It’s a little thing. Or I think it is? I learned very early after becoming a Christ follower that, when I am writing, it’s proper and important for me to capitalize the first letter of all pronouns referring to God. So, when I speak of Him in my writing, the pronouns referring to Him are always capitalized (accept when I make a type-o). The idea is to show reverence, for though God is a person, He is not just someone. He is that One who is above all others. It can also be quite practical as it leaves no doubt as to exactly to Whom I am referring. So, this has then been my practice or habit for these past 30 years.
We try to carry on the same practice with our song projection in our corporate worship. So when we sing together, it’s “… I’m coming back to the heart of worship, and it’s all about You, it’s all about You, Jesus”…
I bring this up because, if this was at one time the accepted norm in Christian circles, it has definitely ceased to be so. Because I don’t think I can identify a single contemporary author (or maybe it’s the publishers?) who holds to this practice today. Although it seems that most worship song writers still do. I’m not sure what the difference is?
Now, I don’t want to condemn these men and women who consistently practice not capitalizing these divine pronouns. To do so, I would have to condemn pretty much every author I know of. These are not heretics! These are the best of the best in service for Christ and much more knowledgeable on such subjects than I am or ever will be.
Furthermore, not only do almost all articles and books (seemingly all) these days written by Christians not follow this policy, even Bible versions don’t. I checked 17 versions using Hebrews 11:6 as a test case and found that out of them all, only one (The New American Standard Version) used capitals for He and Him. Even the much revered KJV doesn’t do it. Just for note, the NASB is also the only version I could identify that uses capitals for personal pronouns when referring to Jesus as well.
And just as I do not want to condemn the Christian authors of our day, neither do I want this to be a commentary on the virtues of any one translation of the Scriptures over and against another as such a study is much vaster than this little format allows and the issues are much more involved. That is to say, that I would never want to make my decision on which translation is to be preferred based on the use of capital letters. I just find the practice of the NASB on this point to be most interesting.
It can seem somewhat tedious, especially when you start using capital letters in reference to Jesus as well because, seeing as how it’s all about Him, we should not be amazed with how many times a Christian refers to Him, either the Father or the Son or the Spirit when we sit down to write.
Still, I can’t bring myself personally to do anything else. And for me I guess it is a labor of love. So, I have decided that, while I will not stand in judgment of those who do not capitalize, I myself will continue to do so as a matter of personal conviction. Maybe it is one of those Romans 14 things. Care really does need to exercised in these types of areas. I am reminded of how in my early years as a Christian so many would pray using ‘Thy’ and ‘Thine’ and how it effectively distanced God from me rather than drawing me closer to Him. These things can take on a life of their own.
It seems in aot of ways we have lost our reverence for Him.We get "over familiar" with God and start thinking of Him as our buddy.Even worse are the "Jesus is my boyfriend" type worship songs.Jesus is not our buddy,homeie or bestie He is the soverign God of the universe.He loves us and calls us "friend" but we should really remember who He is.Jesus is Lord.Jesus is King.
ReplyDeleteThis is true Clay, but somehow we have to maintain a reverence for God while dealing with the fact that He is Abba Father and that Christ is not ashamed to call us brothers! I guess these two references just become that much more amazing when we consider that He is in deed the King of Kings and Lord of heaven and earth.
ReplyDeleteI ran across this while searching this topic. As you noted, the KJV does not capitlize divine pronouns, nor do earlier Christians like Wesley [though I did open to a sermon where in one instance he captitalized him in order to avoid confusion; and some reprints of other early writers seem to add capitalization].
ReplyDeleteThis new fashion came before us so maybe we assumed it was always there. I am not sure why the fashion of writing has changed, but it always does change, not always for the better like the passing fashion of using incomplete sentences with only periods for punctuation.
Thanks for your comment Michael. I guess it just goes to show, not everything that is old is necessarily good. Not everything that is new is necessarily bad. Others might state it differently as not everything old is bad and not everything new is good.
ReplyDeleteIt just seems like a really good practice to me, regardless of it's age or origin. But, I would never get bent out of shape about it as I quite certain that a lot of those who do not practice such do not in anyway mean any disrespect for Him by it.