What is the Full Armor of God?

The battle in the twenty-first century is a spiritual and cultural battle for the hearts and minds of the next generation! It is a war of ideas and requires spiritual weapons with which to wage it! Dr. Elizabeth Youmans

For the past several weeks we have been examining the writings of Dr. Elizabeth Youmans; a christian writer whose life mission is to restore God’s word to public education. As we saw in the previous blog, Youmans is at war. She writes often about spiritual weapons of warfare. So, for this blog we’ll take a look into what kinds of spiritual weapons she might be referring to.

The Full Armor of God

The only place the armor of God is mentioned is in the sixth chapter of the book of Ephesians. I found a christian website (bibleinfo.com) that detailed each of the six items of the spiritual armor and explained how each one can be used by modern day christians.

 

 

On a cringe worthy note, this is the actual graphic used on the bibleinfo.com site showing a creepy looking christian soldier pillaging and plundering his way through an unsaved world in an obvious attempt to share the good news of Jesus. Is this really the image they want their readers to take away from this article?

I certainly hope not!

 

 

 

So, let’s see what bibleinfo.com has to say about the full armor of God.

1. Belt of Truth

“Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth,” Paul says.

First off according to New Testament Scholar Dr. Bart Ehrman, there are compelling reasons to believe that Ephesians was most likely NOT written by Paul. It is a forgery at best and for the author of this “bibleinfo.com” article to say “Paul says” is either ignorance on his part or a flat out lie. The result is the same either way. If “truth” is needed to protect our loin, then bibleinfo.com is off to a bad start.

Also, if someone believes in the stories of Genesis, such as the 6-day creation story, the myth of Adam and Eve, the flood story or if one believes that the bible is the inerrant word of God, then their spiritual loins are indeed exposed and vulnerable. And it doesn’t sound like a good idea not to protect your loins.

 “Truth is the belt that holds all the other pieces of the armor in place.”

The belt is the piece that holds all the other parts in place? I found this idea in several articles on this topic. I’m trying to picture how my belt holds my shoes in place, or my hat or a shield. It seems to me that it would be quite awkward if my shoes actually were attached to my belt, or my hat. The visual that comes to mind would make a good Charlie Chaplin routine; such as him pulling up his belt and inadvertently kicking another gentleman in the seat of the pants, or by tipping his hat to a young lady his drawers fall embarrassingly to his ankles. It might make a good piece of physical comedy… but it’s definitely not the truth. Why do christians say such ridiculous stuff, and why do other christians accept it without question? As a former evangelical I know the answer to both of those questions, but I just thought I’d point it out.

“There are two ways in which truth is a part of the armor of God. First, it refers to the truths of Scripture as opposed to the lies of Satan. Satan is the father of lies. Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”.  The great truths of the Bible… set us free from Satan’s lies. Satan would have us believe that we are sinful, lost, and without hope.”

We will examine the author’s “great truths of the bible” in a later blog, but for now, let’s focus on the last phrase of that paragraph. “Satan would have us believe that we are sinful, lost, and without hope”. Recently I posted a blog about how evangelical congregations rarely use the word “love” in their mission statements. Next, I did another search of evangelical mission statements looking for the word “sin”. Eureka!! I’d stuck gold. The word “sin or sinner” appeared four times more than “love”. All of the following declarations come directly from evangelical mission statements.

This is just a small sampling.

• Mankind is sinful and under justified condemnation.
• Without exception every man and woman is totally depraved.
• Humanity sinned and consequently experienced spiritual death.
• All human beings are born with a sinful and depraved nature.
• Sin then spread like a virus to all humans, separating us from God.
• We believe that man is lost and destined to spend eternity in hell.
• Sin plunged man into a hopeless state.
• Mankind is totally depraved.
• We believe that all people are deserving of eternal punishment in hell.
• There is no way for us to make things right with God.
• Humanity is utterly evil, and made opposite to all good.

It would seem that rather than satan, it’s actually evangelicals who would have us believe that we are sinful, lost, and without hope. No surprise actually because for them it is a prerequisite for becoming a christian. If evangelicals can convince you that you are a lost and hopeless sinner, then they have a chance to convince you to join their Jesus club. If you do that and only if you do that; you can be called a child of God and are no longer lost and destined for an eternity in hell.

But there is a better option. What if, instead of believing the lies that we are sinful, lost and without hope, you believed in a benevolent, loving god that doesn’t require a transaction to become a child of god? What if you already are? Would that change your theology?

