| HIGHLIGHTS OF DAWN | September 2003 |
A Pure Language
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“Then I will turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the LORD, to serve him with one consent.” |
ON JULY 3, 2001, THERE appeared in the U.S. News & World Report magazine, under a section called Vital Statistics, a caption entitled The Tower of Babel is Tumbling Down-Slowly. The article said, “There are thousands of languages in the world, but most of them have few speakers compared with the major tongues. Some experts predict that between 50 and 90 percent of the world’s languages will become extinct this century. Languages need at least 100,000 speakers to survive, a tall order as old cultures wane.”
They then proceeded to present the following statistics:
Number of languages in world: about 6,800
Languages that are nearing extinction: 372
Languages that die out each year: 10
Percentage of world’s languages spoken by 10,000 or fewer people: 50%
By 1,000 or fewer: 25%
Languages with fewer than 10 speakers: 184
Languages listed with the most speakers in the world were as follows:
Language Number of Speakers Chinese(Mandarin) 1.2 billion English 478 million Hindi 437 million Spanish 392 million Russian 284 million Arabic 225 million Portuguese 184 million French 125 million
The dying languages were listed as follows:
CanadaHan—The influx of outsiders during the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898 led to the language’s decline.
BrazilKatukina—Only one native speaker remains among the 300 or so Katukina left in five villages.
United StatesPawnee—Population was reduced by war and disease in the 1800s. Four speakers survive.
PeruTaushiro—Few speakers remain. It’s one of the only languages without consonant sounds like ‘p,’ ‘b,’ or ‘m.’
In the May 27, 2003 issue of the New York Times, a similar topic appeared under the heading, Fading Species and Dying Tongues: When the Two Part Ways. The article said:
“For the past decade, scholars and political activists have been working to get the rest of us worried about the future of the world’s 6,000 or so spoken languages. One tool is an analogy: languages with fewer and fewer speakers, they argue, are like species heading for extinction.
ENDANGERED LANGUAGES
“A paper published on May 15 in Nature gives the comparison a statistical basis. The analysis, by Prof. William J. Sutherland of the University of East Anglia, notes that when standard measures of species risk are applied to language communities, human tongues come out even more endangered than the animals.”
It is through the use of this analogy that concern has been raised about the extinction of languages. The article continued, saying:
“The metaphor of ‘endangered languages’ is both easy to grasp and appealing to the sense of fair play: fluent speakers of languages like Kasabe, Ona and Eyak are dying off, while their children and grand children increasingly speak languages like English, Chinese, Spanish or Swahili.
“Language preservationists have been using this analogy for years. The often-quoted question posed by Dr. Michael Krauss, an emeritus professor of linguistics at the University of Alaska, for instance, is: ‘Should we mourn the loss of Eyak or Ubykh less than the loss of the panda or the California condor?’
“It is no surprise that linguists and activists promote maintaining spoken languages. Just as the Poultry and Egg Council wants us to eat eggs, linguists want languages to study. I wonder, though, where science ends and politics begins.
“How, really, are the panda and Ubykh equivalent? The panda, once gone, is gone forever. If the information and political will are present, Ubykh can be revived 500 years from now. Hebrew, after all, was brought back from ancient texts into daily use after 2,000 years. Ubykh, a language of Turkey, is a human creation. The panda is not; it is our neighbor, not our invention.”
The article went on to explain the position that preservationists (of languages) have taken to try preserving dying languages. The writer of the article then concluded that preservationists did not have a strong argument for preserving languages and that they should not use the analogy of endangered languages to get support from the public.
THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGES
The amazing part of the information published in the last two years is that we have as many as 6,000 languages. About 60 years ago it was known that the Bible had been translated into over 800 languages. That was a large number. At that time, it was estimated that 1,200 distinct language communities existed. Even then, it was not known whether dialects were included in the statistics. And it is still not known whether the 6,000 of today count dialects. Therefore, the extinction of a few languages does not make much of a change in the language barrier.
Library research reveals that our learned men have no satisfactory explanation for the existence of the language barrier. A few explanations have been suggested. None have had wide acceptance. None are popular. For the scientific community, the existence of a language barrier is an unknown quantity. Bible Students know that the language barrier is of Divine origin, imposed upon men by God. The events leading to the establishment of this barrier are recorded in Genesis 11:1-9. The time is after the flood, and as we would expect, the Scriptures tell us, “The whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.” This was a logical condition because all people were descended from Noah and most likely spoke the same language as Adam. As the descendants of Noah multiplied and spread over the land, it appears that they remembered the catastrophic flood and united to avert another such tragedy. However, they forgot the covenant which God made with Noah, namely, that he would never destroy the world with another flood. Their plan seemingly was to build a city for safety, with a tower reaching high into the sky.
