The Power of Words

I thought about lumping this post in with the previous post on the Puritans. I decided not to, but I would like to do something different with it. Rather than exploring the contributions of individual Puritans, I want to take the obvious appreciation the Puritans had for the power of words and reflect on it.

And it should be obvious that the Puritans believed words were powerful. They have left us the treasures of their writings in which the explored the things of God. I suppose you could even argue that the Puritans must have believed in the power of words, given the number of words and the complexity of the sentences with which they often wrote. :-)

Today the adequacy of words to convey truth has come under fire, even within the church. If words are inadequate to express truth, let alone truth about God, then being dogmatic about theological matters makes no sense. That includes not only important theological differences about which we may disagree and still be Christians, such as Calvinism and Arminianism, but also more central doctrines such as the nature of the Atonement. One community's website goes so far as to say that they "firmly hold that living in reconciled friendship trumps traditional orthodoxies." What is important is relationship, and what defines community is dialogue. Arguments about truth only divide us.

But is language really so inadequate? I would hardly argue that any one of us have the market cornered on truth. And I can hardly give a full-blown theology of language. But it seems to me that if God spoke first, then words must be capable of more than some today might think. If Genesis 1:3 and Psalm 33:9 are true, then "before" there was anything created at all, God spoke. And His Words bring that which is not into existence. If John 1:1 is true, then a logos, a message, a wisdom, a Word existed eternally with God and was in fact God Himself.

Words have power to communicate truth. And that is part of what I love about the Puritans. Richard Sibbes believed that God could take what Sibbes wrote and use it to comfort the wounded conscience. John Owen believed that God could take what Owen wrote and use it to help believers mortify sin. Jeremiah Burroughs believed that God could take what Burroughs wrote and use it to create contentment.

And so He does. The Puritans knew the power of words that were founded upon the Word. We'd do well to learn the same.