What is “perspicuity”? That’s a good $200 theological term that essentially means “clarity.” This is perhaps one of the most important doctrines in our post-modern world that denies absolute truth and the clarity of anything. One of the goals of post-modernism is to deny absolute truths so no one can tell someone else what they can or cannot do. Post-modernism hates the Bible because it has perspicuity. It has clarity. It says everything in black and white and with far more specificity and clarity than we’d like it to be.
I write about false teachings often, and one thing all false teachings have in common is denial of the clarity of Scripture. The first thing Satan said is: “Has God indeed said?” The first thing Satan did on earth was to raise question on the clarity of what God said. God has spoken. Let me say that again: God has spoken. He said it. He means it. And He holds us accountable for believing it or not. It does not matter what we think about it. It does not matter how we “interpret” it. It’s black and white: we believe God or not. When people like Rob Bell question the clarity of “love thy neighbor as yourself” by declaring that it raises more questions than answers, I’m like “oh really?” What does it mean to “love”? Who is my neighbor? Bell thinks these are unanswered. Every author of Scripture would say otherwise. There are multiple areas where the clarity of Scripture is being attacked, and I’ll address a few of them here.
Origins: It simply amazing me how few people know what the word “day” means. They read in any other context and there is no question, but put it into Genesis 1 and suddenly everyone loses their minds. How is that possible? “Day” means “day” in nearly every single context EXCEPT when it obviously is referencing a period of time surrounding a significant event or person. How many Bible studies and discussions have had to take place over the word “day” on Joshua or with Christ or with Jonah? Yet in Genesis, there appears to be some fog that just kills basic reading comprehension skills. Genesis is CLEAR. Do you really think that God would go through so much detail about the Tabernacle, the Temple, and the Crucifixion but leave the origins of it all so unclear? That doesn’t make sense. But people want to MAKE it unclear, so they can insert their opinions into the text. Trace every “old earth” model and argument you hear, and at the root you will find some unbeliever seeking to undermine the authority of Scripture. There are believers who do believe in an Old Earth, but they did not get that idea from Scripture. They got it from reading someone, who read someone, who read someone, who was an unbeliever and didn’t check it out or test it.
Sexual morality: Yes, there are teachers who say that God’s commands on proper and improper sexual relations don’t actually mean what they say. They didn’t have our “modern understanding” in mind, therefore it wasn’t talking about those issues. Check out the series of posts I wrote on Matthew Vines and his “Reformation Project” which is just a means of attempting to justify sexual sin and getting the church’s approval for it.
Christ: Did you know there are arguments that “Christ” isn’t Jesus’ last name? Yep. That is an actual argument being made. It comes from the notion that Jesus actually isn’t the Messiah. But rather, the “Christ” is a “universal” Christ, the savior for all religions. To the Christian he appears as Jesus. To the Muslim, he is Allah or Muhammad. He is Krishna, Confucius, or Buddha. But not the only begotten Son of God, the only means of salvation, under which no other name can mankind be saved. But here, the argument is to make God, namely Jesus unclear. One of the men behind this is Richard Rohr who has a LARGE influence of many modern “preachers.”
There are many other areas where this happens. But I again, want to emphasize that behind every false teaching is an intentional muddying of the waters. There is always a question of the clarity of Scripture. Look at how most people talk about God today – very vaguely and generically. He’s a “higher being,” a “sky daddy,” a “higher power,” but not the God of the universe. This is a god you can you talk to, get comfort from, and get you want you want, but he has no actual control over things. He is distant and unknowable. And because he’s unknowable, because “his thoughts are higher than our thoughts,” we can’t understand God, therefore, God can’t hold us accountable for sin. Notice how I used Scripture to showcase the argument. EVERY choice we make has a moral basis, and an unknowable god is very convenient because he gets us what we want but doesn’t have say over what we do. That’s idolatry.
