By Dr. Michael Brown
The Greek word anomia occurs 13 times in the New Testament and it literally means “lawlessness.” As defined in one major Greek dictionary, anomia means “to behave with complete disregard for the laws or regulations of a society — ‘to live lawlessly, lawlessness, lawless living” (Louw-Nida Lexicon). The spirit behind anomia is not from above, but from below.
It is easy to blame politicians for all the negative things taking place in the world today. However, often they are not the real problem. According to British historian, Niall Ferguson, much of the blame should actually be directed at the nameless, faceless, unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats lurking in the background who are pulling the strings on the political decisions.
When it comes to dealing with senior government bureaucrats, the best piece of advice I can give is this: Don’t believe anything until it has officially been denied.
Our age of instant data, micro-dinners and quick fixes too often carries over into our efforts to understand God’s Word, the Bible. Now, I’ve been guilty of this as well; you don’t understand a verse, so, a quick Hebrew or Greek definition that suits your purpose and presto! – the heavens open, angels sing, and you are now armed with all knowledge and wisdom? No? Sometimes the Hebrew word for “pot” means “pot”, and the Greek word for “hungry” may just mean “hungry”. What then? Well, you may have to dig a little deeper, spend a little more time (in the Greek “cronos”) and get into the background of a passage. Bridging the cultural, historical, and geographical gap from our world to that of the Bible passage can produce a rich, vast landscape of texture and color to a seemingly puzzling passage.
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