Lies – Putting out Fires
You’ve heard about the Noah movie, with all its inaccuracies and the complete misrepresentation of both God and Noah.
You’ve probably heard about the “Jesus’ wife” fragment, that single tiny writing from hundreds of years after Jesus walked the earth that people are trying to use as evidence that the “real” Jesus was different than the Jesus we read about in the Gospels accounts.
You might have read about the upcoming Fox show that will document the years between Jesus’ visit to the temple at 12 and the beginning of His ministry at 30. They’ll be examining the “coming of age” of the Son of God as He discovers that He is God’s Son and finds out what His mission is, despite the fact that there is absolutely zero documentation as to what happened in those years.
You know about the parade of “prehistoric” ancestor cave men that seems to receive a new addition every few years, despite the fact that every single one of them has been a blatant forgery.
You might have even heard of the big challenge in the world of “Christendom” that has just been released – “God and the Gay Christian.” The book looks at the six most prominent Scriptures on homosexuality and explains why they don’t really mean that homosexuality is sinful. Of course, the arguments can be easily refuted – particularly the one where the author argues that homosexuality may be an abomination, but that doesn’t mean it’s sinful – but the importance of the book is that it signals a long-developing shift in the religious world to merge Christianity with the largest anti-biblical issue in the world right now.
Though all of these challenges to the faith come from different angles, they all share one factor in common; they’re absolutely baseless, making each incredibly easy to refute. But that’s not the point. The Bible calls Satan the father of lies (John 8:44), and he’s been lying since the very beginning in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). None of his tactics have changed. The whole point is simply to throw out enough false information and enough misguided belief systems to lead astray any who aren’t diligently seeking truth. Not everyone is going to believe every lie, but if a few people are picked off with each new mistruth the job is done.
When we visualize this discussion as what it really is in a metaphorical sense – Satan setting fires that we have to continue to work hard to douse – we see that the church is in a frightening position. We’re on defense. You don’t have to watch sports or be a military strategist to know that constantly being on defense is a bad thing. When you’re constantly fighting the lies put out by the enemy, it makes it that much harder to spread the truth on God’s terms. It’s time we stop playing defense. The Bible does not speak of the truth in terms of using it for defense, to simply hold the ground we already had. A proper worldview based on the Scriptures is one that realizes that this world belongs to God and it’s our job to win as much of it for Him as we can. Words like “Go,” “make disciples” “baptize” “teach” “preach” are not symbolic of playing defense or putting out fires.
2 Corinthians 10:4-5 talks about both defending the truth and going on offense to win our spiritual war. “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” Yes, we’re suppose to cast down arguments and everything that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, but we’re also supposed to go forward, tearing down strongholds and taking every thought captive to Christ. The church can’t afford to keep playing defense and holding the territory we’ve already earned. We must engage the culture, take God’s truth into the world, and stop thinking of ourselves as a small minority trying to weather a storm of postmodernism and secular humanism. Where’s our faith? God is on our side, and He goes into battle with us just as He did with Joshua and the armies of Israel. Be strong and courageous!