Amen--Part 2

A couple posts ago, I wrote about what the term "amen" really means.  If you have the time, I recommend going back and reading that post before this one.  I'll go ahead and summarize here.  Amen literally means "faithful, true."  God is called "The God of Amen" (Is. 65:16) and Jesus is called "the Amen, the faithful and true witness" (Rev. 3:14), revealing both God and Jesus (who is God) as sources of truth.  In prayer, we say amen and what we supposedly mean when we say amen is that "you believe that God's character is trustworthy...that you are confident He will hear your prayer, be faithful and true to do what He promised, and fulfill His purposes in your life" (Mary Kassian).  When we say "In Jesus' name, Amen" we are saying that God's faithfulness and truth are fulfilled through Christ in our lives.

I took the stance in the last post that the above facts mean that amen is not just the ending to a prayer or a simple "so be it," as I had always been told growing up.  The meaning is far deeper.  It calls into question what we pray before we say amen.  Do we really speak prayers that can end in amen?

I decided to go back to the Bible and look up every instance of amen.  What I found was exciting, stirring and gives me a direction to head in my prayer life.  Here's what I found: 

In the Old Testament, amen is used as a response that affirms what was previously said.  In other words, what was said before is truth.  Amen is spoken in one of two instances: 1) It follows a truth statement.  An example of this is 1 Chronicles 16:36, which says, "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, From everlasting even to everlasting. Then all the people said, 'Amen,' and praised the LORD."  The truth statement is that God will be blessed from everlasting to everlasting.  2) It confirms that God will carry out what he has said he will do.  A clear example is in Jeremiah 28:6: "[A]nd the prophet Jeremiah said, "'Amen ! May the LORD do so; may the LORD confirm your words which you have prophesied to bring back the vessels of the LORD'S house and all the exiles, from Babylon to this place.'"  There is also a series of "amens" used in Deuteronomy 27, where the Israelites confirm all the curses God will carry out if the people break his word.  Interestingly, and of importance later, is the fact that all amens in Psalms follow the phrase “bless the Lord," the same as in 1 Chronicles 16:36.

I thought what was in the Old Testament was interesting.  What was in the New Testament floored me.  There are 29 occurrences of "amen" in the New Testament, not counting when Jesus says "verily, verily" in the gospels before he utters a truth statement or the Revelation 3:14 verse stated previously (I didn't include his statements because I wanted to focus on how "amen" is used by people).  Here is the break down of when the term "amen" is used:

21 times: The overwhelming majority of the amens in the New Testament follow statements that say "blessed/glory/dominion be to God/Jesus forever and ever."  As stated above, amen means faithful/true.  The majority of the statements in the New Testament are similar to the usage in Psalms.  The term affirms the truth that God is the one to blessed forever, God is the one who has glory forever, God is the one that has dominion forever.

5 times: Amen follows five statements in the New Testament where the author says "God/Jesus be with you all."  Four times, Paul is writing and one time, John is writing in Revelation.  In these instances, the author is affirming the truth that God is with us, a truth that Jesus himself has proclaimed in Matthew 28:20.  (On a separate, but related note, I did a word study recently on when God tells people not to fear; the majority of reasons not to fear are because "God is with you.")

3 times: The last three instances of amen are found in Revelation.  Two of them affirm the truth of Jesus' second coming (Rev. 1:7, 22:20) and the other affirms God’s judgment at the end of time (Rev. 19:4).  Once again, these are statements that are meant to declare truth, the truth that God's future plan is true.

The application question then is, "How should amen be used in our own prayers?"  Every use of the term amen is tied to the truth of the statement proceeding.  Every use of the term refers to a truth involving God's character or his actions.  In our prayers, amen should follow truth statements.  The shocking, life-changing truth here, then, is amen doesn't follow such statements as "God, please heal granny."  "Please heal granny" is not a truth statement; it is a request.  We definitely should present our requests to God (Phil 4:6).  But requests are not truth statements, so amen does not apply to them.  Our amen is the affirmation that God is God, that God has the power, that God is with us.  Those are statements of truth.

Somehow we have come to treat "In Jesus' name, Amen" in one of two ways: as a meaningless ending of prayer phrase or as some kind of "in" with God, that by saying amen, God somehow is obligated to answer.  So then we get confused when God doesn't do what we have requested in our prayers.

