Others have given great reviews about how Jonathan writes and organizes his book or the facts and statistics. If you want those, skip my review. My review is about the heart of the book and more so a confession…

I didn't want to read this book because Merritt grew up Southern Baptist. I judged him for it and I’m sorry. Just about every "nondenominational" church my family visited was essentially Southern Baptist and the message at each of them was “don't ask questions, God must be teaching you a lesson, and just have faith”. Merritt actually opened me up for more questions and cracked a layer of hardness off my heart. I found myself convicted over and over as I was confronted with various words I have discarded over the years. This conviction came as a gentle reproach and I so appreciate Merritt’s example for this. It’s like watching him rip out old sticky carpet in a hundred-year-old building and revealing a gorgeous hardwood floor underneath. Carpet isn’t always easy to rip out though, it usually smells foul and you get caught by the nails and tacking once in a while. Reviving languages takes work, but it’s beautiful and redemptive once restored. The book also opened my ears to hear how others have heard sacred words weaponized or circularly defined by more confusing and meaningless words. Overall, I was surprised by this book and have profound respect for Jonathan.