June 30, 2013
0200
There is a pattern of unbelief that I am most curious of and is rather fascinating. Most unbelievers I come across have such a strong desire to persuade me away from my faith whether they decide to exercise the theory of evolution or typical atheistic "logic" (i.e. if God is an all loving God and does not save people from massacres and famine, then He must not exist). The fallacy of their childish logic is understandable to an extent because each of us are faced with these doubts, but what separates the Christian from the unbeliever is that we defeat the fallacies and starve the doubts fed by the Devil and evidently overcome the doubts by feeding our faith. What I find increasingly interesting is that most unbelievers I come across feel that it is a necessity to express such hatred, persecution, and angry logic towards me and fellow brethren. There are guilty Christians who bring about the persecution and judgement and attempt of persuasion into the faith first and therefore have the unbelievers become defensive and therefore attack. It is a simple defence mechanism to attack when the very basis of your beliefs are threatened. These very wrongful Christians may be the very reason why most unbelievers attack innocent Christians — they feel judged and persecuted by a Christian in their past and therefore assume all Christians do this and so decide to attack us, whether we instigated the argument or not. (Keep in mind that as Christians we are not to instigate arguments and debates. It is unbiblical.)
The Word tells us that we are to "reject foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they breed quarrels" (II Timothy 2:23). And Titus 3:9 says to "avoid foolish debates, genealogies, quarrels, and disputes about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless." What it means by "genealogies" are speculative interpretations of the Old Testament. The Word of God says arguments and debates are unprofitable and worthless! Indubitably, we can all agree on this because in arguments and debates, especially with unbelievers going back and forth listing opinion after opinion for hours, what are you accomplishing? Above all, what are you accomplishing in God's glory? How is this argument or debate bringing glory to God? This is a rhetorical question because it's obvious that such quarrels dishonour God's image. Being made in the image of God, we are dishonouring what He created us to become — His children in His image. "Ah," someone may say, "is it not right to resolve a dispute?" Proverbs 20:3,
It is honourable for a man to resolve a dispute, but any fool can get himself into a quarrel. If you can peacefully resolve a dispute without including yourself in the quarrel, it is honourable.
I often say that we are soldiers for Christ, and some may argue that as soldiers it is our duty to defeat hostile arguments with our own logic and the Word of God. If that were true, then the power of God's Word would end each and every argument with the unbeliever as a believer, but such does not happen. I have two points to make here. First, and shortly, as a veteran of the U.S. Army, a soldier knows that honour, respect, and mercy are more essential than taking out the enemy. As Christian soldiers, our values are the fruit of the Spirit, which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). And secondly, as soldiers for Christ, we wear the armour of God whereas those of the world are exposed with their weak flesh. They're missing the armour of God, and so their flesh is exposed and they are weak. They are not our enemies; Satan is the enemy. In the army, anyone not clearly wearing any hostile gear are considered non-combatants and it is considered both illegal and unethical to fire upon them. And with the Geneva Convention in effect, anyone who fires upon us and subsequently drops their weapon is also considered a non-combatant. When we debate and argue with unbelievers, we are firing upon non-combatants, even if they attacked first. Always going on the offensive is the world view of a soldier, but as a Christian we are to remain in the line of defence.
I'm going to use Ephesians 6:10-17 as support for this, which is the passage that talks about the armour of God. In verse 11 it says to "put on the full armour of God so that you can stand against the tactics of the Devil." This is the vital key! It says we are to wear the full armour of God in order to stand against the tactics of Satan — his battle strategies. This is a defence tactic, not an offence! One of his tactics are the persecutions and arguments we face from unbelievers in order to create doubt within us. But we are to stand our ground in defence! "Ah," someone may say, "is coming back with a rebuttal not a form of defence?" It is a form of defence, yes but this defence includes a tactic of offence in which you attack back while defending; you are attacking and defending simultaneously, but the armour of God is simply defence. In your mind you may think you are simply defending your faith but you are doing so by attacking them. Verse 12 then goes on to tell us that "our battle is not against flesh and blood," which are unbelieving people, "but against... the world powers of this darkness, [and] against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens." Our battle is not against these believers but against the darkness and evil of the words they're speaking, which is Satan working through them. Satan formulates the tactic and these unbelievers are just the means to an end, and so I repeat: the enemy is Satan, not these unbelievers. And verse 13 tells us "this is why you must take up the full armour of God, so that you may be able to resist the evil day" — the day(s) these quarrels occur — "and having prepared everything, to take your stand." This is exactly what defence is — preparing yourself to stand against the forces of evil, not marching directly into it (that's offence). The use of the word preparation is very important here because as you'll see, all these forms of defence that Scripture gives us can only be strong enough if we prepare against the attacks of the dark forces, which comes with experience and trial and and error.