In my previous post on amen I wrote this "Prayer is fundamentally about shaping my will to God's will.  Prayer is a way to remind myself of God's truth and faithfulness.  I pray, not to get what I want, but to call God's truth to mind and to declare to God that I know what is true about him, that I know he will be faithful to me."  Prayer shapes God's way into my life.  Prayer draws me intimately to God, reminding me that he is powerful and in control, that his will will be carried out.  My amen is an affirmation of this truth.  So I pray, "God, I ask for healing for granny," but I end with "you have the glory forever, your will will be done on this earth, amen."  In fact, I think we should even pray deeper for granny.  Instead of "please heal granny" it would be much more meaningful to pray "show granny that you are in control and that granny can trust you no matter what happens," because those are truths about God's character and can be followed by hearty amens.

Finally, it is instructive what follows Paul's admonition that we present our requests to God.  He writes this, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."  Paul does not say, "Present your requests to God and you will get everything you want."  No, he says, "Take your worries to God, remember to thank him, and he will bring you peace."  Ah!  This is an amen!  This is a truth!  God is the God of peace and God doesn't want us to worry.  We pray to God, not to get what we want, but so that we shape our will to God's, that our worries dissolve into the truth that God is the giver of peace.

Wow and wow.  I am humbled and amazed.  My prayer life has been weak; I have used it as a vessel for request after request.  My amens have been following statements that lack truth.  Could it be that my trust of God withers as I focus on my own selfish desires in prayer and not on truths about his character?  Could my prayer life be transformed if I prayed carefully, not haphazardly, to make my amen a true amen?  Yes!

The Good and True Shepherd (No Breaking Legs Here!)

I seem to have fallen into a series of posts at this point about misunderstandings in the church that have often come about through tradition.  Sometimes you can't even tell where the tradition got started (remember my friend Tevye).  A few years ago, I researched an analogy I have heard often in the church.  Before I get to the analogy, I'd like to start with the subject: a shepherd.

God is often described in the Bible as a shepherd.  I did a word study on shepherd to discover what the Bible says regarding God as a shepherd.  Here's a compilation:

The Shepherd led Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Gen 48:15).
The Shepherd shepherds Israel (Gen 49:24).
The Shepherd provides for the needs of his people (Ps 23:1).
The Shepherd carries his people (Ps. 28:9).
The Shepherd leads his people (Ps. 80:1).
The Shepherd gently tends his people, gathering them and carrying them (Is.40:11).
The Shepherd gathers his people to him (Jer. 31:10).
The Shepherd gathers, delivers, feeds, seeks, heals, strengthens and protects his people (Ez. 34:11-31).
The Shepherd rules his people (Mic. 7:14).

Shepherd imagery, when it is used in the Bible of God, refers to God as a protector, guide and healer.  The image is of a tender, gentle shepherd gathering his sheep into his arms.  This is also clear in the New Testament.  In John 10:11, Jesus declared, "I am the good shepherd."  What is Jesus' relationship with his sheep?

Jesus feels compassion on lost sheep (Matt. 9:36, Mk. 6:34).
Jesus lays down his life for his sheep (John 10:11).
Jesus knows his sheep (John 10:14).
Jesus guards the souls of his sheep (1 Pet. 5:2).
Jesus rewards his sheep (1 Pet. 5:4).
Jesus guides his sheep to eternal life (Rev. 7:17).

Once again, the imagery is gentle, a shepherd guarding, guiding, tending and ultimately giving his own life for the sheep.  The shepherd imagery of the Bible applied to God, to Jesus, is positive and loving.

So what is the analogy then that I take issue with?  For years I have heard this analogy: "Shepherds break the legs of willful sheep and then carry them around on their shoulders so that the sheep learns to submit to his will.  This is what God does to us at times to get us to submit to his will."  My problem?  This analogy is no where in the Bible.  No where does it say that God as Shepherd breaks the legs of his sheep.  In my research, I actually found a shepherd's own website that refutes this myth: Sheep 101.  I also found other shepherds that found the analogy ridiculous.  Anyone who says a shepherd would break a sheep's legs, they said, has never had to take care of an injured animal.  A sheep could die from such an action and it would be a shepherd purposefully maiming his own product.  It just plain doesn't make sense.

I did find where this story may have originated from.  A book written by a man named Robert Boyd Munger in 1955 mentions the story.  Then it was placed in a book of sermon illustrations in 1979.  Of course, that means it has found its way into many books of sermon illustrations since then.  This means the story gets used over and over by pastors and repeated by parishioners.  The problem is that shepherds themselves deny this story.  Someone along the way somewhere told this story and in fact, it is myth.

