"The battle (for the dictionary) is over the right to define the world” -- Douglas Wilson, Same Sex Mirage
Definitions carry with them the force of law. An edict, which is an order, is literally ex + dicere or "out of what is said/proclaimed." We get the word dictionary from the same root along with dictate, dictation, and more to our purposes, dictator.
The dictionary then can be said to be an edictionary in that whoever holds the authority to say what is and isn't an "official" definition holds the authority to define the world. The question is always "official" according to whom? Or more proverbially, "official" by what standard? Is there someone in charge of the definitions or do words become what the majority say they mean? Can a vocal minority massage the definition in a different direction? Who decides?
In a democracy, Demos gets to decide. Vox populi vox Dei, the voice of the people is the voice of God. But we don't live in the people's world, we live in God's world. People can no more decide what a word means than they can decide what can exist. It doesn't work that way, whatever way you define "way," or "work."
Isaiah 5:20-21
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil;
that put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes,
and prudent in their own sight!
This craven desire to redefine the world is not a modern manifestation. Isaiah heard it from his contemporaries and Eve heard it first hand when the serpent suggested that death meant life and forbidden meant felicity. Contradiction, then, is the oldest mode of combat. In the beginning, God made the world by His Word and shortly thereafter sin was introduced by believing another word could remake it. Contradict literally means to go against what they have said, contra (against) + dict (someone's words). Contradiction presupposes a dictator. Someone's words will rule the world. To contradict the Duke of Dictionary is to declare war on his world or at the very least to war with his hold on the world. Dictation is inescapable. We will have a dictator. The question isn't IF, but WHO and WHAT have they said?
Sin is essentially attempting to redefine reality according to one's own fancies. Damnation is the natural outcome of refusing the world that is. You cannot inherit a world you hate... nor would you want to.
Salvation is repenting of your own definitions and confessing God’s realities. The word for confess in Greek is homologeo which means homo (same) + logeo (words). When you confess, you are saying what God has already said. You are forcing your words to line up with His Word. Instead of contradicting Him, you are confessing Him. You are agreeing to the world as it is, not as you wish it was. You are submitting yourself to His definition of reality: right and wrong, up and down, progress and regress, sin and salvation, freedom and slavery.
God's Word carries with it the force of law. His Words carry in them their own definitions. He is the Definer. He owns the dictionary.
Psalm 119:89
For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.
His Words are settled facts.
1 Peter 1:25
The word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
God's words are not altered by assaults to redefine them. The reason God pronounces woe on those who call things by the wrong name is that by doing so they are defining themselves out of His kingdom. Notice, they don't redefine "good" as "yellow" or "light" as "loud," they redefine themselves according to God's opposites. Thus, even in their attempts to redefine the world, they submit to God's assigned polarities. They call good "bad" and bad "good." They call up "down" and down "up." They profess to be ignorant of what they clearly know. They willfully close their eyes to what they clearly see.
Words matter and everyone knows it. The battle for the dictionary is not some random side skirmish. It's the front line. Definitions determine salvation and damnation. Confession is the means of forgiveness. Contradiction is the definition of condemnation.
John 3:19
This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
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