Now there are passages that are unclear. We do see things through a lens darkly. Think about what I wrote last week: sin corrupts our view of reality. And likewise, sin is what makes Scripture “unclear” to us. I’ve even had someone try to cite 2 Peter 3:16 to argue that Genesis isn’t as clear as it is. That’s total hogwash. 2 Peter 3:16 is Peter talking about how some of Paul’s writings are unclear, but not because they aren’t actually clear; rather, it’s because sinful people seek to distort them as they do other Scriptures. I told this person that in using that verse, he put himself in the category of unbelievers seeking to twist and distort Scripture. He didn’t reply to that. In reality, there are something we don’t quite get yet. Some of it is due to us being removed from the Hebrew culture and knowing the ins and outs of their system. Some of it is due to speaking about prophetic events that no one has ever figured out how they would be fulfilled prior to their fulfillment. But most of it is due to our sin. Most of the “lack of clarity” in Scripture is due to our unbelief. It’s “unclear” because we don’t like what it says. Yet, also in sinful man’s rebellion, we tend to think it’s alright and can get along with God. Because when God is unclear, we can make standards that God would approve of based on how we think He should operate. Said people are going to be very disappointed when Jesus tells them, “I never knew you.”
While there are some details that are not absolutely clear, the Bible is clear enough to give us a concrete framework to define reality. The Bible does not say “the earth was created in 4004 BC on October 23” for example. But it does say “6-day creation” and it does tell us that approximately 6000 years have passed between creation and now. Whatever we want to try to address must fit within that framework. Any scientific model must fit within these guidelines to be even remotely accurate. Likewise, every worldview is wrong is except that which God has offered. Every means of salvation except by grace alone, through faith alone, via Christ alone, according to Scripture alone, and for the glory of God alone doesn’t work, and that is crystal clear. There is no other way. It is so clear that these are the very points where Satan has attacked to create confusion. If the length of a “day” didn’t impact your worldview on who God is, what He does, and how He operations, Satan would leave that point alone. If there were any other means of salvation, then Christianity would not be singled out as a point of ridicule by the world. It is clear, so clear a child understands it and so clear the unbelieving community knows when the Christian actually believes it or not. If you don’t believe any part of Scripture, the first honest thing you can do is just say, “I don’t believe it.” But if you claim to love Scripture, uphold Scripture, and then promote the muddying of the waters and inserting opinions into the text, I have little choice but question your integrity on the matter.
If we are going to call ourselves Christians, our duty is to believe the Bible. That means we submit to it, we heed its word, and we align ourselves to what it says. And if we, in our sinful state, do not understand what it is saying or why, the Christian response is: “Lord, I believe Your word. Help my unbelief. I don’t get this, but I trust you anyway.” Those who seek to justify their unbelief by changing definitions and re-interpreting it to make it fit their sensibilities had better examine themselves because they may find themselves in a very uncomfortable place in the near future. God is clear, and He will hold us accountable to every word He gave. He expects us to read it, understand it, believe it, and obey it. Don’t play games. Your soul is at stake here.
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In last week’s post, we looked at the phrase before this one in the Lord’s Prayer - give us today our daily bread. You may notice that this week’s phrase, “And forgive us our debts,” begins with the word “and,” linking it to the previous phrase. But what does forgiveness have to do with God’s daily provision of our physical needs?
Perhaps, God’s provision for our physical needs is not enough. Yes, we need food to sustain our bodies and maintain physical health; but our overall health is so much more than physical. Our health also contains aspects of emotional and spiritual health. We all commit sins against God and against one another, so forgiveness is a key part of being spiritually healthy.
When I learned the Lord’s Prayer growing up in the church, the word “trespasses” was used instead of “debts.” The word in Greek is opheilema, which can mean a debt, an obligation, something that is owed, a wrong, a sin, delinquency, an offense, a fault, etc. As you can see, there is a wide range of meanings for this one word. Today, the word “trespass” is most often used in the context of trespassing on someone else’s property - being in a place where you should not be. Instead, the word debt has the idea of something being owed, though this often has a financial connotation to it.
My fellow writer Charlie Wolcott wrote about the idea of debts being forgiven a few weeks ago. Being forgiven of a financial debt means we no longer need to pay that debt. The debt still exists; someone needs to pay for it. But if I have a financial debt that is forgiven, I am not the person responsible for paying it any longer. From a spiritual sense, we owed God a debt because of our sins, and Jesus took on that debt through His death on the cross. The debt was still owed, but we’re “off the hook” for paying that debt because Jesus paid it for us. It still had to be paid.
