Prayer and Revelation - Online Christian Library

this period of redemptive history included the use of a physical temple, those who hadunderstanding knew that God was not local.The coming of Christ signified that what the Old Covenant anticipated was about to befulfilled. Kenneth Wuest's comments on Romans 12:1 are very applicable at this point:"This is in contrast to the worship of the priests which consisted of outward forms,symbolic in themselves of spiritual truth, and yet not rational in the sense that thisworship was not devoid of a material connection….Israel preached the gospel through theuse of object lessons, the tabernacle, priesthood, and offerings. The Church preaches thesame gospel in abstract terms." 55Old Covenant worship was indeed founded upon intellectual truth, but much wasassociated with and implied by outward expressions and rituals. Christ's fulfillment of theOld Covenant and inauguration of the New Covenant signaled the dawn of a new era inwhich the people of God are free to worship him as spirit to spirit, mind to mind, intellectto intellect. True and acceptable worship is now independent of our location, and muchless associated with physical expressions and rituals; 56 rather, the emphasis rightly returnsto sincerity and truth, to motive and doctrine.Daniel was a pious man. Most Christians today cannot claim to approach his spiritualdevotion, extraordinary character, and intellectual prowess. How many of us can claim tobe "ten times" greater than the intellectual elite of our day "in every matter of wisdom andunderstanding" (Daniel 1:20)? More than a few theologians of our day insist that theHebrews favor "practical" wisdom over theoretical or academic wisdom. This is not true.At least with Daniel and his friends, there is no doubt that the emphasis is placed on their"book smarts," 57 since verse 17 says, "To these four young men God gave knowledge andunderstanding of all kinds of literature and learning." 58 Of course, this does notcontradict or undermine any supernatural endowment God chose to give them: "AndDaniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds" (v. 17). For our purpose, thepoint is that Daniel was an all-around superior specimen of a believer.Nevertheless, when Daniel prayed, he went to a room where "the windows openedtoward Jerusalem" (6:10). Now, those who had understanding knew that this wasunnecessary, and Daniel probably did not always prayed this way. Daniel was not wrong55 Kenneth S. Wuest, Romans in the Greek New Testament; William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company,1955.56 Worship is not completely independent of the physical. For example, our bodies form the "temple" ofGod (1 Corinthians 6:19), and we still have the rituals of baptism and communion. Nevertheless, thesignificance of all three hinges upon the relationship of our intellect to revelation, that is, the relationship ofour mind to Scripture.57 Any so-called "practical" wisdom must have as its foundation an intellectual understanding of Scripture.What many Christians consider practical wisdom is nothing more than convenient but worldly andunbiblical ways of doing things that are without biblical foundation. But I reject the distinction between thetheoretical and the practical in the first place. "Practical" wisdom is only theoretical wisdom about what weconsider "practical" things. Otherwise, it is not "wisdom" at all, but just an unexamined habit or instinct. Ifit is "wisdom," then it is intellectual, academic, and theoretical.58 Their abilities were tested against the "scribes" (v. 20) of the day. "Magicians" is perhaps a misleadingtranslation. See Young's Literal Translation of the Holy Bible, by Robert Young.43