Should Protestants use prayer beads? Part 1 here

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In the previous part 1, I’d laid out the history of prayer bead use. It is a practice that comes from other religions such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholicism, and Wicca. It has been imported to Christianity by syncretistic and now by ecumenical means. It is a self-help practice that is actually the opposite of what Jesus told us to do in prayer.

Kristen E. Vincent is a prayer bead maker and a prayer bead book author. I was struck by her article at Patheos, titled Prayer Beads: Yes, It’s OK for Protestants. In her article, she makes the case that using the bead technique is a helpful and biblical prayer tool. How? She uses Numbers 15:39. She never cites it in the article nor does she explain the verse correctly. The verse is taken out of context and applied incorrectly to today’s Christian. More on that specifically in a moment. Let’s look at the general discernment practices first.

Rule #1 for people to twist the bible when teaching, is to cite something from the Old Testament. Many people do not read the OT, they are not taught the OT, and their preacher rarely preaches from the OT. So when a person claiming authority or knowledge comes along and references something in the Old Testament, most people take it at face value. This is why it is SO important for you to read all the bible. Unfamiliarity always works against you.

Rule #2 for twisting scripture: reference that it’s in the bible, but don’t present the verse from the bible. Many people won’t look it up for themselves. They don’t know how, they don’t have the time, or they are lazy. It took me a minute or two to open to Numbers 15 and then find the verse she was talking about. At least she gave the book number. Many bible twisters don’t even to that much, making it even harder to find the verse they are talking about. Which is the point.

Rule #3 is to rip the verse from its context to make a personal application. Many, many bible teachers are doing that with the Old Testament these days. Rachel Held Evans and Beth Moore are two obvious recent offenders. Old Testament passages are either allegorized, or are directly applied to New Testament Christians. It takes study, nuance, understanding, and patience to learn the OT and which parts directly apply to us. Yes, all scripture is profitable, but there is a reason why NT Christians today eat shellfish and don’t build booths for Sukkot.

Here is an excerpt of Mrs. Vincent’s case for using prayer beads:

As the years passed and they got more and more tired of being hot and sticky and thirsty, they began to rebel. They even argued with God, saying they would be better off as slaves back in Egypt. They were beginning to think God had abandoned them.

In response, God told them to take up the fringe on their garments. Bet they didn’t see that coming! How could fringe help them in this situation? But God understood the Israelites were physical beings. Even though God had promised to be faithful and always be with them, God knew the Israelites would get so focused on being hot and miserable and forget God’s promises. God knew they needed something tangible – physical – to hold onto and remind them that God was with them. So God told them to take up fringe – a common, ordinary, everyday object – and hold onto it when they needed comfort, guidance, assurance, love.

So the upshot is that prayer beads are OK to use because:

–they’re kind of in the bible,
–the Israelites used them because they were hot
–God wanted to give them something tangible to show He loved them (as opposed to a Teddy Bear?)

Here is the actual verse:

And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring: (Numbers 15:39)

Here is what is going on in context. Context means, when you read a verse, read the entire page. Read before and after the verse. Even better, read the whole chapter. Gain an understanding from the introduction to the book of the reason for the book, its theological themes, purpose, and audience. That’s context.

The first 25 chapters of Numbers records the death of the first Israelite wilderness generation. The remainder of Numbers records the replacement of the second generation. The book, then is a transition from sin and judgement (Num 1-25) to redemption (Num 26-36). Though the Israelites grumbled and complained, God did not forsake them. He punished them, but He provided for them. In this first part of Numbers, He did so mainly by delivering commands and expecting them to keep them. When they didn’t, He punished. (Paraphrased from Introduction to the Old Testament, Dillard)

In the Law of the Tassels, God told the Israelites to look at the fringe to remember Him and His commands. This was so they could obey. If they obeyed, they would not be killed, (Numbers 15:31), like the Sabbath-breaker in the verse immediately prior to the fringe verse was, or Korah’s group of 250, immediately after, 2 verses later.

The Sabbath-Breaker Stoned, c. 1896-1902, by James Tissot

The Numbers 15 chapter is consumed with details about unintentional sin and of presumptuous sin. As a matter of fact, since the fringe verse comes immediately after the Sabbath-breaker’s stoning, it can be said that the fringe was given so they would remember the punishment, and in so remembering, obey. So absolutely it was not because they needed a loving hug. The context is sin, judgment, and death. The fringe was not given because the Israelites were “hot and sticky.”

The author of the Prayer Beads article then dispenses with the bible and presents three secular reasons for using prayer beads.