When I did my study on the term shepherd in the Bible, I did find analogies of shepherds treating their sheep wrongly--and they were all human.  God uses the term shepherd at times to describe leaders of people and when they mistreat the sheep he calls down judgment.  He does this to Israel's destructive leaders (Ezk. 34:2), Edom (Jer. 49:19) and false prophets (Zech. 13:7).  God declares of bad shepherds, "Woe to the worthless shepherd who leaves the flock ! A sword will be on his arm and on his right eye! His arm will be totally withered and his right eye will be blind" (Zech. 11:17).

God is not like the bad shepherds.  In fact, God promises a shepherd that will come and be a true shepherd: "Then I will set over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them; he will feed them himself and be their shepherd. And I, the LORD, will be their God, and My servant David will be prince among them; I the LORD have spoken" (Ezk. 34:23-24).  This descendent of David, this one that will rule as a Good Shepherd is Jesus Christ.  Thus Jesus declared rightly, "I am the Good Shepherd!"  He is the shepherd who gently tends and heals, protects and guides, dies and lives to redeem the sheep.  Our Shepherd is the Good and True Shepherd.

What Am I Saying When I Say Amen?

Since Christianity has been around awhile, it has developed many traditions: for example, praying at every meal, passing around an offering plate and singing hymns.  None of these are wrong; tradition is not bad.  But it is interesting that we sometimes find ourselves following tradition when we don't even know what the tradition is about.  It reminds me of my friend Tevye from the musical Fiddler on the Roof.  In the song called "Tradition" he says this,

"Here in Anatevka we have traditions for everything... how to eat, how to sleep, even, how to wear clothes. For instance, we always keep our heads covered and always wear a little prayer shawl... This shows our constant devotion to God. You may ask, how did this tradition start? I'll tell you - I don't know. But it's a tradition... Because of our traditions, everyone knows who he is and what God expects him to do."

Tevye at least understands that keeping his head covered and wearing a prayer shawl is supposed to reflect his constant devotion to God.  However, he doesn't know where this tradition came from; he simply follows it because it is "tradition."  In Christianity, we have several phrases/terms that we speak that are tradition for us.  Two of them I find enlightening because Christians sing them all the time but few know what they mean: Hosanna and Hallelujah. Hosanna means "Save" referring to God's salvation.  Hallelujah means "praise the Lord."  But the term I am going to address in this blog is "amen."  We say amen after almost all our prayers and we sometimes say it aloud in church when we like something we hear.  But do we know what amen means?  I joked with my husband one day that amen essentially means "I'm done praying; it's your turn next" :-D

When I was young, someone explained to me that amen meant "so be it."  In other words, that after I pray I am affirming that what I prayed I want to happen: So be what I have prayed.  That made sense and I never thought about it farther than that. For this summer, I've been doing a Bible study called Knowing God By Name.  The name I read about today was "faithful and true," in Hebrew, emet elohim emet.  I learned that emet is a term that is a derivative from the term aman, the term from which amen originates.  Amen literally means "faithful, true."

I was intrigued and awed to learn that both God and Jesus are personally tied to this term.  Isaiah 65:16 calls God "the God of Amen" often translated "the God of Truth" in our English translations.  Jesus is called "the Amen, the faithful and true witness" in Revelation 3:14.  Jesus also used amen himself.  In the gospels, we often read Jesus starting a statement with the phrase "truly, truly, I say to you..." or "verily, verily, I say to you."  The phrase is literally, "amen, amen, I say to you..."  In using the term amen, Jesus was letting his listeners know that he was speaking truth to them. I conclude from these verses that God is truth, Jesus is truth and Jesus and God speak truth.

So what exactly does amen mean when we say it?  I love that the Bible has answered this question directly for us.  Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:20, "For all the promises of God find their Yes in him (Jesus). That is why it is through him (Jesus) that we utter our Amen to God for his glory."  We speak amen to God through Jesus ("in Jesus' name, amen") because all God's promises are answered in Jesus.  God's faithfulness, his amen, his truth is answered in Christ.  Mary Kassian explains it this way: "Your 'Amen' affirms that you believe that God's character is trustworthy...that you are confident He will hear your prayer, be faithful and true to do what He promised, and fulfill His purposes in your life."  In saying "in Jesus' name, amen," you are acknowledging that through Jesus God has shown himself to be trustworthy and He will faithfully fulfill his promises through Christ in your life.