The idea of forgiveness is spoken of in many places in the Bible since it’s something that we all need! Psalm 32:1-2 says, “Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit.” Psalm 130:3-4 says, “If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you.” Ephesians 1:7-8a says, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.” Jesus Himself forgave sins in Mark 2:1-5. He also shared how His blood would be poured out for the forgiveness of our sins during the Lord’s Supper (Matthew 26:26-29).
This phrase of the Lord’s prayer calls out our sins for us and reminds us that we need to confess those sins. As 1 John 1:8-10 tells us, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.” Anyone who says they have not disobeyed God is not being truthful. Saying we have not sinned makes God out to be a liar, and we know that God does not lie. Instead, we need to confess the times that we have sinned against God, and then we can receive His forgiveness for those sins.
Confession of our sins is important to recognize the ways we have done wrong against God; if we don’t recognize and acknowledge our sin, then we are much more likely to repeat that same sin. If we think we’re perfect (or even “good enough” to meet God’s standards, which we aren’t), then we’d have no need for God’s forgiveness. Confessing our sins keeps us humble.
This phrase of the Lord’s Prayer also reminds us that forgiveness of our sins is not something we can accomplish on our own. We need to ask God to accomplish this for us. The verb here used in Greek for “forgive” is an imperative, which means it’s a command. We’re strongly asking God to forgive our sins; we know we can’t do this on our own, we need God to do it for us. We know that He is fully capable of this because of Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection. Jesus paid that debt that we all have. We have all been disobedient to God and require His forgiveness for the sin that exists in our lives.
Confess the sins you have committed against God. Ask God for His forgiveness. Know that you will be forgiven, out of God’s great love and mercy for us. Next week, we’ll look at forgiveness between people.
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I have written about worldviews quite a bit through my time with Worldview Warriors. I teach five key questions: Origins, Purpose, Identity, Destination, and Authority. How we answer these questions determines how we view and see things. The big push I make is that we need to align our worldview with God’s worldview because unless we do that, we do not see reality as it is. Answers in Genesis uses “eyeglasses” or a “magnifying glass” to showcase the difference between how we see the same evidence but come to different interpretations. It’s accurate, but there’s more to it. Ken Ham often compares man’s opinions to God’s Word, and he’s correct in saying that. But I think we’ve come short of saying what it really is.
I am proud to announce that I will have a new book coming out with Worldview Warriors, slated for an August release date. It’s currently titled The God of the Psalms, and it’s a study on the attributes and character of God I’ve found in the book of Psalms. In one of the chapters I was reviewing the beauty of God, and I emphasized on how beauty is in the eye of the beholder and what we view as beautiful is determined by how we see things. Then I discovered this statement that I wrote at least 3 years ago: “Sin changes the appearance of everything and masks it in a false image.” Reading that today, several years later, it took a whole new meaning and sparked this blog post.
Why can we all look at the same thing and all come to different conclusions? It’s not really because we are merely coming from different perspectives. It’s because of SIN. Why does the universe look old? It’s because of sin. Why does it seem like God isn’t doing anything about wicked people? Sin. Why does God seem so harsh when He does? Sin. Sin corrupts everything. I mean everything. Paul said we all look through a glass darkly. It’s not merely because we are finite people trying to see the eternal perspective, but because we still have sin in our lives.
Sin is an intentional defiance and rebellion against God. God said, “I created everything in six days.” Man in his sin says, “No, it happened over billions of years.” God said, “Repent and believe the Gospel.” Man in his sin says, “No, I’ll do things my way.” God said, “There is no other name by which man might be saved.” Man in his sin says, “Surely, there must be another option.” It does not matter the topic. Salvation related or not. God says one thing; man intentionally goes the other direction. There is NOT ONE who is without sin. There is not one who seeks after God.
