“We speak where the Bible speaks. We are silent where the Bible is silent.” “We do Bible things in Bible ways.” “We call Bible things by Bible names.” These are sayings commonly associated with the Restoration Movement. They are not God-inspired Bible verses but they are good spiritual goals for Christians who want to cast off manmade traditions and get back to simple Christianity the way it was in the first century. As I think about that last saying: Do we call Bible things by Bible names? Think about this. Why do we call preachers “pastors”? “Pastors” is in the Bible, but a pastor is an elder, not a preacher (evangelist), Ephesians 4:11. The same root word is translated “Shepherd” Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:2. If we are going to call Bible things by Bible names we should not refer to that guy who gets up in the pulpit as our “Pastor” even though most denominations do that. Why do we refer to the Lord’s Supper as a “celebration”? Jesus didn’t think of it as a celebration. It is a memorial of His sacrifice. We criticize others for using the word “rapture” when it is not in the Bible. That’s true. It’s not. Neither is the word “trinity” in the Bible. Why do we refer to certain people as “Christians” when we suspect they most likely are not Christians? Matthew 7:21-23. We do not want to sound condescending, but we should not be naïve or misleading either. We want to call Bible things by Bible names. The Bible does not direct us to refer to someone who merely believes in Jesus as a Christian. Am I splitting hairs here? Am I making a big deal out of trivial things? Perhaps. One could make a case that there are far more weighty things we could be working on. We don’t want to strain out a gnat and swallow a camel, Matthew 23:24. At the same time, I don’t particularly like swallowing gnats. Do you?