Detailed information is lacking, but we know the following:
- The people had one language and were united. The one language was the basis of their unity.
- They had a fear of being scattered abroad in the earth.
- They were building a city and a name for themselves.
LANGUAGE BARRIER ERECTED
What is evident is that God was not considered in their planning. Their own wisdom was being used to accomplish their ends. God knew that the project would do more harm than good. Thus, when he beheld the works of these people, he said, “Behold, the people is one [united], and they have all one language [the basis of unity]; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.” (Gen. 11:6) And so, as recorded in the remaining verses, the Lord confounded their language so that they could not understand one another’s speech. This disorganized the people so completely that they never finished the task they had planned. The very event they feared might happen, did happen—they were scattered abroad on the face of the earth. The place became known as “Babel,” meaning confusion.
Why did God cause this to happen? One answer is that if the world was permitted to continue unhindered on their bent course of action, only more evil would result and the timing of events important to the Divine plan would have been affected. We cannot overlook Satan and the part that he has played in many of the world events. He clearly expressed his desire to be like the most high God. (Isa. 14:14) Satan not only usurped God’s authority upon Earth, but his purpose in gaining possession of mankind was to organize them in a great cooperative effort for committing evil. It is not to Satan’s advantage to have a disorganized mass of subjects. Jesus reasoned very logically concerning this point when being accused of casting out devils by Beelzebub (as recorded in Matthew 12:25,26), “Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself … shall not stand: And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?” (See also Mark 3:24-26) It appears that one reason for the erection of the language barrier by God was directed against Satan, designed to frustrate his efforts to unite his subjects for greater evil. If God had not employed such controls, the Day of Wrath would have had to come centuries sooner, because conditions in the world would have been intolerable. As they become more intolerable in our day, it is an evidence of the proximity of God’s kingdom.
There are other reasons why God had to prolong the time from the ‘tower of Babel’ to our day to accomplish his will. One was to fill the earth. A more important reason was to permit time for the selection of several classes of faithful people. One such class is the Church.
THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE BARRIER
Another kind of language or communication barrier occurred when father Adam disobeyed God. Since the fall of mankind, a great language barrier has existed between God and man affecting communication and understanding. There is only one language spoken by God, and that is one whose ideas and emotions deal with righteousness! The Divine language is a pure language. When mankind through father Adam disobeyed, they stopped speaking God’s language. And just as nations of different tongues develop different aims, ambitions, and ways of thinking, so also with mankind. They, too, have developed new aims, ambitions, and ways of thinking. All of this happened because of man’s fall. Their speech became confounded and they became aliens and strangers to God, a condition described by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2:2,12, “In time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air [the devil], the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.” Notice the use of the word ‘aliens.’ How can you tell who is an alien? Answer—As soon as he speaks and his language is different.
Another place where man’s condition is described in similar terms is in the Old Testament, Isaiah chapter 6. When the Prophet Isaiah saw a vision of God, his cry was, “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” (vs. 5) The Hebrew word translated ‘lips’ in this verse is the same word translated in Genesis 11 as ‘language.’ Isaiah’s language was unclean in the sense that he was a fallen human who could not speak with his righteous Creator. In the account, one of the seraphims took a coal from the altar – (this could have been the brazen altar of the tabernacle where atonement day sacrifices were burned) – and touched Isaiah’s lips, symbolically portraying a purifying action. “He laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.” (Isa. 6:7,8) Isaiah then became a man of ‘clean lips,’ symbolically, because his iniquity had been removed. But how could Isaiah’s iniquity be removed without Jesus paying the ransom price? This was a vision intending to portray an event of the Gospel Age.
REMOVAL OF THE LANGUAGE BARRIER
Isaiah represented those who would be selected to speak for God, and the events of this chapter are intended to portray the experiences of the faithful of the Gospel Age. The Lord’s people of today (Gospel Age) have become people of clean lips (or a clean language) because their iniquity has been removed through the ransom. All of us, by the grace of God, have been able to speak to God in a pure language because he has taught us his language of righteousness. As the Apostle Paul says, “Ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God.”—Ephesians 2:19
When Jesus presented the merit of his sacrifice before the Father’s throne, it made possible the sending of the promised Comforter, or Holy Spirit, upon the apostles. We would expect so important an event to be clearly indicated; and it was, by three distinct signs on the day of Pentecost, as the apostles waited in an upper room. One sign was that of a mighty, rushing wind, which filled the room. “Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.” (Acts 2:2) God’s invisible power, like a mighty rushing ‘wind,’ was to be employed on behalf of his people.
