Proverbs 18:21 “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”
In his essay called “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell shared a crucial insight about the decline of language: “A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.”
Mike Bauman says, “Sloppy language makes sloppy thought possible.” In Orwell’s “1984,” the masses are fed redefining slogans like “War Is Peace,” “Freedom Is Slavery,” and “Ignorance Is Strength.” We are in a cultural war and in this battle it is often on the use of words. How do we define and redefine words? Language is very important and like Proverbs says: “The tongue has the power of life and death.”
I want to write about some of the fallacies that are out there influencing us whether we know it or not. These fallacies have to do with how we use words and how we frame our arguments.
The ‘opinion makers’ of this world (those who use words to make a living) are framing their arguments in such a way that they are moving society down a slippery slope. We are told in the Word: “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.” (Mark 7:21-23 KJV)
Also, the Word says: “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.” Luke 6:45
In this New Year of 2021, there are two resolutions that the Lord has laid upon my heart:
First, the need to get the Gospel out to all mankind. What the above verses are telling me is the need to see the heart of man changed and only the Gospel can do that. Wealth, government legislation, education, better standard of living, or like we say here in USA, pursuing the American dream (whatever that is), will not change the heart of man. Only the Gospel can do that and we, the church, have a tremendous obligation to do just that by using His Holy Spirit with gifts and abilities invested in us.
Secondly, we must learn to frame our arguments wisely. Ideas have consequences and some of the ideas that are being bandied about will have a dastardly affect upon us and our children and grandchildren. One of these deadly ideas that is being brought forth is that ‘matter is all that exists.’ In this idea there is no spiritual realm. This is why, when the tragedy that struck Newtown, CT, when 26 people were gunned down and 20 of them children from the ages of 5-10, most of our ‘opinion makers’ had no answers let alone solutions.
We need to understand and be able to explain it wisely that in this modern age – God is still on the throne and He is sovereign over the nations and human history. “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, for dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations.” (Psalms 22:27-28)
To do this we need to learn to think biblically and understand the fallacies that are circulating in our media, entertainment, government, family, market place and yes, even the church.