Quick! Put on you armor….your shield of faith, helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness, and the sword of the Spirit.
Run out to the battle lines and pick your side!
Are you part of the Emergenites or the Reformers?!?! For you must pick a side!!! You must enter into the battle!!! Otherwise you will be quickly disposed of by both sides.
How to pick a side? Simple:
1. Pick your favorite pastor(s) and see which side they are on and run to their defense. Sometimes you may have to look further into the battle lines, for your pastor may be sharpening their sword behind the great Reformer warriors like MacArthur, Piper, Packer, Carson, Sproul, Keller or Driscoll. Or maybe they are strapping on their shields behind the powerful Emergenite soldiers like Bell, MacManus, Kimball, Pagitt, McLaren, Claiborne or Hybels.
2. If you can’t find your pastor, then you may have resort to other means to pick your side. Run over to the computer and sift through the endless blogs (which much like Wikipedia is the best and most accurate way to find out actual facts)
3. Still can’t decide? Quickly run to your local Christian bookstore and grab the best selling books by the Reformers or the Emergenites. If you can grab the books that point out all the weaknesses of the other side, the ones that explain and accuse the other side of heresy or conformity.
At this point you should be able to pick your side and take your place. Preparing for battle – by learning from the hearsay of your fellow combatants why the other side is false, why war must be waged and how you can defend your side by aggressively attacking the other side. After all we must defend ourselves from the enemy, and the enemy is clearly those in the Christian faith who are on the other side. This has been building for years with so many different names…The great Armenian Calvinist Wars, the Battle for Health and Wealth at Fundamentalist Beach, Instrumental War I & II. No matter what the name of the battle it is vitally important that every Christian both new and old pick a side so that we can weed out the false soldiers from the real ones.
And all the while, up on the hillside Satan and his army wait…rallying up their troops. Laughing at the battle below. Pillaging and plundering back in our hometowns. Destroying the beauty of the gardens. Ravaging our children – taking them captive, training them to rise up against us, showing them the Christian war – calling us fools. And they do this with little resistance for we wage war against each other.
How much do we truly care about the Gospel?
Do we really believe in God’s transforming power even if we don’t understand everything about Him?
Are we able to see that we are all part of the body, some created by God for His Kingdom more intellectually driven towards theology and evangelism and some created more servant driven towards discipleship and compassion?
Will we ever get to know that Jesus’ His sacrifice (both on the cross and in His incarnation)was far greater than we can ever comprehend?
This is to Christians everywhere…no matter what denomination or theological understanding…no matter what Church you attend or what it’s mission statement is…no matter what translation you read or what state or country your in…please, stop fighting.
Please love one another.
Although you may not see eye to eye on everything, please stop with the battling and hatred.
As we celebrate Good Friday and Easter, the culmination of the glorious life of Jesus, and a reminder of His unimaginable death, please stop and love one another as Christ loved us.
Prepare yourself for battle for the war is waging, but turn your eyes towards the hill and focus on the real enemy.
In the name of Jesus Christ… Please
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Christian, Emergent, Jesus, Reformed, War
“…no matter what denomination…? Question. How are we justified. All Christians would say, by grace, through faith, in Christ.
Not all denoms would confess that. Even if they confess to be Christian.
A large part of the armor is to, “Not be deceived by every wind of doctrine.” Being that there are many that claim to be preaching the truth. It would be so nice to be able to go into any “church” and listen and not worry about using our minds. But we have to listen and measure everything to what God’s word has to say about any, topic preached.
Stay true to the text and preach only from the text…that will force you to answer the tough questions that most are unwilling to answer or preach about. James 3:1.
Wise