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Dressed to Kill: A Biblical Approach to Spiritual Warfare and Armor
Rick Renner's book Dressed To Kill is considered by many to be a true classic on the subject of scriptural warfare. The original version, which sold more than 400,000 copies, is a curriculum staple in Bible schools worldwide. Now, in this new, beautifully bound hardback volume you will * 512 pages of reedited text * Questions at the end of each chapter to guide you into deeper study In Dressed To Kill, Rick explains with exacting detail the purpose and function of each piece of Roman armor. In the process, he describes the significance of our spiritual armor not only to withstand the onslaughts of the enemy and but also to overturn the tendencies of the carnal mind. Furthermore, Rick delivers a clear, scriptural presentation on the biblical definition of spiritual warfare - what it is and what it is not. He stresses, "Your unbroken, ongoing fellowship with God is your absolute guarantee that you are constantly and habitually dressed in the whole armor of God."When you walk with God in deliberate, continual fellowship, He will enrobe you with Himself. Armed with the knowledge of who you are in Him, you will be dressed and dangerous to the works of darkness, unflinching in the face of conflict, and fully equipped to take the offensive and gain mastery over any opposition from your spiritual foe.
432 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 10, 1991
325 people are currently reading
601 people want to read
About the author
Rick Renner
377 books121 followersRick Renner is the author of more than 30 books, including the bestsellers Dressed To Kill and Sparkling Gems From the Greek 1 and 2. His understanding of the Greek language and biblical history opens the Scriptures to enable readers to gain fresh insight from God's Word
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
August 22, 2019
1 star [Theology]
I have a rule about finishing books before writing a review. Thus, I finished this book only to warn the world against self-published authors who claim to be “Greek experts.” Self-published, you ask? The publisher is “a division of Rick Renner Ministries.” Any neutral publisher with one semester of exegetical training would have used the manuscript for toilet paper. I am sorry for the emotional effect this scathing review could evoke, because Renner is a brother in Christ. However, books must be judged on their merits, not on the piety, intentions, or even good missionary work of their authors. Corruption of scholarship is a detriment to Biblical Studies.
Writing: 0.5 stars (Awful)
My Writing category’s 1-star description is “Frustrating,” but that would be too generous in this case. Hyperbole and dumbed-down prose are constant. The book repeats entire paragraphs. It employs exclamation marks and italics like a conspiracy theorist with a free blog. It artificially balloons concordance words into text, ranging from paragraphs to pages long. The book ends at page 463, but if one were to take out every iteration of the words “very,” “extremely,” “always,”—and every other fluffy adjective, adverb, and superfluous phrase typically found in 3rd-grade essays, one might reduce the page count by 100.
Use: 1 star (as an Example of Gaping Holes)
Dressed to Kill is the best example I know of that warps Greek glosses into ill-fit, campy preaching characterized by unnecessary points. The book’s only academic use would be to exemplify exegetical fallacies to the analytical student who—having read an exegetical textbook like Carson or Barr—thought that their examples of fallacies were contrived, or couldn't happen in real life. Renner provides hundreds of them.
Truth: mostly 0.5 (Patently Untrue), with a small amount of 2.5 (Common Knowledge).
Exegetical fallacies riddle nearly every original-language attempt Renner makes. His knowledge of Greek seems wholly imprisoned by The Etymological Fallacy, and dependent upon facile concordances like Strong’s (which is so worthless in real exegesis that I was forbidden to use it in seminary). Apparently, none of his knowledgeable friends or colleagues have directed him to the last 100 years of linguistic theory.
The only bit of this book that rises to the mediocre is his spiritual application. Decent truths exist in some of them, but they are the sort most Christians have heard if they have gone to church more than a handful of years.
Finally, he ends the book by adding a seventh piece of “armor” to the Bible’s six—the lance. He says Paul “clearly” had it in mind, without making any argument for it. He just asserts it a few times over the course of a few pages, then takes it for granted.
Conclusion
I implore you, reader: do not be deceived by glowing reviews of this book written by people who have possibly never even spelled the word “exegesis.” Stay away from the works of original-language gurus who fabricate meaning based upon homiletic expedience. If you receive this book as a gift, truly its best redemption is providing fuel for a winter fire. Even re-gifting it will propagate corruption of the study of Biblical Greek, making it harder for non-scholars to enjoy the beauties and glory of the New Testament.
I have a rule about finishing books before writing a review. Thus, I finished this book only to warn the world against self-published authors who claim to be “Greek experts.” Self-published, you ask? The publisher is “a division of Rick Renner Ministries.” Any neutral publisher with one semester of exegetical training would have used the manuscript for toilet paper. I am sorry for the emotional effect this scathing review could evoke, because Renner is a brother in Christ. However, books must be judged on their merits, not on the piety, intentions, or even good missionary work of their authors. Corruption of scholarship is a detriment to Biblical Studies.
