Christians love unbiblical words and phrases. Christian rhetoric, in books and sermons, prayers and pulpits, is full of language that cannot be found anywhere in the Bible. Words like ‘Trinity’, ‘Aseity’, ‘Omnipotent’, are nowhere in scripture, but all over Christian discourse.
Note that unbiblical doesn’t necessarily mean anti-biblical. No doubt the ideas are there, just not the terminology.
So is this terminology useful? Is it good for us to use it? Have the countless multitude of theologians who have crafted a bespoke theological vocabulary over decades, centuries and millennia, carefully weighted and thought-through, often forged in response to serious contemporary debates and combatting heresies, given us something useful and valuable to work with? Do these words, that have withstood the test of time and proven vital to Christian thought throughout church history, still have a place in our vernacular?
Absolutely not.
We must be aware of when a word, even one we’re wedded to, is the result of mere systematic theology, and not the sort of careful Bible study Christians engage in today. It is always best to state God’s truths in God’s words. And so I present to you my list of unbiblical words and phrases to worry about, and that are probably best removed from your day-to-day life:
Broken
It is not uncommon to hear Christians talk of a ‘broken world’. Yet the Bible mentions no such thing. I have already written at length about why I don’t like the phrase here. There I made quite a lengthy case, unnecessarily so. I write now as a new, more biblically minded discourseman. Just the fact that it’s not the word the Bible uses to describe our fallen state should be enough to see the danger. Blessed is he who calls the world cursed, not broken.
Relationship with God
There is almost nothing more ubiquitous than ‘relationship with God’ when it comes to Christian phrases, at least in the UK. And yet this phrase is nowhere to be seen in the Bible. Of course, we do relate to God, as our Father, Creator, Saviour, etc. But the idea of ‘relationship with God’ could be genuinely misleading. It is too easily confused with a charismatic notion of talking to God, having him present in day-to-day life, him being a person that you ‘get to know’. If you’re looking for a good alternative, try the word ‘covenant’ instead, found on page 13 of the one book that matters. The Bible.
Trinity
This is of course the infamous one. I’ve genuinely heard many conservative evangelicals question whether we should teach the doctrine of the Trinity in church, if it’s not really a word used in the Bible, and it never seems to be the main teaching point of a given passage or book.
You might think this is nuts, crazy, ridiculous. I mean how on earth could a Christian reject the study of what has historically been the most important and contentious area of Christian theology? Why would one take issue with words and ideas that have been carefully formulated over centuries to summarise the nature of God? Words and ideas that are core to our creeds and almost every Christian statement of faith that has ever been? Words that clarify the key difference between the Christian God and the gods of other monotheistic religions? Words that theologians throughout church history have been more than content to use liberally?
You would, however, be wrong. This is not nuts, it’s genius. The Bible always has to come first, even if it means offending a few theologians. If it was important, Paul would have written a book about it. If you ask me, theologians throughout history have spent way too long discussing the nature of God, when they should have been figuring out the original readers of 1 Samuel, the structure of Hosea, why chapter 5 of Romans follows on from chapter 4. You know, things that actually matter…
Unbiblical
Yes, even the word ‘unbiblical’ is in fact not found anywhere in the Bible. This does leave me with a problem, as it’s a word I have used a lot in this blog. But sometimes the ends justify the means. Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. Sometimes the only way to expose unbiblical words is by using an unbiblical word. And what word could be more unbiblical than ‘Unbiblical’? But once this blog is over, I’ll stop using it. Promise.
Justification
Did you know that not even ‘justification’, every protestant’s favourite word, is in the Bible? This is, of course, because the Bible is written in Hebrew and Greek, whereas justification is an English word. So you can keep your righteousness; from now on, I will only praise God for his ‘δικαιοσύνη’.
Conclusion
Thus concludes my scourge, for now. But I have no doubt that there are many more unbiblical words waiting to be uncovered and then removed from the mouths of all God-fearers. And I won’t stop until every last bit of unbiblical language is removed from our churches. Might there be any unforeseen consequences of such a mission? Might it leave us without the tools to counter heresies and errors? Might it create a completely incoherent circularity where I only define words by how they’re used in the Bible, and then use that to read and translate the Bible? Might it mean that the only way for me to be logically consistent is to start speaking exclusively in ancient Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic?
μὴ γένοιτο
The third discourseman
The Four Discoursemen 