Man, apart from Christ, does not think after God. A group of men is called a society. All societies together are called the world. The world’s system, the way the world thinks, is run by the prince of the power of the air. That’s Satan, the great deceiver. Because sinful man is in total rebellion against God, Satan seeks any lie he can produce to get sinful man to believe him. And where he is most clever is when the lie gives the appearance of sounding Biblical and religious. There are many models that give an appearance of truth but are flat out lies. I’ve addressed many of them before. Old Earth Creation, Prosperity Gospel, and Progressive Christianity are three of the main false teachings we deal with. Each much be addressed. But what do they all have in common? A false worldview. A false view of God. A false view of Scripture. It’s been corrupted by sin. It’s not how God sees things. It’s not how God defines things.
Another book I’m working on is on Proverbs 3:5: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” I can’t emphasize enough how much we lean on our own understanding. Again, we are SINFUL people. Even those of us who have been redeemed and regenerated, born-again, still have sin in our lives that corrupts our vision. How did we get saved to begin with? It wasn’t because we saw something we needed; it was because God showed us that we were in need. And part of the process is a continual dying to self daily and being cleansed of sin. What comes with that? A purifying of our vision.
I know all kinds of things. Some good, some not good. Some valuable, some not. But I’ve learned this: the only things of any real value that I’ve learned have come from either my own studies of Scripture or from others who are studying Scripture. Everything else can be nice but is ultimately of no value. I have much to learn about Proverbs 3:5 and putting it into practice. But I have mastered one thing: “If God says it, He means it.” I have NOT mastered, “If God said it, believe it then obey it.” I never will master that one on this side of the veil. But how I can obey what I don’t believe? Scripture says we are to live by faith, not by sight. Do we trust God? Do we actually believe His word? Not our interpretations of His word. Not our understanding of how things should be. Do we believe HIM? God is the only one who has a 100% correct worldview. Frankly, that’s the one I go with. Do I get things wrong? Absolutely. But when do I get them wrong? When I lean on me and when I rely on my own understanding. When I rely on what God says, I cannot be wrong because God cannot be wrong.
We must ditch our sinful worldview that refuses to see as God sees and embrace His worldview to see reality as it is. We won’t see the whole thing, but we will see what God shows us, and He won’t lie. We need to stop being “theologians” and “educated people” thinking we can figure it out. We need to be Christians who are continually yielding ourselves to Christ Jesus in full faith in Him. Paul longed to be freed from the body of death. What a wretch! So am I. I long to be free from this body of sin myself. Thanks be to God that He has saved me, is continually saving me, and will one day separate me from the very presence of sin and completely clear my vision so I can see God as He truly is. As I await that day, I will continue to trust and place my hope in Christ and see what He says about my situation so I can respond correctly to it.
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by Steve Risner
We’re 3 posts into a series discussing the kindly given advice of an evolutionist to creationists on how they should conduct themselves in the creation/evolution debate. The backstory is that I discovered a post in a group on Facebook from a person who wanted to help us creationists out by telling us what we should avoid when debating. We discussed preaching in the first post, and last time we looked at circular reasoning. This week is a fun one: ad hominems.
The Facebook post said, “AD HOMINEM ARGUMENT. A disparaging statement about a person’s character is not an effective argument, and it alienates instead of convinces. Better to stick to the elements of your argument and the reasons for them.”
This, of course, is absolutely true. Getting into a discussion where insults fly, characters are assaulted, or you vilify a person or simply appeal to emotions is never a good way to go. I couldn’t even guess on how many times and how many ways I’ve witnessed someone being called a liar or having their integrity questioned simply because they believe something that is at odds with someone else’s beliefs. It’s tragic because the person who says such things has walled themselves off so securely that they will just call someone a liar so they can relieve themselves of the opportunity to either learn or educate.
I wanted to present an example of this. I went to the group I mentioned in my previous post to see if I could find an example. It took only a few minutes to find this quote: “Why is every creationist post just another empty lie?” I have a difficult time dealing with people like this. They won’t discuss much, but they are happy to say you’re lying because you see it differently.
Lying has a very specific definition. Lying means that you are purposefully presenting false information or presenting true information in such a way as to deceive others. This could be leaving out key details or spinning something to be false even though much of the information might be true. So in fact, you can present completely wrong information and not be lying. To be honest, I believe we see this every time an evolutionist posts on the topic. Universal common descent is completely bogus in my opinion, so if you’re giving me facts about how it happened, while I think you’re totally wrong, I don’t necessarily believe you’re being dishonest.