Writing: 0.5 stars (Awful)
My Writing category’s 1-star description is “Frustrating,” but that would be too generous in this case. Hyperbole and dumbed-down prose are constant. The book repeats entire paragraphs. It employs exclamation marks and italics like a conspiracy theorist with a free blog. It artificially balloons concordance words into text, ranging from paragraphs to pages long. The book ends at page 463, but if one were to take out every iteration of the words “very,” “extremely,” “always,”—and every other fluffy adjective, adverb, and superfluous phrase typically found in 3rd-grade essays, one might reduce the page count by 100.
Use: 1 star (as an Example of Gaping Holes)
Dressed to Kill is the best example I know of that warps Greek glosses into ill-fit, campy preaching characterized by unnecessary points. The book’s only academic use would be to exemplify exegetical fallacies to the analytical student who—having read an exegetical textbook like Carson or Barr—thought that their examples of fallacies were contrived, or couldn't happen in real life. Renner provides hundreds of them.
Truth: mostly 0.5 (Patently Untrue), with a small amount of 2.5 (Common Knowledge).
Exegetical fallacies riddle nearly every original-language attempt Renner makes. His knowledge of Greek seems wholly imprisoned by The Etymological Fallacy, and dependent upon facile concordances like Strong’s (which is so worthless in real exegesis that I was forbidden to use it in seminary). Apparently, none of his knowledgeable friends or colleagues have directed him to the last 100 years of linguistic theory.
The only bit of this book that rises to the mediocre is his spiritual application. Decent truths exist in some of them, but they are the sort most Christians have heard if they have gone to church more than a handful of years.
Finally, he ends the book by adding a seventh piece of “armor” to the Bible’s six—the lance. He says Paul “clearly” had it in mind, without making any argument for it. He just asserts it a few times over the course of a few pages, then takes it for granted.
Conclusion
I implore you, reader: do not be deceived by glowing reviews of this book written by people who have possibly never even spelled the word “exegesis.” Stay away from the works of original-language gurus who fabricate meaning based upon homiletic expedience. If you receive this book as a gift, truly its best redemption is providing fuel for a winter fire. Even re-gifting it will propagate corruption of the study of Biblical Greek, making it harder for non-scholars to enjoy the beauties and glory of the New Testament.
August 8, 2011
The Armor of God is an intriguing section of Ephesians. And while I appreciate the work and research that Renner put into this project, I can't really get behind it. The research for the armor itself is lacking, but what saves it is the full color inserts in the middle of the book. The historical armor is intriguing, but Renner's description of it is not entirely helpful. This is more of a survey/basic read and I actually found more historical information in the children's section of my local library. I bought this book because the cover was awesome and I used that to teach a series on this subject to my students. The pictures saved this purchase. It is very heavy on faith theology. At times it can be painfully redundant. And on more than one occasion I noticed creative liberty taking precedence over credible research (like when Renner goes so far as to add a piece of armor not found in Ephesians chapter 6). This book walks a fine line for me and wasn't exactly what I expected. It did give me some helpful insights and thoughts, but it's not one I would recommend to my family or my students.
January 7, 2014
By far, the most complete book on spiritual warfare I've read!!
November 6, 2017
This book is an incredible reference to the Roman soldier's uniform in New Testament times. And the author's discussion of the Greek terms and their meanings is tremendously helpful to visualizing and understanding what the apostle Paul meant when he describes the armor of God in Ephesians 6. I truly learned a lot without feeling talked down to or inadequate in any way.
That being said, I struggled with a few things in the book. First, the author makes quite a few absolute statements that require more thinking on my part--not that I won't agree with him, but I'm not convinced he's completely correct either. And a few of those statements are more supposition, so I'm not entirely sure anyone from the modern age can know for sure. Additionally, he is very repetitive, and at times wordy, going into far more explanation than is necessary. This became somewhat annoying, and I found myself skimming sections of most of the chapters. And once or twice, he skimmed over a critical detail without much discussion, which I think has caused some of the confusion in a few of the reviews I read of this book (like he declares the belt of truth is the written word of God while the sword of the Spirit is the spoken word of God).
This is a fantastic book for anyone who wants to better understand spiritual armor but should not be read (like all books) without carefully considering what's being presented. It's suitable for most audiences who can handle academic discussions of weapons and modes of war.
That being said, I struggled with a few things in the book. First, the author makes quite a few absolute statements that require more thinking on my part--not that I won't agree with him, but I'm not convinced he's completely correct either. And a few of those statements are more supposition, so I'm not entirely sure anyone from the modern age can know for sure. Additionally, he is very repetitive, and at times wordy, going into far more explanation than is necessary. This became somewhat annoying, and I found myself skimming sections of most of the chapters. And once or twice, he skimmed over a critical detail without much discussion, which I think has caused some of the confusion in a few of the reviews I read of this book (like he declares the belt of truth is the written word of God while the sword of the Spirit is the spoken word of God).
