Watch Out for Mispronunciations of God’s Word

Maybe you’ve seen the TV commercial where a little girl repeatedly mispronounces the name “Pinnacle” as “piccanel”. Some of our kids made a few of those types of blunders too, such as referring to spaghetti as “pasgetti” or to a blanket as a “lambert”. It can be cute when a young child twists words in those ways. However, I have to admit that those commercials have become a little annoying, especially when you realize the girl is now old enough to know better and that the initial cute slip-up has become merely a staged ad campaign.

It’s a much more serious matter to mispronounce what God says. And it’s being done regularly and loudly in our day. I’m not talking about people disagreeing with God’s Word, but those who take what God has spoken and twist it or declare that He’s actually saying something different from what He clearly states. Ashamedly, many of us are joining right in with the erroneous pronouncements, either because we don’t know any better, we prefer the alternate versions, or we’re afraid to face the possible consequences of daring to stand by the obvious teaching of God’s Word. Here are a few prominent examples.

Acts 4:12 declares in reference to Jesus - “Nor is their salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” The Bible doesn’t speak of adherents to other religions as “brothers” or “sisters” who serve the same God we worship. They are considered spiritually lost apart from Christ. They are condemned as worshipers of false gods and as idol worshipers. Jesus declared that He is the only way to God, yet many today are suggesting that His declaration didn’t mean what it sounded like. Somehow they mispronounce “I am the way” to “I am one of many ways.”

Furthermore, God’s Word declares that He made humanity in two genders, male and female, a truth which Jesus Himself affirmed – “But in the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female” (Mark 10:6). It’s a severe twisting of a truth which is based on God’s Word, biology, and unbiased common sense to suggest that there are more than two genders. Nevertheless, many are turning away from reality and embracing such notions, even crediting God for creating people in those ways.

That particular mispronunciation of God’s Word likely stems from another one – the idea that homosexual behavior is not condemned by God. In describing an ungodly society, God’s Word states, “God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, turned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful” (Romans 1:26-27). Yet we’re being told today that this clear statement condemning this practice doesn’t really mean what it says.

Let’s not forget one more example, one which I’m sure I’ll encounter this week – the idea that love can’t accompany disagreement or correction. God’s Word says, “For whom the Lord loves He chastens” (Hebrews 12:6). However, if we love people enough to tell them the truth or to correct them, we’re accused of hating people. God says that we can and should speak the truth in love (see Ephesians 4:15).

  If people don’t like what God says, they should just admit it. But they shouldn’t mispronounce what He clearly says about certain subjects and claim that their view is in harmony with Him and His Word. A child’s little honest mistake of mispronunciation is amusing, but an adult’s intentional misrepresentation of God’s Word isn’t. More of us need the honesty and courage to pronounce His Word correctly.