Words: 612
Time to read: 3 minutes
We are living in days when you need to have your biblical position figured out. You don’t have to be a theologian. But you do have to know your position. You don’t have to be a martyr, but you do need to know that you’d die for your beliefs. Our society is so half-baked in its positions in every domain of life that we’ve allowed that to infiltrate our thinking and become pervasive in how we view the world.
No one has to agree with me 100%. I am often wrong and need to allow God’s Word to correct me. I don’t even have to align 100% with someone to have fellowship, but increasingly so in our churches, we are combating influences that come from outside. I don’t want to control every person in the church I pastor; however, as the pastor, I have been given a directive to contend for sound, biblical doctrine. More and more, that mandate is put to the test and even castigated.
Men and movements come and go. What is irrevocably important is God’s Word and His heart for humanity. The hot-button issues today will likely not be the same in another 10-15 years. But there will be something. I recently read an enlightening book on ecclesiastical separation that helped solidify this very truth. The names and faces will be different, but the issues never change.
Infallibility of God’s Word.
Authority of the local church.
Separation from this world and unto God.
The preeminence of Christ in all that we say and do.
These are just a few examples. There are countless other battles. Not one is unimportant. The issue is never with today’s compromises. The issue is always where that compromise leads. Ministries may still be going forward. Men may still have the appearance of useful service to the King. And perhaps it is even useful and fit. The damage done is simply in the undermining of truth for the next generation. Its deleterious effect is that the future generation does not have a certain sound to go forth to battle.
Satan is the master liar. It’s the only trick in his kit. And he really doesn’t need anything else since he is still so effective. Paul warned the Corinthian church that we are not ignorant of his devices, and yet somehow in many of our modern churches, not only are we ignorant of his devices but actively using and even promoting them within the walls of the local church. The greatest lies that Satan can sell are those that do nothing to denigrate the apparent usefulness of Christ’s church but erode the moorings of holiness and zeal that ought to stir the hearts of every Christian. When we attempt to contextualize the message of the Criss through adaptation to cultural norms, we are succumbing to the lie that the Gospel cannot be effective without our help. We must radically reject any attempts to dumb or water down pure, biblical doctrine regardless of what front they appear on or how useful it may present itself to be.
We will stand before Christ and give an accounting of our life in Him. In that moment we all will be corrected for many errors, sins, and attitudes that wrought the work of the Spirit ineffective or unfruitful in and through our lives. What shame and embarrassment! Forget what I think is right and wrong. Forget what another Christian leader thought or did. Looking at the eternally high cost of Calvary can we really be satisfied with the cheap vanities and passing pleasures that we so readily indulged in exchange for a brief moment of man’s platitudes and popularity?