Calling someone a liar because you don’t like what they’re saying means you believe you actually know someone’s intentions and what is in their heart. Of course, only God knows these things about the person in question. It also likely means you’re not mature enough to handle adult conversation. It’s important to realize that two different people can see the same information and draw two completely different conclusions. It happens all the time. The truth here is that one of you may be correct, both of you may be correct, or neither one of you may be correct. That’s just how it works. But attacking someone’s character because they think differently is a real problem.
This is just one of the many forms in which the ad hominem attack can manifest. A common reason for ad hominem attacks is to appeal to emotions. When we appeal to emotions, we’ve left the world of logic and reason. Irrationality is the way of emotions quite often. A great example can be found on the Worldview Warriors Facebook page as a comment on one of my recent blog posts. You can find this gem: “I told you to come back when you repent, hypocrite.” This is such a terrible statement for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the derogatory term at the end. But this is an attempt, I guess, to have a conversation or debate about something in this person’s mind.
There are several types of ad hominem arguments: abusive which is a direct attack on the person (as I mentioned above), circumstantial which means the person’s motives or circumstances have rendered their argument void, guilt by association which means because of some negative association an argument is rendered void, and tu quoque which essentially means a person’s argument is discredited because their actions are not consistent with their argument (example: you must not believe smoking is bad for you since you smoke). These are all quite common, and all of them are logical fallacies.
Another common use of the personal attack would be to criticize a person’s argument because of the person’s education level. This is also a very common tactic used by atheists and skeptics who do not believe the Biblical account. Akin to this is also attacking someone’s intelligence, making the claim that they’re too stupid to be taught anything or to see it the “right way.” Again, to reference a real example you can find on our Worldview Warriors Facebook page, when I asked someone to explain what they meant or what they thought I didn’t understand, the reply was, “To you? What a waste.” This was an insinuation that I was either too stupid or not good enough for this person to explain something to. I don’t believe anyone who actually wants to present a good argument for a position or who wishes to persuade someone or influence another’s position would speak like this. It makes no sense at all.
This tactic (questioning someone’s education) is very common. Scientists who are creationists get this a lot. Finding examples online would only take you a few minutes. They’re either not published in credible journals so they’re stupid, or they didn’t get their degree from Oxford so they’re stupid, or they work for a creationist organization so they’re too stupid to be taken seriously.
There are so many examples of this. Most of us have experienced this, I’m sure. And I’m not saying that creationists don’t do this. I’ve done this, unfortunately. It’s certainly not my first line of defense but I’ve been pushed long enough and hard enough that I have waded into these waters with people. On occasion, pointing out a personal flaw may actually have relevance, but it’s not common and, in general, it should be avoided.
If you ever find yourself on the receiving end of an ad hominem attack, the first thing to do is stay calm and not respond in kind. You don’t want to tarnish your argument or reputation by stooping to that level. Once a person decides to mock or ridicule you rather than discuss with you, there’s generally no turning them back. It’s like a dam that’s been breached. Once it ruptures, it’s very difficult to stop it. I would suggest gently encouraging the person to refrain from such attacks and if they receive that (which is not likely but possible), continue in your discussion. But if they refuse and continue to berate you, wish them well and call it a day.
God’s Word has a great deal to say about this topic. Proverbs 26:4-5 says, “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.” This might seem to be a contradictory statement, but it needs to be pulled apart to make sense of it. The first part, “Don’t answer…” means we are not to accept the fool’s (unbeliever’s) premise as our own but we argue from the Truth of Scripture. The second part, “Answer…” means for the sake of argument that we can accept the premise to expose its absurdity. It’s the “Don’t answer… answer” technique. This link explains a great deal about this so you can read it there and I won’t repeat it here. This link also may prove useful.
You can also usually rest assured that if someone you’re debating with starts to attack you personally or appeals to emotional arguments, you’ve likely made some headway in the discussion and they’re uncomfortable with it. Keep up the good work!
