54 independent scholars revising the existing English versions drew significantly on Tyndale’s translations. Tyndale was born around 1494. He was admitted to the Degree of Bachelor of Arts at Oxford University in 1512. The same year he became a sub deacon. He was made Master of Arts in July 1515, three months after he had been ordained into the priesthood. The MA degree allowed him to start studying theology, but the official course did not include the study of scripture. This horrified Tyndale, and he organized private groups for teaching and discussing the scriptures. He was a gifted linguist and was fluent in French, Greek, Hebrew, German, Italian, Latin, and Spanish in addition to his native English. He subsequently went to Cambridge where he possibly studied under Erasmus, whose 1503 “Handbook of the Christian Knight” — he translated into English. It is also believed that he met Thomas Bilney and John Frith at Cambridge. Tyndale became chaplain in the house of Sir John Walsh at Little Sodbury in about 1521, and tutor to his children. His opinions involved him in controversy with his fellow clergymen, and around 1522, he was summoned before the Chancellor of the Diocese of Worcester on a charge of heresy. Soon afterwards, he determined to translate the Bible into English and was convinced that the way to God was through His Word and that scripture should be available even to common people. And along with Luther he believed it was the final authority in any subject it addressed. Foxe describes an argument with a “learned” but “blasphemous” clergyman, who had asserted to Tyndale that, “We had better be without God’s laws than the Pope’s.” In a swelling of emotion, Tyndale made his response: “I defy the Pope, and all his laws; and if God spares my life, I will cause the boy that drives the plow in England to know more of the scriptures than the Pope himself!” Tyndale left for London in 1523 to seek permission to
14] Unpublished WORD
the Church. In particular, he hoped for support from Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall, a well-known classicist whom Erasmus had praised after working with him on a Greek New Testament. However, the bishop did not regard Tyndale’s scholarly credentials highly, was suspicious of his theology and, like many highly placed churchmen, was uncomfortable with the idea of the Bible in the common vernacular. The Church at this time did not deem that a new English translation of Scripture would be helpful. Tunstall told Tyndale he had no room for him in his household. Tyndale preached and studied “at his book” in London for some time, relying financially on the help of a cloth merchant, Humphrey Monmouth. He then left England under a pseudonym and landed at Hamburg in 1524 with the work he had done so far on his translation of the New Testament. He completed his translation in 1525, with assistance from Observant Friar William Roy. In it was not until 1526 that a full edition of the New Testament was produced by the printer Peter Schoeffer in Worms, an imperial free city then in the process of adopting Lutheranism. More copies were soon being printed in Antwerp. The book was smuggled into England and Scotland, and was condemned in October 1526 by Tunstall, who issued warnings to booksellers and had copies burned in public. Following the publication of Tyndale’s New Testament, Cardinal Wolsey condemned Tyndale as a heretic and demanded his arrest. Tyndale went into hiding, possibly for a time in Hamburg, and carried on working. It is believed he met with Luther in Wittenberg under an alias, “Elad-nyt,” Tyndale spelled backwards. He revised his New Testament and began translating the Old Testament and writing various treatises. In 1530, he wrote The Practyse of Prelates, opposing Henry VIII’s divorce on the grounds that it was unscriptural and was a plot by Cardinal Wolsey to get Henry entangled in the papal courts. This resulted in the king’s wrath being directed at him. He asked the emperor Charles V to have Tyndale apprehended and returned to England. Eventually, Tyndale was betrayed to the authorities by Henry Phillips. He was seized in Antwerp in 1535, and held in the castle of Vilvoorde near Brussels. He was tried on a charge of heresy in 1536 and condemned to death, despite Thomas Cromwell’s intercession on his behalf. He “was strangled to death while tied at the stake, and then his dead body was burned.” The traditional date of commemoration (death) is October 6, but records of Tyndale’s imprisonment suggest the date might have been some weeks earlier. Tyndale’s final words, spoken “at the stake with a fervent zeal, and a loud voice,” were reported as “Lord! Open the King of England’s eyes.” This prayer was answered in 16ll through King James of England.
