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The first, the 1980 edition, exemplifies the erosion of vocabulary acted upon by godless philosophies that elevate man's sovereignty and rights above natural law. The second, the 1828 edition, shows the Biblical worldview and vocabulary of the founding generation as recorded by Noah Webster, father of American Christian education. The effect is more profound than a first glance reveals.
C. S. Lewis believed that books written by Christians, with latent Biblical presuppositions, are more effective than are directly apologetic works. Lewis said,
We must attack the enemy's line of communication. What we want is not more little books about Christianity, but more little books by Christians on other subjects --- with their Christianity latent. You can see this most easily if you look at it the other way round. Our faith is not likely to be shaken by any book on Hinduism. But, if whenever we read an elementary book on geology, botany, politics, or astronomy, we found that its implications were Hindu, that would shake us. It is not the books written in direct defense of materialism that make the modern man a materialist; it is the materialistic assumptions in all the other books. In the same way, it is not books on Christianity that will really trouble him. But he would be troubled if, whenever he wanted a cheap popular introduction to some science, the best work on the market was always by a Christian. The first step to the reconversion of a country is books produced by Christians.
(God in the Dock, "Christian Apologetics," C. S. Lewis)
If the underlying philosophical suppositions of any little book have that much power, how much more imperative is it to base education upon a big dictionary which identifies Biblical truth in the very vocabulary of the language and that can be used in every subject?
This is the reason, Webster's 1828 Dictionary has been called the most important reprint of the twentieth century, the essential tool of education for Christians! Compare definitions of such words as education, marriage, spirit, truth, and many more. Compare a few of these definitions in the chart below, you will be amazed to discover the secularization of our modern English language.