The second sign was like that of “cloven tongues” of fire over each of the apostles. They had been chosen by God to be his mouthpieces. These two signs indicated that the language barrier between God and the apostles—and all of his elect people, the church, who believed in Christ—had been removed. Now, because of the ransom, they would be able to speak God’s language of righteousness.
The third sign is described in Acts 2:4, “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” In other words, the apostles began to speak in other languages. This sign meant that for the Church—and only for the Church—the language barrier had been removed. God could not wait until the invention of the printing press nor for the end of the age when knowledge and learning would be increased, and through which events it would be easier to cope with the language barrier. Instead, God removed, in a miraculous manner, all possible hindrance to full cooperation between his people and to the spread of the Gospel. The description of this event is continued in Acts 2:5-8, “There were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?”
NATIONS REPRESENTED ON DAY OF PENTECOST
The account in Acts tells us that those assembled in Jerusalem at Pentecost included representatives from every civilized nation in the world. He names some of these, “Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phyrgia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians.” If this were occurring today, the Scriptures would say that there were Norwegians, Swedes, Poles, Germans, Greeks, Russians, Chinese, Japanese, naming all the prominent nations of today’s world. Continuing, the account says, “We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.” (vss. 9-11) Each of these heard illiterate and unlearned men (see Acts 4:13) speak in their language; not gibberish or anything unintelligible, but the great and ‘wonderful works of God.’ Have you ever wondered what these wonderful works of God might be? A sample is given in Peter’s marvelous sermon on that day when he tells how Jesus fulfilled prophecies recorded in Psalms 16 and 110 through his resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus was a most wonderful work of God!
Continuing, the account says, “They were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?” (Acts 2:12) Some, in not comprehending the other languages, other than their own, suggested that the apostles were drunk. Peter responded immediately, saying that they were not drunk and that men were unlikely to be drunk so early in the day. Rather, what they were witnessing was a fulfillment of Joel’s remarkable prophecy in Joel 2:28,29. “It shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.” Although Peter quoted Joel’s complete prophecy, only the latter part—the pouring out of his spirit on his servants and handmaidens—was being fulfilled. Before that day came to a close, 3,000 were immersed into the body of Christ. What a remarkable day!
GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT
God continued to use the gift of speaking in other languages, or tongues, to establish the early church. But then, just as now, among some there was not a clear understanding as to why God used these remarkable gifts of the Spirit for his people. Paul used three chapters in I Corinthians—12, 13, and 14—to clarify the matter and give helpful reasons which are clearly listed.
It has been God’s intention that no barrier should exist between any of his people. Rather, he has desired that they cooperate fully with one another because all members of the body of Christ are to be in harmony. (I Cor. 12) There were to be no differences of any kind, as Paul said in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” And also in Colossians 3:11, “Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.”
For us the lesson is also of the need of cooperation. Are there any effects such as have arisen because of language barriers, or have we made differences or raised barriers of our own? Is there Pole or German? Swede or Englishman? Immigrant or native of the land? Young or old? Male or female? Do we understand why God has turned to us a pure language? Do we desire the Truth for a mere head knowledge, or an understanding with the heart? Are we doers, or mere hearers, of the Word? If, in asking ourselves these questions, the answers are in any way unfavorable, let us seek to tear down all barriers toward a fuller cooperation with all of the Lord’s people.
THE HOLY SPIRIT ON ALL FLESH
Although the church has had this wonderful experience of seeing language barriers torn down on their behalf, this has not been the world’s experience, even though they would want this to happen. The world has been kept behind these barriers, and will remain so, until the church is complete.
Among the many prophecies telling of the great Time of Trouble which comes upon the world in the end of this age is Zephaniah 3:8,9. “Wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.” This prophecy is referring to the culmination of the Time of Trouble. But the prophecy continues, “Then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent.”
Note now the great trouble is followed by the turning ‘to the people a pure language.’ It is at that time that Joel’s prophecy will find its complete fulfillment, or when ‘God will pour out his Spirit upon all flesh.’ The removal of language barriers and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit go hand in hand. It will be then, and only then, that all flesh will be willing to serve God with ‘one consent.’ With the pouring out of his Holy Spirit, God also will remove barriers of every kind, including the language barrier. The obstacles of this present evil world will also be removed. Satan will be bound to “deceive the nations no more.” (Rev. 20:3) And above all, through the ransom benefits, the nations will learn a language they have not known, which is of righteousness—which language they will cherish through all eternity, as they learn to speak with their God. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this!