Our Father in Heaven, Your name be honored as holy. Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors, And do not bring us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Even if someone has not been to church in a while would recognize the above as “The Lord’s Prayer”. Although some phrasing might be a bit different from the King James version its still basically the same across different versions. But is it incorrect? Is this something Christians have gotten wrong? Pope Francis would say “yes”

In a recent jarring announcement The Pope has decided to change the phrase “lead us not into temptation” to “do not let us fall into temptation”. So going forward Catholics all over the world will be buying Bibles that will have this new phrase. The reasoning is that “A father does not lead into temptation, a father helps you get out immediately”.

Is Pope Francis correct in this reasoning? Maybe the translation has been wrong all this time? But if this is true what else in The Bible has been misinterpreted? Or is this proof that we are trying to make the Bible fit into the 21st century instead of us adjusting our bias to 1st century Jerusalem?

On the surface I would agree with the Pope. God would never nor could he ever be the one to lead anyone into temptation. Like a good father He would be the one to find a way to rescue His children from evil not lead them to it. So the change would be a good one right? Not so fast!

What is meant by “temptation”? First understand that most of the New Testament was written in Greek. This is because, like English today, most people would understand Greek even if it was not their primary language. In order to get the most people to read what you have to write the best way is to write in the prevailing language of your time. So, Matthew, writing his gospel in Greek, used the word πειρασμός or “peirasmos” (pa-ras-mos). The definition of this word is more along the lines of “trial”, “proving”, or “testing”. Therefor, what Jesus is telling us to pray for is that we are not led into trials but instead delivered out of them.

What Pope Francis has done is he has taken a 1st century Greek word and has tried to make it fit in a 21st century definition. Today temptation basically means an internal desire to do something usually negative. Or a thing or course of action that attracts or tempts someone. In this sense God can not cause evil desires since He is not evil nor is He the one that attracts someone to something evil or negative.

Since ensuring God does not give us evil thoughts or desires is NOT what Jesus is saying it is important to look at what it is He is saying. It is important to note that The Bible affirms quite often that trials of many kinds will come our way. We see Paul and Silas imprisoned for their belief in Jesus. Steven is stoned, Nero blamed the burning of Rome on the Jews and Christians, both groups paid dearly for this blame. Even today we lose loved ones, are diagnosed with cancer, face our own mortality, or any number of trials that seem to cripple us. However, The Bible corresponds endurance through trials with growth. It is the hope of Heaven that when we hit bottom we cling fast to God. When everything else is stripped away God is all that is left and it is only in Him salvation can be found. He wants to be our one and only true desire. He will allow anything that gets in the way of this to be taken from us even if its something or someone we love. Trials, in turn, draw us closer to Him by taking away things or people we think we’d rather have.

So why would Jesus tell us to pray that we would not be lead into trails if we realize our greatest treasure (God the Father through Jesus Christ) is found only through them. First, this question is a fallacy. We can grow in other ways besides just trials. it just seems that this is where the greatest growth occurs. Also, Jesus informs His disciples to flee from persecution (Mt 10:23). He also instructs them to pray that when trials do come that they are not severe (Mt 24:20). God instructs us to do everything we can to preserve our lives. He is not one that would see us flippantly throw our lives away and this would mean to pray for our preservation. If we do not pray for this than we can not say we are doing everything we can to preserve our lives. However, this doesn’t mean we will be shielded from every testing. What we are promised is that we would be given the strength to face these trials with joy (Phil 4:7) (James 1:2). God will allow us to go through trials but this not something we should actively seek and for the preservation of life is something we should pray that we do not have to endure. But when these times come we pray that we are quickly delivered from the one who does bring about our trials (the evil one).

It doesn’t make sense that Pope Francis would wish to change the phrasing of the Lord’s prayer unless he does not understand the translation. It is time that all who would call themselves Christian to read and know The Bible. We need to invest in strong commentaries and study what the Bible says. This is because the Bible is now under attack from the inside. Christians have long had to defend the Bible to detractors but now there is need to defend in from those who would say they support it. For the first time in history the Bible is being challenged by those who should claim its infallibility. Finally, do not trust leaders are teaching biblical truth. Challenge everything they teach through the lens of The Bible. Just because they are in a position of influence does not mean they are correct with Biblical truth. This includes The Pope.