The Truth War (7 page)

But we are not merely ambassadors. We are simultaneously soldiers, commissioned to wage war for the defense and dissemination of the truth in the face of countless onslaughts against it. We are
ambassadors
—with a message of good news for people who walk in a land of darkness and dwell in the land of the shadow of death (Isaiah 9:2). And we are
soldiers
—charged with pulling down ideological strongholds and casting down the lies and deception spawned by the forces of evil (2 Corinthians 10:3–5; 2 Timothy 2:3–4).

Notice carefully: our task as ambassadors is to bring good news to people. Our mission as soldiers is to overthrow false
ideas
. We must keep those objectives straight; we are not entitled to wage warfare against people or to enter into diplomatic relations with antiChristian ideas. Our warfare is not against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12); and our duty as ambassadors does not permit us to compromise or align ourselves with any kind of human philosophies, religious deceit, or any other kind of falsehood (Colossians 2:8).

If those sound like difficult assignments to keep in balance and maintain in proper perspective, it is because they are indeed.

Jude certainly understood this. The Holy Spirit inspired him to write his short epistle to people who were struggling with some of these very same issues. He nevertheless urged them to contend earnestly for the faith against all falsehood, while doing everything possible to deliver souls from destruction: “pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh” (Jude 23).

So we are ambassador-soldiers, reaching out to sinners with the truth even as we make every effort to destroy the lies and other forms of evil that hold them in deadly bondage. That is a perfect summary of every Christian's duty in the Truth War.

Martin Luther, that noble gospel soldier, threw down the gauntlet at the feet of every Christian in every generation after him, when he said:

If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.
¹⁵

2

SPIRITUAL WARFARE: DUTY, DANGER, AND GUARANTEED TRIUMPH

To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father,
and preserved in Jesus Christ: mercy, peace,
and love be multiplied to you.

—Jude 1–2

W
ar is hell.”

So said General William Tecumseh Sherman. By the time Sherman retired from active duty, that famous aphorism had already become virtually synonymous with his name. There were several conflicting accounts about when and how he said it. Near the end of his life, Sherman himself said he couldn't remember exactly where he first said it, but he still agreed with the opinion.

In fact, Sherman's contempt for war was well-known throughout most of his career as a soldier. A month after the American Civil War ended, while Sherman was at the height of his fame and the pinnacle of his success as a soldier, he wrote to a friend, “I am sick and tired of fighting.”
¹

He was not yet finished fighting, however. His next major duty was a fourteen-year-long stint as commanding general of the U.S. Army. Those years saw some of the most difficult battles in the horrible Indian wars that marred the settling of the American West. As much as Sherman despised warfare, he couldn't seem to get away from fighting.

General Sherman has been described by various historians as a brilliant strategist, an uncompromising combatant, and a ruthless fighting man. His career was highly controversial, and history's judgment has been mixed regarding his personal character and the conduct of the armies he commanded. As a soldier, he was by no means an ideal model in every sense. But one exemplary fact about him is clear from all the accounts of his life: although he really did despise warfare, few soldiers in all of history have been more determined or more tenacious warriors.

Whatever we might think of General Sherman as a man, there is something commendable and courageous about his soldier's perspective of battle. We ought to despise warfare with every fiber of our souls. War is one of the most calamitous consequences of evil. It is catastrophic. It is always ugly. It should never be glamorized, and no sane person should ever desire the conflict or savor the strife of war. There are times, however, when evil makes warfare absolutely necessary. And when we have a moral obligation to fight, we should never shirk that duty, compromise with the enemy, or enter the battle halfheartedly.

As detestable as warfare of any kind might be, there are causes for which
not
fighting is a far greater evil.

WHY THE WARFARE IS NOT CARNAL

We need to be perfectly clear about what kind of fighting Christians are supposed to be doing. The spiritual warfare described in the New Testament is not a literal flesh-and-blood battle waged with earthly weapons and physical violence. There was a time not long ago when that practically went without saying. No more.

We live in an era when religious fanatics routinely blow themselves up, fly planes into buildings, or commit unthinkably evil acts of barbaric terrorism in the name of religion. The biblical strategy for spiritual warfare has nothing whatsoever in common with the tactics of Islamic jihad.

WAR IS ONE OF THE MOST
CALAMITOUS CONSEQUENCES
OF EVIL. IT IS CATASTROPHIC.
IT IS ALWAYS UGLY. IT
SHOULD NEVER BE
GLAMORIZED, AND
NO SANE PERSON SHOULD
EVER DESIRE THE CONFLICT
OR SAVOR THE STRIFE OF
WAR. THERE ARE TIMES,
HOWEVER, WHEN EVIL
MAKES WARFARE
ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.

Scripture is clear that physical force is not a legitimate tool for the advancement of the kingdom of God. The church has no authority from their Lord to wield a sword for any reason—certainly not for the expansion of their influence, and not even to fend off their enemies. Those things have been perfectly clear and almost universally affirmed by godly, Bible-believing Christians since the night of Jesus' betrayal, when Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Matthew 26:52).