This is a fantastic book for anyone who wants to better understand spiritual armor but should not be read (like all books) without carefully considering what's being presented. It's suitable for most audiences who can handle academic discussions of weapons and modes of war.
October 21, 2023
The best book on spiritual warfare to date!
May 27, 2024
Some good information but the redundancy made it difficult to read. Making this 200 pages would have been a big first step to improving book.
I was not comfortable with the assumption that Paul “meant” to add the lance to the list of spiritual armor in Ephesians 6. “Do not add or take away from scripture”. The author could have easily added the lance of prayer from his own point of view without making sound like the Holy Spirit forgot to add this piece of weaponry while Paul was writing the letter. After all, Renner stresses the Holy Spirit’s roll in the writing of scripture many times.
I can’t comment on all the original Greek translations and what they “actually” mean having no education or experience is that area. Renner seems to do this a lot in his books. I find myself on guard and hesitant being at the mercy of his translation.
I was not comfortable with the assumption that Paul “meant” to add the lance to the list of spiritual armor in Ephesians 6. “Do not add or take away from scripture”. The author could have easily added the lance of prayer from his own point of view without making sound like the Holy Spirit forgot to add this piece of weaponry while Paul was writing the letter. After all, Renner stresses the Holy Spirit’s roll in the writing of scripture many times.
I can’t comment on all the original Greek translations and what they “actually” mean having no education or experience is that area. Renner seems to do this a lot in his books. I find myself on guard and hesitant being at the mercy of his translation.
July 4, 2013
One of the most balanced book on spiritual warfare I've read. The armor section with full color pics was a huge plus!! He takes each piece of the armor and gives not only the historical background but also the spiritual implications of each. It was definitely a game changer!!
September 29, 2007
I found this author to be up there with Derek Prince on balancing depth of material with simple execution. So although this book is rich with information, it is an easy read.
February 12, 2023
I have never been so happy to finish a book. And, to be honest, the only reason I finished was because it was recommended by someone I respect and I was to far in to dnf. I don’t know if this author was given a specific word count or page count he had to meet but apparently there was something. This book could’ve been half the length. The amount of repetition was ridiculous. And, again in all honesty, I’m questioning a bit of his doctrine and theology. I’m sure some of that is just denomination differences. But seriously - skip it. I am sure there are much better books written ok this topic
February 11, 2021
This is a powerful and comprehensive study. Rick Renner clarifies the analogy between a Roman soldier's armor and "the full armor of God" we are to put on daily. The Apostle Paul knew both well. The author's knowledge of the origin and meaning of the original language and text lends further insights and understanding. Spiritual battles are real. God has given us the armor we need, but we must put it on daily. The author guides Believers in doing so with steadfast faith.
November 28, 2021
First of all, ANY book by Rick Renner is awesome. You always dive deep into the scriptures, studying word by word. This book is about spiritual warfare. The Roman armor is compared to our spiritual life. We learn of mistakes we may be making, how we can be strong, how we can improve. It is very valuable reading.
February 5, 2023
Fantastic book on the truth of spiritual warfare! It is not demon focused, it is Christ focused. I learn so much about spiritual warfare from this book compared what I had read in the past. If you’re going to read any books of Rick Renner this one is a must. He’s a grace gifted teacher of the Bible and I would recommend any of f them to you.
March 2, 2019
As a writer and lover of words, I especially enjoy diving into the original Greek of Ephesians 6:10-18. This is an amazing book that will bring you a deeper understanding of your spiritual armor. I consider this a must read for every Christian.
April 8, 2019
Very enlightening!!!!
What a blessing!!!! Rick Renner does such a excellent job on very important subject. I recommend this book to all Christians as they live out their lives following Christ here !!!!!!
What a blessing!!!! Rick Renner does such a excellent job on very important subject. I recommend this book to all Christians as they live out their lives following Christ here !!!!!!
March 18, 2023
A Study of Roman Armor
Taken from Paul’s viewpoint on the armor of a first century, Roman soldier. It is an excellent study in Greek, and in the weaponry and armor of first century Romans as it relates to Paul’s, command to put on the full armor of God.
Taken from Paul’s viewpoint on the armor of a first century, Roman soldier. It is an excellent study in Greek, and in the weaponry and armor of first century Romans as it relates to Paul’s, command to put on the full armor of God.
October 5, 2023
The author puts things in a manner that is historically and biblically correct. The best book I have ever read on the armor of God. I am going to read it again because there is too much good stuff to absorb in one reading. Highly recommend if you are wanting to strengthen your faith and beliefs.
May 3, 2018
Go to book for fortifying your spiritual walk. You will want to read this book periodically to keep your mind and spirit aware of the tricks and schemes of the devil.