John
Calvin Martin Luther had appeared a mediating position between Luther and Zwingli on the
before Charles V at Worms and had subsequently translated the Greek New Testament into German. Even before Calvin’s conversion, the Reformed Church, founded by Zwingli, had arisen to challenge not only Rome but also the Lutheran Reformers. By this time (ca. 1530), the writings of both the German and the Swiss Reformers were finding an eager audience in France. It was not until Calvin had left Paris for Orleans to study law that he came under the influence of the new Protestant movement. Nowhere in Europe did the Renaissance provide greater preparation for the Reformation than in France. John Calvin was born in Noyon on July 10, 1509, the second of four sons born to Gerard Calvin and his wife, Jeanne le France. Calvin’s education was underwritten by certain benefices provided by income derived from endowed altars and churches in the diocese. Calvin was probably twelve when he was sent to Paris to study at the College de la Marche. After about a year Calvin transferred to the College de Montaigu. During his Paris years he was a diligent student, sleeping little and studying much. After completing his bachelor’s degree, Calvin earned his master’s in philosophy in 1526. Therefore, in accordance with his father’s wishes, he left Paris for the University at Orleans, which was famous for its law faculty. Calvin’s inner turning from Rome to Christ must have occurred while he was still a law student. Many date Calvin’s conversion in his twenty-fourth year. Apparently while still at Bourges Calvin began to preach, although he was not ordained. Calvin was forced to leave Paris in 1533 when his friend Nicholas Cop, the rector of the university, became the victim of Catholic reaction to his inaugural address on All Saints’ Day. Calvin may have gotten his idea for the Institutes during his years as a law student. All law students had to become thoroughly familiar with the Body of Civil Law. The Apostles’ Creed provided the outline for the Institutes, as it had for the confessional statements of Luther, Hubmaier, and others. Little did Calvin realize when the Institutes were published in 1536 that this was only the first edition of a book that would demand his best efforts for the next twentythree years. He wrote the original text in Latin. His French translation did not come out until 1541, two years after the greatly enlarged edition of 1539. Like Luther and Zwingli, he held to only two sacraments: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Like Luther, he affirmed that infants have faith, and like Zwingli, he asserted that infant baptism under the New Covenant is analogous to circumcision in the Old. Therefore he rejected the Anabaptist insistence upon believer’s baptism. He took
Lord’s Supper, admitting that it had been very difficult for him to read Zwingli’s works on the subject. However, with Zwingli he emphasized the Lord’s Supper as a thanksgiving remembrance, and a confession of one’s faith in the atoning work of Christ. The form of the doctrine set forth here by Calvin is known as double predestination, which means that every person is destined to be either saved or lost. God’s choice of individuals in the matter did not rest upon foreknowledge— even though God possessed this knowledge—but upon His own sovereign and inscrutable will. He remained convinced that Augustine as well as the Scriptures taught such a doctrine. Few works on theology have had the influence that Calvin’s Institutes have had. Luther, Zwingli, Melanchthon, Balthasar Hubmaier, Menno Simons, Pilgram Marpeck, and William Farel had all attempted something of the kind, but none was able to produce a work with the thoroughness, erudition, and force of the Institutes. The Reformation had already been officially established in Geneva by the time Calvin arrived on the scene, though the acceptance of the Reformed faith was not altogether a spontaneous response of a people moved by an overwhelming spiritual concern. As a careful reading of Willem Balke’s Calvin and the Anabaptist Radicals will reveal, Calvin first wrote against the Anabaptists from hearsay. At the time—in 1534—he had no personal knowledge of Anabaptism, as he himself admitted: “They are said to circulate their follies in a kind of Tracts, which I have never happened to see.” He continually confused the Swiss Brethren, the South German Anabaptists, and the Mennonites with the Münsterites. Calvin’s legacy was an expansive one that far exceeded the boundaries of Geneva. Indeed, Geneva became a center of refuge for oppressed Protestants from many nations—including the Italians, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, Scottish, and English—as well as numerous scholars, preachers, and students from France. Calvin, a Frenchman who never forgot his roots, was the natural leader of these oppressed people. He possessed a French mentality shaped by a distinct French culture, and he had a burning desire to see France won for the Reformation. By 1555 the first formally organized reformed churches began to appear in France. Ten years later French Protestantism suffered its severest blow with the massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day. The occasion for the infamous massacre was the marriage of Catherine de Medici’s daughter, Margaret of Valois, to Henry Navarre. Paris was filled with Huguenot gentlemen who had come to the capital for the auspicious occasion, certain that it meant victory for the Protestant cause.
