The Shield of Faith is arguably the most complex piece
of the whole armor of God. The problem is that faith is such a complex word with many, many layers of meaning.
Faith is hope. Faith is trust. Faith is belief. Faith can also be a set of beliefs. The Bible tells us, “faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews
11:1) Faith is loyalty, confidence, assurance, and truth. All of this… without even touching the topic
of where we should place our faith.
It was with this awareness of the myriad definitions
of faith that I opened my Strong’s Concordance to narrow down the
possibilities and try to find out what exactly Paul was getting at by invoking
the name of faith in regard to the
Roman soldier’s shield. What I found was surprising.
We’ll get back to that later.
Now it has been my experience in life that when people
talk about faith, more often than not they are referring to placing belief in
something without having solid, decisive evidence - or even trusting in spite
of evidence to the contrary, such as trusting someone who has been
untrustworthy in the past. Sometimes people may even believe evidence which is
of questionable origin: conspiracy theorists in particular are known to do
this.
All too often, people of religious faith are
mischaracterized as empty-headed simpletons who believe in fairy tales. We are
often unfairly labeled as science deniers or anti-intellectuals. Such insults
are routinely aimed at Christians by highly-educated atheists who claim that
science has disproven the Bible and revealed religion to be a scam of the
highest order - nothing more than outdated superstitions. They come armed with
well-formulated arguments to which far too many Christians are ill-equipped to
respond.
Perhaps these are the fiery darts or flaming arrows
depicted in Ephesians
6:16. Our detractors come into the battle armed with burning
arguments which they fire at us from what they believe to be an unassailable
distance. They believe that they have the high ground in this argument. Unfortunately,
too many Christians are unable to respond beyond simple statements of faith…
“The Bible says it, and I believe it.”
Now to be sure, I also believe what the Bible says,
but “I believe” statements do little to counter the well-crafted arguments of
those who are hostile towards Christianity. In fact, such statements can play
right into their hands if we are unable to explain not only what we believe, but why we believe it beyond “the Bible says
so.” Hostile atheists regularly exit encounters with poorly-equipped Christians
feeling more sure of their position than ever. They feel justified in ridiculing
Christians as uneducated bumpkins. Worse yet, undecided bystanders who are
watching these encounters may well be lured further and further away from God’s
saving grace.
We must do better. We must find arguments which will
reach those who are hostile towards our faith. We must learn to present the
Gospel in a manner which will convince the undecided that our beliefs are not
just old superstitions. We must be able to give an account of our faith which
withstands the pressures of science, politics, economics, and social issues.
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| Photo by James Pond on Unsplash |
Now certainly the Shield of Faith is there to protect
the believer. Remember, we are instructed to put on the Whole Armor of God so that we might stand firm against evil (Ephesians
6:13). But what if there is more to it? What if, somehow, that
protection is intended to go both ways? What if we are supposed to protect and defend the faith?
As a matter of fact, we are.
Strong’s
Concordance lists “faith” from Ephesians 6:16 as entry G4102, the Greek
word, pistis. The first word listed
as a possible definition or translation of pistis,
as I was surprised to discover, is not
faith. It is persuasion. In fact,
faith only appears after a series of other terms such as credence, moral conviction, truthfulness, and assurance (though to be fair, the most common actual translation of
pistis by far is faith), but it was the word persuasion which caught both my eye and
my imagination.
I’m not suggesting that faith is an incorrect or inferior translation of pistis, but I do think a better
understanding of the original Greek word adds layers of depth to our English
translation. As it turns out, another layer was waiting to be discovered! Pistis comes from the root word pietho, which is a verb meaning to convince by argument, an idea echoed
in Peter’s first epistle…
“…but in
your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a
defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you…”
~1 Peter 3:15
(ESV)
Putting on the Shield
of Faith, then, whether to defend ourselves and our own faith or the Christian
faith at large, can be done by persuasion: the use of rational, logical
arguments which clearly explain not only what we believe, but why we believe it.
If your faith is under attack and wavering, remind
yourself of what you know about God. Remind yourself why you chose to follow
Christ to begin with. Recall God’s promises in the Bible and apply them to your
own life. Remain calm, think rationally, and search the scriptures for guidance.
Pray. Then pray more. Be persistent in prayer.
Maybe you need to take it one step further. Study
apologetics: the art of using reasoned arguments to defend, explain, and
justify your religious faith. If you are confronted with arguments against
Christianity, take the time to learn about your opponent’s beliefs. Enroll in
some science or philosophy classes, or do some research online, or check out
some books from your local library. Find points within your opponent’s
arguments that actually line up with what we find in the Bible (there will be
more than you might think) and focus on these similarities rather than
continuing to highlight the differences. Remember, we make progress by building
bridges between ourselves and our opponents.
Of course, there is no guarantee that your opponent
will hear the logic in your argument, but perhaps someone listening to your
debate will. Perhaps your use of well-constructed reasoning will persuade some
to open their hearts and minds to God. If nothing else, you will have given
yourself the knowledge you need to quench the fiery arguments of the enemy and
stand firm.
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MORE IN THIS SERIES
The Final Cut (The Armor, part 18)
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