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Facing The Flaming Arrows

22 Monday Jan 2024

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Hello, Readers!  Welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman and another installment in my study on Ephesians 6:10-18a where the Apostle Paul describes the Whole Armor of God.  My focus is still on verse 16: “above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.”

The mental picture painted here is a curious one.  It’s not all that difficult to picture a Roman Legion facing foes who have either tied something flammable to the end of their arrows or soaked the arrows in something flammable like pitch, set these arrows alight, and launched them toward the Romans who would then seek to deflect them with their shields.  As I was researching both the Roman shield and flaming arrows, I found a post on the Rick Renner Ministry site that suggested the Roman Legionaries would soak their shields in water before going into battle so that they would be able to extinguish any flaming arrows that would be shot their way.

An article on ancientfinances.com which quotes the book Suit Up!: Putting on the Full Armor of God by Michael Lantz (which I do not have a copy of and have not read) also describes flaming arrows used in battle and suggests shields would have so many smoking arrows sticking out of them that the shields looked somewhat like a roasting porcupine.  This article also mentions reading comments stating the shields would be soaked in water before commencing battle.  I would like to get and read this book to see what sources Mr. Lantz and Pastor Renner are using because all of the other sources on Ancient Warfare I have studied tell me the use of flaming arrows and soaked shields are not at all likely within the context of open battle.

The first argument against this is the fact that the Roman shield (or scutum) was fashioned of strips of wood glued together with animal based glue which is soluable in water.  During marches, the Romans carried their shields in leather cases to protect them from rain but whether this was to protect them from disintegrating or to protect the design painted on them, I can’t say definitively one way or the other.  My research has given both as reasons for the leather carrying case.  Even assuming the shield wouldn’t disintegrate after being soaked in water, a waterlogged wood shield would be extremely heavy and thus cumbersome in battle. Not to mention how few battles would be fought close by a handy water source…

Second, flaming arrows weren’t used all that often in infantry battles.  Setting an arrow alight wasn’t impossible but firing it long range was which is usually the point of having archers comprise one’s battle formation.  A flaming arrow couldn’t be drawn to the fullest or the archer risked burning his own hand and/or setting his bow alight.  Assuming some sort of guard could be used thus allowing a flaming arrow to be fired long range, there was the chance that an arrow fired at velocity would be extinguished before it ever reached its target. 

Third, there’s the fact that a flaming arrow wouldn’t have much purpose in an open battlefield unless the opposing army was standing in the middle of flammable materials.  Such a thing is not outside the realm of possibility but all of my studies on Ancient Warfare tell me that flaming arrows would not have been practical in a battle where two armies marched out to face one another.

So, if a Roman Legionary would not have faced flaming arrows in the battlefield, where did the Apostle Paul come up with the idea?

The use of flaming arrows was not unheard of.  They were immensely practical in both siege and naval warfare.  In both instances there was no need to fire the arrows over a long range and neither was it necessary that every arrow succeeded in setting its target alight: which is good because my research has told me that approximately 2% of fire arrows ever actually caused a fire.  They were fabulous weapons for causing chaos and for keeping a besieged city or ship occupied in stamping them out before they could start a fire.  There are documented historical instances of flaming arrows being used in siege warfare.  In Weapons Through the Ages, William Reid describes a battle from 429 BC where the Plateans used fire arrows against the siege engines threatening their city.  William Reid also describes Caesar’s battle against Marseilles where his miners used a 20 yard long portable covered passage with a thick, sloping, fireproof roof to safely approach the wall.  Fire was used both to attack and defend during a siege.  

The Romans did use firedarts.  Quoting Adrienne Mayor’s book Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs, J.W. Elliot says, “Firedarts were used by the Romans in the fourth century BCE by filling the hollow space in cane shafts with petroleum material such as tar, napthta, and asphalt.  These darts were lit and shot from low-weight bows at the target so that the velocity of the arrow wouldn’t put out the flames” (see jwelliot.com link below).  I happen to have Ms. Mayor’s book so I looked up this quote.  The description of these firedarts were described by Ammianus Marcellinus: the cane shafts of these darts were reinforced with iron and punctured with many small holes on the underside to provide oxygen for combustion.  These were extremely effective and, according to Ammianus, the fire flared up on contact with water and could only be put out by smothering them with sand.

Ms. Mayor does describe something called a falarica which were reported by Roman Historians Silius Italicus and Tacitus but this was a machine fired spear with a long iron tip that had been dipped in burning pitch and sulphur.  Ms. Mayor quotes Silius Italicus who wrote the burning spears were “like thunderbolts cleaving the air like meteors”.  Silius Italicus also describes the resulting carnage and the blazing ruins of the siege towers.

