AMERICAN EVANGELICALISM IS A MENTAL GHETTO--Part VI Sliding Down the Lexicon Into the Gutter.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?
Meditate. What does that mean to you? If you've been in the American church for more than ten years it doesn't mean what it used to mean for most of us.

Butchering words...
It's said that a rose by any other name is a rose. The flower stays the same whatever you call it. But what if it wasn't the name that got changed? What if the name stayed the same, but the flower was changed? Then what? Is a meat cleaver dulled and softened if we called it a pillow?

When dealing with ancient literature like say...the Bible...one must be aware of a phenomenon I call lexical slide. When reading a word in an old text, one should be careful to remember it isn't what the modern speaker or reader means by that word, but what the author meant. For instance, if my great grandfather said he saw a line of cars go by, he was probably standing by a railroad. That's not what I mean when I say "car". "Ah, but we don't read the ancient texts. We read modern translations and the translators worry about that so we don't have to," someone might say.

Here's the problem: Modern English translations are stuck in a quickly changing religious culture and the religious language is changing rapidly. For instance, we used to talk about being "evangelistic". Now we want to be "missional". We used to want "sanctification". Now we want "spiritual formation". "Love" used to be fidelity to God and our brothers and sisters. Now it's not hurting anyone's feelings. So too, biblical meditation isn't the "meditation" currently taught in ME churches, seminaries, conferences, and books. All these changes are negative. Paul warned of wrangling about words. but my topic here is a deviation that has lead to a divergence in doctrine and practice.

Let's start with a lexical study. First, the Hebrew and Greek. The verb "meditate", in its various forms occurs much more often in the Hebrew Old Testament than in the Greek New Testament, and that's not just because the Old Testament is much bigger. The Old Testament comprises about 72-73% of Scripture, but contains all but a handful of references to meditating.

Two Hebrew verbs are commonly translated "meditate". First, is hagah. It is a word that attempts to sound like the activity or thing it denotes, like "yip" is used to denote the bark of a puppy. It's supposed to sound like the growl of an animal or the sound made by a man under his breath as he mutters or groans while considering something vexing, deep, or difficult. Holladay defines it as to growl, to moan, to read in an undertone, to ponder, to plan, or to speak. The noun forms are haguth, which means the act or process of thinking or planning and higgayon, which means talk or mockery or the act or process of thinking or planning or the act of playing an instrument. The second word is siach and it means to become concerned with or to give one's attention to. It's noun form is sichah. It means the occupation or concern of one's thoughts or mind.(1)

Brown, Driver, and Briggs says essentially the same thing, but adds to muse (to think reflectively) and to spell a word to the lexical range of the two verbs. (2) But even more important than what the dictionaries say is what the Bible says the word means. The Bible does define it for us, but I want to get into the current misunderstanding of what "meditation" is.

...in order to slaughter the innocent.
The BIG NAME in bringing the new "meditation" into MEism is Richard Foster. His book Celebration of Discipline, the Path to Spiritual Growth is the classic textbook used in seminaries and Bible colleges across the nation to inseminate young preachers and missionaries with practices such as unbiblical meditation. Foster doesn't stop there, though. He also instructs young heads full of tapioca in the fine arts of using the palms of one's hands to achieve certain inner spiritual states,(3) the use of the imagination to "experience God",(4) and studying the writings of heretics like Thomas a Kempis and Brother Lawrence, equating their writings with Calvin's Institutes.(5) First copyrighted in 1978, it hit with such a jolt a new category of seminary and Bible college courses was invented to make room for it. These are usually called "spiritual disciplines" classes. Don't send your son or daughter to a college that has one. The more conservative among us disliked the book and later editions were pruned back to appear less unorthodox. Still, the 1998 edition is heretical. While I was still teaching in a Southern Baptist college, it was being used to my great dismay.

Foster has two defintions for "meditation". They are contradictory. The first definition is almost biblical but leaves two loopholes he'll later use. The second one, just two pages later, is heretical outright. But if someone's going to lie to you, he'll start by getting your trust first, right? That's why they're called con(fidence) men. Imagine a man ready to cut your throat in order to rob you. "I've got a good sharp knife here. Could you lean your head back and loosen your tie a bit so I can get to your neck?" "Sure! How's this?" It doesn't happen like that.

The first definition is on page fifteen. He even starts with the two Hebrew verbs I listed for you. He wrote, "These two words have various meanings: listening to God's word, reflecting on God's works, ruminating on God's law, and more."(6) Reading this innocently and not discerningly, it seems great. It's not. Meditation isn't listening. That's significant as we will see. It's in there for a devilish reason. And the "and more" opens all sorts of possibilities. Foster has more, for sure, but not for better.