When people use prayer beads, isn’t the focus on the beads rather than God? No. The focus is on developing and going deeper into one’s relationship with God. That’s what prayer is about. The beads are just a tool to facilitate that.

If a tangible item can help deepen my relationship with God (as opposed to faith, obedience, and the Holy Spirit) then it stands to reason that more prayer beads will help me go even deeper. Perhaps I will buy a longer prayer bead string than my pew sister has. Then I will be very pious. That is the logic the Pharisees used. See, the author did not show what happened in the end to the Israelites who “needed something tangible to help them remember”. By the end of the Age of Law, the Pharisees had lengthened their tassels to show their very, very, deep, deep relationship with God. Jesus called them out on this. He called them hypocrites.

Here is John MacArthur on the Law of the Tassels, and of taking an internal intangible and making it tangible action:

They understood that that was symbolic of having the law of God in your mind, that’s thought, and having the law of God applied in your action, that’s work, that’s living….But about 400 B.C. some Jews decided that they needed to make that internal principle of the law of God in the mind and in the behavior an external act.

Barnes Notes shows us the end of the story, a story of which Mrs Vincent only showed the beginning of. This is another discernment lesson. False teachers only show part of the story. They omit the parts that don’t fit their pet theory. Not only were the fringes ordered to help them obey so they would not be judged, at the close of the Age of Law, we see how devastatingly man takes that tangible and corrupts faith with it. Barnes:

The arrangement of the threads and knots, to which the Jews attached the greatest importance, was so adjusted as to set forth symbolically the 613 precepts of which the Law was believed to consist. In our Lord’s time the Pharisees enlarged their fringes Matthew 23:5 in order to obtain reputation for their piety.

So did the fringes keep Korah from disobeying? No. Did the fringes keep the Pharisees mindful? Hardly. Fringes with knots didn’t work.

In the second of three secular reasons we are told prayer beads are OK to use, Mrs Vincent said,

How can they help? For starters, how many of us have begun a prayer, only to realize a minute later that we’re making the grocery list instead? Feeling the beads can help you maintain your focus in prayer. How many of us have rushed through the day and forgotten to pray? Seeing the prayer beads lying on a table, we are reminded to take time to sit with God. And how about those times when we, like the Israelites, feel lost and abandoned in the wilderness places of life? We can hold onto the beads and know that God is as close as the beads in our hands.

We do not need a man-made thing to remind us of our faith. We have a new covenant, one which Peter writes about:

This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, (2 Peter 3:1-2)

We have the scriptures to stir our memory! Peter told them their minds will be stirred by remembering the Old Testament (Prophets) and by this New Testament, (through his epistle) and the Apostles (and by extension their epistles when they were canonized). He did not say that prayer beads will help them remember. He said the scriptures will.

The third reason we are told that it is OK to use prayer beads is this:

Why are beads even necessary in prayer? After all, we Protestants have been praying just fine without them all these years. Indeed. And certainly, not everyone will want or need to use beads in prayer. But many people struggle with prayer; they don’t know what to say or how to go about it. Prayer beads can offer structure, a path, a safe place even, for prayer.

Source

First, raise your discernment when anyone introduces a new way to do things. Jesus and the Apostles set the standards for holy living, faith, and practice. Anyone who has a new and shiny idea is always going to be wrong.

Secondly, prayer beads will help us pray safely? If I send some stringed beads to the Chinese Christians, or the Iraqi or Syrian Christians, they will then have a safe place to pray? You see how ridiculous it is to apply First World terminology to the global church’s faith and practice.

Third, the ‘path’ is laid out by scripture. Even more specifically, it is laid out in the Lord’s prayer. (Matthew 6:9-13)

Last, as for struggling with prayer, I know many people do. I do sometimes. That is why we have the Holy Spirit.

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. (John 14:26)

When we struggle, the Spirit is here, inside us, to help us deepen our relationship with the Father. Not prayer beads, made by human hands. The precious Advocate will help.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. (Romans 8:26).

Are you going to look Jesus in the eye, who sent the Spirit to help us in our groanings, and say, ‘Nah. I’m good. I got my beads.’ Discernment alerts should always raise in your mind when someone tries to get you to do things in your own strength, and it takes your eyes off Jesus in the process.

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And let us not forget Jesus is our intercessor, we must have faith that our prayers reach the ears of the Father by having our High Priest intercede for us. Why would I want to perform in my own strength, with some man-made clay or glass beads, when I have Jesus and the Spirit to help me in my struggle?