All of these quotes are found within the Chapter entitled “Infernal Fire” and, in this chapter, Ms. Mayor describes Assyrian reliefs from the 9th century BC showing attackers and defenders exchanging volleys of flaming arrows and firepots over fortified walls.  Flaming arrows then were used by many cultures of whom the Apostle Paul would have been aware.  The Roman soldiers guarding him as he wrote his letters would have been able to describe the use of flaming arrows but my research has led me to believe that description would have been within the context of siege warfare.

I find this significant.  The Apostle Paul writes this in his Second Letter to the Corinthians: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God…” (II Cor. 10:4-5).  As I have studied the definition of “faith” I have discovered that the original word is a covenant word and J. Preston Eby gives the closest definition: “Faith is the mental attitude of confident response which is evoked in you by what another person reveals himself to be.”

I have already looked at what the word “stand” means in the Ephesians passage describing the Whole Armor of God and have shared how I am not seeing the picture of warfare described by the Apostle Paul as one of attack and conquest.  Rather, it is a posture of defense.  Psalm 61:3 says this about God: “For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy”.  Psalm 3 also says “But You, O Lord, are a shield for me.” 

Again, whenever I have read this passage in Ephesians, I have pictured a Christian warrior clad in armor and going forth into battle confident the Armor of God could not ultimately be defeated.  I am beginning to picture that Christian warrior defending against attackers armed with and fighting from the unassailable ground of God Himself.  Our faith is a response to who God reveals Himself to be and that revelation is Christ Jesus.  The fiery darts are just one weapon the enemy utilizes to undermine that faith.  The enemy has erected towers, great high things exalted against the truth of the knowledge of God which is eternal life (See John 17:3, 1 John 5:18-20) and these fiery darts are lobbed at us to cause chaos and distract us from his attempts to destroy our foundation.

I am getting a bit wordy and so want to close this week but plan to continue with this next week.  As we go out into the world let us remember that we are the Children of the Most High and no weapon formed against us can prosper (Isaiah 54:17).  Our Lord Jesus Christ is our Shield of Faith and, in Him, we need not fear any fiery dart!

Hallelujah!  Amen.

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

THE LAW OF FAITH Part 1 by J. Preston Eby (godfire.net)

Scutum – Roman Shield | Roman Military (unrv.com)

Here’s How To Extinguish The Fiery Darts of the Wicked! | Renner Ministries

Fire Arrows – J.W. Elliot Books (jwelliot.com)

satan – What did Paul mean by “the flaming darts of the evil one” in Ephesians 6:16? – Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange

Description of Scutum, a Roman Legionnaire’s shield. – Ancient Finances

Kiley, Kevin F., All Illustrated Encyclopedia of The Uniforms of the Roman World, Lorenz Books, Aness Publishing, London UK, 2014

Mayor, Adrienne, Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological & Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World, Overlook Duckworth, London • New York, 2019, Pages 207-213

Reid, William, Weapons Through the Ages, Peerage Books, London, UK, 1984, Page 20

The Key of Life

15 Monday Jan 2024

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

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Hello Readers and welcome back to Renaissance Woman!

I missed posting last week due to an aggravation of my shoulder injury.  I’ve been taking it easy, sitting in my chair, reading some books, and thinking about faith.  And now, back to it!

The Apostle Paul describes faith as a shield in Ephesians 6:16 and as a breastplate in 1 Thessalonians 5:8.  Faith then is pictured as something that protects but, in order to understand how faith is protective, it’s important to understand what faith is.

I’ve been looking at the various definitions of faith.  A word is defined by its usage but that doesn’t necessarily mean that definition will bear any resemblance to the original meaning of the word.  Such is true with faith where I find it defined as an unquestioning belief that does not require proof or evidence and as a religion or system of religious beliefs whereas the original meaning of the word was that of confidence, trust, be convinced or persuaded, a compact.  I’ve shared J. Preston Eby’s definition of faith: “Faith is the mental attitude of confident response which is evoked in you by what another person reveals himself to be.”  I find this definition is the closest to what I have discovered both “faith” and the New Testament Greek pistis originally meant.  Pistis is related to peitho which carries the idea of being convinced or persuaded and I think it’s important to keep both meanings in mind when attempting to define “faith”.

The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 10:17, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  The Young’s Literal Translation has this verse as, “so then the faith [is] by a report, and the report through a saying of God”.  I’ve been thinking about this verse a great deal over the last week as I have meditated on the meaning of faith and this verse has helped to answer a question that surfaced in my mind at the beginning of the study.  That question is this: does the Bible describe different kinds of faith namely, our faith verses God’s faith?  If I’d had to give an answer at the beginning of this study, I would not have answered with an unequivocal “yes”; but I would have had to admit the Bible does appear to do so.

The faith recorded in the gospels, the faith that so astonished and pleased Jesus, could not have been the “faith of the Son of God” the Apostle Paul mentions in Galatians 2:20.  Jesus had not yet been crucified, risen from the dead, and ascended to the right had of The Father nor had the Holy Spirit been poured out.  So, the faith that caused people to come to Jesus was a faith inspired by the signs and wonders He performed and the word about Him that spread throughout the land but could not possibly have been His faith.

