{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"52 Defining Faith and The Long Walk","description":"After being directly involved in Bible translation since 1983, I have wanted to share with younger generations about the things I have learned from my experiences as a Bible translator\u2014 the things that made the most impact on me through my years. I have now decided to put a few of my most important stories in this JoySightings podcast. I know that I am never going to write a book. But now if anyone ever asks about my experiences, I will have a place to send them: Go to JoySightings.info and start at episode 52. I hope to add several other stories this year. Today I will also read one more parable of Safed the Sage. When we were about 7-8 years into the Orya translation project, back around 1991, Nahe asked one Sunday morning to have a private conversation with me. Nahe and I had never had much communication, so I felt it was an unusual request. I knew him mainly as a young guy who made his income by cutting trees into lumber with his chainsaw. He was strong and athletic, but a man of few words. He came that evening and we sat down together in my candle-lit rustic cabin\u2019s front room. He said, \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t have heard this, because it happened in another village. I got very sick and died. When I came back to life, the men were already building my coffin. But while I was dead, I went to heaven and saw wonderful things. The people in heaven are so happy and rejoicing.\u201d He ended his story with tears in his eyes saying this, \u201cI cry every single day because I know that someone like me can\u2019t go to heaven. What do I have to do to be saved?\u201d I thought, \u201cOh boy! A chance to be a real missionary! This will make a good prayer letter.\u201d (But I was in for a surprise!) I immediately answered his question from the book of Acts chapter 16, \u201cBelieve in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.\u201d (Acts 16:31) Nahe answered, \u201cThat\u2019s just it! How can I tell if I have believed?\u201d I responded incredulously, \u201cCan\u2019t you tell if you\u2019ve believed something?\u201d And he said, \u201cWe Orya people don\u2019t think so.\u201d That\u2019s how the conversation went according to my understanding of it in those moments. But what we said really meant this: I answered wrongly from the book of Acts, \u201cHave faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.\u201d Nahe\u2019s answer made sense, \u201cThat\u2019s just it! How can I tell if I have faith?\u201d I responded incredulously, \u201cCan\u2019t you tell if you have faith?\u201d And he said, \u201cWe Orya people don\u2019t think so.\u201d The difference is between \u2018believe\u2019 and \u2018faith\u2019. It took a little while in the conversation before I figured out what Nahe was saying. This was a heavy moment for me, because I realized that the word for \u2018believe\u2019 that we had used in all our translation work for six years was wrong, including verses in Scripture booklets we had carefully checked and distributed. Long before we arrived in Guay, the word that the Orya people used to translate \u2018faith\u2019 was ei gwen, or to have \u2018inner fruit\u2019. By \u2018inner fruit\u2019 the Orya meant the inside part that you eat when you take off the skin. It\u2019s the inside of the papaya or watermelon. The situation might be compared to buying a papaya at the market. You don\u2019t know whether the inside is red or yellow until you take it home and cut it open. Nahe told me that the Orya people assumed that you couldn\u2019t know if you had this inner fruit (or faith) inside you until you died. They thought that at the door of heaven, God would somehow do an operation to reveal if you had any of the right stuff inside you. It was clear that if we used \u2018have inner fruit\u2019 to translate \u2018believe\u2019, then no Orya person could tell if they had done the required action to be saved. No one could have assurance of salvation! After that Sunday evening conversation with Nahe, all day Monday Boas and I and several others worked to make sure we found exactly the right word for \u2018believe\u2019 in Orya. The word for believe in Orya is not ei gwen, but ta\u00efbl\u00efblan. There is a weird twist that has happened with the words for faith and believe in several languages that is not like the Greek words pisteuo and pistis. The Greek words have the same root, so they sound alike.   Greek English Indonesian Orya verb pisteuo I believe Saya percaya ta\u00efbl\u00efblan noun pistis faith iman ei gwen visually clearly related dissimilar dissimilar dissimilar If only pisteuo (I believe) and pistis\/pisteos (noun\/possesive noun) were translated into English with similar looking words like \u2018I\u2019m confident\u2019 and \u2018confidence\u2019, we wouldn\u2019t have so many false teachings being spread around! But because \u2018believe\u2019 and \u2018faith\u2019 share no visible or audible root relationship, the English noun faith has been allowed to wander\u2014 so to speak. The cohesion between pisteuo and pistis that was obvious for the original readers in Grrek has been lost in translation. Perhaps because of the influence of the KJV on Indonesian translations, the same thing has happened in Indonesian. The result is that the Indonesian word iman (like \u2018faith\u2019 in English) is used for all sorts of things, including inner fortitude, vague hope, blind trust, denominational faith, and a force for good luck. Notice what happens in verses like Ephesians 2:8: \u201cFor by grace you have been saved through faith. \u2026\u201d If you want to be saved, it would be a good idea to understand \u2018faith\u2019. But so many people who ask Nahe\u2019s question, \u201cHow can I tell if I have faith,\u201d will get all sorts of misleading answers. Dear friend, anytime you want to understand what \u2018faith\u2019 means in a verse in the New Testament, just remember that you can substitute the word \u2018believe\u2019, \u2018believed\u2019, or \u2018believing\u2019 (whatever form fits) in place of the word \u2018faith\u2019. NLT translates Ephesians 2:8 as \u201cGod saved you by his grace when you believed. \u2026\u201d If you substitute the word \u2018believe\u2019 for \u2018faith\u2019 in translations that use that word, you will probably find that you want to add an object. You can choose an object from the context such as these: \u2018believe in Christ\u2019, \u2018believe in the gospel\u2019, \u2018believe true teachings\u2019, or \u2018believe God\u2019s promises\u2019. Now you know why in the Daily Bible Reading podcasts that I always substitute the word \u2018believe\u2019 or \u2018fully believing\u2019 for \u2018faith\u2019 in the NLT or GNT. It all stems from my conversation with Nahe. You see, I want people to know how to be saved. Note that believing is a volitional act. We decide to believe, and we better hope our decisions are based on good logic and evidence. That is what makes it so different from the word \u2018faith\u2019. People believe that \u2018faith\u2019 just sort of happens. False teachers make money by promoting all sorts of things that they claim will increase your faith. But remember that in Greek, faith is the noun form for the verb believe. So if God gives you clear evidence of his power and love for you, like He did when he led the people of Israel out of Egypt, and then you refuse to believe in his good will for you, that is called stubborn disobedience. Believing is a volitional act. Deciding to believe what God says equals increasing your faith. I wish I could tell you that Nahe followed through with my advice to fully believe in Jesus. Nahe\u2019s widow goes to close friend Boas\u2019 church, and I happened to meet her in his village two years ago. We both feel that Nahe never believed in Jesus to the point that it changed his life. But, interestingly, on that same visit to Boas\u2019 village, two old friends there told me stories of their dying, going to heaven, and being told to return to this world. (If you ever experienced malaria, you would know how easy it would be to nearly die!) I am encouraged that both of my two old friends show signs of true new life in Christ. Friends, I want everyone to get a clear answer to the question, \u201cHow can I be sure I am saved?\u201d I want you to not get confused by the fuzzy word \u2018faith\u2019. Remember, faith is fully believing what the Bible says. Every time you read God\u2019s Word and decide that you believe what you find there, you have increased your faith.   ","author_name":"joysightings","author_url":"http:\/\/joysightings.info","html":"