Do You Know How to Wield Your Sword?
By Jonathan Ellis
We in the west live in a society where it costs comparatively little to claim to be a Christian. One foreign missionary when speaking with an American pastor was asked, “what do you think is the greatest danger to the American church?” The missionary said it seemed like the American church was under the sway of a “demonic lullaby.”
This lullaby is made up of two pieces: personal peace and affluence. Christian apologist Francis Schaeffer argues that throughout history in post-modern societies these two impoverished values ascended as the influence of biblical truth in prevailing thought waned.[1] I would suggest that because we have grown up in a society where personal peace, affluence, and the pursuit thereof are the highest ideals, we have come to believe the lie that these things are normative and the primary expectation of our time on earth.
Many are therefore shocked and resistant when told we must wage war in order to imitate Christ despite this being the clear teaching of Scripture. Let us examine three truths Scripture would proclaim of the normative Christian life:
1) You are in a war, whether you like it or not (Eph 6:12).
2) You have an enemy that seeks to destroy you (1 Pet 5:8).
3) You are commanded to be disciplined, prepared for war, and ready to wage war each day (1 Cor 9:24-27; 1 Pet 5:8-9; Jas 4:7; Eph 6:10-18).
With those truths in mind here is my question and challenge: Do you know how to wield your sword?
In this video clip from the TV show The West Wing, the fictional president through a series of rhetorical questions intimidates the stereotyped Christian figure. The clip is meant to persuade the watching audience that the Christian point of view is inconsistent and self-contradictory. I love this clip because it shows how a very shallow argument (shallow both in theology and logic), when delivered with charisma and eloquence, can seem very emotionally appealing.
How would you respond to this? Let’s first call it what it is: this is a “straw man” argument. A straw man argument is where you don’t accurately represent the other side but rather create a false, weak, caricature of the other side’s position, and you refute that caricature instead of addressing the opposing side's true belief and supporting reasoning.
My fear is that this type of obvious straw man argument would intimidate many Christians into either silence or equivocation. The world expects that, which is why this type of shallow argumentation is increasingly common. The reason it can shake us is that many Christians have disarmed themselves. Bane’s taunt of Batman could easily be applied to us: “Peace has cost you your strength. Victory has defeated you.” In the arsenal God has given to his people, there is one tool that is described as the most important and most versatile: The Word of God (Eph 6:17).
This makes sense of course because our enemy’s primary tactic has always been to have us question the truth of God’s Word. It is how he destroyed Adam and Eve (Gen 3:1) and it is how he attempted to destroy Jesus (Matt 4:1-11). How did Jesus fight? He could have simply, by virtue of his authority, said “Be gone!” but he didn’t. I believe he was giving his church a model to follow when Satan comes with a lie, which will inevitably be some variation of “Has God really said…?” The Christian’s job is to have their sword out and respond “it is written …”
My fear is that many Christians have neglected their swordplay. How many hours does a marine care for and practice with his rifle? Wouldn’t he be intimately familiar with every inch of it, how it fits together, its weight, and capability? Why would he spend time doing this? Because he recognizes he is at war and if he wasn’t familiar with his weapon then he will be destroyed when he meets his enemy.
Do you share that perspective? Because most of us don’t act like we are at war, therefore, we are not alert to the ways that our enemy is attacking us every single day through social media, news, and even our idle thoughts. As a result, many who would call themselves Christians for years have suddenly, all at once, found that they have no foundation left and abandon the faith. They have no foundation because while they were busy chasing personal peace and affluence, the enemy has steadily eroded the ground from under their feet, sometimes taking a single grain at a time.
I would encourage you to follow the example of the marine: we do what we are trained to do. Repetition becomes habit which becomes instinct. If you practice alertness, readiness with the Word, and therefore become familiar with your weapon, then you won’t wake up one day with the ground suddenly gone from under you. Let’s see how this might play out practically.
Examples of erosion the enemy will attack you with:
1) “That was what Paul (or Moses) believed, not Jesus. Jesus never talked about…”
2) “That was Old Covenant. Unhitch your teaching of what it means to follow Jesus from all things Old Covenant.”
