by The word “Amen” is often abused by either over or under use. The best place to define the use of “Amen” is from the passage of scripture where God’s man used a pulpit to bring God’s Word to God’s people. Nehemiah 8 is a valuable chapter on our study of and response to the Word of God. We find here that the pulpit is designed by God to properly position His Word in His Church, not to position His man.
Understanding the pulpit is for the Word of God, in Nehemiah 8:6 we see the response of the people is not simply “Amen” but “Amen, Amen.” They had been without the God’s Word for 150 years. Now they were showing a holy respect for it, as “all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground.”
To “Amen” respectfully is to do it properly. Properly means it is reserved for a response to the God’s Word and not man’s word. When a man is preaching or expounding God’s Word, Amen is definitely in order. However, if a preacher says something casual like, “I slept late, threw on my clothes, and went right out the door before realizing I did not have matching socks,” then Amen is absolutely not in order. An Amen to this type of statement would be a habitual use of Amen and not an affirmation to any scriptural truth. Remember, just as the pulpit was not to elevate and focus on Ezra in Nehemiah 8, saying Amen is not used to elevate or pump up the preacher.
Looking deeper into the word, in the Old Testament God’s name is “Amen” (Isaiah 65:16), used twice as the word “truth.” In the New Testament God is also called “Amen” (Revelation 3:14). This is an important principle to understanding the use and abuse of Amen. If God is Amen as He said, then the question is, how often do we use God’s name in vain by vainly saying “Amen?”
We are commanded by principle as seen in Nehemiah 8 to proclaim “Amen” to the truth of scripture. Let’s not get caught resisting the Spirit and refusing to say Amen, but also lets also not caught using God’s name in vain, a clear violation of scripture: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” (Exodus 20:7)