A discerning commenter, praise God, said this on the site where the essay was published

Mestes • 3 days ago

Let’s all try to remain focused on the topic at hand. There are a couple problems with this blog entry: 1) We’re being told that Numbers 15 in the Bible is talking about something that it clearly is not. 2) The author of this blog entry happens to make and sell said “Prayer Beads”. This article is not a deeply theological expression of a particular viewpoint meant to edify the body of Christ or glorify God in any way. It is nothing more than an advertisement for a product. As far as the personal use of beads or notes or whatever, I’d say use whatever you want. But don’t twist scripture to say God gave fringe to Israel as a gift. That didn’t happen. Don’t imply that the use of your “Prayer Beads” will deepen or do anything to develop your relationship with God. It won’t. As far as ecumenism: It absolutely is a way of blurring lines between Christianity and Roman Catholicism. That is clearly the undertone of this article (i.e. the title and the last sentence: “Even for Protestants”) And if you’re forgetting to pray, it’s not because you don’t have “Prayer Beads”. Christians don’t “forget” to pray, as though it’s an obligation. Christians pray because it’s the lifeblood of our relationship with the God of the Bible.

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Further Reading

What are prayer beads? Is it okay to use beads while praying?

Praying unceasingly

Should Protestants use prayer beads? Part 1 here

EPrata photo

The beauty and simplicity of the Gospel is a stunning foundational aspect of true Christianity. The supremacy of Christ because of His incarnation and sacrifice is a wondrous fact for Christians to behold. God was pleased with His Son’s work on earth and His sacrificial death, and as a sign of that satisfaction, He raised Jesus from the dead on the third day. Our bondage to sin was now broken.

Because of Jesus’ work on earth and on the cross, it means that we have His righteousness imputed to us. We don’t do anything to earn it, it is a gift of grace, planned by the Father, earned by Christ, and delivered by the Spirit.

Though a true Christian’s bondage to sin is now broken, our bondage to the flesh is not. We are living beings inhabiting flesh and that flesh contains sin nature. Because of this, the Father sent the Holy Spirit to help in us to resist the flesh. In our flesh we cannot achieve anything that will satisfy God (Isaiah 64:6) and in our flesh we never will. We can’t. But the Spirit in us gives us the power to persist in overcoming sin. This also is stunning in its simplicity.

No it’s not easy, but it is simple. The bottom line is, it’s all Jesus.

Every other religion on the face of the earth rejects that simplicity. At root, they cannot and will not believe that humans in the flesh can’t do something to earn our way to Nirvana, Heaven, Valhalla, or be reincarnated as a higher being on the next step up the ladder. They reject the free gift of grace (by refusing to acknowledge their sins and repent) and try to climb that ladder toward salvation by themselves.

They will always fail.

Grace Cathedral labyrinth, Interior of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco. Wiki CC. By Marlinth

CC, by Flavio~

Though ecumenism this is not new, (John and Paul fought against the infiltration and acceptance of Gnostic practices in the first century), the past ten years has seen an increased push of syncretism. You’ve heard of ecumenism, which the Oxford Dictionary defines as The principle or aim of promoting unity among the world’s Christian churches. That sounds good but it’s not. That is because not all churches that call themselves Christian are actually Christian. Any church that says they follow Jesus Christ is considered Christian, even if they deny essential truths about Jesus. This includes Catholic, Jehovah’s Witness, and Mormon. Yet practices from among different ‘Christian’ churches creep in to the true church all the time. This is because of either a lack of discernment or a lack of courage to stand and stop the creep.

There is a similar problem and it’s called syncretism.

Syncretism is also alive and well. Syncretism is an effort among non-professing Christian religions and Christian religions to accept each other’s beliefs and to cross-adopt its practices. GotQuestions defines syncretism this way:

Religious syncretism often takes place when foreign beliefs are introduced to an indigenous belief system and the teachings are blended.

The Catholic church does this when they evangelize an indigenous area. Missionary friends in South America tell me that where there is a Catholic cathedral, church, or chapel, there will usually be an area where the indigenous descendant Mayans can worship or sacrifice in a grotto out front, then they go inside the church to hear a sermon (and leave their money).

There is currently a Protestant craze to adopt some of these pagan beliefs and practice them inside Christianity. Labyrinths are one. Catholics adopted this contemplative technique from Greek mythology, (Daedalus, Theseus, and the Minotaur of Crete) then the practice gravitated to Greek pagan life, then Roman. What a contemplative labyrinth walker does is meander along a unicursive path to a center, then walk the path back out again. A labyrinth walk is supposed to enhance the spiritual journey of the contemplative. Learning a higher spiritual meaning rests on the contemplative person’s own efforts during the walk.

Prayer circles are another syncretistic activity accepted into Christianity, where a person draws a circle and sits or stands inside it and prays. Deeper meanings are supposed to come to the contemplative by performing this technique, and again, these meanings are given to the contemplative by his own efforts. Prayer circles originate from Wicca (witchcraft). I wrote about prayer circles here, and showed it in pictures here.