What do I take away from this?  That I ought to be careful what I pray for.  That I need to realize that in saying "In Jesus' name, Amen," I am saying something quite serious.  It isn't just a flippant, traditional phrase.  It is a phrase rich with real meaning.  If I am affirming that God is true and faithful to carry out his promises, what have I just prayed?  Have I prayed in line with this truth?  It is interesting to me that when Jesus answered the disciples' desire to be taught to pray, he responded with what we now call "The Lord's Prayer."  Do you realize that in that prayer all that is prayed is true statements about God and what he will do for us?  His name is to be hallowed, his will is to be done, he will provide for us, he will forgive us and help us to forgive others, and he will deliver us from evil.  All of these we can utter a hearty "Amen!" to.  There is nothing in this prayer about giving me the material things I want or pleading with God to make things happen or not happen that I desire to go or not go my way.  This prayer is about praying in God's will and with God's will.  When I pray this way, in God's will, then I can say "amen."

Prayer is fundamentally about shaping my will to God's will.  Prayer is a way to remind myself of God's truth and faithfulness.  I pray, not to get what I want, but to call God's truth to mind and to declare to God that I know what is true about him, that I know he will be faithful to me.  Thus, the word amen makes complete sense.  In saying amen, I declare to God, "Yes!  True is what I have prayed!  Faithful you remain!  I trust you completely my God every step of my life!"

The question to consider then is this: Is your amen truly amen?  Can what you pray really be followed with amen?

How Do I Know the Will of God?

The above question is one that, as a teacher, I hear often.  Students who love the Lord dearly struggle to identify the will of God for their lives.  I, too, have struggled in this area at times.  What is ironic is that the answer to this question is quite simple.

I divide God's will into two different categories: God's moral will and God's directive will.  God's moral will concerns moral choices we make in life.  Crucial issues that might fall into this category are: Should I divorce?  Should I get an abortion?  Should I carry out this affair?  Should I assert my dominance in my family? Should I steal property at work? and so on.  God's moral will is, happily for us, clear.  The Bible speaks to all moral issues.  I was listening to the radio yesterday and a woman was talking about the time she considered divorce.  Instead of just listening to peers or popular TV shows, she went to the Word of God and researched and studied and prayed over every verse that dealt with divorce.  If you have a moral question, go to God's Word.  You will find your answer there.  I will warn you that sometimes you might not like the answer and it is likely you will need to commit to obedience to God no matter what you discover.

However, when I am asked the question, "How do I know the will of God for my life?", a person is rarely asking about God's moral will.  God's moral will is usually so obvious to us that we can answer moral questions quite easily.  What a person is asking me about is God's directive will, that is, which direction does God want me to take in life?  What college should I go to?  What job should I take?  What mission should I go on? etc.  Some Christians spend inordinate amounts of time worrying over these types of questions.  They are worried that if they make the wrong choice, they will have messed up God's plan.  So let me deal with that worry first: dear Christian, you cannot mess up God's plans!  "I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted" (Job 42:2).  You cannot mess up God's plan.  God will carry out his plan whatever choice you make.  You can rest in this truth and banish worry from your mind.

So how do I make choices?  God promises a gift to us, a gift given if we ask for it: "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you" (James 1:5).  God gives us wisdom.  When you want to know what to do with your life, pray for wisdom, then act wisely.  Wisdom is not just intelligence; it is practical knowledge applied to life.  In wisdom, you consider the options before you.  Evaluate them.  Don't be afraid to use your head.  Using your head is not anti-God.  God gave you your brain and wisdom.  He wants you to make decisions, to think through choices.  (I will add that it is not wrong to go to other wise believers and ask their advice.  Godly advisers can help you think through your options, help you consider God's truth within them.  Use the spiritual body God has surrounded you with!)

Once you have considered your options, choose the one you think you should choose.  Remember that this is not God's moral will we are discussing.  We are not talking about evaluating a sinful choice.  Sin should always be discarded immediately.  We are talking about God's directive will.  When I graduated from college, I signed up with an organization to teach in China.  For a long time, I struggled with the thought, "What if God really doesn't want me in China?  What if my choice is outside his will?"  I thought this because even though the doors had opened widely, I worried that by walking through them I might not have done what God wanted because I never received a direct voice saying, "Yes, do this."  So I asked my Dad, "What if I'm not supposed to go to China?"  I'll never forget his answer.  He asked, "Will God use you in China?"  I answered, "Yes," and he said, "Then go."  His point was clear.  God will use you wherever you go.  Why hem and haw and worry?  Do you think God is incapable of using you wherever you go?