Unpublished WORD [15
By Dr. Charles Keen The Local Church: The Basic Unit In World Evangelism
TODAY we live in a world of international possibility. We have some challenges the New Testament church did not have to face. If we are not careful we subconsciously look to the technology that is available as replacement for divine power, or we can allow the parachurch ministries to replace the first line of defense that belongs to the church. It is time for our churches to feel the full responsibility of their command to go into all the world and preach the gospel and then develop their ministry approach around that vision. Using other available options as tools but not as replacements for the church, technology cannot replace the church’s need for power and the parachurch organizations cannot alleviate the local church of her responsibility of providing the manpower needed in worldwide conquest. We need to return to the belief that the local church is the basic unit in world evangelism, and then realize the major assignment for the local church is church planting, both at home and in the cross cultural mission effort. Allow me to support from a Biblical position my two observations: 1). The church is the basic unit in world evangelism, and 2). the major assignment for the church is church planting. That the church is the basic unit for world evangelism is evident from the fact that Jesus, Who came to save the world from sin, was the founder of the church. “…Upon this rock I will build My church…”(Matthew 16:18). After He founded the church He deployed it, on five different occasions between His resurrection and ascension, into all the world to make disciples. Now believing He had given His life for the sins of the world and knowing He wanted to save those lost and they must be reached and told of His sacrifice if His work was to be efficient in their salvation and if God was to receive eternal glory from them, I would think it would be safe to assume this all-knowing God would choose the way that would be most successful in global propagation. Realizing how much for both God and man was riding on the gospel going into all the world, did He know what the centuries would 16] Unpublished WORD
produce in technology and other organizational structures? He is Alpha and Omega, knowing the beginning from the end. Having perfect knowledge of all things in all times, past, present and future, and knowing the importance of the gospel being spread globally, He chose the church as its basic unit of global evangelism. I do not say technology or parachurch efforts are wrong in every case (I believe God uses them in the absence of the church’s availability) and I believe technology can be a handmaiden for the church in her assignment, but not a replacement. Not only is the church the basic unit in world evangelism, but church planting is also the major goal for the church as it attempts world evangelism. Once again, Jesus was the first and original church planter. And as we read the New Testament, we see that is the major activity of Paul, the model missionary. If a missionary-minded church planter plants a church, that newly planted church will have church planting in its DNA. It is believed the Church at Ephesus started the other six churches named in Revelation chapters two and three. Paul planted several of the New Testament churches personally, but not all, which shows churches must have been planting churches. He must have seen church planting as the most efficient way to accomplish world evangelism. He saw the new church as a source for personnel, funds, and prayer, all needed for success and all found in the local church. What must not be overlooked in church planting is not just mission field responsibility. It is needed in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, as well as the uttermost. We need newly birthed churches in all the world and while we work toward planting them in cross-cultural settings, they need to be planted in our homeland. In Acts 1:8 Jesus said, “… First both…” We should not stop working at home and Baptist go abroad, but rather, work abroad while working Church at home. Jesus and Paul had a holistic vision of the world, as did the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). Our plea is not that we discontinue past activity, but rather add the unreached to it.
In OUr neXt IssUe Rev. Ken Fielder, FBI Assistant Director, will report on the February 2009 trip to India. A team of 9 will host a Pastor’s Conference at South India Baptist Bible College where we are expecting 250 Pastors to attend. The goal of this meeting is to inspire and instruct concerning the vital necessity of Bible translation and church planting among the unreached people groups.
brochures
HIS CaLENDaR is to assist in systematic prayer for the top 100 Unreached People Groups. Three or four people groups are ed for each day with a few facts to help you ay: the country in which they live, the number people who speak that language, and their minant religion. Please pray for: • the Bible to be translated into these languages • nationals to be trained • God to send laborers • the strongholds of Satan to be broken
ople group formal definition: a sociological ouping of individuals who perceive mselves to have an affinity for each other due language, ethnicity, location, occupation, d/or geographical location. Usually there a common self-name, a sense of common ntity, common history, customs, family and n identities, as well as marriage rules and actices, age-grades and other obligation venants, inheritance patterns and rules. ese are some of the common ethnic factors fining or distinguishing a people. What they l themselves may vary at different levels of ntity, or among various sub-groups.
ople group working definition: A group of ople through whom information can travel hindered.
a monthly calendar
Praying
through
10/40 WINDOW W THE
T
They are on His heart & in our hands.
A Ministry of frAnklin roAd BAptist ChurCh dr. Mike norris, Pastor ChArles f. keen, General Director 3148 franklin road Murfreesboro, tn 37128
Prayer Calendar
Bible Project and Funding
helps you pray for the top 100 unreached people groups systematically each month. $5.00/50
is a detailed description of the goals and funding structure of FirstBible. $5.00/50
Cycle of Obedience
by the Captain of our Salvation. We must pray, pay and train personnel to extend ourselves to the regions that are still beyond us. We need to let God create a vision in us for the unreached people in the 10/40 Window that, in turn, will cause a burden to evangelize them for His glory. This requires a commitment resulting in a strategy at which time we will see the realization of our vision. Allow me to remind you of two things:
Five levels of activity leading to the accomplishment of the Great Commission. $5.00/50
1) If we are not careful, because of the War on Terror, we will forget God loves the Islamic peoples of this world. He wants some from every one of their nation’s kindred, tribe and tongue glorifying Him throughout eternity. 2) In this war of all wars…we win. I have read the back of the Book. I don’t see any false religion surviving, but I do see the Church mentioned on the last page and in the last chapter. Don’t lose heart nor faith…Jesus said the gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church. We see the Church in eternity at the marriage of the Lamb, at the marriage supper and ruling and reigning with Christ a thousand years. As the song which Curtis Hutson made famous says, “WE’RE ON THE WINNING SIDE!”
