Linguistics

Linguistics as defined by Merriam-Webster online is "the study of human speech including the units, nature, structure, and modification of language." The Online Etymology Dictionary defines it as "the science of languages" the first use of the word that can be found dating from 1847.

What has this to do with Apologetics you may ask? I'll get to that in a bit.

Linguistics has always been of interest to me. It is the means by which people communicate, how they understand each other.

The English language is one of the most complex with several meanings sometimes given to a single word. The meaning of those words are usually easily understood by the context it is given in, the other words that are used with it helps to distinguish which meaning is meant. The English language has become more complex through the years with the addition of various forms of other languages being added to it yet at the same time this has helped in the understanding of what is meant.

This all came to me as I was reading a blog this morning where an individual was talking about how a certain well known news paper had an article on some mathematicians that have claimed "to have proven that Einstein’s famous equation, e=mc2, is correct." In this article instead of calling their efforts monumental or something along those lines they called their efforts "heroic." The blogger's point was that heroic did not define their efforts, that the word should be used to describe such actions as "A soldier putting his life on the line".

When we look at a modern dictionary and see the meaning given to heroics as being a "determined effort especially in the face of difficulty" I can see where the news papers author was correct in using it in this manner. However I can appreciate the blogger's sentiment completely when we look at the original meaning of the word hero, "defender, protector, one of great courage."

Today we see a lot of this going on even in the Christian outlook. People are changing the meaning of words as they want to with any regard to being understood correctly by others. Many times this is purposefully done to confuse and deceive others. It is also done because some do not fully understand the meanings of the words themselves to begin with, a lack of knowledge, and are therefore easily deceived by others.

We see many people misusing words in this manner that are contained in the Bible. Such words as Christian, The Gospel vs gospel, God vs god, judge ... and I'm sure that we could come up with many, many more such examples. Mankind when relying on their own individual understanding will invariably come up with their own meanings to words.

Words, how we use them and we understand them are very important. It is for these reasons that we must rely on God to give us the understanding that we need that enables us to understand Him and His word. We do this through constant prayer along with the study of His word. If we do not study and do so in this manner then we can easily be deceived. In this day and age when the meanings of words are being changed according to each individuals purpose it will become much easier to be deceived. Turn to Him and He will guide us.