Oswald Chambers points out that God "guides our common sense" as we seek his will.  This is what wisdom does--wisdom "guides our common sense."  We evaluate, we consider, we use our mind given to us by God, and then we make a decision.  We need not worry over that decision.  Why?  Chambers also says that if we choose what God does not want, "He will check, and we must heed."  If God does not want you going a certain direction, he will close the door: You think you should go to a certain college, then your finances for it fall apart.  You sign up for a mission trip, but it is cancelled at the last moment.  You apply for a job that is everything you dreamed of, and the boss chooses someone else.  God will direct us to closed doors as well as open ones; it is our job to not grouse over the closed door, but to accept it as God's will.

Have you prayed for wisdom?  Have you acted in wisdom?  Has a door been opened?  Then walk through, dear Christian.  God will close the door when he wants you to move a different direction.  You do not have to worry.  Oswald Chambers also says this, "At first we want the consciousness of being guided by God, then as we go on we live so much in the consciousness of God that we do not need to ask what His will is, because the thought of choosing any other will never occur to us.  If we are saved and sanctified God guides us by our ordinary choices."  Every moment you submit to the Holy Spirit, God guides you.  If you are submitted, make a choice, don't worry and leave the results to God.

Training in Righteousness

I have been reading, slowly, a work written by William Wilberforce.  If you don't know who he is, he is most recognized for his untiring work to abolish slavery from England.  He was also a staunch Christian who influenced his time and culture through his commitment to Christianity.  In his work entitled A Practical View of Christianity, he says the following:

"Bountiful as is the hand of Providence, its gifts are not so bestowed as to seduce us into indolence, but to rouse us to exertion; and no one expects to attain to the height of learning, or arts, or power, or wealth, or military glory, without vigorous resolution, and strenuous diligence, and steady perseverance. Yet we expect to be Christians without labour, study, or inquiry."

For many Christians, their Christianity rests on little more than a conversion experience.  Perhaps no one has taken the time to disciple them.  Or other diverse entertainments pull more passionately on their emotions.  Or, as Wilberforce suggests, perhaps we do not apply the principle that hard work equals success to Christianity as we do to other efforts.

I have had several conversations with Christian friends recently in which the idea of Christianity as work has come up.  This has led me to an interesting series of questions: "Why does living as a Christian take work?  Couldn't God just make us Christlike automatically?  Why put us through the process of sanctification?"  In pondering the answer to this question, I identified a truth from Wilberforce's quote: Attaining to the height of learning, arts, power, wealth, etc. takes work.  So, I could generalize the question:  Why does the height of anything take work?

I think the answer can be found in God's gift of free will (I have addressed free will in another post here). If someone is given free will, then this means he has the ability to choose rightly or wrongly.  This also means that in his life, he will either choose to put effort into something or to leave it well enough alone.  For example, my brother is a music teacher.  He has chosen to put his effort into the study of music and has risen to the height of a band director.  I have not chosen to put effort into music.  I played the flute for a time in high school band, a little in a church orchestra during college.  But that has been the extent of my effort.  Thus, I have not risen to any heights at all in my flute playing.  Indeed, I have fallen back down to a beginner band level through lack of practice.  Thus, in making my choice, I chose not to pursue being a musician and lack musical skill.

Isn't it the same with all pursuits?  Whether mere hobbies or essential jobs, we rise and fall in congruency to our efforts.  We put our time and effort into that which we become good at.  Even when we have a natural aptitude, we still must put in effort to achieve.  Albert Einstein, Bill Gates and even Billy Graham put in effort to achieve their heights.  We probably all know someone with unreal IQ scores but an entire lack of effort who could achieve so much more if motivated to do so.

Thus, whether we achieve or not in this life (and what we achieve) is tied to our choices, our free will.  In giving us free will, God gives us the choice not only to accept or reject His gifts to us, but also the choice to be sanctified or not.  The benefits of sanctification are rewarded to those who choose to yield to God's Spirit working within them.

This answer then led me to another question: "How is this work of Christianity carried out?"  Without a doubt, if one desires to evaluate the status of a Christlike life, there is no greater list than the Fruit of the Spirit, a list of the Spirit's working in a Christian heart.  Yet when we talk about the Fruit of the Spirit, we often act like we simply pray and then God miraculously produces in us the fruit we desire.  We see ourselves as passive.  Yet Paul's command is to "walk by the Spirit."  We must do something: we must walk.  We must chose to walk if we will possess the Fruit of the Spirit.

The Bible is replete with the idea that Christianity takes effort: "A pupil is not above his teacher ; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher" (Luke 6:40).  "Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever" (1 Cor. 9:25).  "...train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come" (1 Tim. 7b-8).  "But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil" (Heb. 5:14).  

If walking in a Christian way takes effort, takes training, then we must expect the Spirit to train us.  We will not reflect the Fruit of the Spirit in our lives unless we have been trained in it.  This means it takes practice just as becoming an accomplished musician, business man, or football player also takes practice.  What will this practice look like?  Consider the following:

You pray to be a person of love.  A friend back stabs you the next day.  Will you practice love?

You pray to be a person of joy.  Your kids wake up cranky and whiny that morning.  Will you practice joy?

You pray to be a person of peace.  There is an accident on the highway and you are going to be late for a morning meeting at work.  Do you practice peace?

You pray to be a person of kindness.  A woman cuts in front of you while in line at the post office.  Do you practice kindness?

You pray to be a person of goodness.  Your boss asks you to falsify a report.  Do you practice goodness?

You pray to be a person of faithfulness.  Your father contracts cancer.  Do you practice faithfulness to God?

You pray to be a person of gentleness.  Your toddler decorates the entire bathroom in toilet paper.  Do you practice gentleness?

You pray to be a person of self-control.  Your spouse has forgotten your anniversary producing anger in your heart.  Do you practice self-control?

It is my firm belief that if we plan to be godly Christians, then God will put us through a course of godliness.  We will be challenged on all fronts to practice the Fruit of the Spirit.  We will face test after test.  The more we pass the tests, the better we will reflect Christlikeness.

I'll be honest about this: I in no way display perfect Christlikeness.  Yet I am seeking to walk by the Spirit.  I pass the tests at times, at others I fail.  But I go back again, knowing that my choice to walk by the Spirit, to face the tests, will be the only way I gain the heights of godliness.  Practically, I suggest that every Christian make a list of the Fruit of the Spirit and then write below each fruit ways he tends to fail the test in each area.  Then, to write beside each failure a way to remedy the situation.  Consider this task like a Study Guide for a test.  You can't pass a test without preparing for it (perhaps you can if the teacher is too easy; I am not that kind of teacher :-)).  Perhaps if we put the effort in to prepare, we might act differently the next time.  If you do decide to go through with this task, let me know how it goes.  And I'll update, too, because I plan on taking myself through the Study Guide as well.

(As a side note, one commonality of all the great Christians of the past is their willingness to honestly evaluate themselves and to identify goals and ways to improve themselves.  In our society, we have sadly lost this practice.  In a world that tells us we are always right, always good and truth is relative, we do not improve morally because we never evaluate our incorrect morals). 

Believer, Do Not Fear the Final Judgment!

A couple posts ago, I clarified a commonly misunderstood verse.  This post will be in the same vein in that I want to clarify a concept that often gets passed around in Christian circles, or at least in the minds of many Christians.  It is a misunderstanding that causes heartache and worry for many Christians and it burdens me to see my brothers and sisters laboring under a false idea.  The ideas is this: That at the end of time, when God judges everyone, including Christians, God will display all my sins in front of everyone.  That means everyone will see all those secret things I did and I will be exposed.  My friend, if you are a Christian, that is not true.  You can relax and be excited for your judgment instead of dreading it.  And here's why...

The Bible describes three judgments that happen at the end of time.  Two of them are the judgment of Satan and the demons, which ends with them being thrown into the lack of fire, and the judgment of unbelievers, called The Great White Throne Judgment, which also ends with them being thrown into the lake of fire.  I don't want to concern myself with these two judgments in this post because I am focusing on the judgment that Christians face at the end of time.  The judgment that Christians face is one of rewards.

The judgment of Christians is called the Bema Judgment or the Judgment Seat of Christ.  At this judgment, the works of believers are judged, determining the actions they took for Christ will on earth.  God rewards Christians for those actions.  This is not a judgment determining if we get into heaven or not.  God already knows who gets in, i.e. he doesn't need to sit and think about that at a judgment.  Remember that there is a separate judgment for unbelievers, so God has already dealt with who gets in and who doesn't.

