English is the most dominant global language ever. So why are we at Desiring God doing so much work to translate our resources into other tongues? Why not just spend the same amount of time, money, and effort teaching people to read our English resources rather than doing the hard (and sometimes messy) work of translation?

To answer this and other questions about translation, I've written an article titled "A Justification for Translation." It is mainly an attempt to distill the wisdom that scholars Andrew Walls and Lamin Sanneh have shared on the subject.

If you're pressed for time and just want the main idea, here's an outline:

1. Translation is essential to the Christian faith because it …

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Tim Challies has done a helpful work in compiling a list of at least 12 songs (10 of which are hip-hop) that either feature John Piper preaching or have been directly influenced by him or one of his books.

The list consists of

• "Don't Waste Your Life" by Lecrae
• "Make War" and "This Song's for You" by Tedashii
• "All-Consuming Fire" and "My Portion" by Shai Linne
• "Who He Is" by Json
• "Unstoppable" and "Desiring God" by Voice
• "Sanctification" by Timothy Brindle
• "Actions Speak Louder" by Swoope
• "The Glory of God" by Matt Papa
• "The Best Is Yet to Come" by The Joy Eternal

See Challies' post for links to watch or listen to these songs.

Being a Christian doesn’t only mean that you assent to a certain set of doctrines. There are other equally important things that must be true. Jonathan Edwards explains.

It is essential to Christianity

• that we repent of our sins,
• that we be convinced of our own sinfulness,
• that we are sensible we have justly exposed ourselves to God’s wrath,
• that our hearts do renounce all sin,
• that we do with our whole hearts embrace Christ as our only Saviour;
• that we love him above all, and
• are willing for his sake to forsake all, and
• that we do give up ourselves to be entirely and forever his.

Religious Affections, 334; bullets added.

________

Recent posts from "They Still Spe…

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Along with the amazing growth of the church and the Internet in China, Christian publishing is also blossoming in a remarkable way.

We posted Michael Haykin’s thoroughly interesting and informational article about this last January. In it he listed some encouraging statistics, like,

• There are 167,000 bookstores in China.
• Over the past ten years, more than 200 Christian bookstores have opened throughout China.
• 6.3 billion domestically-published books were sold in China in 2007.
• Currently, the total number of Christian books in legal circulation in China is approximately 600, using a broad definition of “Christian.” About 50 to 60 new titles are being added each year.
• Of that 600,…

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The church isn’t the only thing growing in China. Like in so many other countries these days, Internet use is booming too. At the Chinese government’s last official counting (June, 2010), 420 million of its people were online. No doubt there are millions more by now.

Along with the Internet, social media is also catching on. China Daily recently reported that over 300 million Chinese are registered micro-blog (think Twitter) users.

We’re excited about this growth because the Internet and social media are quick, inexpensive, and strategic ways for us to make gospel-centered resources available for the growing Chinese church.

Here are some ways we're working to serve Chinese speakers…

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Both BBC News and Aljazeera have written recently about the tremendous growth and increasing influence of the evangelical church in China. The news is no surprise, especially to those who have been observing and writing about it for a while; but the fact that it is making headlines internationally is a good reminder to the global church of our ongoing need to know the welfare of our own Body.

According to The Lausanne Movement’s recent analysis of five separate sources, the number of Christians in China (Protestant and Catholic) is somewhere around 100 million. Compare this to the estimated 2.3 million in 1920, and marvel at what the Lord has done.

Among today’s 100 million Chinese Chris…

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It is illegal to own a satellite dish in Iran, because, according to the government, the Western channels available exist only to undermine Islam and the Iranian people (see the BBC report). But despite the law many Iranians still covertly install the devices and watch. It was through satellite programming in Iran, in fact, that our friend Hovik met his wife.

Hovik, whose real name we must withhold for security reasons, is a Persian translation partner with Desiring God. He was born and raised in Iran, but when he was twenty-two, to prevent them from having to fight in the Iran–Iraq War, Hovik’s father sent him and his brother to study in California. As an ethnic Armenian, Hovik had always…

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In his article this past Wednesday at Christianity Today, Bishop Hwa Yung considers how mistakes in missions over the past several hundred years have created a sense of guilt in the Western conscience.

But he says it’s important to understand where that guilt really comes from.

The very fact of Western guilt may be one of the supreme evidences for the enduring validity of the gospel in the post-Christian West. For it shows that the gospel has the power to shape the conscience of a culture, even when its propositional claims have been forgotten or largely rejected by that culture.

Then he exhorts Westerners to understand what the correct response to that guilt should be.

Yes, Western guil…

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Since 2008, Joy to the World Ministries (JTW) has been organizing the Chosen Generation Missions Conference in Malawi, Africa. This conference has the primary goal of awakening a passion for global missions among African Christians, especially the young people.

On behalf of JTW, we would like to invite the global church to pray with us for the fourth Chosen Generation Missions Conference, which will be held from July 6-10, 2011. (Read the invitation [PDF].)

The theme of this year’s conference is “Thy Will Be Done,” taken from the third petition in the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:10. They will be exploring God’s will as revealed to us and fulfilled for us in the Lord Jesus Christ, as well …

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Statistics about religion in the Czech Republic, especially in the last 20 years, are startling:

According to the 2001 census, 59% of the country is agnostic, atheist or irreligious . . . . From 1991 to 2001, the number of people identifying with no religion increased by 19.1%, or two million people, representing the largest group increase. Adherence to Christianity decreased by over one million persons.

These numbers are why Wikipedia can summarily state, "The Czech Republic has one of the least religious populations on Earth."

That's not the only news, though. Operation World reports that among Czechs, "New expressions of Christianity are springing up and connecting with the younge…

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