Theological Thursday --- The Turtle

Back in my Pittsburgh days, there was a man on Christian radio everyday from 3:00-6:00 called Marty Minto. He had a call in Christian talk show where they would discuss everything from Brittney Spears, TV shows, the president, etc. On Thursdays he would call his show "Theological Thursday" and the topic and/or debate of the day would not be anything going on in the world but rather a topic/debate from the Bible. So I've decided to make every Thursday on my blog, "Theological Thursday".


Today I want to look at something called "The Turtle". It was a formation used in the first century by the Roman military. So when Paul wrote his Epistles, he would have very clearly known about this particular tactic. Basically the soldiers would gather in a large square formation. Those on the outside of the formation would hold their shields out...those on the inside would hold their shield up. As they stayed in formation, they could advance on the enemy and stay in total protection. Picture...



So if you were the enemy, how would you break this formation? The other soldiers would do this --- they would light their arrows on fire and hope one would make it into the midst of the group, or shoot them in front of the formation causing them to change direction and cause confusion. Because the enemy knew as long as the Romans stayed in this formation there was nothing they could do...but if they could somehow disrupt it, GAME ON!


Now let's look at what Paul has to say about the Christian life...

In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ---Ephesians 6:16


Paul knows who the real enemy is...Satan. In this passage we are told to put on the "full armor of God" together...so we can defeat him and his attacks together. What a wonderful picture of how Christians need each other, and if we can support and hold each other up in formation we can grow and overcome Satan's temptations and flaming arrows together. However, if one of our brothers or sisters leaves the formation, GAME ON! So let's take Paul's charge to us to stand in formation together with the Full Armor of God...and those who have been pulled away by the flaming arrow...let's bring them back (Hebrews 10:24-25).