Photo by https://unsplash.com/@markusspiske
A typical American Christian uses obscure archaic language with the expectation everyone else what they're saying. But this is an illusion.
As a general rule, Christian believers are oblivious to this illusion. Being in contact with nonbelievers and nominal believers in God and I'm keenly aware of this.
When talking to nonbelievers I find it necessary to use simple, non-Christian wording to explain spiritual truths and concepts. I wrote about how I saw this need in a previous post—IYOW.
When I answer a question about why the Bible says this or that, I'm intentional to explain what the Bible says without the usual Bible terms, common clichés, and phrases Christians often use called Christianese.
Does it matter? Yes, it does. A lot!
It's the language
Language is important. It's how we communicate thoughts in our minds and hearts so we can understand each other.
Christians don't need to become bilingual or multi-lingual, although that would be valuable and advisable when speaking to people from other nations. We need to be clear with our language—the language we use in everyday life and the language we use to share our faith.
Over the past several years, I've had the pleasure of interacting with many people of different backgrounds from mine, in various work environments. I've gained insight into the inner workings of street gangs and gained some perspective on the current worldview of twenty-somethings.
Working three part-time jobs gave me this opportunity. Each type of work and its social environment has its own collection of terms and catch-phrases.
Thankfully, when I ask for explanations and clarification, people are happy to help me. Some also admit their own ignorance of these things at one time.
This is how Christian believers need to be with nonbelievers.
An obscure language
I read somewhere that an obscure language in a far away land will become extinct soon. Why? Because only a few people know and speak it, and they will die soon.
In a way, this is my hope for Christianese—the general term for all those Bible words and Christian catch-phrases and clichés.
I would love to see Christianese become a dead language.
It's already dead in one sense—only those who speak it know what it means. Even many of those who speak it don't understand it very well. Christianese is self-limiting in that way.
Why? Because it closes off understanding for those who don't know anything about God and confuses those who have a limited knowledge of God. It's obscure language.
Christianese is self-limiting. It's obscure language and closes off understanding for those who don't know anything about God
When Christians use specialized terms and catch-phrases with over used clichés, ignorance is not bliss nor is it enlightening.
When believers use this obscure language—Christianese—we close people out of our circle of understanding. We block the entrance to the Kingdom of God with obscure language.
Is there a solution? Yes!
Christian believers need to use simple and clear words when they share about their faith in Jesus. What we share needs to be grounded in real life experiences of faith.
Even the simplest of words, like faith, need to be explained without quoting Bible verses or using theological terminology. It's ok to use those terms and biblical wording, but be sure to explain what they mean with simpler words.
It's ok to quote Bible verses and use Christian terminology if they are explained in a simple, clear way.
Christian believers need to translate biblical, spiritual truth from what is obscure language to the unitiated—nonbelievers—into plain wording that anyone can understand.
How to explain Christianese
This takes some work on the part of believers. We need to understand the Bible verses and terms we use and put them in our own words.
This requires thinking through the meaning of words and phrases we use so they can be put into our own words—IYOW. That's the work—thinking—with the guidance of God's Spirit.
A simple way to do this involves two basic things anyone can do—
- Keep a dictionary and thesaurus handy and use it! (there's an app for that!)
- Read various translations and versions of the Bible, even paraphrases—these will give you some ideas of how to put things in different wording
- Oh, and one more thing—pray! As Paul says, "Pray continuely." (1 Thess 5:18 NIV)
I use my apps for the Bible and dictionary a lot even though I've been doing this for many years—putting things IYOW.
Give it a try! I use the God's Word translation quite a bit but there are many, many others to choose from.
This is important!
I come back to this topic from time to time because it is so important. It's important to me and important if we truly want to share our faith in the Lord so others can understand and believe.
What is your experience with confusing Christian lingo?
Share it in the comments, and maybe I'll write on one of your experiences. ;-)
Thanks for reading and feel free to share this post!