How Will You Answer God?

23 August 2026  Isaiah 22:19-23

“On that day I will summon Eliakim, son of Hilkiah….”  (Isaiah 22:20) 

There are many young, very devout Catholics today who have made their cause the Traditional Latin Mass. They are very serious Catholics – 98% of them attend Mass at least once a week, often more. Latin language, however, really has very little to do with their cause. What they want, more than anything else, is an unambiguous Catholic witness, a vivid sense of mystery and reverence in Church, and they don’t mind in the least being counter-cultural to promote their cause. They are very controversial, but Latin language is just a banner for their view that the integrity of Catholic witness in the modern world is at risk.

Arguments about the gospel’s proclamation center around five questions that God asks us all:   ·      Where are you? ·      Where is your brother? ·      Who do you say that I am? ·      Whom do you seek? ·      Do you also want to leave?

This is pretty much the case any time that specific matters of language and translation become paramount. It isn’t about the language. It’s about the integrity of the proclamation.

 Eliakim was promoted to Master of the Palace (a kind of Prime Minister) by King Hezekiah when the kingdom of Assyria was attempting to conquer Jerusalem as they had already conquered the northern kingdom of Israel.  Assyrian envoys were sent to threaten Hezekiah, and they chose a public place to do it. Eliakim asked the envoys to speak to them in their own language (Aramaic) and not Hebrew, so that any of the Jews listening would not understand them (2 Kings 18:26). The big issue for Eliakim was not language per se; mostly he didn’t want the people to hear and understand the terrible position they were in, how their carelessness and apostasy had brought them to the point of destruction by a foreign power. The issue wasn’t language – it was about the integrity (or lack thereof) of the proclamation they had received.

In the fourth century, not long after Christianity finally became legal, another controversy arose with the decision to translate the Bible into Latin, using the most ancient Hebrew manuscripts available. The Old Testament had been translated into Greek centuries before (the Septuagint), and many believed it was divinely inspired. The decision to consult the more ancient Hebrew texts would be too uncomfortable, even if it made the scriptures more accurate. Once again, the central issue was not language, but resistance to change, even change that would make witness more powerful and credible. It was about the integrity (or lack thereof) of the proclamation.

When Martin Luther translated the Bible into German in 1534, it was more about promoting the “natural spirit” of the German language, and promoting German enthusiasm for the Reformation than it was about the deepest meaning of the oldest manuscripts. When James I of England authorized the translation of the King James version in 1611, the issue on most people’s minds was opposing the radicalism of the Puritans, and not about getting the biblical text right. And today, the issue is not Latin. Arguments about language are almost never about language, but are proxies for arguments about the gospel’s proclamation.  

Arguments about the gospel’s proclamation center around five questions that God asks us all:

·      Where are you? (Genesis 3:9)

·      Where is your brother? (Genesis 4:9)

·      Who do you say that I am? (Matthew 16:15)

·      Whom do you seek? (John 20:15)

·      Do you also want to leave? (John 6:67)

We can answer those questions in whatever language we want, but language isn’t the issue. Honest engagement with the questions is. That’s the only way we can be confident that we are proclaiming the gospel faithfully.