By the way, this is not to suggest that the use of force is forbidden for individual Christians acting lawfully in self-defense or in defending their families against criminal or military aggression. Physical resistance in such cases is nowhere forbidden in the Bible. (The turn-the-other-cheek principle of Matthew 5:39–40 pertains to personal insults and acts of persecution for Christ's sake, not all types of criminal assault. In normal cases where a person is resisting unlawful threats to property or life and limb, the use of force in proper measure is perfectly lawful by biblical principles—Nehemiah 4:14.) Of course, believers who are policemen, soldiers, or otherwise agents duly authorized by the government must be willing to use deadly force when necessary as part of their duty to the civil government. Scripture nowhere endorses any kind of absolute pacifism.

The point is that
the church as a body
, and
Christians acting in
the name of Christ
, are never entitled to employ force for any purpose related to the work of advancing Christ's kingdom on earth. The Truth War has nothing to do with carnal warfare or physical violence. In the words of Charles Spurgeon, “For the church of God ever to avail itself of force would be clean contrary to the spirit of Christianity: for the Christian bishop to become a soldier, or employ the secular arm [of military force], would seem the very climax of contradiction.”
²

Of course tragic episodes of wars, crusades, and inquisitions have been carried out in Christ's name, sometimes even under the direct authority of ecclesiastical institutions. All of them have been unjust and unjustifiable on any biblical grounds. They have also been unmitigated disasters as far as the true ministry of the church is concerned. Sometimes such wars and violence occur when the church is utterly corrupted by the culture. (That is especially true of the religious militarism occasionally seen in Byzantine and medieval times.) In other instances, confusion about the relationship between church and state has empowered a few overzealous political leaders or misguided military commanders who thought they could wage holy war in the name of Christ. (That was a serious problem, for example, during the English Revolution. The conduct of Cromwell's military campaigns no doubt seriously undermined the true piety and influence of the Puritan movement. And in the name of preserving religious freedom in Scotland, the Covenanters retaliated against English brutality by killing a number of Englishmen.)

The Bible says categorically that the Truth War is a completely different kind of war, fought with entirely different weaponry and with totally different objectives in view. “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood” (Ephesians 6:12). “We do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal” (2 Corinthians 10:3–4). Every mention of spiritual weaponry in the New Testament makes this point perfectly clear. The tools of our warfare are not the kind that could be forged on any earthly anvil. Our only offensive weapons are “the word of truth [and] the power of God”; and our only defensive armor is “the armor of righteousness” (2 Corinthians 6:7).

THE TRUTH WAR IS NOT A
CARNAL WAR. IT IS NOT
ABOUT TERRITORY AND
NATIONS. IT IS NOT A BATTLE
FOR LANDS AND CITIES.
IT IS NOT A CLAN WAR OR
A PERSONALITY CONFLICT
BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS.
IT IS NOT A FIGHT FOR
CLOUT BETWEEN RELIGIOUS
DENOMINATIONS. IT IS NOT
A SKIRMISH OVER MATERIAL
POSSESSIONS. IT IS A BATTLE
FOR THE TRUTH.

In John 18:36, Jesus Himself said to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight.” Notice carefully once more: our Lord was plainly not advocating total pacifism. If His kingdom were an earthly entity, He says, His servants would indeed fight. Those who teach that violence per se is unjustifiable in any and every circumstance have misunderstood the teaching of Scripture. In fact, Romans 13:1–4 expressly grants
governments
the authority to wield the sword in order to punish evildoers, defend their national security, and maintain civil peace.

What I am stressing here is that permission to use physical force is never granted to the
church.
That is because the people of God corporately have a different—and far more important—kind of warfare to wage. The Truth War is not a carnal war. It is not about territory and nations. It is not a battle for lands and cities. It is not a clan war or a personality conflict between individuals. It is not a fight for clout between religious denominations. It is not a skirmish over material possessions. It is a battle for the truth. It is about ideas. It is a fight for the mind. It is a battle against false doctrines, evil ideologies, and wrong beliefs. It is a war for
truth.

Paul makes this clear in 2 Corinthians 10:5, where he spells out the ultimate objective of the Truth War: “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.” The battlefield is the mind; the goal is the absolute triumph of truth; the priceless spoils of conquest are souls won out of the bondage of sin; the outcome is our willing submission to Christ; the highest prize is the honor given to Him as Lord; and the ultimate victory is completely His.

WHY TRUTH IS SO VITAL

With increasing frequency nowadays, I hear people say things like, “Come, now, let's not bicker about what we believe. It's only doctrine. Let's focus instead on how we live. The way of Jesus is surely more important than our arguments over the words of Jesus. Let's set aside our disagreements over creeds and dogmas and devote ourselves instead to showing the love of Christ by the way we conduct our lives.”

Many people these days evidently find that suggestion appealing. On the surface, it may sound generous, kindhearted, modest, and altruistic. But the view itself is a serious violation of “the
way
of Jesus,” who taught that salvation hinges on hearing and believing His
Word
(John 5:24). He said, “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). To those who doubted His truth claims, He said, “If you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins” (John 8:24). He never left any room for someone to imagine that the propositional content of His teaching is optional as long as we mimic His behavior.

In fact, the New Testament consistently stresses otherwise. One vital principle about our redemption from sin destroys the whole argument: faith, not works, is the sole instrument of justification (Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 2:8–9). In other words,
what we
believe
rather than
what we do
is what secures us a righteous standing before God—because we lay hold of justifying righteousness by faith alone, and not by our works (Romans 4:5).