Letters From Grandpa #169

• LETTERS FROM GRANDPA
• 169

Dearest grandchild,

Today’s letter will deal with the meaning of words. Scam artists often redefine words to fool you. In the contracts they offer the “big print giveth and the small print taketh away”. Let’s consider a few words that have been re-defined in our own generation.

Let’s start with the word “tolerance”. At one time it meant to have a sympathetic view with those with whom we disagree. Today, however, those claiming to be tolerant will deliberately destroy those who dare to disagree. Take, for example, the case of Aaron and Melissa Klein who politely refused to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple. They were fined $135,000, they were boycotted, they received death threats, and they were forced out of business. This is the new definition of “tolerance”.

Or consider the word “gender”. For thousands of years medical science and mankind were in agreement that there were only two genders, male and female. Now there are those who insist that there are 63 genders, or more, including “Anogender” which is a “gender that is unknown both to you and others.” On June 16, 2017 Canada’s Senate passed Bill C-16 which puts “gender identity” into the country’s human rights code. Those who do not subscribe to this “progressive” gender theory could be accused of hate crimes, jailed, fined, and made to take anti-bias training. How tolerant?

Or what about “marriage”. It is no longer defined as it once was, as a sacred union between a man and a woman. Marriage is now about anything you want it to be. Not only are we to believe that “marriage” can be between one or more people of the same sex, but consider: 37 year old Erika La Tour married the Eiffel Tower; 39 year old Liu Ye married himself, Maria Griffin married a truck, 32 year old Amy Wolfe married a carnival ride, and Lee Jin-gyu married a pillow. Not to be outdone, in 2006, 30 year old Bimbala Das married a snake. It happened at Atala village of Orissa’s Khurda district in India. The bride was attired in a silk saree and 2,000 people celebrated the event.

For the original disciples of Jesus the word “faith” involved evidence. For example, not one of the original disciples believed in the resurrection until they were faced with irrefutable evidence. Thomas, (the Twin), had obviously been mistaken for his twin brother so many times that he vowed he would not believe that Jesus was raised from the dead until he put his finger in the nail prints and placed his hand into His side (Jn. 20:25). As you know, Jesus appeared to Thomas and showed him his hands and his feet. Thomas not only believed, but even went to India preaching Jesus and the resurrection. He died there as a martyr. Modern atheists, however, have now given faith a new definition. Now they try to claim that faith is believing something without evidence.

Alexander Vilenkin is a cosmologist at Tufts University. After 35 years of looking backward in time he has concluded that before our universe came into being, “billions of years ago,” there was “nothing, nothing at all, not even time itself.” To rescue science from the absurdity of a universe produced by nothing, Alan Guth of Stanford took the intellectual leap and redefined “nothing”. Now we are told on the “testimony” of a quantum physicist, “nothing” is, in fact, “something”.

Jesus correctly connected a man’s words with his heart, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Lk.6:45). Just as the nature of a tree determines what kind of fruit it produces,

the nature of a man determines what words come out of his mouth. On August 17, 1998, President Clinton was asked whether the statement by his lawyer “there is absolutely no sex of any kind in any manner, shape or form, with President Clinton [and Monica Lewinsky]" was truthful. President Clinton replied, “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” Clinton explained that if “is” meant “never has been” that is one thing; but, if “is” meant “there is none currently” then the statement by Mr. Bennett was correct. This is not only worse than “the dog ate my homework”, it is a sad reflection on the true nature of Pres. Clinton. David prayed that God would guard his mouth and keep watch over the door of his lips (Ps. 141:3). That’s good advice for by your words you will either be justified or condemned!

A word is a vehicle of communication. In this regard it is important to remember that Jesus Christ is the “Word of God”. Jesus is the vehicle by which God communicates His nature to man. John begins his Gospel by stating: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made” (Jn. 1:1 - 3).

The meaning of this “Word” should be crystal clear. Don’t let anyone confuse you about Jesus!

I love you,

Grandpa Boyce