My study of “faith” meant I read the entry in the New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology.  There, I found; “The accounts of Jesus’ teaching contain several sayings which appear to go beyond the specific situation in which they occur (Mk. 9:23, 11:22 ff.; Lk. 17; 5,; Matt. 17:20).  The distinctive feature of these sayings about faith consists in the fact that they present the believer with unlimited possibilities, and that Jesus expressly summons his disciples to this boundless faith…There was a special kind of faith in God or Jesus-faith.  The antithesis between small and great (Lk. 17:6; Matt. 17:20) presents a contrast between the human attitude and the greatness of the promise.  What takes place in man is small compared with the greatness that comes from God.  However, Jesus spoke of a boundless faith as if of something new.  He did not build on something that was already there, but upon something new (Page 600).”

In his study series on Faith, J. Preston Eby references the Story of the Fig Tree related in Mark 11: 12-25.  Mark 11:22 (referenced in the above quote) is where Jesus is recorded as saying “have faith in God”.  Mr. Eby points out this is a mistranslation of the Greek and it ought to be rendered as “have the faith of God”.  I had never heard this before so, of course, I had to check. I have two Interlinear Greek New Testaments and each one renders this passage the same: ΄Έχετε πίοτιν Θεοΰ (Echete pistin theou). This is literally “Possess Faith God”.  There is no en in this passage but I cannot say that rendering it as “Have faith in God” is incorrect.  The King James, Amplified, New American Standard, and New International all have “Have faith in God”.  Young’s Literal Translation as “Have faith of God” and the rendering on Bible Hub has “from God”.  Whether the translations ought to have “in” or “of” or “from” is not an argument I have any interest in getting involved in.  I do find there is enough to question whether “in God” is the most accurate translation and, were I to stop here, I would have to say, “yes: the Bible is describing different kinds of faith”.

However, Mr. Eby brings up this passage and the translation thereof in these paragraphs:

“We have already stated that faith is produced by someone beyond oneself, therefore we need to have no hesitation whatever in saying that faith in God is not something that you and I just “decide” to have.  It is our Lord, Himself, who must produce faith in the apprehended ones.  It is not something that originates with us as a result of our decision or determination to “have faith” in God.  GOD is the source and originator of our faith!  The unfailing testimony of scripture is that all faith originates in God and is imparted to men by God.  There is no such thing as “our” faith apart from “God’s” faith.  Our faith is simply the faith that God has given us-the faith that HE has evoked in us by the revelation of Himself unto us.

               Thus we read in Mark 11:21-22: “And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto Him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.”  That is how it reads in the King James Bible but that is not how the Greek text reads.  The Greek text says, “And Jesus said to them, Have the faith of God”-that is, the faith that originates in God and comes from God.  This is in beautiful harmony with what Paul says in Galatians 2:20: “…the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD who loved me, and gave Himself on my behalf.”  Can we not see by these significant words that we do not live in the spirit by virtue of our faith IN the Son of God, but by the faith OF the Son of God IN US.  We live by HIS FAITH that has been evoked in us!  It should not be difficult for any enlightened mind to comprehend that when Paul adds concerning the Son of God this precious expression, “…who love me, and gave Himself on my behalf,” he speaks of the transcendent fact that Jesus gave Himself, poured out Himself, shedding forth out of Himself all that He is and all that He has that we may be recipients of His fullness.  Oh, yes, He poured it out for us – sharing His wonderful life, victory, power, faith, nature, love, wisdom, and righteousness with us!  Oh, the wonder of it!” (The Law of Faith, Part 1).

I do not disagree with what Mr. Eby has said. And yet…I agree we cannot have a confident response to God unless God Himself reveals Himself to us.  I wholeheartedly agree He is both the source and originator of our faith.  And yet, the response is still mine.  In this sense, it is my faith because I am responding to the revelation I have received.

In my previous post The Future is Now!, I related how I had looked at “faith” as it appears in Hebrews 11:1 and how I’d read through the various commentaries on this passage.  Both the Pulpit Commentary and Vincent’s Word Studies speak of faith outside of a religious sense.  The Pulpit Commentary states, “Even in ordinary affairs of life, and in science too, men act, and must act, to a great extent on faith; it is essential for success, and certainly for all great achievements-faith in the testimony and authority of others whom we can trust, faith in views and principles not yet verified by our own experience, faith in the expected outcome of right proceeding, faith with respect to a thousand things which we take on trust, and so make ventures, on the ground, not of positive proof, but of more or less assured conviction.”  Vincent’s Word Studies says (of pistis) “Without the article, indicating it is treated in its abstract conception, and not merely as Christian faith.” (See Bible Hub link below).