10/40 WINDOW
101
They are on His heart and in our hands.
A Ministry of frAnklin roAd BAptist ChurCh dr. Mike norris, Pastor
ChArles f. keen, General Director 3148 franklin road Murfreesboro, tn 37128 phone: (615) 796-0043 e-mail: keen@firstbible.net
phone: (615) 796-0043 e-mail: info@firstbible.net web: www.firstbible.net
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10/40 Window 101 explains
the basic information about the location of the 66 countries that contain 97% of the unreached people groups. $5.00/50
Available in Spanish
Autographs: The original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts written by the inspired writers, which are now unavailable. Byzantine: The Byzantine era is 312-1453 A.D. The texts produced by Erasmus, Beza, etc., which in time became known as forms of the Received Text, were to a very great extent derived from the Byzantine family. Complutensian Polyglot: The Polyglot Bible, conceived in 1502, by Francisco Ximenes de Cisneros (1437-1517) and produced at Alcala (Latin: Complutum) in Spain, was an edition in which the Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin Vulgate texts appeared side by side. The fifth of the six volumes contained the text of the New Testament in Greek, and a Greek glossary with Latin equivalents. This was printed in 1514 (as the first printed Greek New Testament), but the Polyglot was not actually published until 1520, and then not generally circulated until 1522. Critical texts: Texts constructed without adequate regard to the historical place given to manuscripts and particular readings within the church and relying on a few old, but nevertheless unrepresentative, manuscripts and readings which have lain in obscurity for many centuries. Critical texts are such as the Westcott/Hort or Nestle/Aland texts, both of which rely heavily upon Codex Sinaiticus, Aleph -01 (4th cent.) and Codex Vaticanus, B-03 (4th cent.). Dynamic equivalence: The principle of translation that attempts to recreate on the reader of the receptor language the impact the original text had on the original recipients, without being bound literally to reproduce the words as nearly as possible. The translator then assumes the role of interpreter, to determine the thought intended in the original. (This often results in an interpretative paraphrase that has little or no relationship to the original language text.) While all translations may need to employ dynamic equivalence to a limited extent, FirstBible International rejects the extensive and unnecessary use of this method of translation.
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five smooth stones
is a plan to get the gospel to restricted access nations. $5.00/50
ChArles f. keen, General Director 3148 franklin road Murfreesboro, tn 37128
My Faith ProMise CoMMitMent ent for World-wide Missions “...when when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you... to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you...” II Cor. 10:15-16
Chu rch Planting
Of the More than 6,000 Languages & Dialects, Less than 400 Have the Whole Bible Translated and Published
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My Faith ProM ProMise Pro M ise CoMMitMent CoMM Co MMit MM it M ent itM oADULT oTEEN oCHILD promised each week: Other:____ o $20
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97% of the Unreached People Groups, Which Represent 66 Nations, Reside in the 10/40 Window
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g • Nationa ishin lT ubl
It All Begins With The Word
describes the burden and goals of FBI to reach the over 6,000 unreached people groups. $5.00/50
Available in Spanish
“...when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you... to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you...” II Cor. 10:15-16
A Ministry of frAnklin roAd BAptist ChurCh dr. Mike norris, Pastor
is a program for enlisting the prayers of the church for unreached people groups. $5.00/50
It All Begins with
The WORD Bibl eP
economic Evangelism
Uttermost Prayer Band Brochure
Indicate on attached perforated card the amount you promise to give each week during the coming year for world-wide missions. You will not be asked for it. It is your voluntary offering promised to God.
In addition to my Faith Promise giving, I commit $_________ monthly to Bible Publishing.
