Can I Get an Amen?

Q. Mike, I recently watched a sermon where a preacher solicited the congregation, saying, "Can I get an Amen?" What does "Amen" actually mean, and should preachers appeal to the people for it?

A.  This is a great question. Amen is such a small word, but there is a lot to it, and we should not use it frivolously. 

In the 1995 Updated Edition of the New American Standard Bible, we see this term used fifty-three times (23 O.T., 30 N.T.). It is something that we hear at the end of our prayers. We use it as a punctuation for our petition, almost as though we are saying, "...in Jesus's name, the end." 

Coming from a Hebrew word that means "to support," it is used to display confidence in the expression of either man or God. The term is usually an adverb, meaning "certainly" or "truly." However, at times, it is also used as an adjective or as a noun. 

We see it as a noun when referencing Christ in Revelation 3:14, "To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this..."  There are many different uses of amen in Scripture (see Num. 5:22; Deut. 27:11-26; 1 Chron. 16:36; 1 Kgs. 1:36). Incidentally, amen is the last word found in the whole of the Bible (Rev. 22:21).

One thing that may help us is to understand that the language of the people during the first centuries was the language of the Bible. We refer to the language of the 1611 KJV as the King's English because that is what it was. Justin Martyr records that when the man conducting the Lord's Supper finished his prayer, the congregation would say amen. Jerome states, basically, the same thing in that the whole of the people would amen the close of every prayer in the assembly.

At the end of a prayer, it is used by the people to signal an agreement with the petition. However, many use it today to elicit a response from the people, almost to ensure they are still awake. Amen is a simple but profound word and has no business being used flippantly. It is a solemn affirmation before the throne of heaven.