August 6, 2018
It looks long and daunting at first glance, but once I started I found it easy to finish. Renner is such an amazing teacher, and this book does not disappoint.
January 16, 2019
Battle of the Mind
The greatest battle in life is the one of the mind. We have to walk in faith. Great explanation about the armor of God
The greatest battle in life is the one of the mind. We have to walk in faith. Great explanation about the armor of God
January 20, 2020
Battlefield preparation
Great education for those before they step onto the battlefield. The breaking down of the pieces of the armor with references of both OT and NT is good.
Great education for those before they step onto the battlefield. The breaking down of the pieces of the armor with references of both OT and NT is good.
March 25, 2020
This was an interesting book, but probably needed to be at least a third shorter. There was a lot of filler material, but it was a pretty quick and interesting read.
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May 26, 2020Love it!
Very enlightening! May even read it again. It really made me look deep into my self, and change the things that I need to change.
Very enlightening! May even read it again. It really made me look deep into my self, and change the things that I need to change.
August 25, 2020
I have read this book many times and used it when I taught women's study groups. I don't even remember how long I have had it. I was the first Rick Renner book I bought.
August 18, 2021
This is a great read! The depth and breadth of the authors approach to spiritual warfare helps the reader to understand and apply his or her ability to fight in the spiritual realm.
May 25, 2022
Perhaps the most thorough Bible based explaination of what the armor if God is, how to properly prepare for and carry it along with using it.
January 2, 2023
Practicality of the lessons here is life changing. So glad I read this.
January 6, 2024
I used this as a reference/commentary while preaching on The Armor for God. This book is very informative and easy to understand.
December 16, 2021
A Solid, mature and Bible centric study on how be equipped with the armor of God, according to the Word.
Although I found some aspects of the editing to be frustrating like the bold highlights that would repeat some phrases that you just read, the way Rick Renner brought understanding with the Greek language contexts and the way it was historically used when Paul wrote his letters was a key factor to truly understand what the writer truly meant, with all the nuances and background each word carries.
Overall, an amazing addition to any Christian's bookshelf, an outstanding and enlightening book that will, in fact, transform your life.
Although I found some aspects of the editing to be frustrating like the bold highlights that would repeat some phrases that you just read, the way Rick Renner brought understanding with the Greek language contexts and the way it was historically used when Paul wrote his letters was a key factor to truly understand what the writer truly meant, with all the nuances and background each word carries.
Overall, an amazing addition to any Christian's bookshelf, an outstanding and enlightening book that will, in fact, transform your life.
May 13, 2022
While I differ from Rick Renner is some theological beliefs, or preferences, this book undoubtedly provides useful practical advice regarding spiritual warfare, pairing practical spiritual concepts with the popular armor set of Rome (possibly what Paul used as inspiration as the Holy Spirit worked through him in his "Armor of God" writings).
This connection made it easier for me to internalize and memorize truths I've read all my life in a practical way. I believe there is a tricky line theologians face as they draw inspiration from the Word of God, and Rick Renner walks the line very well. Even years after reading, some of the things in this book will come to mind when face with various challenges or when counseling others.
As a young man I heard about the Shield of Faith, but Rick Renner expounds upon these shields by explaining that the (non-ceremonial) shields in Paul's day were large enough to cover the whole body. This gave newfound insight in my daily walk with the Lord, and in troubling times when I have no answers, I think of a massive shield wall, linked with other believers, covering my whole body. I don't need the answers when I have the Shield, I am protected.
This just scratches the surface of some of the interesting topics discussed in this book, and I definitely recommend it to anyone trying to bolster their spiritual defenses or strengthen their spiritual discipline.
This connection made it easier for me to internalize and memorize truths I've read all my life in a practical way. I believe there is a tricky line theologians face as they draw inspiration from the Word of God, and Rick Renner walks the line very well. Even years after reading, some of the things in this book will come to mind when face with various challenges or when counseling others.
As a young man I heard about the Shield of Faith, but Rick Renner expounds upon these shields by explaining that the (non-ceremonial) shields in Paul's day were large enough to cover the whole body. This gave newfound insight in my daily walk with the Lord, and in troubling times when I have no answers, I think of a massive shield wall, linked with other believers, covering my whole body. I don't need the answers when I have the Shield, I am protected.
This just scratches the surface of some of the interesting topics discussed in this book, and I definitely recommend it to anyone trying to bolster their spiritual defenses or strengthen their spiritual discipline.
May 19, 2023
Wonderful book with practical and scriptural tools. I felt that Dr Renner explained and outlined things in such a simplistic yet fascinatingly interesting way. I really enjoyed the research component of original text and meaning of the wording in the verses and that helped highlight all new insight and understanding for me! Wonderful book- would highly recommend to all.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews