An Inherent Power of Holy Words
Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2026 2:40 am
I am so sorry that this article is somewhat longer, but philosophy is not a short cut to understanding. So I appreciate both your interest and patience. I will also appreciate it, if you would be so kind to comment and let me know if it is a subject of interest.
GOD'S GIFT TO THE MONKEYS
In Defense of the Holiness of Words
There is a power in words that directly reflects God’s power. I presume this to be true because the Holy Words, the Bible, say so. The very first words we Christians attribute to our God establish the foundation upon which I base this premise. I use two quotations in their entirety to frame this article because they represent the founding cement upon which this idea rests.
If the Bible is indeed Holy Words, then the basis of our beliefs is founded upon accepting that they are truly words from God, whom we have chosen to believe. Both of these pillars, as I call them, are positioned first in their placements. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” If both of these are true, then my premise stands on solid footing. Words are the embodiment of His presence, the full representation of God’s power as exhibited to us humans.
I present that there was nothing in existence before the first word. Words came first. Each word brought forth its own manifestation in forms that represented the intent of the Creator. The first word represented the beginning of all things.
The beginning for us was a word that was a name, the name we call God. I purposely neglect any concern for our Creator’s true name, as it can be referenced in many different guises. God stirred into each word the makings of His power to manifest form according to His intent. Whether that manifestation appears as a physical universe, a moral law, an idea, or a simple thought inside the mind of a man, the pattern remains the same. Words possess the remarkable ability to bring into existence things that did not previously exist. Every invention, every nation, every religion, every promise, every betrayal, and every hope begins first as words.
This power can best be demonstrated by its most obvious and influential uses and misuses: lies and truths. These opposing applications produce results whose effects are witnessed, suffered, and observed by everyone. Like other observable powers, words exhibit highs and lows, strengths and weaknesses. Using the different effects caused by lying and truth, I will show harms and benefits that are as far apart as war and peace. Between these extremes lies an understanding of what this, so far immeasurable, form of energy serves for mankind. The naked power of words. God’s gift to the monkeys.
Words can start wars and words can end wars. Words can inspire a man to sacrifice everything he has for another, and words can convince a man to destroy his neighbor. Entire civilizations rise and fall upon agreements made of words, promises made of words, laws written in words, and beliefs carried from one generation to the next through words. This power is so common that we overlook it. We walk among its effects every day and rarely stop to consider that nearly everything distinguishing human society from the animal kingdom rests upon our ability to manipulate symbols and meanings. The monkey may possess strength, instinct, and cunning, but man received something more. He received words, and through words the ability to reason beyond the immediate moment and construct realities that exist nowhere except within the shared understandings of human minds.
To understand the holiness of words, I must first explain what I believe is taking place within the Bible itself. Considering my premise that the Bible contains lies and truths combined, I am counting most referenced stories that are fantastical among the lies. By lies, I do not mean malicious falsehoods. I mean narratives not intended to be accepted as literal truth. The truths are spelled out in Holy script and written with Godly intent, while the lies surrounding them serve another purpose entirely. I propose that these lies are written with the sole intent of bracketing hidden truths using deceptions easily assimilated by those to whom the lies are meant to be taken as truths, which they are not. The truth of the book reveals the lies within. He who lies to himself is faced with the impossible task of rectifying his faith while including material that was never meant to represent truth. The book serves its purpose by revealing the truths hidden within its pages.
Those to whom the truth of the Holy Words has not been revealed expose their ignorance by babbling the lies and truths together. Those who have seen the truth of its message discover a peculiar problem: they cannot teach it. They may repeat the words, explain the symbols, and point toward the destination, but the truth itself arrives through a personal revelation between the reader and the words. The truths reveal themselves to the heart and soul of the devotee. One may point another toward them, but the seeing belongs to the individual. This explains why two men can read the same passage and come away with entirely different understandings. The words have not changed. The readers have.
Each word carries within it God’s innate ability to reflect to the reader or hearer the part of its spectrum of possibilities that most closely matches their expectations.
There is no need for us to credit supernatural powers for words ability to change themselves. These ‘changes’ are already taught and understood by science and those who understand the psychological processes of the human mind. Words themselves remain unchanged. It is the reader who changes. This ability of words to reflect different meanings to different people accounts for the great diversity in Holy interpretations arising from the same reading. If an unbeliever reads the same words from which others receive inspiration, he will see all the reasons he chooses not to believe them. If a person seeking hope or relief from despair reads them, the holiness of words will offer it. If a believer reads them, the same words will disclose complementary understandings that reinforce why he is a believer. The words do not transform themselves; they reveal different things according to the condition of the person receiving them.
I see two things the human race was endowed with that together create a unique blending of powers. The first is our ability to reason. The second is our ability to dig out the inherent power hidden within words themselves. Our reasoning powers enable us to gain understandings of words that open our minds to possibilities not yet imagined. Words are composed in such a way that each contains subtle degrees of interpretation, with every degree expressing its own level of understanding.