The main teaching on the Judgment Seat of Christ is found in 1 Corinthians 3.  Paul says this:

"According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire" (v.10-15).

At the Judgment Seat of Christ, what a Christian has built on the foundation of Christ is revealed.  Those actions that did not appropriately build on the foundation of Christ will be burned away.  The actions that remain are those that shined for Christ, that built up his church, and because of these, Christians are rewarded.  In other words, this judgment results in praise to God for all the actions we accomplished on his behalf.  This is not dealing with sin; the wood, hay and straw are not representative of sin.  This is clear from the context of the passage because Paul is discussing work for Christ as a man builds on the foundation of Christ.  He says to be careful how you build because we want our actions to count at the end of time, to be actions that built up the church.  Those actions I have taken that have been of godly quality will stand and I will receive a reward for them.

Thus, we see that at the judgment of Christians, there is no revealing of sin in front of everyone.  The Bible never says this.  So why do some Christians hold to this idea?  I want to tackle three passages that Christians quote who believe our sin will be exposed and show how these verses are misunderstood.

First, let's go back to the Romans passage above.  The end of the passage says, "If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire."  It is interesting what Christians put into this passage that isn't there.  Breaking down the verse, the man in this verse apparently has no works to show for Christ.  He did nothing on earth for his Lord.  So although he will be saved, he will receive no rewards.  The verse says he will "suffer loss."  What is this loss?  It is the loss of rewards as the context makes clear.  When I discuss this verse with believers, they often project onto this man the feeling of grief.  They are confused because they thought heaven was a place without grief.  Nowhere in the verse does it say that this man is ashamed or grieving.  "Suffer loss" does not refer to the man's emotions, but to the lack of rewards.  If anything, this man must be grateful--He made it into heaven even though he did nothing for Christ.  Thus, this man is not crying over his sins.  This judgment has nothing to do with sin.

The next verse that is sometimes quoted to support our sins exposed to all is found in Romans 14:12: "So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God."  On the surface, it sounds like we'll have to stand before God and give an account for our sin, right?  It may sound that way, but context reveals this is inaccurate.  The context of this passage is the discussion Paul has regarding weak and strong believers where he charges them not to pass judgment on one another over "disputable matters."  These matters are what we call "gray areas."  These are not areas of sin, but areas of conviction.  Looking at the context, Paul writes this:

"Who are you to judge the servant of another ? To his own master he stands or falls ; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand...But you, why do you judge your brother ? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt ? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, 'As I live, says the LORD, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.' So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this -not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way" (Ro. 14:4, 10-13).

In the context, Paul is saying, "Who are you to judge another Christian's conviction?  God is his master.  It is God that he has to give an account to, not you.  So leave the judging to God."  Since the context of the passage is not sin, but conviction, what does Paul mean that God will judge believers for their convictions?  We've already seen that the judgment on Christians is one of rewards.  At the Judgment Seat of Christ, God will look at the motives of our hearts in taking actions.  If we made decisions in gray areas in response to God's conviction, those will stand.  If we made decisions with a lack of faith, those will be burned up.  Once again, the context reveals that this has nothing to do with sin at all.  Paul makes this point all the clearer in another portion of scripture: "Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts; and then each man's praise will come to him from God" (1 Cor. 4:5).  Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4 that he is not concerned with being judged by men because God is the judge of if he has been "found trustworthy."  God knows the motives of his heart, not any man, and God will expose those motives at the end of time.  God isn't exposing sin, but the motives of a heart that worked for him.  Notice that at the end of 1 Corinthians 4:5, it only mentions praise from God, not exposure of sin.

The third passage I want to discuss is a touchy one.  It's the passage where Christ talks with the sheep and the goats.  The reason this passage is controversial is denominations differ as to when this passage takes place.  Some place it squarely at the beginning of the millennial reign of Christ; others place it at the end of time with the judgments discussed earlier.  Wherever this judgment falls, it is clear by the context that the sheep are being judged for works they did for God: "The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me'" (Matt. 25:30).  The actions these sheep have taken reveal their dedication to God.  This is once again not a judgment on sin for the sheep.