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by Eric Hansen
As we get to the end of the references to armor and how we can utilize that to further our spiritual walk with God in Ephesians 6:10-20, we also see a reduced focus on us and more on others. I’ll also explain a little bit as to why I’m considering the rest of the passage as the metaphorical back armor for each item individually. Refer to my previous post for the first items of armor in this passage.
Shield of Faith
Each piece of armor Paul mentions protects at least one particular part of the body. Faith, being represented as a shield, can in fact cover the entire body. The shield Paul mentions isn’t one that you would strap to your arm but instead is something you would often carry on your back. However, it was just as effective if you brought it to your front, and if you lined up with fellow soldiers, you could create a barrier of sorts (Luke 10:1-3).
Our faith is just as powerful, but it also takes the most damage and needs the most repair after the battle is over. It is important to note that the shield often acts as an umbrella for the helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness, etc. to the point you often lose your faith before anything else goes.
We see this a lot in people who leave Christianity. It is very common to have the conversation of “why” to start with “I started struggling with believing” (or having faith). It then escalates from there, where we lose our footing and our belt of knowing what is objective truth.
Interestingly enough, the curve that these shields typically took on was formed by bonding three layers of thin wood strips (see Ecclesiastes 4:12) then covered in leather or linen. This meant that the shield was held with such importance that it was designed to take all the damage before breaking. The materials used, including the bronze to strengthen the bond of wood strips, were made with precision to be of optimal efficiency.
Helmet of Salvation
Now when we think of helmets, it can be tough to associate them with “back armor.” Even the shield can be a stretch until you better visualize just how it was used effectively. The helmet covered virtually every part of a soldier’s head, leaving only the eyes, nose and mouth exposed for vision and breathing. It often even went as far as covering the shoulders and neck, leaving little area for exposure. It is also one of the first things you would see of a soldier, as they wore it proudly and without fear, relying on it for its utmost protection.
Salvation should be held to such high regard as well from each and every Christian. We should sport it like we do our materialistic purchases. In the world today, we see pictures of Roman guards with weird feather-y material on the top of their helmets and we think it’s nothing, but in reality it was a soldier’s crown. The more visual it was the higher their rank, which did nothing but increase their ego. This is why I say we should sport our salvation as such; this is not to boost our ego, but to glorify God with such magnificence that people will stop in wonder. We need to be proud of who we are (a Christian, a child of God) and who we know (God).
The helmet is the last article of armor Paul listed that was strictly known for defense. That doesn’t diminish its importance to the overall picture, though.
Sword of the Spirit
When we think of a sword, we often think of attacking, letting it all out in a slash to push back the enemy. But what if I told you Roman soldiers would not just attack but also use a sword as a means of defense as well? A soldier would waive their sword to also warn their enemy to retreat or else an attack will be coming.
Along with additional support of deflecting attacks, this is how Paul instructs us to use our sword. We have to remember that the Holy Spirit is part of the triune God, meaning the Spirit is one of the three elements of the God-head and can help us withstand the attacks that evil throws at us. But we have to use the sword of the Spirit wisely. If we start lashing out wildly and without care, we can easily hurt those around us or even ourselves.
Prayer
This isn’t armor or a weapon, at least not in a physical sense. It isn’t something we can manifest into some tangible means. Even better, though, it is something we can utilize every moment we are in and out of enmity.
God is the one who tells us what to do, guiding and directing us. We are not the chief in command but soldiers helping win the war with every step we take. The only way we know what our next order is, however, is by communicating with our commander and asking, “What is next?” This isn’t a question of doubt or exhaustion, but of reverence and understanding that even if we may grow weary, our commander is right there ahead of us with the answer already. What better war can we ever hope to be in than one where we already know who the victor is?
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I enjoy food - lots of different kinds of food in fact, like Mexican food, Italian, pizza, cheeseburgers, and of course, chocolate! For me, food is much more about enjoyment than simply getting the nourishment that my body needs; and too often, I eat based on what I want rather than what’s healthy.
This next phrase of the Lord’s Prayer is “Give us today our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). When I was a small child learning this prayer, I wondered why we would just want bread every day; why couldn’t I pray for God to give me today my daily chocolate? This phrase is about God’s provision for our physical needs, which are not necessarily the same as our physical wants.
