Okay, I’ll admit it.
Occasionally, I say things to get a reaction — especially from ultra-conservative Christians. But there was one occasion where I overstepped the mark — at least in the eyes of the Lord’s ‘chosen.’
As I wrapped up a church service one Sunday morning, I gave a blessing from Numbers 6:24–26, but let’s just say I put my own spin on it. Here is what I said:
“The Lord bless youand keep you;the Lord make his face shine on youand be gracious to you;the Lord turn her face toward youand give you peace.”
There was an audible gasp. A few people winced as if they had been pinched by an invisible lobster hiding in their pew. And a few others raised their bowed heads, exposing the wrinkles in their furrowed brows. Without using any words, their faces all screamed the same thing:
“Excuse me? Did you just say “Her?” Did you just refer to our loving heavenly father as something other than a benevolent older male? How dare you!”
Now, people paraphrase scripture all the time. Most preachers do it every week from the pulpit. But, I had no idea that people would be so offended by the suggestion that God may also consist of a complimentary feminine side. I mean, if God is spirit, does he even have a penis? I only changed one small word, and — in the grand scheme of things — did it reduce the greatness of God? I don’t think so. If anything, it probably added to it, in my opinion.
But I should have known better.
I learned that day that Christians, more than any other group of people I know, get hung up about words. In fact, while the Bible tells us that through Jesus, the Word of God became flesh, it seems that through some Christians, it all became just words again.
What is more, Christians sometimes get hung up about the wrong kind of words. As a teenager, I was told that I had to accept Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior. To do that, I had to pray a specific set of words in a standardized prayer. The thing is, the words “personal Lord and savior” don’t appear in the Bible, nor do the words of the salvation prayer that is considered a must in Christian circles. So, why was it made out to be so important?
It turns out that there are a bunch of words that Christians think are important that aren’t even in the Bible. Here are a few of them:
Christianity
You have to wonder if Jesus Christ intended to start a religion when the word ‘Christianity’ doesn’t appear anywhere in the Bible. To the very best of my knowledge, the first recorded use of the term “Christianity” was actually by a character named Ignatius of Antioch — an early Christian writer and church bishop — in some letters he wrote early in the second century AD. That’s somewhere in the order of 80–100 years after the death of Christ.
Christian
Now, technically, the word “Christian” is in the Bible, but I include it for interest’s sake because it appears much less than you might expect in the book, which gave birth to the religion. In fact, the word ‘Christian’ only appears three times in the Bible.
It turns out that the early members of the church didn’t refer to themselves as “Christians.” It was a name given to them by those outside of the faith. In fact, the term “Christian” — literally meaning “little Christs” was given somewhat flippantly or even derogatorily. It wasn’t a term of endearment. It was an insult.
Back then, you could imagine someone using the word ‘Christians’ with a dismissive wave of the hand and a roll of the eyes. Not much has changed, really.
Aside from Acts 11:26, the word “Christian” is used only two other times in the New Testament: in Acts 26:28 (by Agrippa, an unbelieving King who applied the name he knew as an outsider) and 1 Peter 4:16 in the context of enduring all the suffering associated with the title.
Trinity
When I completed my Bachelor’s Degree in Theology, I had to sit through entire subjects dedicated to the Holy Trinity, which is interesting because the word “Trinity” isn’t in the Bible.
The first recorded use of the word “Trinity” was by Theophilus of Antioch writing in the late 2nd century. The concept of “Trinity” was first formulated by early Christians in their attempt to understand the relationship between Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit.
And while it doesn’t appear in the Bible, I actually find it a compelling idea. The reason for that is simple (well, as simply as Trinitarian theology can be):
God is love. But love doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Love needs an object. You cannot love unless that love is directed towards something or someone. Thus, if God truly is love, he cannot exist as a singular entity. But the idea of the father, son, and spirit existing as a plurality of persons means that love is possible. The father loves the son. The son loves the spirit. The spirit loves the father — and round and round it goes.
Does that make sense to you?
Yeah, me neither.
Discipleship
Having been a pastor, I have had the honor of being allowed on the hallowed turf of the inner sanctum, where church leaders meet to discuss the purpose and mission of the church. Invariably, all and sundry seem to agree that the purpose of the church is discipleship. In fact, at these meetings, the term ‘discipleship’ is bandied about as if the word came from Jesus himself.
Except it didn’t. And neither is it in the Bible.
That said, it is true that the early believers usually referred to themselves as ‘disciples rather than ‘Christians’ — which, as mentioned earlier, was a kind of derogatory nickname applied by non-believers. The word ‘disciple’ appears over 230 times in the Bible, and ‘discipleship’ became the commonly used word for the ‘making of disciples’ — but not until some years after the Bible was penned.