This I can agree with: that faith is a universal experience to all humankind and it is only taking into consideration what has served as the source or originator that the type of faith is defined.  For example, suppose a friend comes to me having seen a movie and persuades me to go with her to see it for myself.  I am persuaded by her argument (peitho) and I go with her because I know her as a friend and trust or have faith (pistis) she knows me well enough that this movie will be something I enjoy.  Now, that trust may be misplaced but that is not relevant to the point I am making. “Faith comes by hearing” Paul says in Romans 10:17 and there are a myriad of voices speaking to us attempting to persuade us to their way of thinking.  Our confident response of faith depends on whether we have been convinced and trust the one doing the convincing.  When it comes to the revelation of God in Jesus Christ, made real to us by the Holy Spirit, God is One speaking, revealing Himself, and convincing.  I am still left with the fact that I am the one convinced and my response of faith is still just that: mine.

I am convinced the Whole Armor of God is Jesus Christ Himself.  Thus, the Shield of Faith is His faith, not mine.  Therefore, what does it mean to live by the faith OF the Son of God?  Galatians 2:20 in its entirety says, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.  And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (KJV).  Malcolm Smith speaks of Jesus Christ in us as our very source and being of life and yet not displacing us.  I live and yet it is Christ living in me.  I have faith because Jesus has revealed Himself to me but I live by His faith.

I wonder if this my faith verses His cannot be resolved with another illustration.  I follow the Physics + Astronomy Facebook page.  There was a video posted not too long ago where a tuning fork was fixed to a table.  Another tuning fork, larger than the one on the table, was tapped on a surface so that it began to hum with its tone.  It was brought close to the fixed tuning fork but, since they were not keyed to the same tone, the fixed fork remained silent.  Then, a second tuning fork was tapped on a surface and it began to hum.  This time, when it was brought close to the fixed fork, that fork began to resonate with the same tone because both forks were tuned the same.  As they both sang together, it was impossible to distinguish how much sound was coming from one fork as opposed to the other: there was only the sounding of a single tone.

Now, this illustration does begin to break down because it is Christ in us, rather than next to us, but it is still an illustration that has stuck with me.  Many voices seek to attract my attention and persuade me the words they are speaking are the truth.  Their truth does not resonate with me because there is only one Truth and the words He speaks are spirit and life.  My faith has come, not only by the hearing of His words, but by His giving Himself to me.  He has come, resonating in the key of life, and His life is the key to which I, as I am conformed to His image, am tuned.  In reality then, there isn’t my faith and His faith because I cannot tell where mine ends and His begins.  I in Him and He in me: we are no longer two but One and I cannot tell us apart.

Hallelujah! It is so!

Amen.

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

THE LAW OF FAITH Part 1 by J. Preston Eby (godfire.net)

Mark 11 Interlinear Bible (biblehub.com)

Hebrews 11:1 Commentaries: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (biblehub.com)

The Comparative Study Bible, Zondervan Bible Publishers, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1984

Brown, Colin, The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Volume 1, Regency Reference Library, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1967, 1986

Green, Jay Pl. The Interlinear Bible: Hebrew Greek English, Volume 4, Authors For Christ, Inc. Lafayette, IN, 1985

Guralnik, David B., Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second College Edition, William Collins + World Publishing Co., Inc., Cleveland • New York, 1953, 1976

Marshall, Alfred, The NIV Interlinear Greek-English New Testament, Regency Reference Library, Zondervan Publishing House, Grad Rapids, MI, 1976

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1990

Young, Robert, Modern Young’s Literal Translation: New Testament with Psalms & Proverbs, Greater Truth Publishers, Lafayette, IN, 2005

The Future is Now!

04 Monday Dec 2023

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Hello Readers and welcome to a new post on Renaissance Woman!

I want to open with a quote from Andrew Murray’s The Ministry of Intercessory Prayer: “…’As Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life’ (Romans 1:6 KJV).  It is the Risen One who says to us, ‘Get up!…and walk.’ He gives us the power of the resurrection life.  It is a walk in Christ: ‘As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him’ (Colossians 2:6 NKJV).  It is a walk like Christ: ‘He who says he abides in Him ought to walk just as He walked’ 1 John 2:6 NKJV).  It is a walk in the Spirit and after the Spirit: ‘Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh…walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit’ (Galatians 5:16, Romans 8:1 NKJV).  It is a walk worthy of God and well pleasing to Him: ‘That you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work’ (Colossians 1:10 KJV).  It is a walk in love: ‘Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us’ (Ephesians 5:2 KJV).  It is a walk of faith, its power coming from God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: ‘We walk by faith not by sight’ (2 Corinthians 5:7 KJV).

How many believers regard such a walk as an impossible goal?  So impossible that they do not feel it a sin to walk otherwise.  Therefore, they do not truly desire this walk in newness of life.  They have become so accustomed to the life of fruitlessness that the life and walk in God’s strength has little attraction.  There is no expectation of attaining it.” (Murray, 80-81).