o$200 o 18 o 150 o 15 o 100 o 12 o 75 o 10 o 60 o 7 o 50 o 5 o 40 o 2.50 o 35 Other:____
SUBTOTAL:______ In addition to my Faith promise giving, I commit $_______ monthly to Bible publ. TOTAL:_______
ing • Church blish P Pu
ting lan
My Faith for World-wi ...when your ProMise de Missions to preach the faith is increased, that CoMMitMe gospel in the we shall be nt enlarged regions beyond you...” II Cor. by you... oADULT 10:15-16 oTEEN In dependence oCHILD $___________ upon God’s provision promised each I will endeavorFaith ProMise _ week: Other:____ work of my each week toward the My to give ent world-wide church, believing o $20 missionary able! CoMMitM o$200 o that if I’m Ment 18 willing, God o 150 is oTEEN o 15 Mise CoMMit o ide Missions oADULT 100 signature: o 12 World-w oCHILD o 75 for by you... ____________ be enlarged ____________ o 60 o 10 each week: that we shallyou...” II Cor. 10:15-16 ____________ o 7 promised increased, on attached $20 sIndicate _____ o o 50 o beyond perforated card give Other:____ the regions 18 40 in each 5 el week during the amount o o the coming year you o 2.50 o$200 You will not promise to 15 35 give o o to world-wide be asked for for Other:____ it.will o God. o 150 It isendeavor 12 missions. your voluntary o SUBTOTAL:_ provision I 100 missionary offering promised o upon God’s _____ o 10 the world-wide God is neach 7 to o 75 addition In addition weektotoward o if I’m willing, my Faith my Faith that Promise o 60 promise onthly believing o 5giving, giving, I commit Bible Publishing. hurch, to 50 o $_________ I commit $_______ o 2.50 o 40 Other:____ monthly to Bible ______ publ. o 35 ___________ ______ ___________ to SUBTOTAL: TOTAL:_____ ___________ you promise __ to my Faith missions. card the amount In addition ached perforated year for world-wide promised coming promise giving, $_______ k during the It is your voluntary offering I commit it. e asked for to Bible publ.
will help you understand the words and definitions used in the discussion of Bible translations. $5.00/50
Economic Evangelism
ning rai
Apographs: Copies of the original and inspired manuscripts. FirstBible International (following the Traditional Text of the Protestant Church) regards the Masoretic Hebrew and Greek Received texts as the best representatives of the Autographs.
Glossary of Translation Terms
Bibl e
Ancient Versions: For example, the Septuagint, Peshitta, Coptic (Sahidic or Thebaic, and Bohairic), Ethiopic, Old Latin (Vetus Itala), and Vulgate, produced in the first few centuries of the Christian era.
97% of the Unreached People Groups, Which Represent 66 Nations, Reside in the 10/40 Window
Uttermost Prayer Band Bookmarks Prayer reminders
for the 3,400 least reached people groups. $39.95/Entire Set (377) $12.95/Continent Set: Asia A (a-j) (107) Asia B (k-z) (75) Africa (79) Europe/Oceania (66) Americas (50)
Nat ional Training
It All Begins with
The Word Of the More than 6,000 Languages & Dialects, Less than 400 Have the Whole Bible Translated and Published
It All Begins with The Word Bookmark
defines the 10/40 Window and lists the 66 countries within it. Use this convenient 2" x 7" bookmark as a prayer list. $5.00/50
to order these items:615.796.0043 or www.firstbible.net
2009 gOaLs: We have some large but attainable goals for FirstBible International in 2009: 1. We are praying God will allow us to add 5 new state churches to our family of churches that have stand alone FBI ministries. 2. We are asking God to raise up two men, one for Mongolia and the other for India as their country responsibility, making the churches of America aware of the possibility and needs in those countries for unreached people. 3. We hope in the summer of 2009 to launch our first and limited enrollment at Crown College in the area of Linguistics.
VIsIOn stateMent: Serving the local church in her effort to RE-ENTER the Scripture publishing ministry, realizing she must provide the Bible for the WHOLE world, delivering it to the trained national in his MOTHER tongue with the GOAL of church planting for the GLORY of God.
18] Unpublished WORD
MISSIONARY DISTRIBUTION FACTS PREPARED BY GIL ANGER, 2004 POPULATION and NUMBER of MISSIONARIES by AREA
“It is His command– not your call.�
AFRICA
CHARLES F. KEEN
Population......................................................737,000,000 Number of Countries .....................................................56 Number of Fundamental Baptist Missionaries .............401 Countries without a Fundamental Baptist Missionary....20
AMERICAS (Minus U.S.A.)
Population......................................................551,000,000 Number of Countries .....................................................47 Number of Fundamental Baptist Missionaries ...........1071 Countries without a Fundamental Baptist Missionary......7
ASIA/PACIFIC
Population...................................................3,241,000,000 Number of Countries .....................................................43 Number of Fundamental Baptist Missionaries .............565 Countries without a Fundamental Baptist Missionary.... 11
EUROPE
Population......................................................728,000,000 Number of Countries .....................................................48 Number of Fundamental Baptist Missionaries .............577 Countries without a Fundamental Baptist Missionary....15
MIDDLE EAST
Population......................................................545,000,000 Number of Countries .....................................................28 Number of Fundamental Baptist Missionaries ...............14 Countries without a Fundamental Baptist Missionary....19
2008 national Conference DVD’s 6 teaching sessions on two DVD’s from the FirstBible National Conference on Reaching the Unreached held in March 2008 at Franklin Road Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, TN. These sessions by Dr. Charles Keen, Dr. Mike Norris, Ken Fielder and Gary Wimberly will inform, inspire and help you develop strategies for reaching the unreached people groups of our world. Order yours today!
