Someone once told me, \u201cGod doesn\u2019t need anyone to defend Him.\u201d\u00a0 My reply was, \u201cThen why does He send prophets?\u201d<\/p>\n
The truth is that God does not need anyone to defend Him, but it is His will that we promote and defend truth, which necessitates exposing error and heresy.\u00a0 However, many professing Christians have been conditioned to believe that when heresy or misrepresentation of God\u2019s word is put forth, they should remain silent.\u00a0 This is because truth is considered a contentious trouble-maker in the world of information.\u00a0 That is true in the religious and secular realms.\u00a0 Thus, one who insists on truth having \u201cthe same right to be heard as error\u201d is perceived as a bully.\u00a0 In the secular realm, he or she could be accused of hate speech.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t help that in nearly every case of a clash between truth and heresy, at the end of the exchange the proponent of heresy plays the victim.<\/p>\n
Rather than be considered mean-spirited and unChrist-like, most professing Christians are allowing heresy and other error unopposed access to Christianity.\u00a0 Heretics can now spout their falsehoods, New Age mixture, Freudian concepts, humanist philosophy, and other error, without much more than the rattling of chains from the people who know better. As a result, it is becoming increasingly difficult to defend and promote truth in this nation today.<\/p>\n
The encroachment by the secular culture aside, a steady stream of rancid heresy flows unabated into Christianity.\u00a0 Relatively few Christians oppose this diabolical flow.\u00a0 They have been intimidated into remaining silent.\u00a0 They believe they must walk on eggshells to even mildly challenge error.\u00a0 Anything they say in opposition to heresy becomes a bone of contention.\u00a0 In most cases, they shut their mouths, back down, apologize, and otherwise grovel to keep peace.\u00a0 They stand by silently while those refusing to compromise endure derision and reprimand.<\/p>\n
Here is a short list of don\u2019ts:<\/p>\n
There is an unwritten \u201cBill of Rights\u201d for the deceived and heretics, with truth as its main enemy. \u00a0Heretics or deceived people promoting a heresy insist no one has the right to challenge them.\u00a0 They insist, \u201cI have the right to believe what I wish.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s true.\u00a0 They may certainly believe it, but do not have the right to promote it.\u00a0 The moment they do, every true Christian has the right and duty to challenge it.\u00a0 Truth absolutely has just as much right to be heard as error.<\/p>\n
The question is, are true Christians going to submit to this chicanery and allow heresy to enter and spread unchallenged?\u00a0 Have we now reached the point where we care more about what people think about us than about defending God\u2019s truth?\u00a0 Are we so fearful of being accused and perceived as mean-spirited individuals that we timidly protest the assault on truth, coddle the heretic, magnanimously give the heresy a pass, and with quavering obsequiousness offer a \u201cpossibly, maybe, if you please, respectfully differ, may I suggest, no offense intended,\u201d presentation of diluted, weak, pusillanimous, and blurred truth?<\/p>\n
My detractors, professing Christians who actually claim to love truth, would insist that one must use diplomacy when defending truth or opposing heresy.\u00a0 What they actually mean is, it is wrong (even very wrong) to offend a deceived individual or a heretic.\u00a0 Really?\u00a0 Are not the presentation and insistence of heresy an offense to a true Christian?\u00a0 Introduction of heresy is in fact an attack on Christianity and Christians in particular.\u00a0 It is also an attack on God and the Savior and Lord Jesus Christ whom we profess to love with all our hearts.<\/p>\n
The fact is, we can’t avoid offending someone if we present truth clearly and completely.\u00a0 Clearly presenting truth is to challenge the heresy, heretic, and deceived individual.<\/p>\n
The presentation of truth necessitates the exposition of error; it involves delineating the components of the heresy clearly.\u00a0 Since heresy involves the behavior of people, the person will fall under the same spotlight of truth as the heresy.\u00a0 This is and always has been the issue.\u00a0 How does one expose heresy without offending people?\u00a0 It is near impossible.\u00a0 If you are going to expose heresy, you are going to offend, anger, and eventually they will play the victim.\u00a0 You may as well be prepared for that to occur.\u00a0 If you are unwilling to face the consequences of defending truth, you will allow heresy unopposed access and range.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Someone once told me, \u201cGod doesn\u2019t need anyone to defend Him.\u201d\u00a0 My reply was, \u201cThen why does He send prophets?\u201d The truth is that God does not need anyone to defend Him, but it is His will that we promote and defend truth, which necessitates exposing error and heresy.\u00a0 However, many professing Christians have been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paIm2N-dD","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=845"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":846,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845\/revisions\/846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truthkeepers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}