This struck me: especially the part about Christians thinking the Christian life so impossible there is no real expectation of attaining it.  I think I honed in on that portion because it is impossible for me to be seeking an accurate definition of faith without looking at Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  I have never performed a thorough study on this passage and so, curious what those who had done such study had to say, I looked at various commentaries.  I was amazed at how many spoke of those things hoped for as being things belonging to the future.  These commentaries had very little expectation of an immediate experience of “things”.  No, they were of God and therefore eternal and waited for us in heaven.

There were a few who suggested it was faith that made these future things “as though they were already present” (quoting Meyers NT Commentary).  The Expositor’s Greek Testament (quoting Dr. Hatch) says, “Faith is the ground of things hoped for, i.e. trust in God, or the conviction that God is good and that He will perform His promises, is the ground for confident hope that the things hoped for will come to pass…So trust in God furnishes to the mind which has it a clear proof that things to which God has testified exist, though they are not visible to the senses.” The Expositor’s then goes on to say, “The words thus become a definition of what faith does, not of what it is.  Substantially the words mean that faith gives to things future, which as yet are only hoped for, all the reality of actual present existence; and irresistibly convinces us of the reality of things unseen and brings us into their presence.”

Well, okay, but I find I am not satisfied.  If we are to stand firm in this present evil day, having put on the Whole Armor of God and taken up the Shield of Faith, defining that faith as giving to yet future things the reality of actual present existence is a definition I find lacking.  Something with-if I may use the same word as the writer to the Hebrews-substance in order to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

I found my first real glimmer of substance in the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges: “The object of faith from the dawn of man’s life had been Christ, who, even at the Fall, had been foretold as ‘the seed of the woman who should break the serpent’s head.’ The difference between the Two Covenants was that in the New He was fully set forth as the effulgence of the Father’s glory, whereas in the Old He had been but dimly indicated by shadows and symbols.”  This was one of the few commentaries that suggested Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Testament and that the things hoped for were tangible in Him rather than things reserved for some later time.

Now, there is a passage found in 1 Peter 1:3-4 which says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.”  “Reserved” does sound as if our inheritance is a future one but the Greek word translated “reserved” here is tereo (G5083) and means “a watch, to guard from loss or injury by keeping the eye upon.”  This does deserve further study but I cannot see that the definition of the word warrants the pushing off of all “things” to either a future date or as something reserved for us which we cannot experience until we get to heaven.

There is the passage in Ephesians 1:13-14 which says, “In Him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.”

I am not saying I utterly disagree with the commentaries: this passage in Ephesians speaks of a time of redemption and Acts 3:21 speaks of a time of restoration of all things.  There’s this passage in Romans as well: “For I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.  For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope: because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.  For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.  Not only that, be we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.  For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?  But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.  Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses…” (Romans 8:18-26a NKJV).

I wonder if a lack of both seeing and understanding the work of the Spirit isn’t the explanation for the lack of expectation described by Andrew Murray and still so prevalent among Christians today.  Not one commentary mentioned the Holy Spirit.  There are denominations who declare there is no longer any work of the Spirit: He ceased activity with the death of the last apostle and now we have the Bible to help us get into heaven.  And, going to heaven after death appears to be the pinnacle of expectation among far too many Christians.  They have no expectation of being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, there is no understanding of having the fullness of God in us through Jesus Christ, and there is no understanding of our inheritance in Jesus Christ.  All of this due to an unfamiliarity with the Holy Spirit for it is He who takes what belongs to Jesus Christ and declares it to us. 

The Old Testament did point to a coming Day but, for us, that Day has already come.  We don’t have to have to trust that God will keep His promises because all of His promises are YES! in Jesus Christ to the glory of God through us (2 Corinthians 1:20).  Without the Holy Spirit teaching and interpreting for us, we can’t begin to understand the New Testament for it speaks of a covenant ratified by the blood of Jesus but made reality in us by Spirit and ministered to, in, and through us by Spirit.  If you do not know the Holy Spirit is poured out in YOUR flesh, then you are missing the inheritance that is yours in Jesus Christ sealed in you by the Holy Spirit and experienced by you in the Holy Spirit.  Is there more to come?  Absolutely! But, do not have what is yours in Jesus Christ stolen from you by denominations who teach there is no longer a working of the Holy Spirit or teach you that you must come to God through their leader.  The Spirit is for you.  There is an inheritance each one of us can experience right now of which the Spirit is the down payment-or firstfruits-but what a firstfruits!  The full harvest was not of a different type than the firstfruits neither was the firstfruits a belief there would be more to come.  The firstfruits were the promise there was a coming bounty but they were full, mature fruit able to be feasted upon and enjoyed.  Do not let the fact that there is more to come keep you from enjoying the firstfruits now.

