Believe on me: WTF?

[Wilson Gray]

When I was in high school. someone once asked why Latin prayers used
"Tu" instead of "Vos" or some other more formal term, given that God
often speaks of Himself as "We" (thus proving His Threeness, His
Trinity; like, if He was just one in the usual sense, He wouldn't call
himself "We." Would He? Well, would He?). The teacher replied that all
Christians (read: "Catholics and, perhaps, the Orthodox") are assumed
to be personal friends of God and you don't speak formally to your
buds.

-Wilson

On 8/30/07, James Harbeck <jharbeck at sympatico.ca> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       James Harbeck <jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA>
> Subject:      Re: Believe on me: WTF?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Wilson is right; "believe on" is King James Version diction. I have
> on uncommon occasion met people who adhere quite dogmatically to the
> language of the KJV and who use "believe on Him" -- of course, in
> secular things, they would say "believe in", but once God is
> involved, the dialect changes (I was about to say the register
> changes, but this is a big shift!). These are people who reserve
> "thou" and "thee" for God and honestly believe (because no one's told
> them otherwise) that this is a high formal form of address fit only
> for a deity.
>
> I should add that I've never heard anyone saying that atheists believe off God.
>
>
> James Harbeck.
>
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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