An Amazing Fact: An Italian living in the 18th century, Cardinal Mezzofanti, could fluently speak 38 languages and could understand more than 100! The language that gave him the most trouble? Chinese. It took him four months to master! Amazingly, though Mezzofanti could speak dozens of global languages, he never set foot outside of Italy. How sad to have such an uncanny gift of tongues and never venture from your native soil to use it.
Can You Reverse the Curse of Babel?
Have you ever felt the frustration of struggling to communicate with someone who spoke a different language?
Trust me on this … it can be a lonely, helpless feeling to be lost in a foreign country and not understand the language. But what a relief when a translator is found!
As you well know, this whole language problem began more than 4,000 years ago in Mesopotamia. Following the global flood, God commanded humanity to spread out and populate the earth. Instead, the rebellious people, united by a common language, decided to build a soaring monument that would reach to the heavens. The Tower of Babel—or Babylon—has since come to represent manmade religion at its very worst.
Of course, God quickly put an end to their rebellion by confounding their communication: “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech” (Genesis 11:7).
Today, no question about it—we live in a radically divided world. There are wars between countries, violent conflicts between tribal groups, ethnic cleansing, racial prejudice … hatred and enmity that can be traced all the way back to Babel!
Reversing the Curse
In contrast to Babel, at the Pentecost described in Acts 2, when God’s people came together to pray in the upper room, the Lord reversed the curse of babbling confusion when He poured out the Holy Spirit and gave the disciples the gift of tongues…
“Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, ‘Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? … We hear them speaking in our own tongues [16 language groups] the wonderful works of God” (Acts 2:7–11 NKJV).
On that day the curse of confusion was replaced with the blessing of understanding … and I believe the Lord wants that to happen again today!
Life is all about communication. Most people in our world are lost and separated from God because of a communication breakdown called sin. This is why Jesus came, to communicate the Father’s love to our fallen world. But they need to hear it in a language they can understand!
When it comes to spreading the gospel, the Lord wants to reverse the curse of Babel! Indeed, one of the gifts of the Spirit is the ability to speak and understand different tongues, and one of the last things Jesus said to the church before He ascended to heaven was that He would help them “speak with new tongues” (Mark 16:17).
And with your support, the Lord is doing this right now with Amazing Facts!
Help make our language translation ministry possible with your gift today. Click now to donate!
Every Major Language
By translating our Bible Study Guides into dozens of different global languages, we are reversing the curse and bringing the good news of Christ’s love and grace to people who have never had a chance to hear it before. I hope you’ll partner with us to see this ministry explode in the coming days!
Today Amazing Facts is heavily involved in breaking through every major language barrier to reach our world for Jesus. God has allowed us to produce a host of incredibly effective teaching materials that explain the truth of Scripture and have been used to bring many to faith.
But a vast majority of people living on Earth do not speak English. Our books, video series, Bible studies, and other resources cannot share the truth with them unless they are translated into their native tongues!
The apostle Paul, who ministered to many different nations, said it this way:
“Unless you utter by the tongue words easy to understand, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air” (1 Corinthians 14:9).
That’s why we launched a huge effort to translate Amazing Facts resources into every major foreign language. Even as you read this letter, a full-time team is working to translate some of our most requested resources into Mandarin Chinese—the world’s most widely spoken language. We can reach well over a billion people with this one effort! But we’re not stopping there!
However, language translation isn’t a simple process. We have to find teams capable of skillfully working in both languages and then have the work reviewed to ensure that the truth is being accurately and clearly translated.
We know the Lord wants this to happen because He keeps opening amazing doors for us—bringing faithful volunteers right to our doorstep. But there is more to do, because I want people all over the world to feel connected to Jesus. I want them to know that He speaks their language—that He can be their Lord and Savior. This is what will reverse the curse of Babel!
But It Can’t Be Done Without You
Your gift today will help us continue to translate these life-changing Study Guides, DVDs, websites, and other teaching materials so that the language barrier can be broken and the truth can be told. Thank you so much for being such a faithful partner in our work.
I’m looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours to reverse the curse,
Pastor Doug Batchelor
Over the last few months, our income has been significantly down. Will you please help us move forward with our translation project and our many other evangelistic endeavors with a gift today?
You Made the Difference!
We began this mammoth translation challenge years ago and have already seen incredible results when reaching other nations. Sugirtha from India writes,
“I was born to Christian parents but did not hear the truth until I came to know about Amazing Facts. In college, I started living a very worldly life, but one day I happened to see a book from Amazing Facts. I discovered your website through that book. I was inspired when I read your free Bible resources and understood I was on the wrong path. … Now I share all these resources with family and friends. Thank you for showing me the path. It changed my life. Without you, I would not know about the love of God!”