Thread:

This is a gospel issue...

I've been thinking about this tweet for a number of days as this sort of reasoning is predominate and marketed by effeminate men in most of our institutions.

The only kind of Christianity the Bible recognizes is one of ideological warfare. https://twitter.com/philvischer/status/1386336951595380736

Granted we do not wage war with weapons of this world, Jesus himself saying that if his kingdom was of this world his servants would fight (John 18:36).

However we do very much wage warfare with the devil, the flesh, and the world.

Again, we do not wage war against flesh and blood but rather against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Eph 6:12).

Paul is clearly saying the nature of our war is spiritual and ideological.

If we don't use "weapons of this world" what do we use to fight this war? We use the sword, but an altogether different sword.

In Ephesians 6, Paul actually uses weapons of this world as an image of what it is we actually *do* use.

We use the sword that proceeds from the mouth of Christ with which he will smite the nations and rule over them with a rod of iron (Rev 19:15).

That is, the word of God is a sword far more powerful and far more devastating than that which can merely cut down flesh and blood, it has the ability to quite literally slay the inner-man, bringing about the death necessary to bring about the life of the new man in Christ.

Conversion is how we fight, and with the word of God.

"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." -Heb 4:12

Whether we like it or not, the Bible presents an "us" versus "them" dichotomy from Genesis 3:15 through the Revelation.

Here was my initial knee-jerk retweet from a few days ago...

We go from God putting enmity between the seed of the serpent and seed of the woman, to seeing that enmity displayed over and over between "those that have overcome the world" and "those that dwell upon the face of the earth."

The essence of this cosmic conflict, though clearly having physical implications (1st depicted with Cain and Abel), is a spiritual war.

In The Revelation, is it the Beast (kingdoms of men) or False Prophet (apostate church) that is at the heart of this war on God's people?

No, the very driving force behind this great war they are raging on the faithful is the Dragon, that serpent of old.

The Revelation comes full circle to Genesis 3:15 tying these worldly institutions at war with the church to the seed of the serpent.

So even though this war has the appearance of a physical struggle, and we do have real earthly enemies for many Christians have been martyred, it differs from all other earthly ideological conflicts in two ways...

The first being it is ultimately a spiritual divide that the division is based on.

The second being it is not fought militarily or by force but rather through the advance of the gospel against the gates of hell that are powerless to stop it.

For even our own deaths are used to advance Christ's kingdom. The weapons of this world are no match for the sword that proceeds from the mouth of God.

There's the whole point of why we need to reject this limp-wristed perversion of the Christian faith expressed by Phil here.

It has implications for what the gospel call actually is. It is the gospel of the kingdom. "The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand, *repent* and believe the gospel."

This kingdom is here, it is advancing, and as a result this kingdom's enemies need to repent.

That is they need to *STOP BEING ENEMIES OF THE KINGDOM.*

They need to turn from being "them" and join "us." For God made a way for "them" to join "us."

Each of "us" ourselves were once aligned with "them" and have now been converted to a new allegiance to "us."

Men who do not have the stomach for contention with this world are incapable of "contending for the faith."

They are as Lot's wife, turning in one last expression of allegiance to that which God has condemned to the flame.

Men like @philvischer do not understand the gospel, and thus they do not wield the sword.

"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword." -Mat 10:34

The end.