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I’m not asking anyone to change their God. But, what I am saying is two-fold. How do we reach modern-man who is outside the church and finds “religious language” unbelievable, and how do we reach modern-man who is currently in a church and beginning to wonder what he’s doing there. Our famed statistician, George Barna, tells us that the institutional church is America isn’t finding the answer and it is losing members on a large scale. Where are they going? Some just drop out, but the majority seek “spiritual organizations” that appeal to their Spirit-man, not their religious-psyche.

I don’t want to get too technical here, but LANGUAGE functions in an historical context.

We also know that mankind can only GO as far as he has the LANGUAGE to guide him there. Rudolf Karl Bultmann (1884 – 1976) was a German theologian of Lutheran background, who was for three decades professor of New Testament studies at the University of Marburg. He wrestled with these same concepts and finally came to this conclusion to which I totally agree.

“A man in twentieth-century America may repeat the words of a man in first-century Greece, and yet use them in a different way, for a different purpose.”

Listen, even if the Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic is translated into completely idiomatic English the meaning cannot be the same. We’re not only stuck trying to use 2,000 year old words and concepts that make little sense in today’s scientific and digital world, but we’re also hampered by a lot of linguistic problems as well. And kids, people today no longer buy the “Just accept it that God was able to get the message to you”. Somewhere faith and reason (logic and common sense) have to walk hand in hand.

I know, I know. It sounds impossible doesn’t it.

One of the WORDS that we discussed in our retreat this past weekend, was CONSCIOUSNESS! It’s an acceptable and fully adequate word that defines what SPIRIT doesn’t. However, since it “sounds” like New Age to some, they reject it. So, here’s a good challenge for all my readers. What modern-day word can we use in place of CONSCIOUSNESS? I’m currently stuck on “Essential being“.

PS. This doesn’t mean we throw out the word Spirit. Far from it. But what’s that mean? And when you give an answer, what does that mean. Maybe we should just go back to body language and trash the verbage and oral approach. NOT!