Preface
Diogenes the Cynic told his followers, "Bury me on my face, for in a little while everything will be turned upside down." In Marc Connelly's play Green Pastures, Noah is warned that when the Lord sends the flood, "Everything dat's fastened down is comin' loose."
I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but it takes little imagination to apply these words to our own time. We have our lunar flights and our lunatic fringes; our shrinking continents and our exploding populations; our selfless saints and our masters of genocide; our crowded churches and our canned carnage. And always lurking in the wings is the long, lean missile with the warhead that means finis.
It is because of the cliff-hanging posture of our world during these 1960's that little Bible study groups are starting to cluster in homes and churches throughout North America, Britain, Australia and elsewhere. They are not necessarily permanent groups, nor are they being fed, as it were, by a "mama bird." The members of the groups claim no special skills. They are simply busy people groping for reality, and turning instinctively to the oldest and surest thing they know.
This paraphrase of the New Testament letters was prepared for such people. Its aim is to lead the reader directly into the Bible by a condensed re-expression which catches the gist of the passage, and puts it in contemporary form. It is an amateur work such as any pastor could undertake with a normal use of standard Greek and English sources. It could be called a "do-it-yourself" translation. Yet there is more here than human energy, for the words of the New Testament letters are God-breathed and their voice is precisely that voice from beyond, which our world is desperate to hear.
I should like to acknowledge the help received from my colleagues on the editorial staff of Decision magazine, where this paraphrase first made its appearance. In particular I would mention with gratitude the Reverend Robert O. Ferm, Th.D., Mrs. Lois Weigand, Miss Alice Sundstrom and Mr. Robert P. Blewett, whose suggestions have been invaluable throughout, and whose love for God's Word has been an inspiration.
I would like to thank Dr. Billy Graham and also Mr. George M. Wilson, secretary-treasurer of The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, for their encouragement; Miss Martha Warkentin for secretarial assistance, and Mrs. Peter Koeshall and Miss Marion Skifstad for helping in preparing the typescript.
Now may God bless this stammering approach to His Word, and to Him be praise and glory forever.
S.E.W.
Minneapolis, Minnesota