$
10
• Email info@firstbible.net. per set Be sure to include complete shipping information and phone number or • Call 615-796-0043
cds/dvds J100 Minijacket
What is FirstBible All About?
freehand 1/15/02
We have a missions emergency in the world today. More than 3.2 billion people have never heard the gospel. More than 6,000 people groups are without a church or a Bible in their language. And a large part of the third-world is dying at half our age. Can this crisis be solved in our generation?
www.firstbible.net
FirstBible International believes it can! This 8-minute video presents a practical strategy for getting the gospel to the unreached people of the world.
-ULTI -EDIA 6IDEO
For more information: FirstBible International 3148 Franklin Rd. Murfreesboro, TN 37128 615.796.0043
MIN Sermon CD Dr. Charles Keen, DireCtor
Dr. Charles Keen, General Director
Dr. Charles Keen
www.FirstBible.net
$ ) 2 % # 4/ 2
WWW lRSTBIBLE NET
What is FirstBible? Sermon CD Dr. Keen explains the missions philosophy of FirstBible Int. $5.00
Introductory DVD is an introduction to the ministry of FirstBible Int. (8 min.) $5.00
www.willowlakeproductions.com sales rep: 1st ofa date: artist: cust: control: job #: rel #:
Mongolia Project DVD is a 30-minute
documentary showing what God is doing in the uttermost. $10.00
Back Cover
Front Cover
Emergency DVD
shows the urgent need of today’s church members to reach the world’s unreached people. (8 min.) $10.00
to order these items:615.796.0043 or www.firstbible.net
TUR
Y Historic Meeting in Western Asia KE 2008
er Field n e By K
B
aptist International Evangelistic Ministries (BIEM) based in Danville, Indiana, has a wonderful record of establishing churches and training nationals in Russia and the Ukraine for almost thirty years and has begun in the last three or four years to reach into the Muslim world. In mid 2008 I was invited by Bob McQueary, the Western Asia Director of BIEM, to participate in a national training week for Western and Central Asian pastors and missionaries to be held the second week of December. FirstBible was privileged to partner with BIEM financially to help make this training week happen. Initially, we hoped for a class of eight to ten students who could be trained in the areas of church planting and Bible doctrines and be challenged with information about reaching into the Muslim world. This developed quickly into a class of almost forty with students from the nations of Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey with some traveling by bus for over twenty-four hours to this Western Asia destination. By the end of the second day it was obvious that God was moving in the hearts of those in attendance. Pastors were stirred about the Great Commission. Young married couples surrendered their lives to be missionaries to the Muslim world. A pastor from Georgia stated that this was an historic meeting for the churches of western Asia. It was both amazing and humbling to spend a week with these people, some of whom serve in places
20] Unpublished WORD
For the safety of various ministries and God’s servants located in the darkest parts of the Muslim world, some locations and names in this article have been altered.
where there is no freedom of speech or religion and to preach the gospel endangers their very lives. Some of them are baptizing converts who, upon taking this step of obedience to the Lord, are losing everything. Surim, a pastor from Turkmenistan,
has baptized twenty-five believers this year including the daughter of a high political figure. Her only question at her baptism was, “When my family learns of this, they will throw me out. Will you help me find a place to live?” I was deeply challenged by the commitment of another missionary who was thrown in jail six or seven
times. The local authorities where he served finally gathered enough “evidence” against him to forbid him to re-enter the country. God has redirected him to reach the Muslim world of Central Asia. We learned of a church in Kazakhstan led by a national pastor where the believers can only meet after dark and where services often last all night long. Their services consist of a few songs, a message and several hours of fervent, earnest prayer that God will allow them to take the gospel to those who have never heard. Then they pray that the Christians in America will not take freedom for granted and not allow materialism and the things of this world hinder a passion to spread the gospel. This was a life-changing week. I left home with a burden to impact the Muslim world but came back home with a burden far deeper. There is a real moving of God taking place, an awakening concerning the plight of those who live in the darkness of the world’s largest false religion. Some of these nations are more than 99% Muslim. We believe God is specifically calling some of His servants to these lands and placing in their hearts a pioneer spirit and a reckless abandon like those of past centuries who blazed trails for Christ where no one had ever gone before with the gospel. Please join FirstBible in praying that many will heed this call. For the full text of this article, please click on “Recent News” on the home page of www.FirstBible.net.