The Christian life is so much more than going to heaven when you die.  It is life now.  Eternal life is knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ (John 17:3) and we don’t have to wait until we die in order to experience it (1 John 5:13).  The Holy Spirit is lavished upon us and enables us to know our God now right from where He dwells in the secret place of our hearts.  Since He is the guarantee of our inheritance, I do not think I stretch Hebrews 11:1 too far when I say He is our faith.  He brings all that Jesus gained for us into our present reality while at the same time showing us the glorious future of all creation set free from bondage into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  Amen.

References

Hebrews 11:1 Commentaries: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (biblehub.com)

Murray, Andrew, The Ministry of Intercessory Prayer, Bethany House Publishers, Bloomington, Minnesota, 1981, 2003

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1990

Just Have Faith

06 Monday Nov 2023

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Hello Everyone and welcome to a new post on Renaissance Woman!

I am continuing my study of the Whole Armor of God as described in Ephesians 6:10-18a and, this week, am moving on from the Breastplate of Righteousness to the Shield of Faith. 

The course my study is taking was not at all what I intended.  I thought I’d go through the Armor in the same order as it is written in the Letter to the Ephesians and then, as the study progressed, I thought perhaps I’d look at it in the order it would have been put on.  That is not what is happening.  No matter!  Even though no soldier would pick up a shield without first being fully clad in armor, I have found moving from the Breastplate to the Shield a logical progression.

I shared Philippians 3:8-9 in last week’s post: “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.”  As I studied “righteousness”, I was struck by the relationship righteousness has with faith, especially as I looked at the correlation between belief and righteousness and discovered “believe” and “faith” in the New Testament are both used to translate the same Greek word.

Before I get into the Greek, I wanted to point out something I found interesting.  When I looked up “faith” in the Strong’s concordance, I found two Old Testament references whereas there are 2 full columns of New Testament references.  Out of curiosity, I looked up “believe” and found a similar situation: 19 occurrences in the Old Testament verses an entire column of occurrences in the New.  The same is true for every conjugation of both words: there are far more New Testament references than Old Testament.  Something else fascinated me: there are two passages of scripture listed in the concordance under the word “Believers”: Acts 5:14 and 1 Timothy 4:12.  There are zero Old Testament scriptures in the list. 

Why?  Is it a result of inconsistency in the English translations or did something change?

I cannot immediately rule out the possibility of translation inconsistency.  Because I want to genuinely know and not make a stand on something that looks and sound interesting but has no foundation, I took a moment to look up the Hebrew word(s) for “believe” and “faith”.  Each occurrence I found in the Strong’s all are related to the primary root aman (H539) which means “to build up, support, foster as a nurse.”  All other words build on this concept: I find definitions of confirm, established, trusty, faithful, sure, stability, certainty, and truth as I looked up the related words. 

The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon drew my attention to two passages were aman appears as “foster-father” (Numbers 11:12, Isaiah 49:23) and two where it appears as foster-mother/ nurse (Ruth 4:15, 2 Samuel 4:4).  This, along with the fact that the Strong’s does list occurrences of the characterization “faithful” being applied to people and, since the Hebrew word translated “believe” is the same translated “faith” just as in the Greek; perhaps I read too much into there being only two New Testament occurrences of “believers”.

And yet, there is no denying believe and faith appear far many more times in the New Testament than the Old which, considering the size of the two books, is interesting.  My Bible teachers have offered an excellent visual when they are making similar points in their Sunday sermons.  Let’s give it a try.  Pick up your Bible and stick your fingers in at Matthew’s Gospel.  Take a long look at how much of the book is on one side of your fingers compared to how much on the other.  Even without taking into account the appendices and maps included at the back of our Bibles, the difference is extensive.  Therefore, a valid answer to the question “did something change” is “yes”. 

Some of you might be rolling your eyes at me because of course something changed.  Jesus was born, lived, died, rose again, and ascended to the right hand of the Father and then the Holy Spirit was poured out on all flesh.  This is basic Christianity 101.  I agree!  It is!  And yet, how many of us understand what this means?  We say we are New Creations in Christ but I don’t see all of us living as if anything changed.  I still see so many speaking of the necessity of our believing in order to receive what all Jesus Christ did for us and insisting we must have faith in order to please God.

That last thought it a Biblical one.  Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”  This passage in particular seems to back up the insistence that our faith requires some hard work and diligent seeking on our part.  And yet, there are other passages that say the opposite.  For example:

Hebrews 12:2: “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…” I must point out the word “our” does not appear in the Greek but was added by the translators.  The Young’s Literal Translation has this verse as: “looking to the author and perfecter of faith-Jesus…”

Also consider the Gifts of the Spirit listed in 1 Corinthians 12.  Verse 9 says, “to another faith by the same Spirit…” 

Then there is the necessity of considering the difference between the Greek words en and tou.  En is a preposition meaning “a fixed position, in, at”.  Tou is a proper noun meaning “of this person, his”.  I consider it an absolute travesty that there are instances in my Bible where tou has been translated as “in.”  Pertaining to faith, an extremely important one is Galatians 2:20.  The King James Version renders the description of faith as, “…the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God…” whereas my New King James has it, “…the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God…” 

With one tiny substitution, the entire meaning changes.  Instead of living our lives by the faith OF the Son of God, we must live by faith IN the Son of God.  The responsibility to have faith becomes ours.  Any reference I hear to faith being a gift of the Spirit is only made with the caveat that the all the gifts aren’t given to everyone.  Some are given the gift of faith and others…I don’t know what hope others have.  This belief then makes our God a respecter of persons where some are mighty in faith and others are hung out to dry.  That is, unless we who are ungifted can somehow stir up enough faith to get through the days.

