When people think about the huge number of language communities in the world who don’t have access to the Bible, one of the first questions of many mother-tongue English speakers is “Why not just teach everyone English?”

There are many answers to this question – practical, technical, historical… but the main reason has to be that it just wouldn’t fit in with the God we see in the Bible and the way he works. God always reaches out to his people in a way that they can understand and relate to – he makes the first move.

Here’s Wycliffe UK Director Eddie Arthur giving his answer to the question of why we shouldn’t teach everyone English (or Chinese, Arabic, Spanish or Swahili for that matter…)