The Official Writing Challenge
BACK TO
CHALLENGE
MAIN
INSTRUCTIONS
how it works
submission rules
guidelines for
choosing a level
ENTRIES
submit your entry
read current entries
read past entries
challenge winners
Our Daily Devotional HERE
Place it on your site or
receive it daily by email.


TRUST JESUS TODAY

  • Share
  • how it works
  • Submit
Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: CALENDAR (10/20/16)
When absorbed with Bible study, it’s all about context, context, context. Being cognizant of context clarifies the message and often the why. If the context is not sufficient; then go to the words and study their meaning in the original tongue. English sometimes inadequately conveys the original meaning. Consulting a Greek or Hebrew Lexicon is fundamental to insight. Drilling down to a word's root helps guide you to its intended purpose.

Heed the word calendar. It’s a common word, innocuous enough, but what is the actual meaning? The meaning might not be as commonly thought. Before we break the word down into its elements, let us begin with a short lexicographic history. When our antediluvian ancestors realized the need for communication, grunts and hand signals were sufficient. The need for more sophisticated communication manifested and thus language was born. Man desired to make language permanent, so he invented words and letters. Lexicography is the scholarly pursuit of the relationships between these words and letters.

The development of languages was God’s express purpose, a result of the postdiluvian citizens of Shinar building their temple to the clouds. After the creation of the differing languages, man had to invent linguistics, the scientific study of language. Language is the tool for expressing thoughts and feelings and is the connection between our brain and the real world. Dictionaries were developed to further the proper usage of language, by attempting to standardize language use.

After the advent of monolingual dictionaries, there arose a need for communicating between languages. Translators helped develop bilingual dictionaries, often called lexicons. Consulting them when conducting a biblical word study is helpful. If not sufficient, then research the word’s etymology to glean further information as to its meaning.

Returning to the word ‘calendar,' we discover that it does not appear in the NIV translation nor does it appear in the other translations. However, we do find the concept of God’s time. In Gen 1:14, God creates two large lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. Then God declared it good. Typically, the biblical description of God’s time consists of evenings, mornings, days, weeks, months, years, seventh year and seven periods of seven years.

God invented days, nights, weeks (six days of work and one of rest), months (one entire moon phase), and years (twelve phases of the moon plus a few days were thrown in for good measure). But who invented hours, minutes and seconds? Bean-counters invented them. When a paying for a partial day of work, being able to split the day into hours, results in not having to pay a full day’s wage.

Many say that we have God’s calendar, and we have man’s calendar and twixt the two we live our lives. But where did the word originate? Let’s start by breaking it down like this; CAL – END – AR.

CAL is erroneously thought to be short for California or calcium, but any scientist worth his calcium carbonate knows it is an acronym for Center for Applied Literalism! The letters END are simpler to analyze. They are not an acronym, but shorthand for End Key. Found on most computer keyboards, the end key and has the opposite effect of the home key. Pushing it takes you to the end of a sentence or document.

The letters AR pose a more complex problem for etymologists (word studiers). Their origin is unclear, and agitated discussions (arguments) between factions are the result. Many believe AR is short for Arkansas or Argentina, but this would arguably not make sense. Another group would say they stand for Artificial Reality, but it did not exist in biblical times. Others would say they stand for Artificial Respiration or Amateur Radio, but neither qualifies. A common, but an erroneous thought is that AR stands for Assault Rifle. For the purpose of this article, we will decide that AR stands for Adaptive Religion.

Therefore, using these sub-definitions of the roots of the word ‘calendar’ – we postulate that the meaning of calendar in the original language is: literalism sends one to the end of adaptive religion. In other words, the end of adapting religion to one’s personal truth rather than changing oneself to God's vision of a Christian and following God’s calendar and not man’s.

At least that’s the way I see it! 
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
If you died today, are you absolutely certain that you would go to heaven? You can be right now. CLICK HERE

JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
This article has been read 682 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
Chris Goglin
10/29/16
I see you put quite a bit of research into this...thank you for the wise information, even though I felt I needed a dictionary to get through it...but that's just me. I would have started with the line..."God invented days, nights, weeks"-and continued from there to make it a little less academic. Thank you for all your work!
Shann Hall-LochmannVanBennekom 
10/29/16
You have a wonderful sense of humor. You had me snickering several times. Unfortunately, the beginning was a bit dry and hard to get through. You need to lead off with your jokes right away. I thought it was going to be a dry essay on the etymology of the word. Once you got going with the humor, you thoroughly entertained me. You have a lot of potential. Keep writing, but I also want to challenge you to read and comment on at least 3 entries in each level. The more you do that, the better your own work will become. Keep at it.