End Bible Poverty in our Generation
We recognize that we do not have the “whole counsel of God” (Act 20:27) without the Original Testament, yet not everyone has access to or makes use of the Original (Old) Testament. Our goal is to see every person in the whole world able to engage with the whole Word of God in his or her own heart language.
Therefore, we commit ourselves to the task of eliminating the Original Testament Gap within this generation.
On Pentecost Sunday, 2022, a group of people from around the world gathered at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem as the “first-fruits” of the movement to eliminate the Original Testament Gap.
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Why Original Testament?
In English alone there are over 100 translations of the Bible to choose from. Yet there are over 4,000 languages that have yet to receive the bread of life for the first time. People are hungry and living in a void of truth.
Can we imagine our Bibles to contain only the New Testament? The reality is, while 717 language communities have access to the whole Bible, there are 1,582 communities that only have the New Testament. The Old Testament has yet to be translated, creating an Old Testament Gap.
The Original Testament tells of the origins, legacy, heritage, context, and foundations of the good news, making it essential for accomplishing God’s purposes on earth. The New Testament’s words stand on the foundation of the revelations of earlier Scripture, the stories of Abraham, Moses, David, the Exodus, the law, and the promises of Messiah.
David Hamilton, VP Strategic Innovation, University of the Nations
I now realize that I have not fully understood all that Jesus is—as the son of God, or perhaps the good news of His death, His resurrection and ascension that is in the New Testament—simply because I had missed the backstory found in the entire Hebrew Scriptures…This is a God-sized mission, and I believe the whole church needs to come together to give the whole Word to the whole world.