My hope is that when Christians hear these types of shallow proposals/arguments that they are so familiar with their weapon that they can immediately see the falsity in them. I want Christians to recognize the incredibly powerful weapon they have in the Scriptures if only they would awaken and shake off the lullaby. You do not have to have a degree in church history or apologetics in order to respond to these very common attacks, you only need the Scriptures. Let’s quickly run through how Scripture alone can refute each of these common examples.
Responding to Erosion #1
“For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet 1:21).
Paul and Moses never produced any teaching by their own will. They may have penned it but the ultimate author of all of Scripture is God. Jesus makes this very clear when he said, “…have you not read what was said to you by God…” (Matt 22:31). He then cites Exodus 3:6, a passage his audience would have understood was penned by Moses. Despite Moses being the agent, Jesus ascribes ultimate authorship to God.[2]
Therefore, when this objection is presented, it reveals at least one of three things: either the objector 1) disagrees with Jesus’ view of the inspiration of Scripture, 2) has a deficient view of Jesus’ deity and the triune nature of God, or 3) is aware of the logical inconsistency of their argument but simply desires to deceive you.
Responding to Erosion #2
“What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’” (Rom 7:7).
Paul’s argument is that we cannot reliably intuit sin or holiness by our own ability, rather the only consistently reliable way is by the teachings of Scripture. No Christian is suggesting that by following the law a person is made righteous (Rom 3:20; Gal 2:16), but what Scripture does suggest is that the wisdom of the Old Testament still has great value in how we know what is and is not sin (Rom 7:7). This is further confirmed in Paul’s reaction to the conduct of the Corinthian church.
Why is Paul shocked at their conduct in 1 Corinthians 5:1-2? He is shocked because he expected them to know their conduct was evil. How could he have that expectation of them? Because their conduct has been clearly described as evil in the Scriptures they had been given (Lev 18:7-8; Deut 22:30; Rom 2-3). In light of such clear teaching of Scripture, their “good” intentions (as suggested by their boasting in 1 Cor 5:2) did not matter. Therefore, Paul could rightly rebuke them saying, “Purge the evil person from among you” (1 Cor 5:13).
When this erosion is presented, it is usually done so to suggest that we don’t have to keep coming back to the Scripture (particularly what some think as the “embarrassing” Old Testament) to know the truth. Besides Paul’s point in Romans 7:7, there is a more fundamental reason such an argument is unbiblical. Acts 17:11 says, “Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”
Paul the Apostle had just finished preaching to these Jews. They did not uncritically accept his words but compared everything he said to Scripture “to see if these things were so”. In their mind the validity of his argument stood or fell only on if it aligned with Scripture … and Scripture calls them more noble for it. What was the primary Scripture this New Testament church had at the time? It was the Old Testament (Rom 3:2; 2 Tim 3:15; 2 Pet 3:16).
The first-century church compared even the preaching of an apostle against the words of the Scripture to determine their ultimate validity. Would you have? Do you critically examine all other truth claims, whether from a family member, pastor, or politician against the ultimate source of truth? Scripture would call you more noble for doing so.
Concluding Thoughts
Do you see the gold there is to be mined in Scripture? Do you see the subtlety of the enemy’s lies and the power in Scripture to refute him?
Scripture proclaims that “All Scripture is … profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16-17), and further that we are in need of daily contemplation and feeding on his Word in order that we might live (Deut 8:3; Matt 4:4).
Do you believe that? Does your life reflect that you believe that? Let us learn to wield the Sword of God by constantly being in it.
For further reading see:
[1] Schaeffer, Francis A.. How Should We Then Live? (L'Abri 50th Anniversary Edition) (p. 205). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
[2] see also Mark 7:9-13 in which Jesus makes reference to words of Scripture spoken or penned by Isaiah (Isaiah 29:13) and Moses (Exodus 20:12) but Jesus says they are the “command of God” and “word of God” respectively.