It is interesting, but also unsettling, that so many persons in society trash some of the magnificent gifts of God. They may put them down, perhaps take them for granted, waste them, and even degrade them. Just one of these gifts is language. The marvelous gifts of speaking and writing, with their counterparts of listening and reading are important to make us human, vital in relating us to God. They have much to do with separating human from animal. Some gifts like air, water, love, beauty, words, and other daily life nurturing gifts are so plentiful that we waste them, as though they are nothing more than bits of free mucilage that plaster together the bytes of our lives. One wonders what would happen if we were limited to one hundred, perhaps two hundred, words a day per person for all purposes. What would we say to each other?
I had a professor who reminded students about the numbers of words in various well-known documents. I have heard repeated some of what he said, and recently saw an addition to the list: The US Government regulations on the sale of cabbage require 26,911 words. Are all those words needed for cabbage? We seem to be at odds with words. The theorem of Pythagoras numbers 24 words; the Lord’s prayer requires about 66 words, depending upon the version used; the principle of Archimedes is the length of the Lord’s prayer; the Ten Commandments take fewer than 200 words; the Gettysburg Address of Lincoln numbers 286 words; the Declaration of Independence is complete with 1,300 words. But, word numbers may not be important. And, all our revered statements do not have to stand up in human court. Specificity requires lots-a-words.
Every religion has its sacred documents, sacred words. If used in genuine devotion to God by the devout, the words are perceived as having status above other words. They are believed to be inspired, beyond the usual tests of objectivity, or meaning change, even freighting more than the words themselves appear to convey in context, but not shorn of context. They are fitting to the needs of mankind, whether we believe them or not. It is important to theology that inspiration of this sort exists. If not, theology is largely the guesswork of well-meaning persons whose faith covers much ignorance. Because I may not be able to prove empirically some concept of God does not mean that it is not true, but I must admit that the interpretation comes in the form of words from sacred writings that partly reveal God for us. Any attack on the God of others must be made on the words of their Scriptures. If those Scriptures are illogical in known areas, they may be illogical in the unknown. If contradictory in known areas, they may be contradictory in the unknown. So the analysis proceeds. It is standard procedure.
During many decades of study of the Bible, I am taken with its honesty about mankind, its truth about family, about meanings contributing to lives, about good and evil, and the truth about persons whom we would expect to be better because they were God’s friends. The devout Christian is most appreciative in the consistency of Jesus Christ, in words and deeds. They are words and deeds of eternal life. As the disciples noted, there really is no other one to turn to for words of eternal life. Our defense of Christian faith is found in the words of Scripture, words that work. It is interesting that Jefferson pasted up his own Bible from which he read, usually each day, a Bible made up only of the words of Jesus as they appear in the King James Version. That would be enough to carry the main meanings of the gospel, but with all his effort, Jefferson did not seem to get it. He appeared a deist, and opposed the idea of a personal God. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020