Calvin and Knox “en Español”?
by Juan Sarmiento
Spanish is the second language with the most native speakers in the world. In recent decades Christians that trace their identity back to the Protestant Reformation have grown to be close to 20% of the total of the Spanish speaking world. The spiritual vibrancy of the current Hispanic Presbyterian movement flows out of the faithful commitment of many previous generations. Here are eight little-known historical facts:
The most widely used Bible in Spanish carries the name of its Casiodoro de Reina who was his main translator. He started work in a monastery outside Seville and continued during his time in Calvin’s Geneva and later in England. It was first published in 1569, forty-two years before the King James Bible.
The “Confession de Fe Christiana” (Spanish Confession of Faith) was written in 1560 in London to express the faith of a group of Spanish speaking Protestants. That was almost nine decades before the Parliament’s approval of the Westminster Confession of Faith.
English settlers tried to establish a model Puritan colony in what they called “Providence Island” near the coast of Nicaragua in 1629, the same decade when the Pilgrims settled in Cape Cod. Providence Island is now part of Colombia.
Independence leader Simon Bolivar traveled to Great Britain in 1810 to request educator James Thomson to help develop a new school system for the new South American nations that included the study of the Bible. As a result, many influential schools were established in the major cities. Mr. Thomson grew up as a Presbyterian in Scotland.
In 1829 a Presbyterian from Arkansas by the name of Summer Bacon begun evangelism work among Hispanics in Texas. That was seven years before the establishment of the Texas Republic.
The first Presbyterian missionaries arrived at Argentina in 1823 with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. It would take eighty-nine more years for Presbyterian worship services to be held in Spanish in the country.
Colombia was the first Latin American country to receive missionaries from one of the Presbyterian boards in the United States (1856). Others would later go to Mexico (1878), Guatemala (1888), and Puerto Rico (1899).
W. Cameron Townsend (founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators) and Ralph D. Winter (Mission Strategist) were among the most influential figures in the recent understanding of global mission. Both were Presbyterian Christians who served in Guatemala.
Today there are approximately two million Spanish speaking Presbyterians. That would be a comparable number to the number of Presbyterians in the United States and Canada. Through The Outreach Foundation, you can help that rich heritage of faith continue bearing fruit through concrete and vivid expressions in today’s world. Together, we are part of an unfolding story of individual and societal transformation through the unconditional grace of Christ that transcends linguistic differences.