If this is so, what good is our Shield of Faith?  We are to take it up in order to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one but if our shields are comprised of whatever faith we’ve been able to summon up in the strength of our flesh, I don’t hold out much hope for any of us.

If however, the Shield of Faith is the faith of Jesus Christ, what a shield!  What fiery dart could possibly penetrate the shield of the Risen and Ascended One to whom ALL authority on heaven and earth has been given?  What protection is bestowed on us!  What rest and relief there is to know it was never our responsibility to have any sort of faith but that our faith is that of Jesus Christ!

I pray the Holy Spirit opens all of our eyes to this truth and that we see how this changes the meaning of Hebrews 11:6.  If you are hung up on the word “please” does it help to know the Greek word is euaresteo (G2100) and means “to gratify entirely”?  It is a word of delight not appeasement.  What joy there is in the heart of our god when we recognize we were never meant to create our own faith but to be partakers of His!  But this passage as well as 1 Corinthians 12 are ones I plan to look at in upcoming weeks.  I will stay on the subject of “faith” until my entire being is saturated with the certain knowledge that I live every day protected by the Shield of Jesus’ faith!

Hallelujah!  Hallelujah! Amen.   

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References  

A Comprehensive Guide to Greek Pronouns (greekpod101.com)     

The Comparative Study Bible, Zondervan Bible Publishers, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1984

Brown, F., S. Driver, and C. Briggs, The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, Eighteenth Printing, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts, 2018

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1990

Walker, Allen G., The New Koine Greek Textbook, Volume II/III, 2014-2018

Young, Robert, Modern Young’s Literal Translation: New Testament with Psalms & Proverbs, Greater Truth Publishers, Lafayette, Indiana, 2005

The Sound of His Voice

23 Monday Oct 2023

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

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Hello Readers and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman!

I have been studying the Whole Armor of God as described by Paul in his letter to the Ephesians specifically, for the last few posts at least, the Breastplate of Righteousness.  The scripture passage that immediately springs to mind when I think of “righteousness” is “And he (Abram) believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6).  Perhaps the reason this passage is the one that springs to mind is because it is quoted by James in his letter and by Paul in his letter to the Romans (See James 2:23 and Romans 4:3).    

In my previous posts, I have looked at the meaning of righteousness, the relationship between belief and righteousness, and whether or not our belief in the Lord Jesus Christ is something we stir up or a work of God within us.  I looked at the Greek word pisteuo (G4100), which is translated as both “belief” and “faith” in the New Testament; and found it means “to persuade” or “be persuaded”.  The definition I found on Bible Hub stated the word could mean human persuasion or God persuasion depending on the context. 

I would suggest it is always God persuasion.  We are in glorious partnership with the Father, in the finished work of Jesus Christ the Son, and through the indwelling Holy Spirit.  The Spirit gives us the words to say to someone and it is the Spirit who both prepares the heart to receive the words and tends those words until they sprout, grow, and bear fruit.

The Apostle Paul has written a beautiful passage on righteousness in his letter to the Romans: it is found in Chapter 14.  Verse 14 and 15 of this passage says, “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed?  And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?  And how shall they hear without a preacher?  And how shall they preach unless they are sent?  As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!’”  This is a passage I plan to return to when I begin studying “having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace” (Ephesians 6:15).  For now, I am focused on the necessity of “hearing” in order to believe.

Abram, or Abraham as he became, did not one day decide to believe in a different God than the ones he’d grown up with.  A great deal of Abram’s early life can be surmised from Genesis 11: 26-32.  He was born in Ur of the Chaldeans which was a vibrant city of that day with a vital worship of gods decidedly NOT the Elohim we meet in Genesis 1.  I have no doubt there is a fabulous story as to why exactly Terah (Abram’s father) takes his son Abram, his grandson Lot, and his daughter-in-law Sarai out of Ur of the Chaldeans and into the Land of Canaan to dwell in Haran.  Haran is the name of Lot’s father, Abram’s brother, and, if they are listed oldest to youngest in Gen. 11:27, is Terah’s youngest son so perhaps there is a connection to be made there.

Verse 1 of Chapter 12 begins with, “Now the Lord had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your family, and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you.’” So perhaps the original removal from Ur to Canaan was at the command of the Lord.  Nahor and his family are left behind in Ur so and verse 7 of Chapter 15 would support this version of events: as I said, there is a fascinating story to be uncovered here. 