So now the question is, "What is the composition of the armour of God? How do we utilise it?" Well, it's given to us in verses 14-17, which I'm going to walk you through. It tells us to stand "with truth like a belt around your waist." Anyone can use this to argue that truth is to speak it against unbelievers in their debate. No, they are wrong. It says to stand with truth "like a belt." What does a belt do? It supports your foundation so that you won't fall. Like a belt, we are to utilise what we know about the truth of God's Word to support the foundation of our faith so that we won't fall. Don't take the belt off and start beating somebody with it; that's not what it was designed to do. When we are faced with these persecutions and arguments, we are to exercise our knowledge of the truth of God's Word in maintaining the foundations of our faith — our faith unwavering.
Next, it says to stand with "righteousness like armour on your chest." Armour on the chest makes you stand and walk upright, not with conceit but with protection and assurance, and with armour on your chest you are also able to trust that nothing will penetrate it — your righteousness. We are to utilise our righteousness to keep us upright in the faith, but we have to be careful not to be self-righteous. But what is righteousness? Romans 3:20,
Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. You are righteous when you are cognisant of your own sin, recognising that you are a sinner and will always be a sinner and because of that you humble yourself through the humility of it and do not judge anyone to be less than you are. As soon as you achieve this, you can then stand upright because the shame and guilt of sin will no longer be able to wear on your shoulders and keep you down. Nothing can penetrate your righteousness in Christ unless you allow it to, and you have to trust that your righteousness through Christ is powerful against these dark forces. As soon as you allow the things that an unbeliever is saying to penetrate your righteousness, your shoulders will sag and you will no longer walk upright because the heaviness of that shame and guilt will have returned. Righteousness is "God's righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe, since there is no distinction" (Romans 3:22). By believing in Christ and having faith in whom He was, is, and is to come while being cognisant of your sin and not feeling any more guilt or shame of them because of your repentance and God's forgiveness, you are righteous. If you allow these words spoken by unbelievers to penetrate your armour on your chest by making you not believe anymore or doubt and feel guilty and shameful of your sin, you damage your righteousness and risk destroying it. Not just what these people say, but even the doubts that
you create. Also, another note, Christians are called to judgement, contrary to popular belief, but not the judgement we all think when we hear or read the word. When Jesus teaches "judge not, that ye be not judged" (Matthew 7:1) He is not talking about simply judging people. He is saying that we are not to judge (condemn) people to Hell. The Greek word that is used here for the word "judge is
krino. It means "to separate, select, choose" and hence "to determine," and so "to judge, pronounce judgement." In its use here, the use of this verb means to assume the office of a judge. If you're a judge, what do you do? You sentence someone to death or imprisonment. This is what Jesus is telling us not to do. Do not put yourself in the position of a judge and sentence someone to the death and imprisonment of Hell. This is why Christ said in John 7:24,
"Stop judging according to outward appearances; rather judge according to righteous judgement." But what in the world is righteous judgement? Righteous judgement is to examine your own self first — your own sins, and after you have completed that self-examination you can then examine somebody else's life and see what Scripture has to say about their sin. The judgement you are to come up with is this: "They are a sinner just like me. Scripture says this about their sin, and I must help them to overcome it."
