Having travelled extensively, M V Tronson has observed that regardless of which international airport he is arriving at, as the aircraft comes into the tarmac area, the same scene is there. Men and women with ear muffs, aircraft-wheel movers, baggage carts, food and beverage containers, fire and safety equipment, buses ….
Recently he watched a film on the Christian channel situated in China, of a Chinese family that had all the same family issues as any western country family. This film could have been of any family in any country, M V Tronson told his own family.
There were conflict issues between the father and daughter over relationships, there was an issue by both parents with the son over his Christian commitment. Then, more prosaically, the father had some health issues that created much worry for his wife, the list went on ... as it does with any family.
In countries influenced by Western business, there is a host of small and large enterprises that make life convenient for residents and tourists alike. Small businesses such as IT companies, health and fitness facilities, accommodation houses and hotels, restaurants, abound in towns and cities all over the world.
Mark Tronson is also fascinated by folk-lore and traditional moral tales – he finds them similar all over the world, no matter what language or culture they originate from. He concludes that all peoples want to instil, in the next generation, a sense of proportion and propriety; a knowledge of their history and guidelines for 'good behaviour' in the future.
Therefore he asks, is it any wonder that the Bible is so very applicable regardless of where one might live or what language one might speak? Moreover, for the Christian, the Bible conveys divine and empirical truth, and that the Holy Spirit speaks to its readers through the words of the Bible to confirm its reality into the believer's heart, soul and mind.
In other words, M V Tronson says, that although the Bible has been translated into a myriad of languages from the original Hebrew and Greek, this essential ingredient applies for the believer, that is, the follower of Jesus Christ.
The Bible's comforting message to the bereaved is as applicable in English to the English reader as it is in Russian to the Russian reader, or indeed for the Zulu or the Chinese. This was the essence of the Day of Pentecost as recorded in The Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 2: …. "filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues … And how hear we every man in our own language, wherein we were born".
The text lists the different places: Parthians, Medes, Elmanites, Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Cyrene, Rome, Crete, Arabia; all of which have quite separate languages or dialects.
Should anyone think this strange, the people of one valley in Papua New Guinea speaks an entirely different language to that of the next, and there are at least 700 of them. Similarly, the Australian indigenous peoples have quite separate tongues in their separate 'nations' that existed before the coming of the Europeans.
Yet, to the believer. when the Bible is spoken and translated, the Holy Spirit speaks into the hearts of all people. It is for this reason that Christians across the world place so much emphasis on the Bible's written word and the preacher who speaks directly from the Bible.
This has been evangelist Billy Graham's catch cry, 'The Bible says ….' The Bible speaks of itself being so sharp into the believer's heart that it is described as like "a two edged sword".
This is the greatest of all challenges, says M V Tronson, illustrating that the total authority of what the Bible says is applicable to life today.