# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1950_S565
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

PUBLICATION MATTERS 565

Wuereas, Sound educational principles demand an under-
standable language for the learning process; and

Wuereas, Especially children have difficulty in reading the
Bible; therefore be it

Resolved, That Synod produce a translation of the Bible in
which the language is understandable to the average Bible reader.

THe East Circuit CONFERENCE OF THE OKLAHOMA DisTRICT
THe LUTHERAN CHuRcH — Missouri SyNnop
ARTHUR Pare, Chairman
CLARENCE C. Boye, Secretary

[710]
A Family Bible

Until recent years the Bible was easily the finest publication
in the home. Its appearance predisposed people to give it a central
place in their family life and in their affection.

We must face the fact that the Bible has been crowded out
of its central place in the home. (Even leather bindings that dis-
tinguish it may not really invite people to read it.) Christian
people read, love, and live in a multitude of interesting things; but
most of them are not living in the Bible. Faulting our Christian
people for this neglect does not help them, nor is it altogether right.
Under the avalanche of modern appeals many fine Christians are
trying somewhat desperately to cultivate an interest in religious
things. We want to give them a Bible that will challenge that
interest. More than that, it is our cherished goal to interest even
the non-Christian world.

Some defeatists fault the Bible as being intrinsically too diffi-
cult—of course, without a serious examination of the difficulty
and without an honest effort to help the situation. We know that
the intrinsic merits of the Bible enable it to weather any compe-
tition: It has the most delightful stories, and it has messages with
the most powerful appeal in the world. But we have rarely per-
mitted the Bible to express its intrinsic merits in an equivalent,
appealing form.

The result is that the child of today to whom the Bible would
be its dearest treasure would seem a bit odd. That is not the child’s
fault; it is up to us to put the Bible— where it once was when
God gave it — into the life of the people; it is up to us to create
the materials that will make everyone, child and adult, aware of
the fact that the Bible is the most beautiful, interesting, and helpful
book there is. To reach such a goal, we need a FAMILY BIBLE.