The church then took it and made it a Christian buzzword that is applied to all its well-intentioned programs, whether or not they actually make people become anything like Christ.
Rapture
Ah yes… the rapture! That glorious moment when all of the faithful will be suddenly taken up into the clouds while the wicked are left behind to face all kinds of trials and tribulations in a god-forsaken world.
I distinctly remember being at a youth camp when I was 13 and hearing the preacher say, “I believe that this generation will see the rapture.” Well, here we are…. we are still waiting.
And while there are a few difficult-to-understand allusions in the Bible to some ‘end times’ event, such as in Matthew 24, the word ‘rapture’ isn’t in the Bible — anywhere.
In fact, the rapture concept is relatively new. It started with an Anglo-Irish theologian named John Nelson Darby, who, in the 1830s, invented the concept. That might come as a shock to you, but it’s a fact: Before Darby imagined this scenario in the clouds, no Christian had ever heard of the rapture.
Halo
I am sorry to have to destroy your stereotypical image of what an angel looks like, but there is no mention of halos in the Bible. In fact, halos — the radiant circle or disk surrounding the head of a supposedly holy person — have their origin in Greek and Roman mythology.
As a matter of fact, due to its pagan origin, halos were actually avoided in early Christian art. Christ wasn’t depicted in any painting with a halo until the 4th Century AD.
So, maybe you’ll get a halo when you die. Who knows? But if the Biblical angels had them, it certainly didn’t mention them in the Bible. Oh, and by the way, all the angels in the Bible were male, and none of them had wings.
Illusion shattered. Sad reacts only.
Problem
I was told my entire life as an evangelical Christian that the world had a problem, and that problem was sin. And, look, maybe we do have a problem with sin. I wouldn’t rule it out.
It’s just that the Bible doesn’t use the word ‘problem.’ I found that interesting and, well… slightly problematic. If no problems are mentioned in Scripture, then what are we trying to fix?
This leads us to the next word.
Solution
Well, how about that? If you don’t have problems, you don’t have solutions. And all this time, I was told that Jesus was the solution to our problem.
But the Bible doesn’t mention the word ‘solution’ or the word ‘problem.’ In fact, the words ‘problem’ and ‘solution’ belong more to the mathematically oriented modern mindset than the morally oriented biblical one.
But maybe — just maybe — people aren’t problems to be solved. Maybe Jesus didn’t die so that we might be fixed but so that we might understand that we are known and loved by God.
Responsibility
I remember as a child that whenever there was an unexplained breakage or mess in our house, my Dad would always growl, “Who is responsible for this?”
And you would think that, given all the messiness of human sin and brokenness in the Bible, someone would ask the question — who is responsible? Was it Adam? Was it Eve? Was it the serpent? Was it God himself?
Well, actually… the Bible never asks the question. The words ‘responsible’ and ‘responsibility,’ or any of its derivatives, never appear in the Bible.
And to think, I was told my whole life that I was personally responsible for nailing Jesus to the cross because of all my wickedness. But are we surprised that the church took hold of the word and weaponized it? It’s a very powerful motivator, don’t you think?
You see, responsibility is a set of expectations enforced from the outside. It’s a law or code of behavior often used to define a good person and communicate shame for poor performance. Isn’t that what religion has done so well?
But it’s not in the Bible.
Bible
In high school, almost no one knew my first name. I was known by everyone, even my teachers, as “Foster” — my surname. In fact, on the day of my graduation, when they announced the graduating class, and I was introduced to the assembly by my full name, “Daniel Foster,” my best friend turned to me confused and said, “Wait… your name is Daniel??”
In the same way, the word “Bible” doesn’t actually appear in the pages of the book itself. It’s more like a nickname we’ve collectively given to this compilation of ancient texts — kind of like calling your best friend by a name they never actually introduced themselves.
When Jesus talked about what we might call the “Bible,” he used the term “Scripture,” and when he spoke about “Scripture” he was really only referring to the Law and Prophets.
. . .
The Last Word
I have a friend who does not identify as a Christian, but he is extremely open to and fascinated by all things spiritual. We often chat about matters of faith and belief, and his open-mindedness is a breath of fresh air.
One day, he talked about that small inner voice that gave him guidance and comfort. The word he used for it was “Awareness,” but the more he described it, the more it sounded like what I would call “The Holy Spirit.”
A younger me would have dismissed him as a cookey new-age enthusiast. But now, I pause and wonder, could it be that we are talking about the same thing? After all, when it comes to the mystery of the divine, words fail to explain it. Those that we do use are metaphors at best.
Could it be that the differing words used by my friend and I were merely different facets of a beautifully cut gem, each reflecting a unique perspective of the same brilliant truth?