I’m sure that any evangelical reading this would have some strong objections. Of course they would, they can’t sell you their solution (i.e. membership in the Jesus Club) if you don’t first accept the lie that you are depraved. It’s the principle on which all advertising is based; create a need then present the solution. We see it every day on TV. (More on that later.)

The following is an excerpt from the mission statement of a progressive christian congregation.

“We believe that we belong to God long before, or even if we never believe in God. God’s love is eternal, always welcoming, and does not require any transaction on our part.  As a faith community, our call is to accept that we are already accepted by God, and to live a life imitating God’s love by doing justice, loving kindness, and walking in humility with God.”

For more about this progressive congregation see my previous blogs about their mission statement compared with that of an evangelical congregation. Now, back to bibleinfo.com.

“The second way that truth serves as a belt, is our personal commitment to truth—to living a life that is upright, transparent, and without deceit. Integrity and honesty are vital to your Christian life. People should know that they can depend on you to be a person of truth and principle.”

The author of the article seems to have confused the quality of truth, with the quality of righteousness. The first part of this paragraph deals with being committed to the truth. There should be a period after that comment for reasons that we will discuss shortly.

“The second way that truth serves as a belt, is our personal commitment to truth.”

The rest of the paragraph has nothing to do with “truth” but deals more with what me might call righteousness, which, coincidently enough, is the next article of armor.

Breastplate of righteousness

The breastplate covers the heart and shields it and the other vital organs. Christ’s righteousness… protects you against all of Satan’s accusations and charges. This righteousness is not made up of the good deeds you do. The Bible is clear that none of us are righteous in ourselves. The breastplate of righteousness is entirely the righteousness of Jesus which He gives us freely when we accept Him as our Savior. It is Christ’s righteousness—not our own righteousness—that covers and protects us.

First off let’s be clear about what we mean by the word “righteous”. For some reason it has (unjustly) come to be associated with religion. However, for me being righteous means knowing the difference between right and wrong and choosing to do the right thing, for the right reasons. Righteousness isn’t something that can be acquired magically or instantly. Righteousness requires being thoughtful, reflective and disciplined in our actions. Anyone can be righteous, not just the religious.

The last statement in the first paragraph is exactly what we’ve been talking about. “The Bible is clear that none of us are righteous in ourselves”. This particular lie implies three things.

1. Humans are too depraved and defiled to do the right thing on their own.
2. Once someone joins the Jesus club, they are given a set of values that is not theirs and therefore they abdicate their personal responsibility to develop their own moral sense of right and wrong.
3. If righteousness comes only from Jesus, then non-believers have no way of ever being righteous.

Back to bibleinfo.com

It is Christ’s righteousness—not our own righteousness—that covers and protects us.

Christians love and embrace this idea. Jesus gets the credit for everything. If you have ever spent time in christian circles, finish this phrase “Without Jesus I can do __________.” If you filled in the blank with the word “nothing” then you have been (or currently are) a part of a christian community. The message is that humans have no abilities in themselves. Everything comes from Jesus and we can do nothing on our own. This is another untruth.

Imagine, if you will, an evangelical home shopping network. It might sound something like this.

“Are you feeling sinful, lost, and without hope? We have good news for you.  With one quick prayer you… yes you… can join the Jesus Club and have all your sins instantly washed away. And as an added bonus we’ll throw in a coat of righteousness at no extra cost. Angels are standing by to take your prayer… so pray now.”

I’m not buying it. You design, make and wear your own righteousness. No one can do that for you. We’ll they can, but it will always be disingenuous. If you have ever been a part of an evangelical congregation, you will know that there are plenty of people who will tell you what is required of you to be righteous.

Let’s go back to what the author said earlier about truth, which actually has nothing to do with truth but has a lot to do about being righteous.

“Living a life that is upright, transparent, and without deceit. Integrity and honesty are vital to your Christian life. People should know that they can depend on you to be a person of truth and principle.”

So, there you have it… the real truth. These are the qualities of a righteous person; being upright, transparent and without deceit, having integrity and honesty, and being a person of principle.

As I’ve said before, being righteous means knowing the difference between right and wrong and choosing to do the right thing, for the right reasons as a matter of principle. Righteousness isn’t something that can be acquired magically or instantly. Anyone, and I do mean anyone, believer or non-believer, can be righteous and to say otherwise is simply not the truth and if it’s not the truth then your “loins” are unprotected, and that ain’t a good thing.

See Phil Zuckerman’s article “What it means to be moral” for more on this topic.

Coming next:

We will continue our examination of the remaining pieces of the full armor of God; which includes shoes, a shield, a helmet and a sword.

 

 

From Where I Stand

Dale Crum

mt.toll@comcast.net