The Fight Not Seen
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:11-12
There were more shootings in Atlanta, GA yesterday. Several of them were caught on cell phones. A stabbing happened too. In Austin, TX, a shooting happened. This morning, in Alabama, someone opened fire at a water plant.
The Southern Baptist Convention is meeting this week. The participants overwhelmingly agree on everything. But they disagree on how to engage. Those who have spoken out on critical race theory, but have not beat their chests on it, are perceived as being suspect. Others have made denouncing the second-order things way more important than advancing the first-order things. Men who have spent their lives dedicated to biblical fidelity, biblical inerrancy, and God’s truth are being attacked as weak, spineless, or closet liberals because they are not angry, screaming, and railing against hot button issues. Performance now outweighs commitment because a commitment to truth without theater is suspect.
Across the nation, every effort is being made to divide people along racial lines and spark interracial strife. White people are now told they are European Americans and colonializing oppressors unless they declare their allyship and surrender all they’ve worked for in the name of others. Black people are told they are always oppressed and if they deny it, they’re told they are feeling the effects of white oppression. Hispanic people are being subdivided into black and white classes. Asian people are punished for their successes, mocked for their family structures, and also told they too are oppressed, but also the oppressor.
Children are being indoctrinated into transgenderism. Normalcy is becoming bad and deviancy must be embraced. The mental health issue of gender dysphoria is mainstreamed and normalized. A man can become a woman at will while our sexual preferences are defined at birth.
The world appears to have gone mad.
Really, we are dealing with spiritual warfare. The secular world does not have language for it; cannot grapple with it; and seeks to reconcile and compartmentalize things when really Satan is off his chain. The fight we have right now is a fight the church is best equipped to lead. But have you noticed what is happening to churches?
The church itself is bogged down in secular fights. Congregations are squabbling internally over political fights. Pastors who recognize the need for racial reconciliation are labeled liberal. Churchgoers can read Revelation and Jesus’s letters to the churches and still reject the idea of corporate sin declaring themselves not responsible, therefore the church is not.
In some congregations, fidelity to Donald Trump is more important than faithfulness to Jesus Christ because some in the church presume fidelity to Trump automatically means one is faithful to Jesus, but faithfulness to Jesus can still make one suspect on the cultural issues of the day.
Satan is running through churches. The spiritual fight is here. Those of you who do not believe, you will one day — every knee will bow one day. For today, however, I can only tell those of you in the church that your commitment to the truth of Christ is now more important than ever. You cannot hide from the world. You must engage the world — the Great Commission demands it.
But how you engage the world matters. You must engage with love and you must love your neighbor — even the Democrats, the gay, the transgendered, the woke, and the skeptic. You must seek the welfare of your community and pray for it. By that, scripture really means to seek the welfare of your loal community and not the welfare of your nation. Seek the welfare of that town and county in which you live this very moment. You will find your welfare there.
Stop fretting about Washington so much unless you live there. Washington will not fix the current problems we grapple with. You will at your local level through prayer, community engagement, and the church.
The church must rise. Satan is keeping you divided. Take each other’s word. Give each room to disagree on matters not essential to salvation. Preach and teach the gospel. Engage your community. The fight we are so clearly in is not a political fight. It is a fight for souls. So stop treating it as a political fight.
Thank you young man - tell it, as they say, and keep tellin it
A number of years ago our own PCA denomination had a massive battle at General Assembly that divided forces on each side. Was it on homosexuality, ordaining women, or maybe it was on racial issues? Nope, it was on intinction. For those that don't know the word it the process used during communion of dipping the bread into the juice/wine and then consuming both together. For some, this was heresy!! They must be separate elements. I had the picture in my mind of the anti-intinction side wearing Tshirts that proclaimed "Think before you intinct!!!" So, in midst of so many issues within and outside the church, this is what they wasted time on. The church has lost its focus.
Yesterday I learned that if you consider yourself an Evangelical Christian, you know must put yourself into one of the four subsets defined in many ways by your politics. The central idea of Salvation through Jesus Christ is no longer a joining principle, you have to find your place in the new hierarchy. The church has allowed the leaven of this world to become mingled throughout and it has corrupted us.
Erick nails it and honestly, it is due to our taking our eyes off the fundamentals. Good coaches know at all levels when you get away from solid fundamentals, you suffer. It's time for churches to get back to preaching the central message of the cross that grafts all believers into one family. As depression and anxiety explode from the constant barrage of doom and gloom, what better time to put our feet to our faith to care for our neighbors and community with the love of Christ.