The latest fad to enter conservative Christianity is prayer beads. Prayer beads are well-known in Hindu, Buddhist, Islam, and Catholic religions, among others. I read an article recently from a woman with two divinity degrees and whose husband is a Methodist pastor. She wrote on Patheos that a Protestant using prayer beads is perfectly all right. By the way, the woman has a side business of making and selling prayer beads. More on that article in part 2.

Methods and items from other religions are always wanting to creep into Christianity. Man always wants to DO something to show we can achieve spirituality on our own. Prayer beads is yet another infiltration.

What are prayer beads?

Prayer beads are used by a worshiper to mark their repetitions of prayers, chants or devotions. Beads or knots is an ancient way of counting or keeping track of goods, of history, debts owed, or the calendar.

The ancient Mayan used knots on a rope called a quipu. Spanish chroniclers concluded that quipus were used primarily as mnemonic devices to communicate and record numerical information. (source). Later, this mnemonic device was used in religion to keep track of prayers. Right, representation of a quipu.

How do the different religions use prayer beads?

Hindus use Mala beads for their ‘do something,’ try harder to get to the truth, spiritual techniques. About.com explains the Japa technique using Mala beads.

There are many ways to connect with the truth; some would say that not all fit into the meditation category, so perhaps it could be said that spiritual technique and meditation are several of the dynamics that get us from HERE to THERE. … The general tools here would be a rosary of Mala (meditation beads, necklace, numbering 108). One would simply start with the first bead of the mala then chant the mantra on each of the 108 beads till we come to the last bead, then this process would be repeated approximately 93 times, which is a number over 10,000.

Mandala Mudra Prayer Beads, India, 1974, by Ernst Haas

Buddhists use prayer beads also. Japanese Buddhists, Chinese Buddhists, Taiwanese Buddhists…all use them. In some sects they are called ‘mindfulness beads.’ Wikipedia explains.

Theravada Buddhists in Burma use prayer beads, called seik badi, shortened to badi. 108 beads are strung on a garland, with the beads typically made of fragrant wood like sandalwood, and series of brightly coloured strings at the end of the garland. It is commonly used in samatha meditation, to keep track of the number of mantras chanted during meditation.

Catholics use prayer beads. Their bead string is called a rosary and it performs the exact function that Hindu and Buddhist and Wiccan does for the contemplative seeking various spiritual things in prayer.

Catholic Rosary beads- from Wikipedia

Rosary-based prayers are mostly Roman Catholic prayers said on a set of rosary beads. These prayers recite specific word sequences on different parts of the rosary beads. They may be directed at Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary or God the Father. Somewhat similar bead-based prayers also exist in other Christian denominations.

In monastic houses, monks were expected to pray the Divine Office daily in Latin, the liturgical language of the Roman Catholic Church. In some houses, lay brothers who did not understand Latin or who were illiterate were required to say the Lord’s Prayer a certain number of times each day while meditating on the Mysteries of the Incarnation of Christ. Since there were 150 psalms, this could number up to 150 times per day. To count these repetitions, they used beads strung upon a cord and this set of prayer beads became commonly known as a pater noster, which is the Latin for “Our Father”. Lay people adopted this practice as a form of popular worship. The Paternoster could be of various lengths, but was often made up of 5 “decades” of 10 beads, which when performed three times made up 150 prayers.

Catholic rosary w/Celtic cross. source

Should Protestants use prayer beads?

After all this long explanation, I would hope that a person would readily say “no”. Here are some biblical reasons:

1. In Luke 11:1 when one of the disciples asked the Lord to teach them to pray, Jesus did not begin by saying, “Now take your prayer beads…”

2. What Jesus did say was this: “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (Matthew 6:7-8)

In that short verse, we learn that praying repetitiously is

–empty
–pointless
–and we’re commanded not to do it.

3. When Catholics pray the rosary, some of the prayers are to Mary. Mary is dead. Other religions, notably Buddhist and Wicca, use prayer beads to honor, worship, or otherwise pray to the ancestors. Ancestors are dead. The bible strictly commands us not to do this (Deuteronomy 18:11).

4. This verse tells us who helps us remember the Lord’s commands and His word, and it isn’t prayer beads-

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. (John 14:26).

With so much being biblically and obviously wrong with using prayer beads in a contemplative practice, how can a Protestant possibly promote it as acceptable? Let’s take a look in part 2 at how a person can take an obvious NO and turn it into an obvious YES. This will be the discernment part of the two-part look at prayer beads.