Neil Peart is also the writer of the vast majority of Rush's lyrics. He is an very intelligent and philosophical writer who has been through some tough times (his wife dying of cancer and his only child dying in a car accident within a year of each other).
Rush has just come out with a new album, "Snakes and Arrows". Throughout the album Peart expresses his struggles with religion specifically around the issue of faith. In an interview Peart had this to say: "... [faith] ought to be your armor, something to protect you and something to console you in dark times. But it's more often being turned into a sword, and that's one big theme I'm messing with."
This can be seen in his lyrics to the song "Armor and Sword":
Sometimes the damage is too great
Or the will is too weak
What should have been our armor
Becomes a sharp and burning sword.
This is an obvious reference to the "Armor of God" in Ephesians 6:13-17. He may have a point here. In Ephesians, faith is our "shield"; part of our armor which is defensive not offensive. The only offensive part of the Ephesians 6 passage is the "sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God" (vs. 17b). So, our offense does not depend on anything coming from us... our faith, our opinion, our convictions. Instead, our offense is dependent on God through His word.
Have we as Christians done damage by using our personal faith as a weapon instead of letting God's word (through His Spirit) be the weapon?
How can we live out our faith in the public arena without having it become a "sharp and burning sword"? (Peart's reference to the crusades... probably)
Is our faith becoming a "sword" really a bad thing?
8 comments:
Hmmmm... it so happens that John Mayer, a musician who has been a huge musical influence in my life, has a very similar lyrical idea:
"Belief is a beautiful armor/
that makes for the heaviest sword/
like punching undewater/
you never can hit who you're trying for."
I think I understand what you're asking but here's the problem I have: I understand that the Word of God should be what convicts people and ultimately leads to their conversion (with the Holy Spirit, of course), but if we openly share the word of God, say, in our workplaces (if we aren't pastors) then we could potentially get fired and not help anyone at all. In fact, I know a lot of people at my office, if not all, would really hate me for it. But if we live out our lives in faith and show others that by our faith we are different, then it can lead to personal conversations, out-of-office talks and come safely to the Word of God where people are more willing to hear and less likely to fire you. I know we should be more concerned about the spiritual well-being of individuals than our jobs but the people at our workplaces are never going to learn about God if the only Christians they meet keep getting fired.
Besides, the "old-school" Christians never talked about their faith, and look where it got them. A whole bunch of people who don't know how to share Christ with others or pray or even do devotions because faith is not something you ever mention or bring up. It's completely personal so that you don't ever offend or push people.
Maybe that's not at all what you're talking about, but that's what I understood from your blog. If I've just ranted off topic than you can have a good time ranting me back on topic if you like.
Thanks Lisa, it was "on topic" enough for me... but I'm not picky.
A consistent Christian lifestyle is probably the only way to share our faith without turning it into a "sword" (for which we would get fired or at least lose some friends). I don't think that Jesus would ever want us to become "bible thumpers" in our workplaces. The only people that Jesus was aggressive with were the religious people that "knew better". But with those who didn't know what it meant to follow God Jesus was gentle, patient; building a relationship with them. That's not very offensive... or likely to get anyone fired.
It seems that we have indeed turned to faith as the sword. The problem seems two fold. First, we have misplaced our belief in the validity of the bible. Many Christians today do not “believe that the Bible is the Word of God, fully inspired and without error in the original manuscripts, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and that it has supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct.”...or if they do, they believe that its truth may not apply to others. This leads to the second problem which is that we live in a “faith is truth” culture. We live in a time where truth is defined by belief...that is if I believe it..it is truth. Having an Engineering background this ideology seems crazy to me but it is becoming common thought. So if we perceive the bible as a rubber sword, what is left but to revert to using the sword of our culture...my faith will make it true. How unfortunate.
I agree with Dennis. It's too bad when even Christians buy too much into the whole relativism thing.
I was also thinking about the fact that, in Ephesians 6, Paul is really clear that the battle he's speaking of is against the devil and the spiritual forces of evil. He even makes sure to point out that the battle is NOT of flesh and blood...
Perhaps just as much of a problem as confusing what type of weapon/armor the Word of God/faith should be, is the problem of losing our focus on what we're to use these weapons for.
Exactly. Never is our faith to be forced on anyone. We are called; invited by Christ to be in a relationship with Him, not forced or coerced.
That's my beef with modern apologetics. I think the focus has been too much on attacking or reacting against specific people (ie. recently it has been Dawkins with his book "The God Delusion" and before that Dan Brown with "The DaVinci Code"). We need to put these "flesh and blood" battles off to the side and focus on what is important: inviting people into a relationship with Christ. In order to do so we need to show how attractive Christ and His bride are.
But Oprah says all we need is faith! And she said it in front of a live studio audience so it must be true!
Tim
Oh... don't even get me started on Oprah unless you want to see me go off the deep end...
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