United to defeat the enemy, but…

Christianity is under an unprecedented attack in this final period before the Coming of the Lord Jesus.  The enemy that opposed righteousness from the outside has now entered Christianity and is entrenched in positions of leadership.  It appears that each week brings news of further decadence and degradation in once doctrinally sound denominations.  Popular and influential Christian leaders are compromising and apostatizing.  What would have once been considered rank heresy is being accepted while biblical doctrine is being altered or rejected.  Pagans, witches, eastern gurus, and the like are being honored and given unprecedented access to pulpits and podiums at conferences.

To combat this great invasion of wickedness, a number of Christian organizations have focused their efforts on exposing the evil and warning the masses.  In that endeavor, they are united.  They share each others articles and news.  All though they were once at odds over doctrine, there appears to be very little contention between them.  However, that unity is fragile and most certainly is not organized into any true cohesiveness.  Visit any Christian forum, blog, or Facebook page where open discussion about doctrine is allowed and it’s a different story.  One will find much conflict.  It has been that way since the advent of internet chat.

The fact is that as long as they all perceive the greater danger to Christianity and are focused on opposing it, they will not attack each other.  Therefore, it is a tenuous peace at best.  One hint of difference in doctrine, and the attack mode will kick in.  The outflow will be the result of decades of finely honed skills at goading the opponent and making him or her appear wrong or foolish.

An example is a recent experience of trying to have an honest and cordial dialogue with an individual about his doctrine.  I was dismayed that he immediately chose ad hominem over a cordial and honest discourse.  He cleverly steered the conversation into an argument over semantics, and arrogantly concluded that I was somehow a deceived, mean-spirited, and unintelligent lesser saint.  As I prayed and reflected on the caustic and condescending nature of his responses, I realized that he was writing material for his website.  He had no intention of committing to honest dialogue.  I walked into his snare and he probably thanked God for the gift.  I could have answered his last email point by point, but it would not have accomplished anything good.  Everyone who read the exchange with an open mind would clearly recognize his motive.  However, the ones that follow his leadership would just become angry.  At some point, especially when it becomes obvious that contention lies ahead in the road, one must walk away to preserve peace.

Further, I have been observing John MacArthur’s “Strange Fire Conference” and the responses to it.  Although I might agree with MacArthur on some points, I have to disagree with the spirit of his presentation and broad-brush condemnation of a vast number of Christians.  I firmly disagree with his timing in launching an attack against the Charismatic/Pentecostal Movements.   From reading his responses, he believes that “shooting into the crowd” is a good approach to get the bad guys.  The consequence of collateral damage to innocent people appears to be okay with MacArthur, à la “Que Sera, Sera”.  He probably believes he was in God’s will, but the fruit indicates that he was probably in the flesh.

I came to the realization that Christianity is held together by a very thin and elastic bond.  Although at the present a number of professing Christians are united in defeating the enemy, they will not pass up the opportunity to again war with each other.  They pull away over a single point of doctrine and then snap back in unity to fight gay marriage.  Often they break the bond completely with bridge-burning rancor and contempt. Consequently, they only fight the darkness with people who completely agree with them.

I firmly believe that if somehow we were able to eject Contemplative Spirituality, the Emergent Church, the neo-paganism, New Age Movement, and all the other heresy and heretics thus involved, we would simply go back to arguing over what divides us.  After 35 years of ministry, pastoring and pioneering over a half dozen churches, and 20 years on the Internet, I have concluded that many Christians love conflict.  The adrenalin rush, with the sensation of being in a “crusade” from God, is most intoxicating.  The most amazing fact is that each person involved in conflict with another Christian believes that he or she can wash off the insidious nature of their actions by quoting a few verses to cover their behavior, and of course stating the tired old adage, “Just speaking the truth in love.”  Some of the most hateful emails I have received were signed, “with much love”.

Of course true Christians are going to disagree.  However, when our disagreement turns to cheap debate tricks, cheap shots, and disintegrates into a childish “tit-for-tat”, there is absolutely no chance of any fruitful and blessed conclusion.  One of the most insidious tricks is to parse the words of an opponent, take them out of context, and form straw man arguments around them.  Another trick is to presume a person’s intent when it is not clearly stated.  However, the most disgusting trick is that before one commits an offense, he or she accuses the opponent of the same offense.  A variation is the charlatan commits the offense, and their opponent complains and delineates what they did, and the charlatan accuses them of the same offense.  They may go a step further and accuse their opponent of pretending to be a victim.  This is the way trolls operate.  Many of us have experienced Internet trolls that visit our blogs and Facebook pages for the express purpose of creating conflict.  Trolls are very skilled at avoiding valid points and goading people into angry responses.  When those tactics occur in a discussion between two professing Christians, strife and division are the inevitable result.

The fact is that no matter what degree of truth that one may possess, he or she is not allowed to declare it without immediate attacks from other Christians who do not hold the same belief.  We cannot swallow our pride, deflate our large egos, and simply walk away from obvious hopelessly irresolvable conflicts.  We cannot approach with true agape love our fellow believers that hold opposite nonessential doctrinal views.  Instead of love, we approach them with ulterior motives or malice thinly disguised as “love” and verbal goads disguised as “correction sent from heaven”.  I’m not referring to discourse with diabolical and dangerous heretics, but Christians with whom we will unite to defeat heresy dangerous to the Body as a whole.  We simply cannot accept those heretics (Emergent, pagan, New Age, etc.) after they declare their belief systems because their heresy will condemn souls to eternal darkness.

Therefore, Christians are never going to become united in grace and love.  Instead, a multitude of satanically anointed deceivers will unite a huge section of professing Christians and merge them with pagans and the adherents of false religions into a global religion.  The rest of Christianity will languish in division and weakness as Satan roams about  unhindered to molest the weak and unlearned.

Presently, we are not united to defeat the satanic enemy because we cannot tolerate the “stench” of what divides us.  Perhaps, just perhaps, if we are imprisoned, or are facing a trip to the gallows together, maybe then we will chose another topic except if speaking in tongues is of the devil, or if disbelieving the pretribulation rapture qualifies one as a heretic unworthy to be caught up when Christ appears. If it takes the unity of a foxhole to make us fight like we are in the same army, then maybe we need persecution.