Let us take a single word as an example: generosity. I choose a worldly word because it is easier to see these differences there than in words such as faith, devotion, belief, or sanctification. No one can conceive of a higher definition of a word than his experience has exposed him to. I refer to this as a kind of vicariousness with its definition. If one man’s generosity consists of giving a few dollars to the poor while another gives all he has, both men can rightly say, “I am generous.” Each understands the word. Yet we all recognize that there is a great difference between the two.
My concern here is not which man is right or wrong. My concern is that the word itself contains levels. The same is true of more esoteric words. There are levels that, when reached, carry with them specific rewards promised to those who attain higher understandings. Whether some higher power institutes those rewards is irrelevant to this point. The rewards appear because the person now inhabits a higher definition of the word itself. Within the higher words are the culminations of human imagining. Within them exist clearly defined levels of achievement. Paying attention to the steps taken toward higher learning, one can gauge how far he has risen in the search for truth and meaning.
Suddenly Holy Words reach the simplicity of grade-school primers, yet their simplicity begins revealing depths previously unseen. What once appeared simple reveals complexities never before considered. It is almost as if your perspective changes from being the reader to becoming one of the characters themselves. You begin seeing from their point of view. You begin understanding the influences acting upon them. You begin understanding why they do what they do. The words have not changed, but your relationship to them has. They begin disclosing meanings that were always present yet invisible to you before.
It is easy for a person to see which level he has achieved because the enhanced definition of the word is present inside him. He knows the truth about himself. The man who gives all he has may never receive recognition from others, but he knows. He carries within himself the knowledge that he has done right, and because of this he adopts a higher definition of the word. Another person cannot honestly claim the same achievement for himself. There are two personages that cannot be lied to: yourself and God.
Sanctification serves as a useful example. When two men read the words, “Today you have received your sanctification,” each may understand the same sentence very differently. One understands the word intellectually. He sees it as a possibility or perhaps something worthy of further study. The other rejoices in it. He receives it as a holy declaration concerning himself personally because he believes the thing has already taken place. Its reward appears as elation, comfort, confirmation, or peace. He enjoys all the fruit possible from that single word because he relates it to a status he believes worthy of applying to himself. It is the result of seeing above the mundane interpretation because he has risen above the mundane. The word reveals its full potential.
The changing meanings of words are peculiarly tied to our intellects. It is like a flexing of our ability to move ourselves through a word’s definitions and settle upon the one that exactly fits. The meaning relates itself directly to you. Its application to yourself cannot be faked. Nor can a common understanding produce the same effects that arise from experiential understanding. You cannot fake understanding above the level of your own experience. There is a line of demarcation that clearly separates intellectual understanding from experiential understanding. One knows the definition. The other becomes it.
Perhaps this is the greatest holiness contained within words. They do not merely describe what is. At their highest levels, they reveal what we have become.
GOD'S GIFT TO THE MONKEYS
In Defense of the Holiness of Words
There is a power in words that directly reflects God’s power. I presume this to be true because the Holy Words, the Bible, say so. The very first words we Christians attribute to our God establish the foundation upon which I base this premise. I use two quotations in their entirety to frame this article because they represent the founding cement upon which this idea rests.
If the Bible is indeed Holy Words, then the basis of our beliefs is founded upon accepting that they are truly words from God, whom we have chosen to believe. Both of these pillars, as I call them, are positioned first in their placements. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” If both of these are true, then my premise stands on solid footing. Words are the embodiment of His presence, the full representation of God’s power as exhibited to us humans.
I present that there was nothing in existence before the first word. Words came first. Each word brought forth its own manifestation in forms that represented the intent of the Creator. The first word represented the beginning of all things.
The beginning for us was a word that was a name, the name we call God. I purposely neglect any concern for our Creator’s true name, as it can be referenced in many different guises. God stirred into each word the makings of His power to manifest form according to His intent. Whether that manifestation appears as a physical universe, a moral law, an idea, or a simple thought inside the mind of a man, the pattern remains the same. Words possess the remarkable ability to bring into existence things that did not previously exist. Every invention, every nation, every religion, every promise, every betrayal, and every hope begins first as words.
This power can best be demonstrated by its most obvious and influential uses and misuses: lies and truths. These opposing applications produce results whose effects are witnessed, suffered, and observed by everyone. Like other observable powers, words exhibit highs and lows, strengths and weaknesses. Using the different effects caused by lying and truth, I will show harms and benefits that are as far apart as war and peace. Between these extremes lies an understanding of what this, so far immeasurable, form of energy serves for mankind. The naked power of words. God’s gift to the monkeys.
Words can start wars and words can end wars. Words can inspire a man to sacrifice everything he has for another, and words can convince a man to destroy his neighbor. Entire civilizations rise and fall upon agreements made of words, promises made of words, laws written in words, and beliefs carried from one generation to the next through words. This power is so common that we overlook it. We walk among its effects every day and rarely stop to consider that nearly everything distinguishing human society from the animal kingdom rests upon our ability to manipulate symbols and meanings. The monkey may possess strength, instinct, and cunning, but man received something more. He received words, and through words the ability to reason beyond the immediate moment and construct realities that exist nowhere except within the shared understandings of human minds.
