Defining your terms

Read over the following creed.

We believe in one God,
the Father Almighty;

And in the Lord Jesus Christ, his Son,
who was begotten of him before all ages,
the Divine Logos,
through whom all things were made, both those in the heavens and those on the earth;
who came down and was made flesh;
and suffered;
and rose again;
and ascended to the heavens;
and shall come again to judge the quick and the dead.

And in the Holy Ghost;

and in the resurrection of the flesh;
and in the life of the world to come;
and in a kingdom of heaven;
and in one Catholic Church of God which extends to the ends of the earth.

Would you agree to those words? Would you even hold the creed as your own, like the Apostle's Creed? Here is a little more background on the creed to help you out: it was written after the Council of Nicea.

Still need more information? OK, this was the creed of Arius. Let me ask those questions again, knowing the background and authorship of the creed: do you agree with the words? Would you hold it as your own?

How easy it is to be deceived, or even deceive others, merely by the words you use to communicate your message. Even after the first Nicene Creed was written and agreed upon, some Arians (whether actual followers of Arius, or those who agreed with Arius' teachings on the nature of Christ) chose to sign in agreement with the inclusion of ομοουσιος (homoousios) but secretly held to a different meaning for that word than did the Orthodox believers. In Arius' creed above, the Arians poured a specific meaning into γεγεννημενον (gegennemenon), in such a way that the resulting interpretation differed from the Orthodox, though on the surface it looked just like any other creed not considered anathema.

You find the same idea in any discussion on salvation with a Mormon. Our use of the words "grace," "justified" and "faith" differ immensely, yet a Mormon will not hesitate agreeing with you that we are "saved by grace" and "justified by faith." Only once you press the issue are you able to get them to admit the differences. Those investigators not willing to ask them to define some of their terms ("Well, what do you mean by faith exactly?"), or are simply ignorant of the tactics the LDS church uses, can easily fall into the trap of believing they are just like Christians.

These cases merely illustrate that important principle of defining your terms in discussions. You could end up on some strange fields if you assume the other person means something they don't. You can get a lot further if you take the extra time to understand eachother.