“It’s only words!” . . . “What is there in words?”
How often we hear people use such expressions as these! And how false they are! The truth is, rather, that it is scarcely possible to estimate the power and significance of words. The faculty of language—that is, the power of expression in words, whether spoken or written—is one of the supreme gifts of God the Creator to man the creature whom He formed in His own image and likeness. It is one most important aspect of the likeness between God and man, which is not shared by any creatures of a lower order.
Today, after unremitting efforts to prove the theory of evolution, this faculty of language possessed by man remains one clear and unchallengeable mark of division between him and the animals which evolutionists have never been able to remove or to explain. So long as this barrier stands, the theory of evolution can never provide a satisfactory account of the origin of man.
Language Sets Man Apart
Indissolubly linked with this faculty of language is the faculty of thought and reasoning. If you wish to satisfy yourself of this, analyze the processes of thought that go on in your mind for a short period. You will find that at least eighty percent of your thinking is done in words. In fact, the more refined and subtle a man’s power of reasoning becomes, the more dependent he becomes upon language as the material of reasoning. The simplest forms of physical sensations and desires—just those things that man shares in common with the animals—can partly be expressed by thought in forms other than language. But as we rise above this level, we find that we have no other means of expression but language. This becomes even plainer if we include under the term language the symbolic systems of logic, mathematics and music, which are in reality only specialized forms of the same general faculty.
These conclusions about the importance of language, drawn merely from common human experience, are fully confirmed when we consider what God Himself teaches on this subject. The two supreme revelations of Himself that God has given to man are the Bible and Jesus Christ. Upon both of these, divine authority has conferred the title, “the Word of God.” Could anything give to words, as such, a higher importance than this?
Words Are Things
The two actual human languages in which God’s written revelation,
the Bible, was fi rst given to man, are Hebrew (and its sister, Aramaic) in the Old Testament and Greek in the New. There is one particularly significant fact that is common to both of these languages. In each of them there is one word—in Hebrew dabar and in Greek rhema—that can equally accurately be translated
either “word” or “thing.” Only the context can show in each instance which translation is to be preferred, and sometimes it is necessary to translate in both ways to give the full meaning of the original.
For instance, the utterance of Gabriel to Mary in Luke 1:37 can
equally well be translated: “With God nothing will be impossible,” or “With God no word will be void of power.” We might perhaps express this by saying, “Every word of God contains in it the power for its own fulfillment.”
This peculiarity of Hebrew and Greek, the two languages chosen
for divine revelation, is no accident. It illustrates a fundamental principle of the divine nature. With God, words are things. There is
no real distinction between the two. “God said, ‘Let there be light’;
and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). When God spoke the word, “light,” the thing, light, came into being. “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God” (Hebrews 11:3). In sober fact, words were the only means that God used to create the whole universe.
How often we hear people use such expressions as these! And how false they are! The truth is, rather, that it is scarcely possible to estimate the power and significance of words. The faculty of language—that is, the power of expression in words, whether spoken or written—is one of the supreme gifts of God the Creator to man the creature whom He formed in His own image and likeness. It is one most important aspect of the likeness between God and man, which is not shared by any creatures of a lower order.
Today, after unremitting efforts to prove the theory of evolution, this faculty of language possessed by man remains one clear and unchallengeable mark of division between him and the animals which evolutionists have never been able to remove or to explain. So long as this barrier stands, the theory of evolution can never provide a satisfactory account of the origin of man.
Language Sets Man Apart
Indissolubly linked with this faculty of language is the faculty of thought and reasoning. If you wish to satisfy yourself of this, analyze the processes of thought that go on in your mind for a short period. You will find that at least eighty percent of your thinking is done in words. In fact, the more refined and subtle a man’s power of reasoning becomes, the more dependent he becomes upon language as the material of reasoning. The simplest forms of physical sensations and desires—just those things that man shares in common with the animals—can partly be expressed by thought in forms other than language. But as we rise above this level, we find that we have no other means of expression but language. This becomes even plainer if we include under the term language the symbolic systems of logic, mathematics and music, which are in reality only specialized forms of the same general faculty.
These conclusions about the importance of language, drawn merely from common human experience, are fully confirmed when we consider what God Himself teaches on this subject. The two supreme revelations of Himself that God has given to man are the Bible and Jesus Christ. Upon both of these, divine authority has conferred the title, “the Word of God.” Could anything give to words, as such, a higher importance than this?
Words Are Things
The two actual human languages in which God’s written revelation,
the Bible, was fi rst given to man, are Hebrew (and its sister, Aramaic) in the Old Testament and Greek in the New. There is one particularly significant fact that is common to both of these languages. In each of them there is one word—in Hebrew dabar and in Greek rhema—that can equally accurately be translated
either “word” or “thing.” Only the context can show in each instance which translation is to be preferred, and sometimes it is necessary to translate in both ways to give the full meaning of the original.
For instance, the utterance of Gabriel to Mary in Luke 1:37 can
equally well be translated: “With God nothing will be impossible,” or “With God no word will be void of power.” We might perhaps express this by saying, “Every word of God contains in it the power for its own fulfillment.”
This peculiarity of Hebrew and Greek, the two languages chosen
for divine revelation, is no accident. It illustrates a fundamental principle of the divine nature. With God, words are things. There is
no real distinction between the two. “God said, ‘Let there be light’;
and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). When God spoke the word, “light,” the thing, light, came into being. “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God” (Hebrews 11:3). In sober fact, words were the only means that God used to create the whole universe.
Thank you for visiting my Blog. also check Words Part 2 For further study, we recommend Derek Prince's CD: Use and Abuse of the Tongue Subscribe at www.derekprince.org
Mark Khan
Life Coach / Inter-Networker
Skype ID: ageofseth
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