COUntry Bahrain Libya Maldives Mauritania Oman Qatar Saudi Arabia Somalia Western Sahara Turkey Afghanistan Algeria Iran Mayotte Yemen Gaza Strip Morocco Comoros Tunisia Iraq Pakistan U. Arab Emirates Guinea Jordan Senegal Djibouti Egypt Azerbaijan Niger Gambia Mali Syria Kuwait Bangladesh Indonesia Uzbekistan Turkmenistan Chad Sudan Tajikistan
tOtaL POPUL. % MUsLIM 645,361 5,445,436 270,758 2,336,048 2,186,548 547,761 19,409,058 9,639,151 222,631 66,493,970 26,813,057 30,791,000 66,094,264 100,838 13,483,178 923,940 29,779,156 596,202 9,019,687 21,422,292 144,616,639 3,057,337 7,411,981 4,212,152 9,092,749 427,642 69,536,644 7,771,092 9,113,001 1,204,984 9,653,261 15,608,648 1,950,047 131,269,860 228,437,870 23,418,381 4,149,283 8,707,078 31,547,543 5,916,373
100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 99.60% 99.00% 99.00% 99.00% 99.00% 99.00% 98.70% 98.70% 98.00% 98.00% 97.00% 97.00% 96.00% 95.00% 95.00% 95.00% 94.00% 94.00% 93.40% 91.00% 90.00% 90.00% 90.00% 89.00% 88.00% 88.00% 88.00% 87.00% 85.00% 85.00% 85.00%
Source: www.Factbook.net/muslim_pop.html
A New Heart for Reaching Muslims By Ken Fielder
ecent developments such as 9-11, heightened terrorist activities and increasing numbers of R immigrants from the Islamic world to the West have created many opinions and many emotions toward the Muslim people. Islam has been called everything from a wicked and evil religion founded by a pedophile which suppresses the rights of women and minorities to a religion of tolerance and peace in the tradition of Abraham. Some view them as a cancer that must be cut out of the world. Others seem to be trying to accommodate and assimilate their culture into mainstream America.
We are deeply patriotic and believe America must defend itself from their holy war. But as Christians with a Great Commission, we must realize that the real answer to radical Islam is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Church must not see Muslims first as our enemy, but as our mission field. They are not just machines of mass destruction and pawns in a holy war, they are people. They are parents who love their children. They are children who love to visit Grandpa and Grandma’s house. They have the same difficulties of life we do. They are caught in the Satanic grip of the world’s largest and fastest growing false religion. There are 40 countries which have a Muslim population of 85% or greater. Islam is a religion based in fear and totally void of any concept of a loving God. A former Muslim wrote, “Radical Islam, at its core, is a reflection of a spiritual thirst that can only be quenched through the teaching and the life of Jesus Christ.” While there are wars and rumors of wars all around the globe, the Church must find a new determination of heart to attack Islam with the Truth of the Word of God and the love of Christ.
Librarian’s Choice The Christian in Complete Armour by William Gurnall
I
n this issue of the Unpublished WORD Journal we want to introduce to you William Gurnall (1616-1679), an author not familiar to our ranks, but one whose work would bring you great profit. Gurnall is a graduate from Emmanuel College in Cambridge, England, a university with a heavy Puritan influence. He spent his life as pastor of the Church of Christ, (no association with the one by the same name in the USA), Suffolk, England. The Christian in Complete Armour is in a daily devotional format, though I find for me that is not the best way to read it. Gurnall’s writings will remind you in many ways of Charles Spurgeon’s literature ministry. He says a lot in a few words and is a real word-crafter with deep insight into the divine nature of God and the human nature of man, which makes for wonderful application of His word to our souls. J.C. Ryle expressed his wonder that Gurnall could pen great truth so concisely and in so few words. My edition is from Moody Press, edited by James S. Bell, Jr. All Scriptures are quoted from the 1611 King James Version, but like any work of man you must “eat the fish and leave the bones.” There are few doctrinal bones and none that I have found yet in the areas of Christology or Soteriology. I am not sure this book is for the novice and unlearned, but it may be the best devotional I have found for those off the milk and on meat. Not to mention, it is a resource full of wonderful nuggets for the preacher’s sermons.
Missionaries to the Unreached
recommended by FirstBible International. If you know of others, please send us their prayer card.
