Help Me Understand: Ebonics, Geek Speak, Religious Talk

I used to think the “Romance languages” were called so because they sound romantic. I can picture an English-speaking guy speaking a few phrases in French to add to the romantic atmosphere on a date, but cannot see that same man using Vietnamese, for example. However, the Romance languages, the five major ones being French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Romanian, derive the name from the Romans, who spoke and spread Latin through most of Europe, which then changed over time into the different languages.

It is so interesting how entire new languages emerge. We can even see the language we grew up in change through location in the country, culture, and time. 

In fact, I taught for several years in a North Chicago school district, and in one unit I started speaking in ebonics. The kids went from silent shock, to laughing hard, and begged me to say “G” again. As much as I loved the kids, culture and area, it didn’t develop the required cultural cache to understand Kendrick Lamar without explanations from Youtube videos. When Kendrick sang “[bleep] sneak dissin’, first person shooter I hope they came with three switches … Got two T’s with me, I’m snatchin’ chains and burnin’ tattoos … ‘fore all your dogs getting’ buried that’s a K with all these nines, he gon’ see Pet Semetary”, I barely grasped any meaning, while I am sure Eminem, who grew up only ten miles from me, was emersed in a different cultural background experience, understood every line, and could have warned us uninformed people a huge diss battle was on the way. Sorry, I am not a source to help with the interesting language development of Ebonics.

Similarly, while I am a geek and can follow along with the Big Bang Theory show, I am not immersed enough to help you, me or anyone else when my friend says “Honestly, the way this game’s RNG works is trash—I’ve been farming that boss for hours and still haven’t rolled the legendary drop with the perfect stats! I’ll just slide into TV, as the warp core breach in yesterday’s TNG rewatch reminded me how flawlessly Geordi rerouted power through the EPS conduits—classic Starfleet engineering at its finest!”

This is the reason for this article. I want to make sure anyone who wants to interact with Christianity, does not struggle with understanding, or is frustrated by strange new words. If you are new to the Bible or Christian belief, you will hear some religious-sounding words or phrases: testament, sin, holiness, repentance, salvation, Messiah, grace, redemption, miracles, baptism, born again, etc. 

Honestly, the words initially sound annoying to me as sometimes people in medicine, religion, or other groupings of people seem to invent new words just to set themselves apart. 

Yet, the more I studied the Bible, the more I realized the words were needed, and have specific purpose to explain concepts that will be new to many. These words are all clearly explained explicitly or through context, repeatedly and consistently throughout the Bible, but if you are new to Christianity, then I hope this brief coverage gives you a head start facilitating understanding, and keep you from the frustration I had listening to Kendrick Lamar.

• Holiness: set apart from everything else, morally pure, belonging or bound to God (sacred).
  Time, space, objects, people can all become holy if they belong to God. The temple in Jerusalem was called a holy place as God’s presence resided there, even the Israelites were known as God’s holy people because they belonged to him, as does anyone else who accepts God.  
• Sin: anything against the nature of God (his character, how God is), or an act against divine law.
• Prophet: people God uses to communicate truths to people, which are verified by acts or other means beyond human capability. 

Like a good teacher, God takes humanity where it is at, and provides unfolding revelation, which is new understanding about reality and God’s purpose at the proper time in humanity’s development, by communicating through prophets, events, and biblical authors.

• Testament: comes from ‘testari’, which means “make a will, be witness to”. A testament as related to the Bible is a covenant, or agreement, between God and his people. The Bible itself is divided into the Old and New Testament periods.

People seem to always assume they earn the good or bad that happens to them, depending on how they behave. God meant to use the new nation of Israel to teach all other people certain truths about how reality really operates, sometimes in opposition to our assumptions. Each of us will always fall short of perfection, never be able to be holy or good enough to earn salvation on our own, therefore, the Old Testament first provided a set of commandments to follow, and demonstrated no one was able to fully follow even these and live holy lives, and required purification from something beyond themselves, a symbolic sacrifice. 

The Old Testament time ended around 400 years before Jesus, with the last prophet predicting the coming Messiah, who the symbolic sacrifices in the Old Testament foreshadowed. The New Testament provides the natural extension and fulfillment of the Old Testament by providing the final covenant between God and people, with Jesus being the sacrifice himself, demonstrating the good we could not reach, and gracing us with salvation we could not achieve on our own. 

• Messiah: comes from the Hebrew word meaning “anointed one”. When one is anointed, they are specifically chosen for a special purpose. The Greek word for this is Christ”, which is why this title is attached as “Jesus Christ”. The Messiah or Christ is the one predicted by all the symbolism and direct predictions from the Old Testament, who will be the Savior offering salvation to everyone accepting him. The word “Salvation” is covered in the article “Salvation: Who, What, When Where, Why”. 
• Grace: undeserved favor, gift, love, mercy.
• Repentance: acknowledging and regretting past or present wrongdoings, and then committing to change.
• Redemption: regaining something in exchange for a payment, which in biblical application means being credited with righteousness (free from the stain and guilt of sin) and saved from the consequences of sin and separation from God through the atoning (reparation and restoring of relationship with God) payment Jesus paid and credited to all who accept his relationship. 
• Forgiveness: choosing and acting to entirely let go of resentment, anger or any negative feelings or actions towards another. 

The Bible notes God is absolute in love and in justice, and therefore loves us beyond any love we have experienced, yet is equally obligated by his nature to apply justice to sin. Perfect love and justice only cross at the cross, as all God’s wrath, anger and justice against sin was taken on by Jesus himself on the cross, once and for all. For those who accept his redemptive sacrifice, all God’s anger and judgment has already been released on himself, there is none left for us, we are truly forgiven.  

• Born again: a phrase applied to people who accepted Jesus, thereby beginning their “new life” of restored relationship with God and all that entails. 
• Miracle: an event violating natural or scientific laws. Biblically it refers to an act beyond the capability of humanity, and typically is tied to a prophet or message from God to verify the authority of the message.