His second defintion says, "Christian meditation, very simply, is the ability to hear God's voice and obey His word."(7) Take a look at this definition. Nothing Foster does seems accidental. Notice "God's voice" is different than "His word". I don't believe this is redundance with different terms for color or clarity. It's a difference he'll use like a prybar.

Contrast biblical meditation against Foster's meditation in these ways: 1. Biblical meditation is an activity. Foster's "meditation" can be a state of being--an "ability". 2. Biblical meditation has as it's object only God, His Word, and His works and these are seen as objective things--real things, not imaginary. Foster's "meditation" can be imaginary, ideally seeking "God's voice" by means of the imagination without any objective input through the senses. He even calls finding God through one's imagination "more humble" than studying the objective revelation God has given us in Scripture.(8) So not only is Foster writing to stop us from thinking, but he counts on us not thinking much in the first place. He actually expects us to believe depending on God's Word isn't humble, but exalting our imaginations to the office of prophet and oracle IS humble. Can someone explain this to me?

I will cover, God willing, the problem of objective vs. subjective perceptions of God in the next installment. Look for the Pastor's Prayer.

BIBLICAL MEDITATION DEFINED BY THE BIBLE.
If we're going to argue about what a term in the Bible means, shouldn't we listen if the Bible is actually nice enough to tell us what it means? The following are some passages in which the Hebrew uses the words hagah and siach: Gen. 24:63, Josh. 1:8, Ps. 1:2,4:5,27:4,63:6,77:6,77:12,104:34,119:15,119:23,119:27,119:48,119:78,119:148,143:5,145:5, Is. 33:18.

The following are some verses in which the Hebrew uses the noun derivatives of the two verbs listed above: Job15:4, Ps. 19:14,49:4,104:34,119:97,119:99.

In none of these passages, is there any hint of dreaming or imagining. All these passages have a real, tangible object of the meditation--God, His laws, precepts, judgments, and Word in general, or His works ranging from nature to His miraculous judgments and deliverances.

Furthermore, due to the nature of Hebrew poetry, there are passages in which the terms are listed as synonyms with the following:

1. Fear of God in Job 15:4.
2. Looking at in Psalm 119:15.
3. To delight in in Psalm 1;2.
4. To behold the beauty of in Psalm 27:4. Additionally, the word translated "meditate" in this verse is baqar. It means to search, seek, or inquire.
5. The fountain of godly speech in Psalm49:3.
6. To remember in Psalm 63:6 and 77:6.
7. To ponder in Psalm 77:12.
8. To regard in Psalm 119:15.
9. The result of godly understanding in Psalm 119:27.
10. To love something in Psalm 119:97.
11. The source of great knowledge in Psalm 119:99.
12. Something to look forward to with great anticipation in Psalm 119:148.
13. To ponder in Psalm 143:5.
14. A source of evangelistic fervor in Psalm 145:1-6.

So where's the imagination in that? There isn't any at all. In addition the meditation of David's heart was a concern for him. He was worried that it should be acceptable to God in Psalm 19:14. If meditation is about imaginary things how can it be deemed acceptable or unacceptable. There is no objective standard in imagination.

THE BIG LESSON.
The big lesson is this: Today's love of spirituality without content leads away from thought. It leads to the ghetto. Biblical meditation leads to a solid knowledge of God through cognitive activity in and around His Bible, His Person, and His Works. It is objective and cognitive. Today's meditation is imaginative and subjective.

Today's meditation isn't Christian.

THE BIGGER LESSON.
Foster isn't the main story here. He's just an example. MANY are subverting the faith by introducing new, unbiblical language or changing the old definitions of biblical language to introduce unbiblical concepts. Beware. The words may be right, but the concepts can be very, very wrong.

Stay holy,
Phil Perkins.

(1) Holloday, William L.; A Concise Hebrew and Aramic Lexicon of the Old Testament, Based on the First, Second, and Third Editions of the Koehler-Baumgartner Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti Libros; E. J. Brill and Wm. Eerdmans Publishing Co.; Grand Rapids, Michigan; 1988; ISBN 0-8028-3413-2; pp. 76 & 551.
(2) Brown, Francis, Driver, S. R., & Briggs, C.; The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon; Hendrickson Publishers; Peabody, Massachusetts; 1996; pp. 211 & 967.
(3)Foster, Richard J.; Celebration of Discipline, the Path to Spiritual Growth; HargerCollins Publishers: New York, New York; 1998; ISBN 0-06-062893-1; p. 31.
(4) ibid. p. 25.
(5) ibid. p. 72.
(6) ibid. p. 15.
(7) ibid. p. 17.
(8) ibid. p. 25.