So in scripture, there is no support for the idea that God will stand believers up in front of everyone and display their sin for all to see.  Beyond no scriptural support for this idea, there is no logical support for this idea.  Psalm 103:12 says, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us."  1 John 1:9 states, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  If God has removed our transgression, if he has forgiven us and cleansed us from all sin, then why would he show everyone our sin at the end of time?  And even more compelling, 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 declares, "Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation."  Because of Christ's sacrifice, our sins are not counted against us.  It makes no sense for God to come to the end of time and say, "I know I said your sins were forgiven, that I'd removed them, that Christ paid for them, but I need to get in one more dig at you and show everyone your sin."

Dear Christian, your sin is forgiven!  There is no need to fear judgment at the end of time.  You will not stand ashamed in front of everyone.  You will stand with your deeds rewarded bringing glory to God through your acts on earth.  That is the truth! 

"Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude 

and like the sound of many waters 

and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying,

'Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.

Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him,

for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.'

It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean;
for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints."

Revelation 19:6-8

What a Woman's Skin Says

I saw this comic on Facebook and was quite struck by it.  The artist catches us with the irony and in the process makes such a good point: While women here are eyeing women in Arabic countries and thinking how sad it is that they are treated by men like objects, the women here are actually being treated as objects themselves.

This summer, women will flood the beaches dressed exactly like the woman in the picture.  They'll give you a plethora of reasons why it is okay to dress that way.  And if you happen to say, "You know, when you dress that way, men will simply ogle you and see you as an object," they'll respond, "Well, that's their problem."  This is one of the excuses I hate the most.  I hate it because as a Christian, I hold to Romans 14:13: "Make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister."  What a Christian woman is saying with the previous statement is that she really doesn't care if she makes men stumble.

Now, the popular retort, even from Christians, will be, "Who are you to judge?"  Indeed, if you look at Romans 14, the passage I took the previous verse from, you will see that in that passage Paul is discussing the gray areas in the lives of believers (in his day, specifically eating meat offered to idols) and he says this, "Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another" (Romans 14:13).  So, maybe in an applicational way Paul is saying that men do need to get over themselves and let women do what they want.  But, not quite.

You see, Paul goes on to say this: "If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died...Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall" (Romans 14:15, 19-21).  Taking an applicational view of Paul's point in regards to the current discussion, Paul is saying, "Yes, you are fine with your body.  Fine.  God is fine with your body, too.  But, if your body and the display of it is causing a brother to stumble, cover it up.  When you do not, you are not showing love to your brother.  In fact, you are leading your brother to a fall."

From Paul's passage, I take that I cannot run around passing judgment on others in gray areas.  In other words, you aren't going to find me down at the beaches this summer using my Bible to hammer the heads of Christian girls in immodest clothing.  But I also take from Paul's passage that Christian girls who flaunt themselves in front of men and could care less that they are causing them to stumble have made a wrongful choice.

So, what does a woman's skin say in immodest clothing?  I don't care about my brothers in Christ.  I don't want to act in love.  I just want to be free to show off what I want to.  (And often, cause I want the attention guys throw my way).

Christian women, you do not need that kind of attention!  God has not made you an object to be ogled by men!  "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight" (1 Peter 3:3-4).  Perhaps if Peter had lived now, he would have added in, "or the lack of clothing," because his point is that women should find their beauty in their spirits, not in the displaying of themselves to men.

"Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised" (Prov. 31:30).  Christian women, you will not always have your beauty.  Inevitably, no matter how many youth remedies you try, you will become a wrinkled old woman with white or gray hair.  If you have placed your worth in your looks, you will face an identity crisis.  If you have married a man for whom your looks were a primary factor, you will face discontent in marriage.  It is not worth it to put your value in your looks.  It is not worth it to sit on the beach and attract guys who care only about your body.  As a child of God, your body should be valued.  It should be valued by a man who really loves it because he loves all of you, and most of all, the inner you.  This man is the man you should seek to attract.  He will love you even in a one piece because he will see the fear of the Lord expressed in your soul.

Christian women, this summer, as you make choices on how to dress, remember the following two points: 1) Don't let yourself become a stumbling block that trips up your brothers and 2) Do yourself a favor and find your beauty where it really is: in your godly soul.  This may be a life change, but trust me, it is a good one.  I speak from experience because I am married to a man who loves me just the way I am, body and soul.  I know that even as my body changes, it doesn't affect his love for me.  I also know that I don't want any man but my husband seeing my exposed skim because I know he's loving it in a godly way.  I can't guarantee that anyone but him is doing that if I am flaunting my skin in front of other men.  For me, this love of my husband gives me safety and comfort knowing I'm not an object to please, but a woman to be loved truly and deeply.