NAME & FIELD
PERSONAL CONTACT
SENDING CHURCH
Alan Minks – Japan
alanminks@mac.com www.minksfamily.com
Open Door Baptist Church 405-736-1012
Matt Northcutt – Sibera
info@northboundnorthcuttf.com 704-692-5168
Emmanuel Baptist Church 704-739-9339
Luiz Nunes – Portugal
ana.luiznunes@bol.com.br 803-288-0940
North Point Baptist Church 770-834-6728
Olacheas – Bible Translation
olacheadj@yahoo.com
Central Baptist Church 352-694-2212
Jeff O’Derry – Madagascar
jeff@theoderrys.com 617-4928-6633 Australia
Lighthouse Baptist Church
Mike Paris – Israel
mikeparis2@juno.com 615-330-0274
Franklin Road Baptist Church 615-890-0820
Bill Patterson – Mongolia
bpatterson@mtabarim.org
Riverview Baptist Church 509-547-2021
Paul Scott – Vietnam
PLScott7@yahoo.ccom
Emmanuel Baptist Bible Church 315-564-6087
Jerry Sellers – Nepal
jwsellers@juno.com 731-616-7278 or 7277
Bethlehem Baptist Church
Jesse Shanks – Togo, W. Africa shanks@bimi.org 503-348-8672 22] Unpublished WORD
Greater Portland Baptist Church
503-761-1136
O pen DOOr SchOOl prOject
For a great door and effectual is opened unto me... 1Corinthians 16:9
An open door to communicate the Gospel through the public school systems in Latin America. Cristobal Yanez, a former public school teacher now missionary sent from Mission Boulevard Baptist Church, has written a religion class textbook, Learn With Jesus, approved by the Panamanian Ministry of Education for use in Panama public schools. The book has been requested in other Latin American countries. Our goal is to print and distribute the book, both in Panama and in other countries.
panama school project highlights: • This school year, all 250,000 4th, 5th, and 6th graders in Panama are receiving the textbook free with a copy of John and Romans. • For many children in poor areas of the country it will be the only textbook they have! • All elementary grade teachers are receiving a free New Testament. • Future plans include expanding the book project in Panama to Junior High and High School students, as well as continuing to provide textbooks to primary school students. Also, pilot projects have been requested for Colombia and Nicaragua.
About two dollars will put the book in the hands of one child. Adopt an average classroom for $50, an average school for $600, and an average town for $3,000!
CriStoBal yanez Missionary Book Author Project Director
roBert CreeCh Missionary to Panama Sent by Mission Blvd Baptist Church Project Founder
Send donationS to:
Panama School Project C/O: Mission Blvd. Baptist Church PO Box 2935 Fayetteville, AR 72702-2935
projeCt info availaBle at:
http://www.panamaschoolproject.com http://opendoorprojects.blogspot.com Email: rcreechiec@yahoo.com
learn With jeSuS
ISBN: 978-9962-00-543-8
Help take advantage of this open door that exists in Panama, Colombia, and other countries. SponSoring ChurCh: Mission Boulevard Baptist Church is an independent Baptist Church located in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The church’s website is www.mbbc.us. BookS printed By: Bearing Precious Seed in Milford, Ohio. The ministry website is www.bpsmilford.org.
resources You Can Do It!
Unreached People Group New Testament A
People Group Pamphlets
New Testament for 6,000 language groups presently being used worldwide. $12.00
defines what a people group is and the best way to reach them for Christ. (8 pages) $2.00
10/40 Window Placemats are
www.firstbible.net
“A Fundamental Approach to the 10/40 Window”
Let’s Spread The Word!
Bible Lessons
beginners, primaries & juniors
A Heart for the Harvest
10" x 14" and are designed to use at your mission banquets. $10.00/set of 50
“For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.” —Acts 13:47
Let’s Spread the Word A four
week children’s Sunday School series with visuals by Rhonda Brown. (87 pages) $24.95
A Heart for the Harvest large booklet shows graphics and statistics for the great need of the harvest. (12 pages) $3.00
India
MONGOLS of
Mongolia
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THE QUART
ERLY MISSI
ONS JOURN
AL OF FIRST
BIBLE INTER
NATIONAL
Unreached People Posters are uniquely
designed to decorate your church or school or to use as a weekly prayer reminder. These 12 x 18 posters come in sets of 12 different people groups. $18.00/set of 12
Quarterly Magazine
The Unpublished WORD gives up-to-date ministry information.
**free as available for pastors > IN THIS ISSU E: New Partnershi p: Amy Carmichae Translation Training Cent l’s Dream er in India The Regions Beyond: Havin g No More Place in These Parts
The 10/40 WindoW www.firstbible.net POSTER Mongolia 11 x 17.indd 1
6/12/07 8:44:52 AM
*quantity discounts available
to order these items:615.796.0043 or www.firstbible.net
3148 Franklin Road Murfreesboro, TN 37128
www.firstbible.net “A Fundamental Approach to the 10/40 Window”