My point is “The Lord had said…” Whatever that looked like (an appearance in form? A bright light? A voice?), Abram had heard the voice of the Lord and recognized the speaker as God.  This hearing so changed him he departs Haran.  He’s a seventy-five year old man at this time so this hearing resulted in a belief so strong, he uproots his life and we see this repeated throughout Abram’s story.

Genesis 12:7-9: “Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said…there he built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him…and he moved from there…Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South”

Genesis 13: 14-18: “And the Lord said to Abram…arise, walk in the land…Then Abram moved his tent and went and dwelt…and built an altar there to the Lord”

Genesis 15:1-6: “After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision saying…and behold the word of the Lord came to him saying…then He brought him outside and said…he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.”

 Abram’s belief was not the result of a personal decision.  He didn’t decide on his own to uproot his entire life and drag his family into a strange land.  The Lord revealed Himself to Abram and did so by speaking to him.  Abram heard and he believed. 

The Septuagint has episteusen in this passage which is the Aorist Active Indicative 3rd Person Singular Verb form of pisteuo.  It means “and the man believed the word.”  The word had to come to him first or else there would have been nothing for him to believe. 

I suppose Abram could have chosen not to believe.  I can’t imagine life in Ur of the Chaldeans was too bad.  It was familiar anyhow and was certainly a safer choice than packing up his family and wandering through Canaan.  There is nothing in Abram’s story to indicate The Lord ever pressured Abram or forced him to make a choice.  He spoke and it was up to Abram how he responded.  I can’t imagine Abram making any other choices because he heard the Voice of The Lord and the story makes clear there was no doubt the One he heard was real and was God.  He was persuaded, he trusted, he believed, and that belief was accounted to him as righteousness.

The story also makes clear Abram’s belief wasn’t always perfect.  The situation with Hagar and Ishmael occurs after God makes covenant with Abram and changes his name to Abraham.  Abraham also repeats with Abimelech, King of Gerar, the mistake he made with Egypt’s Pharaoh.  His belief was accounted to him for righteousness but not all of his subsequent actions could be called “righteous”.  Still, both James and Paul refer to Abraham as an example of righteousness.  I will quote James 2:23 again but this time from Jonathan Mitchell’s New Testament: “And thus the Scripture was made full, the one saying, “Now Abraham believed (or: put trust and confidence) in God (or: became persuaded by God; adhered to God), and he was counted into the way pointed out by Him (or: he was considered rightwised by Him he was reckoned fair, equitable and just in Him; alternately: so it was counted into right relation [= covenant inclusion] for him),” [Ex. 15:6] and later, he was called “God’s friend.” [Isa. 41:8].”

There is a great deal to be learned from the story of Abraham.  One is rest.  Abraham’s mistakes did not prevent him from being held up as an example of righteousness by Paul and James.  This should bring us to a place of rest because neither do our mistakes alter the truth: we have become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21).  Another is trust. 

We are in a state of being so far and beyond Abraham’s I don’t have words to express it.  The God who spoke to Abraham is the same God living IN US by His Spirit.  I can’t say that too many times.  We are now the dwelling place of God.  Our bodies, the one I am in as I write this and the one you are in as you read it, are the temple of the Holy Spirit.  These are not just words to be quoted out of a book on certain days of the week.  This is our reality right this zeptosecond. 

There isn’t any part of this Christian life that relies on us.  Our God reveals Himself: He has done so in Christ Jesus and it His goodness that leads us to metanoia.  He speaks and His voice is unique: we know His voice.  His Spirit is our Teacher and Guide: He leads us into all Truth.  Our righteousness is not of ourselves but is His: the very lives we live are no longer ours but are the life of Christ lived through us.  His righteousness is our breastplate which I plan to examine in more detail next week.

Until then, may we all give thanks to the Spirit of the Living God that He is opening our eyes to see all Jesus is and opening our ears to hear His voice saying only what The Father is saying.  When His word is confirmed to us, when we know we are included in His covenant and that we have been placed in right relationship with the Way pointed out, may we respond in the strength of our belief. 

Our response can only be; Hallelujah!  Amen!   

The title of this post was taken from one of my favorite hymns: In the Garden (I Come to the Garden Alone) – HymnSite.com – United Methodist Hymnal #314

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References  

Γένεσις (Genesis) 15 (LXX) – μετὰ δὲ τὰ ῥήματα ταῦτα (blueletterbible.org)

Meet the zeptosecond, the shortest unit of time ever measured | Space

Gray, John, Near Eastern Mythology: Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, The Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited, London, New York, Sydney, Toronto, 1969

Lanier, Gregory R. and William Ross, Septuaginta: A Reader’s Edition, Volume One, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts, 2018

Mitchell, Jonathan Paul, MA, The New Testament, 2019 Edition, Harper Brown Publishing, 2009, 2013, 2015, 2019, Page 568

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1990