An Example of a Method to Evaluate a Word Choice
[Retrieved from https://glory2godforallthings.com/2007/03/25/in-accordance-with-the-scriptures-2/ on October 18, 2025.]
"Beyond that, stretching out from the New Testament forward, this framework of the Gospel continues to interpret the Scriptures. Within a very short span of time very mature interpretive frameworks can be found in St. Paul and St. John which will continue to be augmented though not changed as centuries go forward." - Fr. Stephen Freeman
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TL;DR - Too Learned, Didn't (need to) Read
There's a test to discern your own veracity by swapping in a synonym and asking if it's still even technically true. The way that it's not true reveals the reason you've been lying to yourself.
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From this quote's use of language, we can derive an example about a method we can employ to evaluate a word choice.
Notice that this Orthodox Friar is talking about the Gospel and how it can be used to understand the Old Testament. He knows that a changed Gospel is no good, so he's using language to overtly ensure that his other language isn't misunderstood - that "augmented" doesn't mean "changed". But wait! There's a problem tickling my mind - doesn't that word mean that thing he denied? Maybe it does to someone else, or even to a dictionary, but the real question is whether "augment" means "change" to him.
If it really does mean the same thing to the author, then there must be pressure in his mind about the conflict which drove him to make the clarification. Another possible reason he clarified it is due to familiarity with a repeated confusion about this specific way of putting it.
If it really does not mean the same thing to the author, then there is a test he could take to prove it to himself, at least. It's what you can do to understand your own motivations about word choices better. He could replace the word augment with a synonym and see if he still feels that the synonym is entirely truthful there. If it's not totally truthful - if there's a hitch in his mind as he says it to himself - then the unfamiliar synonym might spark knowledge of how his conceptualization is off.
This is a Christian test. We need high veracity and experience discerning our thoughts relative to truth in order to have the requisite sensitivity to perform the test. Some Worldlings might have that sensitivity, too, but all good things come from God, and all of God's things are given to Christ's people (not right away, usually, but ask Him and move on with a trust that expects it sometime!).
Now, I have some basis for hope that this will be helpful to some of you, especially if you are saved. If you're not saved, then you have a bigger problem than linguistic analysis! Run to Master Jesus by His own method (1 Cor 15:1-8; Rom 10:9-14a) or continue to cling to your death (find out that the reason why I would say that is for love).
These tests are useful in this World of semantic trickery, where even we, ourselves, can be deaf to the meaning of our own words as they truly are when they emerge from us.