The Greek of this phrase is not much different from our common English translations. Literally, it says, “The bread of us the daily give to us today,” but a smoother translation would be, “Give to us today our daily bread.”
But does that just mean “bread”? The word for bread in Greek (“artos”) can literally mean bread or a loaf of bread, but it also means food in a more generic sense. It can also refer to food as specifically what we need to survive. I do enjoy bread and feel like I could just live on bread sometimes; my dad’s nickname in our family is The Breadfather because of his love for bread, so I do get it honestly! But we know that our bodies need many more nutrients than just those that are found in bread products.
Some early Church teachers equated this mention of bread in the Lord’s Prayer to be a reference to Communion or the Lord’s Supper. However, there’s no evidence in the text that this does not refer to simply physical nourishment, so the bread here does refer to real food.
In today’s culture in the United States, many of us are not used to living focused just one day at a time. In Biblical times, many workers were paid every day for the work they did that day. Being sick or injured for even a few days could be disastrous, as they would not have income for those days. Without food preservation methods like we have today, they couldn’t just go grocery shopping once and be set for a few weeks; they’d need to harvest or purchase the food they would need for that day or maybe a couple of days. The culture was very much a “daily” one.
Today, however, we can buy groceries every week or less often and have plenty to eat; many of us would have enough food to last a month or more, though our selection might become less than we’re accustomed to after a while. Many people get paid for their work every week or twice a month, rather than on a daily basis. Some people still do live day-to-day, but it’s different than Biblical times with modern things like refrigerators and freezers to preserve our food for longer.
I appreciate the phrase from one Biblical commentator who says, “The prayer is for our needs, not our greeds.” When we pray for our daily bread, we’re not praying for the extravagancies of life that we may want, but for necessities that may be much simpler. We pray for God to take care of what we need for that day; it’s a very present-tense prayer rather than a future-oriented one. We’re not praying for God to take care of our needs for the next few months or years, but just for this one day. God, give me what I need for today, then tomorrow I’ll ask you to take care of me for tomorrow.
The daily-ness of this prayer also reminds us that our days are never guaranteed. We pray for today because we do not know if we will live to see tomorrow. We only need to worry about each day that God gives us, whatever number that ends up being.
This part of the Lord’s Prayer would have reminded Israelites of their ancestors wandering in the wilderness when God provided manna (a form of bread) for them each day - see Exodus 16 for more on that. God’s instructions for the people were: “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days” (Exodus 16:4-5). They were not to gather extra, and if they did, it became rotten before they could eat it. The people of Israel needed to trust that God would provide exactly what they needed each day, rather than trying to store it up for themselves. The only time they were to gather extra was before the Sabbath, so they could spend that day focusing on God and not gathering food.
Are you trusting God daily for His provision in your life? Do you ask God for your “greeds” more than your “needs”? Let this phrase of the Lord’s Prayer remind you that anything God gives you beyond basic necessities is an extra blessing; He will provide what you need according to His good purposes and if He gives you extra, perhaps that’s an opportunity to bless someone else with it - thus God providing for them through your obedience to Him.
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We take this break from your regularly scheduled program to bring you the following…
For those you who follow me, especially on Facebook, you may have noticed that that I have been hinting at some changes going on in my life. Until this week, I’ve only shared what I am going to share here with a few individuals, but on Sunday, I officially made it public. The timing is very interesting too, because on Tuesday last week, Chad Koons wrote a post about the problems people have with a church worship service and have used that as an excuse to leave that church. I had shared with the Worldview Warriors blog writers that I had been seriously contemplating leaving my church that I had called home for 18 years. That time has now officially come.
What I want to share here is part my journey, but also part instructions on when or how you should leave your church. When you’ve been at the same church for 18 years, leaving is not an easy decision. I am a man that appeals to loyalty; I don’t like being fickle. I have been part of three churches total in my life, and I know nothing of church hunting and despise the idea of church hopping. But leading back to last year, I had been chewing on the idea of, “If I were to go to a different church, where would I go?” There were several other churches I had visited and knew people at. I believed they would be good places to go, but I had no reason to go there other than to go there. That would be pointless. But then a window opened.
