......Is Holy Ground

[Richard OFfill]

There is no doubt that the English language, at least in this country, is being changed. I wouldn't say it is intentional unless the Devil is trying, to as we say, to 'muddy the water'. What I am saying is that in the past (yes, I'm from the past) there were certain protocols that used certain words at certain times and in certain places and when talking about certain things. There was even 'we don't talk about that in public'. Then to speak of certain things required reverence and respect. It seems that those times have past.

The out come of this trend is to use fewer and fewer words to discuss completely different concepts. This is especially true when discussing things which are holy as opposed to things that are not. We seem to have forgotten that reverence is not only a place but  must be taken account in the way we verbally express concepts that have to do with the sacred.

If we stay on the track to which we seem to be going, our children and grandchildren and maybe we ourselves, will not be able to discern the sacred from the profane. God help us!

[newbie]

in trying to learn Spanish, seems that their language is changing as well and becoming more like English....  for example, they say bye instead of adios, personally adios sounds better

the technology world has created more new words than anything else as the dictionary has to be updated continually as new words are added every year....  to talk to young people analogies seem to work best using tech language

we have come far BUT is it really better?

[Larry Lyons]

There is no doubt that the English language, at least in this country, is being changed. I wouldn't say it is intentional unless the Devil is trying, to as we say, to 'muddy the water'. What I am saying is that in the past (yes, I'm from the past) there were certain protocols that used certain words at certain times and in certain places and when talking about certain things. There was even 'we don't talk about that in public'. Then to speak of certain things required reverence and respect. It seems that those times have past.

The out come of this trend is to use fewer and fewer words to discuss completely different concepts. This is especially true when discussing things which are holy as opposed to things that are not. We seem to have forgotten that reverence is not only a place but  must be taken account in the way we verbally express concepts that have to do with the sacred.

If we stay on the track to which we seem to be going, our children and grandchildren and maybe we ourselves, will not be able to discern the sacred from the profane. God help us!

Pastor, I believe we have already gone far along that track. One thing that I have observed, is that there is no explicit teaching in our church about the difference between the sacred and profane, or the sacred and common. It is never mentioned in evangelistic series, it is not mentioned in any printed Bible study series that I have seen. It is hardly ever mentioned at all. Many, if not most Adventists don't seem to even be aware that there is a difference. Once in awhile there will be an attempt to create a more reverent atmosphere in the sanctuary on Sabbath but it doesn't seem to last very long. How widespread is this problem? What can be done?

Pastor, can you say more about how language and speech plays into this problem?

[Richard OFfill]

For example, A wonderful Christian young lady who has been a spiritual leader at college and in her home church has a cell phone. Some years back (she is a graduate nurse now) her recorded cell phone message would be something like. " I'm sorry I am not here to answer the phone, but remember God is crazy about you!" The current culture would probably see nothing wrong with that. I do because I would never use words like that to talk about God.

I may have mentioned already the use of the word 'guys' from the pulpit. "We are happy to welcome you guys to church".

I believe it was the hippies and  the new agers in the sixties and seventies that broke the back of respect in our culture ie calling police 'pigs'. In another generation we never called someone who was older than us by their first name.

This past Sabbath a youth pastor from the UK was our guest speaker. She showed a video during the worship service. It started out by a man standing with his back to the camera saying something like "I have a big but." Then he went on to explain that we need to get the buts out of our spiritual lives  ie 'but' I can do that etc. It was a gross use of a double meaning. Frankly I couldn't believe it was happening. But then as I said earlier this generation can't seem to tell the difference.