I think the far worse omission is that “sin” can not, under any circumstances, be mentioned in Christian Religious Education. My wife is a CRE teacher and has strict instructions to not mention sin. How one is to tell kids about Easter without mentioning sin is selling the kids short.

There are many reasons but perhaps you ought to chat to Access Ministries about this.

Anthony Caruana

I hope that many who have the responsibility of preaching this Christmas will be able to use this little snippet of news to explain and illustrate the true meaning of the good news of Jesus.

You are doing a great job Bill, keep it up!

Stuart Bonnington

Whilst dictionary writers may genuinely claim that the use of Christian words has fallen below the threshold required for inclusion, in doing so I believe they define their role too narrowly. Rather than simply documenting a changing culture, a dictionary can also drive the change.

Even though I don’t work in the dictionary editing business, I make it a rule never to use a word in a way which would confuse a reader of a common Bible translation. For instance, I reject the definition of the word ‘faith’ to mean ‘belief despite evidence to the contrary’ – even though it’s in the dictionary. I also take this as far as never to use gender inclusive language because anyone reading ‘all men should honour the Son’ from the KJV would be confused if unused to the generic ‘he’.

As a warning of where the driving of our culture by changing the language can lead -look no further than George Orwell’s ‘1984’ and the totalitarian state’s ambition to gradually replace English with Newspeak. Every word’s meaning was to be limited so that not even a subversive thought would be possible – there being no way to mentally articulate it. The added benefit was that if anyone did come across a banned book which had escaped destruction, such as the Bible, it would be completely unintelligible.

Mansel Rogerson

Don’t be too critical of Children’s Bibles. I still have the one my mum gave me when I was about 10 or so and it made a massive impact on my life, easily more than any other book. I’m not sure what form of re-writing you would call this one, but the language is simplified and it generally jumps between all of the gospels, using parallel accounts when available. Is that “violence to the original text”? Well, I don’t think I would call it that. But maybe this is a better one, as I had no trouble finding the word ‘sin’ in it!

Mark Rabich

David Skinner, UK

Those who try to eliminate notions of sin and thereby try to create a land without evil (“It’s all good” I hear the present generation say) will only find fulfilment in one of two places – either in heaven or hell; but this is no dualism, where both are equally viable options.

It is true that In Heaven we will experience only good. However we will also be free, once and for all, not to look upon evil but to think only on those things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable- all those things that are excellent or praiseworthy. We will not have to dwell on the muck (There are some Christians who try live that state now by sticking their heads in the sand, just wanting to be left in peace). On the other hand, those in Hell, whilst availing themselves of the benefits of constant and unremitting evil will also be tormented by a knowledge and memory of good and pleasure, for evil is dependent for its pleasure (which is an invention of God) on perverting and denying all that is good and pleasurable.

Meanwhile back on planet earth those who insist on getting rid of notions of sin and evil, inevitably create moralities of their own. For someone not to work towards a progressive, enlightened society, more in keeping with the 21st century, where notions of the devil, evil, sin, punishment and hell are expunged from the collective memory, becomes a punishable sin in itself. But by appealing to any notion of morality, which they claim does not exist; they show that they do have a moral conscience, even though it is a distorted and perverted one. Just watch the prisons start to fill up with good people, courtesy of President Obama.

I believe that what C.S. Lewis had to say in Mere Christianity, Book two and Chapter Seven, “The Invasion,” is relevant to this article. www.philosophyforlife.com/mc07.htm

David Skinner, UK

I am bemused that there can be not just one, but 17 editions of a children’s dictionary, although I understand that there are some words which children need not be exposed to. The older style was to have generic prefix names such as “School” “Pocket” “Desktop” and similar for various editions of the dictionary. These were more purpose-designed whereas the “Children’s Dictionary” seems person-focussed and patronising.

Running off on a tangent, the same could be said for children’s bibles, which are often limited to a collection of bible stories, paraphrased and illustrated in styles which do violence to the original text. The main resemblance to the original may be only in the sequence of the stories.

John Angelico