I got a little sidetracked there. Anyway, what's the next piece of armour? In verse 15 it says to stand with "your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace." This is a lot more simpler than the issue of righteousness. It simply means to always be ready to tell others about the Gospel. No, anyone can say here that this contradicts everything I've said up to this point. That's not necessarily true. If you tell somebody about the Gospel and they just choose to argue, that's not your problem and so you are to move elsewhere where somebody else is willing to listen and accept Jesus. You're not giving up on them because there is the power of prayer. Spreading the Gospel is not for arguments and debates. God did not give us His Word to debate with people; He spoke to us in order that we might lead people to Christ so that they might know Him and in turn inherit His kingdom as God's children. However, if somebody is sincerely intrigued and is asking you questions simply out of curiosity and intrigue and wishes to know what Christianity is all about, then answer them. There is a huge difference between a mature, gentle discussion and quarreling. If an unbeliever is arguing with you, he or she is not interested in being saved or having their mind changed; they've already made up their mind. This is why you must pray for them on your own time. If an unbeliever is asking you questions without argument, looking for answers, then they're obviously looking for a change that only God can offer that they wish to understand. So put on the sandals of God's peace and always be ready to teach others of the Gospel.
In verse 16 we are told:
In every situation take the shield of faith, and with it you will be able to extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one. A shield is the most used form of defence, and what is this shield? Our faith. I find it very interesting that the very thing we have to defend is also one of the greatest forms of defence, and it is because faith can be that strong. It is imperative that we get to the point where our faith is so unwavering that we can deflect the flaming arrows of Satan. So basically our faith has to be so strong that the tactics Satan decides to attack our faith with are ultimately ineffective. That is a true challenge, and it takes a very long time to get there, but it is very achievable. Next, in verse 17 we are told to "take the helmet of salvation." Our salvation is our inheritance in God's kingdom with Christ Jesus, and we are to use that knowledge of our salvation to protect our minds. You have the ultimate inheritance to be with our Lord in God's kingdom! That is a glorious thing! Therefore do not allow the words of unbelievers to sizzle in your mind and distract you from that. They don't have it, but you do. So put on the helmet of this inherited salvation and protect your mind against these words that unbelievers speak — don't allow yourself to lie awake at night thinking of these things that the unbeliever said. Be absolutely sure of your salvation and what the Word of God says about it.
Lastly, it says to take "the sword of the Spirit, which is God's Word." Here someone may say, "Ah! A sword! You use a sword for attacking!" That's one use of it, yes, but you also use a sword to defend yourself and block out attacks. We are not to use the sword of God's Word to attack others but to defend our faith against the words of the world in order to block them from infecting our faith. Use Jesus as an example when He stood against the temptations of Satan (Matthew 4:1-11). Yes, Jesus actually used the Word of God to physically speak against the Devil, but He attacked the Devil, not a person, and the end result was that Satan fled from Him. Remember in verse 12 where it says that our battle is not against flesh and blood — people. Do not attack people with the sword of God's Word. Their words (and our own thoughts) create doubts in our minds and that's when we attack with the sword of God's Word, and Satan will flee (James 4:7). When you speak the Word of God against peoples' accusations and "logic" they are so arrogant and ignorant that they just keep on attacking; they don't run away. It ultimately becomes ineffective and it's not because the Word of God doesn't work; it's because Satan has such a strong hold on them that they are so unwilling to move their feet and take a leap of faith because they're afraid of what might happen if they do. So since they keep on attacking, we then have to use God's Word as a sword to block out their blunt blows on our faith by reminding ourselves in our mind what the Word of God says against their purported logic and accusations. In case you haven't figured it out yet, the purpose of putting on the armour of God is to defend and protect your faith, never to attack — against people, that is. Since our battle is not against flesh and blood but against these dark powers and forces, doing everything I just described is our only form of offence in battling against these spiritual forces. As they say in sports, "Your best offence is a good defence." How true that is for the Christian faith! By defending your faith against Satan's dark forces you are also fighting against it, for he runs away (remember James 4:7). But be careful, he will come back and try again.
