Two Linguistic Traps That Can Make You Look Ridiculous

There are two quirks of language that can trick you into saying some pretty silly things if you aren't aware of them, especially in regard to translation and ancient languages like Hebrew and Greek.

1. False Cognates. A false cognate is a word that sounds or looks so much like another word that you assume they must have the same origin (aka "etymology") and probably mean the same thing at some level. Don't fall for it! Many, many words sound or look like completely unrelated words. Before you say "This word in English (or Greek, Latin, German, etc.) is derived from that word in Hebrew (or Greek, Latin, Egyptian, etc.)" because they resemble each other, make sure that it's actually true. Languages all over the world have very similar sounding words that don't actually have any connection to each other at all. A few minutes of searching the Web can save you hours of fighting over a hill you never should have climbed in the first place. 

2. False Friends. A false friend is very similar to a false cognate, but can involve words that really do have the same origins. However, words evolve over time and the exact same word (or closely related words) might have totally different meanings in different contexts. One of the most obvious examples in modern English is the word "gay". The word once meant one thing, but was coopted to mean something else entirely. When a person uses that word, you need to know the context before you can know what meaning they intend.

Regeneration, Volume One by J.D. King

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I just finished reading the first of three volumes of J.D. King's Regeneration, a history of divine healing in the Christian Church. Volume One surveys faith healing from the first century to the first few decades of the twentieth. I was surprised at just how much evidence there is for healing throughout the Middle Ages, but documentation is sparse for obvious reasons. Until the invention of the printing press, there was no easy way for a commoner to tell us how his dysentery vanished when traveling missionary prayed for him. In the nineteenth century, printing became much more accessible; a ministry could pay to have books or periodicals printed and distributed around the world. King understandably uses a lot more of his own ink discussing the faith healing movements of the late 1800s and early 1900s.

This history of divine healing is both encouraging and discouraging. Every era of Christian history has had miracles and dramatic healings, but they come in waves. A new faith healing movement arises, sets the world on fire, and then burns out in controversy and scandal or fades away into institutionalized religion.

With so much evidence, it's hard to argue that miraculous healings don't happen, but it also leaves the reader with some serious questions. Why then and not now? Why him and not me? When God uses such imperfect people to perform miracles, how do we tell charlatans from legitimate people of faith? Should we expect miracles all the time or are they temporary measures that God uses to advance a cause or make a point, like wilderness experiences designed to move his people from here to there?

I'm looking forward to reading Volume Two, but Volume One wasn't light reading. It took me a couple of years and I expect the sequel to take as long.

The State of American Politics

 This line represents the normal, human levels of hypocrisy that we all have:

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This line represents the in-your-face, shameless, mind-blowing level of hypocrisy of the leftist media & politicians:

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They don't even bother trying to hide it. Their elitist hypocrisy is right out in the open and has been for so long, screened from public view by a willing and eager press, that they wouldn't know how to hid it if they wanted to. We didn't see it before because the Press has made it their #1 priority to hide every evil of the left. They don't care about truth or "news". They don't care about children, the poor, justice, racial equality, freedom of speech, or any of the other causes they wrap their perversion in. They care about money, power, control, and corrupting everything beautiful and pure.

A reporter recently excoriated Trump because he wouldn't denounce QANON for accusing the Democrats of being Satan-worshiping pedophiles. I used to think such accusations were wild exaggerations. After everything we've seen in the last four years, I'm not so sure anymore. As far as I can tell, Donald Trump is the only reason we have seen as much as we have. They're tripping over their own feet in their efforts to bring him down, and in the process revealing their true nature. 

I'm not sure that most of the Left is consciously engaged in Satan-worship--many are probably just deceived--but I am convinced that they are entirely owned by him. To be a member of the DNC today is essentially to declare your allegiance to Satan, and I suspect that the filth and corruption we have seen to date is only the tip of the iceberg.

No, that's not hyperbole or sarcasm. The Left is pure evil, and it needs to be burned to ash.