A World at War

Perhaps the greatest blindness of the modern church is its failure to understand that the world is at war–against the church. This war pits the church as a combatant against its opponent–or enemy–the unbelievers in the world.

In fact, the war is an effort by the unbelieving world to usurp God’s rule; in other words, to “be like God.” The usurpers are led by their king, Satan, while the church is led by its King, Jesus.

Many in the church fail to recognize the war we are in because they fail to understand the biblical and historical evidence our King Jesus has given us of the attempts of fallen man to overthrow Him:

• Adam and Eve changed their allegiance from God to Satan
• Cain killed Abel, the seeming heir of the promise of redemption
• The Nephilim led a revolt of the world against God
• The world sought “make a name for [them]selves,” rather than for God, at Babel
• Egypt sought to oppress and destroy God’s chosen subjects
• Philistia stole God’s throne, the ark of the covenant
• Israel rejected God as their King and whored after other gods
• Israel killed God’s prophets and made an abomination of the temple, a House built for God’s name, and His throne room
• Assyria destroyed God’s House and His throne
• Jerusalem rejected God’s Crown Prince, Jesus, who was to rule over them as their King
• Jerusalem killed New Testament saints and prophets, i.e., the church and soldiers in God’s judgment against Jerusalem and the world
• Rome killed the saints of the church
• Islam throughout its history has persecuted and killed saints
• Unbelievers in the church have persecuted and killed saints

Despite this history, it seems that many in the church expect us to believe that this war is all in the past. Or that we need only wage this war against ISIS, Chinese Communists, and openly hostile atheists. But we should certainly not treat unbelievers in our midst as the enemy.

Instead, we are to treat unbelievers as neutral, third party observers. As such, we are to use seeker-friendly worship, preaching of the social gospel, or just plain niceness to somehow convince them to join our cause.

But this isn’t how the battle is to be fought. Doug Wilson offers his view on how this war is to be fought–and won:

Holiness, for example, is not a tangle of scruples. Holiness is not pettiness. And, at the base, holiness is never timidity or cowardice. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Holiness is not what is so often done in the name of the kingdom—behaving in such a way as to ensure that we will never come into conflict with the principalities and powers.

What was God about when He called forth a holy people, and caused them to remain in an unholy world? What did He intend by this? What was His purpose? The answer is not long in coming. He intended a conflict, a war. Moreover, He intended that His people, His holy people, would win this war, would overcome in this conflict. He intended that we would triumph, but not through the use of carnal weapons. Rather, He intended for us to use the weapons that He issued to us. He intended for us to wage war in our worship, in our liturgy, in the godliness of our families, in our love for one another, in our Sabbath celebrations, in our psalm-singing, in our communion with all the saints, and in our laughter.

Similarly, our King Jesus has explained to us how we are to conduct this war:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19–20 ESV)

He has also explained to us why we should serve Him in this war: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me;” and why we we are going to win this war: “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Now, these particular words of Jesus may not sound very warlike. But when we consider that Jesus had to die to bring success from our Great Commission work, that puts a different spin on things. Paul explains why death is necessary in this war:

None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Paul is talking about unbelievers–after Jesus died. Perhaps one of the main reasons Christians don’t want to think about unbelievers like this is that we were once unbelievers, and we don’t want to believe we were actually that bad. But we were.

Christians, we must gird ourselves for war. We must put on the full armor of God: the breastplate of righteous, the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit. One thing this armor does for us is helps ward off the wisdom of the world, the main weapon the world uses against us. After all, even for the unbelieving world, it is a lot easier for them if we change our minds and submit to worldly wisdom rather than them having to burnish a steel sword against us.

Of course, they will do that too, if they have too. Unless we can disarm them with our sword. But we can’t disarm them if we first disarm ourselves by denying the clear teaching of Scripture on the historic Adam, miracles, the six days of creation, the roles of and differences between men and women, church discipline, regular attendance at church, the cultural mandate, private property, Jesus’ ministry of reconciliation, the virgin birth, the inerrancy of Scripture, etc.

To win this war–which in one sense is to win all called, elect unbelievers for Jesus, we must be like the man of Psalm 1:

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. (Psalm 1:1-2)

Yet we only able to do even this by the grace of God, with the new hearts He has given us. So let’s give praise to God out of gratitude for how He continues to equip us for this war.