One of my co-workers at my school and I have grown pretty close. We are two doors apart from each other and we are pretty well on the same page as believers and seekers of truth. We help with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter on campus, and we have hit it off. He knew I went to a church but wasn’t sure where, and he invited me to a church he had recently discovered. Again, having been an active member of the same church for 18 years, regularly involved in different ministries, running the computer every week, etc., this initially blew past me. I had a church. But for some reason, I sensed I needed to take him up on his offer. Again, I was not thinking of changing churches. I was just thinking of visiting. But when I got there and after the service, I knew I had to return. Suddenly my desire to return to the church I had been at for 18 years began to diminish. I returned to my home church for two weeks, and in the middle of that, I had a two-hour talk with my pastor about what I was doing and where I believed I was being led. My pastor has a Kingdom perspective. He knows to let people go when God is moving them, and he gave no indication that I should stay nor questioned why I was looking at moving on.
So, I began going to the new church for three weeks, and I have really been enjoying it. But I needed to properly close the door to my old church of 18 years. This past Sunday, I got to share about my moving on and was “sent off” to where God is leading me. As of this post, I will be attending this new church and taking the members’ class when the next round starts up. By that time, I will know if this church is to be my new “home” or is just a steppingstone to someplace else.
A legitimate question that has to be asked: what does this new church have that the old church doesn’t have? Why would I jump to a new church while living in the same city? As mentioned in Chad’s post last week, there are two legitimate reasons a person should leave a church. 1) The church is heretical, via the worship, the sermons, or the body, and being in that church will only bring death. These are the churches where the Gospel is not preached, and people aren’t being converted nor growing in their faith. 2) God is moving you. I have had some disagreements with my pastor over some doctrines. Sometimes he was wrong. Sometimes I was wrong. But if I really thought that my home church was heretical, a place I needed to run from, I would have simply told my pastor that I couldn’t be there any longer and I most certainly would not have asked if I could share about leaving. As a teacher by spiritual gifting, I’m always going to find error and even at this new church, it won’t take me long to find something I don’t agree with. While I understand the risk of getting critical, I find that my home church is not a danger.
At my home church, I was able to develop my spiritual skills. I had seen church discipline in action. I had heard truth be preached. I had seen people’s faith restored. And we also were known as a place where you wanted to be if you needed physical healing. There were flaws at this church too, and I won’t air the dirty laundry here. It is a good church, but it is not longer “home” for me. Even before my “send off,” I really had no desire to return there. This was the same feeling I had when I moved from Lafayette, Colorado to El Paso, Texas, despite extremely deep family roots (5 generations in Boulder County, Colorado). When we crossed the state line, we weren’t leaving home, we were going home. That’s what I feel now.
It is interesting. When I talked to one of the elders at the new church about the members’ class, he gave me the packet of information about the church and included was an article about how to leave a church. When I read it, I had pretty much done most of the list. I’ll quickly list them without going into detail:
- Study the marks of a healthy church
- Were you committed before?
- Are you submitted to the church leadership?
- Have you sought to keep the unity of the faith (that is, not causing division)?
- Do you need to stay to be a voice of change?
- Have you sought out forgiveness and reconciliation where necessary?
- Have you spoken to the church leadership?
- Have you sought the church’s blessing in leaving?
- Have you considered the grass may not be greener on the other side?
- Have you prayed?
I may take some time to break these down later on, but these are good questions to ask yourself if you are looking at leaving a church. I didn’t know about this article, but I mostly did what it asks (a couple really didn’t apply to my situation). A key thing in this article is to promote loyalty and commitment and only make changes when they are necessary.
God is preparing me for something; I don’t know what it is. I know of four options for me at this new church: 1) I am there to get fed with meat that I need in my walk, that I wasn’t going to get at my old place (that is a personal thing with where I am, not a judgment on their teachings), 2) I need to feed someone there, 3) both of those, or 4) it’s a steppingstone to get me out of the old church for something else. I do not know where this will take me, but I do believe this is a start to God taking the ministry He has given me to do to another level. I do not recommend that anyone just get up and leave their church unless there is a need to. I would not do this unless I knew I needed to. It will be a fun journey to see where God takes me.
This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
