Archaic KJV Word
Sanctification
Modern equivalent: spiritual growth
What Was Lost
The concept of God actively, progressively separating a person from common use for sacred purpose -- like a vessel taken from the kitchen and placed on the altar. Sanctification was not self-improvement but divine repurposing.
Closest Survivor in Modern English
consecration (retains the 'set apart' meaning but lacks the ongoing process dimension)
Peak Usage (1611)
KJV 1 Thessalonians 4:3 -- 'This is the will of God, even your sanctification'
Died still used but hollowed (~1970)
Retained in religious vocabulary but drained of specificity. Originally meant 'being set apart by God for sacred purpose'; now vaguely means 'becoming more spiritual.'
What Replaced It
“spiritual growth”
Self-directed and gradual; sanctification was God's act of setting apart, not human self-improvement
“holiness”
Describes the result, not the process; sanctification was the active work of being made holy
“personal development”
Secular and human-centered; sanctification was fundamentally about God's action on a person