To understand the holiness of words, I must first explain what I believe is taking place within the Bible itself. Considering my premise that the Bible contains lies and truths combined, I am counting most referenced stories that are fantastical among the lies. By lies, I do not mean malicious falsehoods. I mean narratives not intended to be accepted as literal truth. The truths are spelled out in Holy script and written with Godly intent, while the lies surrounding them serve another purpose entirely. I propose that these lies are written with the sole intent of bracketing hidden truths using deceptions easily assimilated by those to whom the lies are meant to be taken as truths, which they are not. The truth of the book reveals the lies within. He who lies to himself is faced with the impossible task of rectifying his faith while including material that was never meant to represent truth. The book serves its purpose by revealing the truths hidden within its pages.
Those to whom the truth of the Holy Words has not been revealed expose their ignorance by babbling the lies and truths together. Those who have seen the truth of its message discover a peculiar problem: they cannot teach it. They may repeat the words, explain the symbols, and point toward the destination, but the truth itself arrives through a personal revelation between the reader and the words. The truths reveal themselves to the heart and soul of the devotee. One may point another toward them, but the seeing belongs to the individual. This explains why two men can read the same passage and come away with entirely different understandings. The words have not changed. The readers have.
Each word carries within it God’s innate ability to reflect to the reader or hearer the part of its spectrum of possibilities that most closely matches their expectations.
There is no need for us to credit supernatural powers for words ability to change themselves. These ‘changes’ are already taught and understood by science and those who understand the psychological processes of the human mind. Words themselves remain unchanged. It is the reader who changes. This ability of words to reflect different meanings to different people accounts for the great diversity in Holy interpretations arising from the same reading. If an unbeliever reads the same words from which others receive inspiration, he will see all the reasons he chooses not to believe them. If a person seeking hope or relief from despair reads them, the holiness of words will offer it. If a believer reads them, the same words will disclose complementary understandings that reinforce why he is a believer. The words do not transform themselves; they reveal different things according to the condition of the person receiving them.
I see two things the human race was endowed with that together create a unique blending of powers. The first is our ability to reason. The second is our ability to dig out the inherent power hidden within words themselves. Our reasoning powers enable us to gain understandings of words that open our minds to possibilities not yet imagined. Words are composed in such a way that each contains subtle degrees of interpretation, with every degree expressing its own level of understanding.
Let us take a single word as an example: generosity. I choose a worldly word because it is easier to see these differences there than in words such as faith, devotion, belief, or sanctification. No one can conceive of a higher definition of a word than his experience has exposed him to. I refer to this as a kind of vicariousness with its definition. If one man’s generosity consists of giving a few dollars to the poor while another gives all he has, both men can rightly say, “I am generous.” Each understands the word. Yet we all recognize that there is a great difference between the two.
My concern here is not which man is right or wrong. My concern is that the word itself contains levels. The same is true of more esoteric words. There are levels that, when reached, carry with them specific rewards promised to those who attain higher understandings. Whether some higher power institutes those rewards is irrelevant to this point. The rewards appear because the person now inhabits a higher definition of the word itself. Within the higher words are the culminations of human imagining. Within them exist clearly defined levels of achievement. Paying attention to the steps taken toward higher learning, one can gauge how far he has risen in the search for truth and meaning.
Suddenly Holy Words reach the simplicity of grade-school primers, yet their simplicity begins revealing depths previously unseen. What once appeared simple reveals complexities never before considered. It is almost as if your perspective changes from being the reader to becoming one of the characters themselves. You begin seeing from their point of view. You begin understanding the influences acting upon them. You begin understanding why they do what they do. The words have not changed, but your relationship to them has. They begin disclosing meanings that were always present yet invisible to you before.
It is easy for a person to see which level he has achieved because the enhanced definition of the word is present inside him. He knows the truth about himself. The man who gives all he has may never receive recognition from others, but he knows. He carries within himself the knowledge that he has done right, and because of this he adopts a higher definition of the word. Another person cannot honestly claim the same achievement for himself. There are two personages that cannot be lied to: yourself and God.
Sanctification serves as a useful example. When two men read the words, “Today you have received your sanctification,” each may understand the same sentence very differently. One understands the word intellectually. He sees it as a possibility or perhaps something worthy of further study. The other rejoices in it. He receives it as a holy declaration concerning himself personally because he believes the thing has already taken place. Its reward appears as elation, comfort, confirmation, or peace. He enjoys all the fruit possible from that single word because he relates it to a status he believes worthy of applying to himself. It is the result of seeing above the mundane interpretation because he has risen above the mundane. The word reveals its full potential.
The changing meanings of words are peculiarly tied to our intellects. It is like a flexing of our ability to move ourselves through a word’s definitions and settle upon the one that exactly fits. The meaning relates itself directly to you. Its application to yourself cannot be faked. Nor can a common understanding produce the same effects that arise from experiential understanding. You cannot fake understanding above the level of your own experience. There is a line of demarcation that clearly separates intellectual understanding from experiential understanding. One knows the definition. The other becomes it.
Perhaps this is the greatest holiness contained within words. They do not merely describe what is. At their highest levels, they reveal what we have become.