Many contemporary linguists assume that 90 percent of the world’s 7,000 languages may become extinct over the next hundred years. After that, they will no longer be spoken or written. Among others, Erik Jersenius, culture editorial secretary at the Swedish magazine Fokus, writes about this in an article in Axess, issue number 4/2025, page 9.
This sounds dramatic. The article concludes that a tenth of the endangered languages would then be found in India. If one examines the languages’ backgrounds and statuses, it is noted that a common factor among the threatened languages is the lack of a written form. The expected development could turn out to be such a major setback, that perhaps only Arabic, English, Hindi, and Mandarin would remain as functioning languages. I believe that Persian, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, and Swahili could probably also be added to the ”survivors.”
What would happen then to the Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Norwegian, Latvian, Lithuanian and/or Swedish languages and their identity? Would the development also influence the countries somehow in Balkan area and Central Europe?
Could this alarming development also come to affect Christian work in the long term? Should we already take the assumed scenario into account in our evangelism and mission work? In what way should we, in that case, adapt our goals and strategies to the assumed linguistic reality?
If we examine the development of the last 1000 years, we see how geographically expanding countries, such as China and Russia, have purposefully integrated new areas and assimilated minorities that came under their sphere of influence. Annexed areas have been incorporated while the opportunities for minority peoples to use their mother tongue have been restricted and their religious and cultural expressions suppressed or even completely prohibited.
The mother tongue: a key to conversion
Even church leaders have sometimes claimed that missionary work among minorities in Russia, China, and Africa does not need to be adapted to the peoples’ language or culture, since most people can speak the majority language. Practice shows however that several tribal peoples, as well as Finno-Ugric, Caucasian, and Turkic-related groups, usually respond reservedly, sometimes even hostilely, to the majority population – as if they were occupiers. Therefore, they almost without exception close their hearts. Especially if the gospel is communicated to them in the ’oppressor’s language,’ or when reference frameworks associated with, for example, Chinese, Slavic, or even Western culture are used.
Spiritual breakthroughs have often been achieved when God’s Word has been conveyed in the people’s own language. In this way, the link between the mother tongue and the language of emotions is connected. The recipient’s innermost being can then more easily be opened to new impressions. Therefore, Bible translators usually first develop a written language for people who lack one, before the actual translation of the texts begins. The Bible can then become an important tool in worship services and in evangelistic work among the people.
Even as Christians, we should inspire the linguistic development of minorities, as it is a part of their identity and self-esteem. This makes it easier for them to understand that God loves them as a people regardless of the size of their nation or cultural background. Our mission is to gather people into the great white multitude from all peoples, tribes, and languages (Rev. 7:9).
When the Finno-Ugric people Udmurts received God’s word in their language, the revival came to the villages in northern Udmurtia.
If we think about God’s prophetic plan, it does not necessarily always follow the so-called ’multi-culti’ trends or the overall goals of globalization, not even in the form that drove the people at the building of the Tower of Babel. Languages were differentiated, when people wanted to reach the divine by their own power. The Creator did not support people’s vision in building to reach the heavenly spheres and at the same time unite the peoples of the world into a global empire with a common language.
What happens when no one reads the Bible anymore?
Erik Jersenius writes in his article in Axess that there are about 800,000 people in Sweden (almost 10 percent of the population) with very limited reading ability, and even those who can read are doing it worse with each passing day. The development in this regard is very challenging even for most other countries in Europe today.
What happens when no one can read anymore? Then there is a great risk that the language, which constitutes the cohesive glue in our society and the national identity, can completely disappear. The question is how this development will affect the lives of Christians and the reading of the Bible in the future. Must all communication between people, evangelization, and missionary work then take place orally and/or visually, when no one can decipher the codes in the various combinations of letters?
The Christian magazine Sändaren reported as early as 2016 about a survey claiming that only 7 percent of Swedes read the Bible every month, and only 2 percent did so daily! This could lead to a weakened Christian identity, if we do not highlight the dangers of the new illiteracy. Therefore, we should strengthen our reading habits and especially encourage Bible reading, so that our language and the Christian faith do not disappear and completely die out.
Rauli Lehtonen
(Parts of the text have been translated by AI from Swedish language)
Swedish
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