Retro-Fittable Words

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (John 3:1-18 ESV).

What you are reading right now has been classified as "human readable information." This page is full of words that you as a human can read but that a lot of computers can't decipher. All that would change, of course, if this page had been printed in a bar code. Then the computer could read it and you couldn't. These classifications of "human readable information" and "bar code information" are new concepts brought on by technology. So now we have to distinguish between what humans can read and what a machine reads. There's a term for the new words we create as technology changes. It's retronym. A retronym is a word that is formed when we go back and reshape terms to keep up with the times.

For example, twenty years ago, when all telephones had rotary dials, they were just referred to as telephones. Now almost everyone has push-button phones, so we've had to give the old gizmos the name "rotary telephones." Back in the first century of the church of Jesus Christ, a group of people got a label that has stuck around for nearly 2,000 years. In Antioch, Jesus' followers were called Christians for the first time. This label, which clearly indicates a relationship with Christ, should be enough. But in our times, all kinds of people are using the term Christian. So, we have created the retronym born-again Christian. We use this term to mean someone who has truly accepted Jesus as Savior according to His definition in John 3. The label is not the important thing. What is vital is that you have asked Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins and be your Savior. Whether you like to be called "born again" or "Christian" or both, the important thing is that you have put your faith in Jesus to save you. Have you? If not, then do so now.