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Language

A Decade of “Words of the Year”

By Filings on Tue, 12/09/25
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“In 2022, goblin mode was the Word of the Year. It captured a cultural embrace of laziness, a retreat from discipline and ambition… In 2023, rizz emerged, reflecting performative charisma—identity as performance… In 2024, brain rot…. Then came 2025, and the language of reality collapse became even more precise. The winner, rage bait” - Breakpoint

Answering Objections to Updating the Westminster Confession

By Filings on Mon, 12/08/25
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“In case you don’t know, the Westminster Confession is the basis for the London Baptist Confession. I’m a credobaptist. Orthodox presbyterians sprinkle babies all the time, but we hold doctrine very much in common. The confession is precious to us both.” - Ward on Words

Jesus’ or Jesus’s?

By Aaron Blumer on Thu, 02/20/25

Long ago, a question posted in the Sharper Iron forum regarding the possessive form of “Jesus.” Is it Jesus’ or Jesus’s or something else?

Commenters provided good answers for the English usage and style options at the time. In short, Chicago Manual of Style called for one option, while other style guides had different rules.

Today, style manuals still differ on this point. In some cases, though, their specifications have changed.

Translating the English of the Confessions (London, Westminster, Savoy)

By Filings on Fri, 01/31/25
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Mark Ward discusses English “false friends” (old words that seem clear to us today but meant something different at the time) in a trio of Reformation confessions. - Ward on Words

Pastor, Are You Making These Common Lexical Mistakes?

By Filings on Thu, 10/17/24
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“words in isolation communicate a general broad concept (a semantic range)…. But when that word is placed in a context—voila!—that broad concept suddenly has been narrowed down by the context into a specific meaning that can be translated with a gloss.” - Word by Word

Let a Leading KJV-Onlyist Teach You a ‘False Friend’

By Filings on Fri, 08/02/24
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“On a regular basis, I catch King-James-Onlyists acknowledging my point…. Such is our story today, my friends—a story which begins on the blog of leading King-James-Onlyist, Kent Brandenburg.” - Mark Ward

English Is Not Going Bad, Says Top Expert

By Filings on Mon, 06/03/24
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“ ‘Is the English language decaying? Was it once in a pristine state? Has it been sliding ever since?’ I was relieved to see Garner say ‘No, on all counts.’” - Mark Ward

‘AI’ Large Language Models’ Emergent Abilities Are a Mirage

By Filings on Mon, 03/25/24
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“A new study suggests that sudden jumps in LLMs’ abilities are neither surprising nor unpredictable, but are actually the consequence of how we measure ability in AI.” - Wired

Seated Upright, Fully Clothed, and in My Right Mind: Musing About Hermeneutics

By Filings on Tue, 02/27/24
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“please allow the normal, everyday use of literature (like my appeal to the story of the maniac) to take a central place in biblical hermeneutics before grasping at secret readings….That’s how God intends language to work.” - Mark Snoeberger

On the Changing of the Dictionaries

By Filings on Wed, 01/04/23
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“…in our day everything is political and that all of society’s structures and institutions are being made subservient to political ends. …Second, it affirms that in our society self-definition is considered unassailable so that a person’s individual defining of a word must reign over a dictionary’s.” - Challies

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