Bible translator pleads for prayers

Christians are being asked to pray for Bible translators around the world as they are undergoing unprecedented spiritual warfare.  

A plea for prayer comes from Wycliffe Associates, the international organization known in the advancement of Bible translation. 

Brent Ropp, vice president of operations for Wycliffe, says the ability to translate the Bible has accelerated in recent years, and so has opposition to the effort.

"Satan's territory has not been invaded at the pace or the rate that its being invaded today by the truth of God's Word," Ropp tells OneNewsNow.

It once took 20 to 30 years to translate the entire New Testament in a language but new technology has reduced that time to months or even weeks.

As the year comes to an end, Wycliff reports that 314 new translation projects have been launched using the new technology. The entire New Testament has been completed in 58 languages, and there are 100 more translations nearing completion.  Ropp says spiritual warfare is occurring in ways they've never seen before.

"We'd never had any of our staff under spiritual attack that we could specifically identify," he warns. "Never before have members of our own field teams, our own national translation teams, been killed or mysteriously died or been arrested by their governments in the quantities that this sort of thing is happening today."

Ropp asks for Christians to pray as Wycliffe Associates plans to launch 400 new Bible translation projects in 2017.