Divine Sense of Humor: Dominant English

English is hardly the best language to arise from human intellectual chaos, but it’s the one I know best. Part of that knowledge includes a lot of study in etymology and chasing out the roots through other variations in the Germanic family of languages.

My own name became a point of curiosity. The middle name is the one I use most: Edward. It’s an Anglo-Saxon variation on “warden” that implies noble status, and somehow we got the French version “guardian,” as well. It was a prophetic choice my parents made, because I’m bound under the divine call to keep an eye on things. For example, my complaint about the corporation managing the rental property where I live was more about warning that they were completely out of bounds from God’s moral justice. If a servant of God intently prays about a moral issue, we should expect God to take action that won’t be pleasant for those who resist His justice.

Naturally, a prominent theme in my ministry here is the warning that we are falling under a deepening tribulation. It’s tribulation and suffering as a direct result of moral blindness in our world. The whole meaning of prophecy starts with moral clarity. That I no longer occupy the prophet’s office has no bearing on the prophetic root nature of my calling and ministry. I prayed often from my youth for wisdom and insight into human nature, while praying also to really understand what God had in mind for us. You can debate whether that prayer has been answered, but I have little choice but to assume some measure of what I sought has been granted. Mostly it’s the matter that I cannot shut up about moral issues.

In my mind, morality is the frame of reference God offered in His revelation. Simply knowing God compels us to engage the task of moral shepherd. To know God is to be consumed by His message. Each of us has some task in which we guard our fellow humans from folly — “folly” defined as moral failure. We are each called to communicate in some fashion that particular perspective on moral truth that God gives us. We can only tell what we have experienced.

Unfortunately, the medium for me is written English, followed by spoken English. Not so much in high artistry of either form, but in full reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit to use such limited talent as I have. With deep sadness I note that Anglo-Saxon morality, the very foundation of our Western society, is perverse. If you think Anglo-Saxons are brutal enough in raiding and political conquest, it’s their tongue that has truly taken over most of the world, though quite by accident. Somehow English became the default for telecommunications and radio traffic first, and now the default for computer software. It’s not the best choice, but we are stuck with it through the accidents of history.

It comes with a vast ocean of handicaps. The cultural orientation behind English is easily the worst thing to be foisted on humanity. We are a very long way from the dreary and morose mind of folks who gave us Beowulf, but what we have today assumes the basic truth of that ancient world. The cheerful amorality of Greco-Roman pretense is a thin cover over the fundamental fear that life just might be totally meaningless despite all we might achieve. And while that much is true, it’s the basic assumption that, if there is anyone above us, they hardly could be bothered to care, that fires all the very most misguided efforts of activism and frantic Victorian moral mythology.

So for all our raiding of other languages’ horde of terminology to give such a vast range of delicate flavor to every possible thought, we have nothing — nothing — for describing the God who cares enough to send His Son. The words of the English translation of Scripture you get, but the underlying otherworldly meaning is simply not available in English. There’s a vast treasure house of meaning that is discarded by the choice to use English. This is what made Anglo-Saxon mythology such a quick ally with Aristotelian rejection of a higher realm; it’s the reason the Enlightenment still dominates human assumptions today.

So while all this struggle to bring His revelation to life is serious business, with eternal consequences, you have to see the whimsy in allowing English and the attendant Western Civilization to flourish and dominate for such a long time. Within this moral wasteland, I stand in Pillar of Fire — the truth of God manifested in this world — trying to shepherd souls and warn them of the traps all around us. It’s a miracle anyone hears at all.