That’s why some of the modern translations of the prayer, instead of “lead us not into temptation,” have “save us in the time of trial,” and instead of “deliver us from evil,” have “deliver us from the evil one”—meaning Satan. Don’t worry, we’re not going to change the words here at Grace Church any time soon. However, this translation does give a greatly enhanced understanding of our calling to locate the prayer at the frontier, so to speak—the frontier where the ages meet, where the Christian community faces the powers of evil and is called to bear its witness in the face of all that “the
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