Soldiers Of Christ Arise!

by Ian Coker

When is one ever qualified to speak? Who can presume to think that he has somewhat to say to God’s people? The fact is that men do, and God can make us able ministers of sacred truths. Many men are putting up their hand to have something to say, and I hear some strange sounds in Zion. Let me put up my hand to say a few words too.

The reign of Solomon was characterised by peace and prosperity. After the trials of Saul’s reign, and the bloodshed and warfare of David’s reign, Solomon’s reign, including the building of the temple, must have been a breath of fresh air.

And so it was, but it was also one of the most decisive periods of Israel’s history. They had won the wars under David, but could they win the peace under Solomon? I don’t think they did. Solomon himself failed, the days of wine and roses and women leading him off into the condoning of idolatry, and with his passing the kingdom divided.

The question I am raising is whether the church of Christ is weathering the storm of peace, affluence and worldliness. Is the tranquillity and prosperity of our present age doing what persecution, depression and war wasn’t able to do? Have we been lulled to sleep thinking that Christian warfare was for a previous time and the modern Christian has no need of sword and shield and helmet and breastplate, and sandal? Have we been conned into thinking that Satan has ceased his attacks on the church and just rouses himself occasionally to tempt us individually in some personal matter of lust or pride? Some are oblivious to the wiles of the Devil. Neville Chamberlain returned from Nazi Germany waving a piece of paper and declaring “there will be peace in our time” - in a matter of weeks Great Britain was at war with Germany! Peace was an illusion! Some in the church see no threat to the strength and security of the Lord’s Church. Its one thing to be an optimist, and another to be a pessimist, but some are just blind to reality.

I don’t want to overestimate Satan and create the impression that he is invincible and greater in power than Christ our Leader. We have the victory over him by the power of Christ if we remain in Him. I love the picture in Rev. 19:11-21 - You see Christ and His armies arrayed against the beast and his armies. This righteous army is the same one that is pictured as choosing to follow a Lamb in Chapter 14 when all the world followed and worshipped the beast. But there’s more to Christ than a sacrificial Lamb. The One who stepped down to die on a cross is also King of kings and Lord of lords! And so in the battle the beast and the false prophet are cast alive into the lake of fire and brimstone and their armies are destroyed by the sword proceeding from His mouth. The victory is seen to be accomplished by Christ alone - His armies are seen simply to follow Him and rejoice in His victories. It is their victory by way of their allegiance, not because of their strength. We have the victory, brethren.

But I don’t want to underestimate the power of the Devil either. I see him in Rev. 12 standing before the woman travailing in birth to deliver Christ. By the power of God such an unseeming victory is snatched from the jaws of defeat and Christ is enthroned at the right hand of the Father, victorious over sin and death. But I also see in vs. 13-17 a sequel to that - an angry Satan going to make war with the followers of Jesus Christ. If he cannot touch Christ, he will do all in his power to hurt those who are the apple of Christ’s eye - those that are His body in the earth and carry out His work in this domain here below. Whilst I believe Christ has already vouchsafed to us that the church will win the war, I also believe congregations of the Lord’s people have and will lose some battles.

It has been said that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. The battles fought in previous generations will have to be fought again. The positions secured by previous generations can fall again to the Devil and his armies. There is really only one option for the soldier of Christ - to stand, and having done all, to stand. There are other options such as compromise or surrender, but they are not worthy of the Christian soldier.

Sadly, some are advocating surrender - we have been out on a limb too long and we have alienated ourselves from our denominational ‘brethren’. We need to desist from the Church of Christ Messianic Complex of thinking that we are right, and be absorbed into the denominational morass. Their thinking is, in part, that we will do better in our fight against the world if all good religious people learn to get along, overlook differences, and pull together. Some brethren don’t seem to understand that denominationalism is of the Devil!

Some of you might remember that Thomas Warren debated a Brother Fuqua many years ago on the amenability of the world to the New Testament. When pressed on the issue that the denominational world wasn’t ignorant of the Scriptures, Fuqua invented a third division for denominational people, separate from the world. The Bible knows no such thing. We are either in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ or we are in the world. There are no other possibilities for every responsible adult in the world.

Jesus promised to build one church (Matt. 16:18), and He adds the saved to that church (Acts 2:47). It’s that simple; it’s that clear-cut. I’m not trying to insult your intelligence and knowledge of things divine in telling you these things but there are an increasing number in the brotherhood who are pretending they are ignorant of such concepts. I find it amazing that some who fought the good fight to come out of the confusion and unscriptural teachings and practices of denominationalism are now advocating we need to go back there. Why? Is it because they love the praise of men more than the praise of God? Is it that they crave the approval that comes from men and not that which comes from God only? (Jn. 12:4-44; 5:44). Or is it that they have grown tired of the fighting of the good fight? Alexander Campbell said that Jesus drew His sword on the banks of the Jordan and threw away the scabbard! He knew it would be a fight to the death. And so it is with us brethren (Rev. 2:10).

When the Jews came out of Egypt they were given strict instructions to purge Canaan of her inhabitants. God said if they failed to do so they would become as thorns in their sides and pricks in their eyes, and so influence them to the point that God would eventually do to Israel what he had asked them to do to the Canaanites (Num. 33:51-56). You know the story - they got tired of the war and the fighting - it was easier to co-exist! And so they did and so God eventually did!

It is said that at various times in World War II, Britain was fighting on nineteen different fronts at the same time. That’s taxing and tiring. In the same way, we are involved in the good fight on many fronts. That’s taxing and tiring. It’s appealing to sue for peaceful coexistence with error and worldliness, but we cannot do that and be true soldiers of the King. Every soldier of Christ is a volunteer - there is not a conscript amongst us. We all chose to serve the King of Kings, wear His colours and bear His standard. We have no choice but to stand in the truth and fight for the truth.

When David Roper was doing his research on the church in Australia he noted that the Baptist church had not been beset by splits. He spoke to a Baptist lecturer to determine why this had been so. He answered, “because of their smallness”. They had been a considerable force in Britain, but found themselves a small minority. Another Baptist had this to say; “The preservation of outward unity thus becoming the paramount consideration, it followed that whatever error a majority in the church might come to hold, the minority must accept it, rather than be guilty of the deadly sin of schism”.

There is no doubt in my mind that similar feelings exist in the church of our Lord in Australia at this time. I’m not denying the need to strive for unity, but our approach must be to forge a unity on the truth not at the expense of truth. A feeling is that if we insist on believing and obeying the truth in all things we will expose the gaps and cracks in our ramparts, and the fellowship will be weakened. So we had better base the fellowship on the lowest common denominator. So we hear talk of ‘little f’ fellowship as opposed to ‘capital F’ fellowship, agreeing to disagree on matters of doctrine, and refusing to insist on the preaching and teaching of the whole counsel of God. After all, we are but a minnow in a religious world filled with whales and sharks. I don’t get that when I read such passages as 2 John 1-4 - our love is in the truth, our knowledge is of the truth, our commitment is to the truth, our walk is in the truth, and the favours of God are bestowed upon us in the truth. Jesus testified before Pilate that He came to bear witness to the truth, and that, my brethren, is the nature of our conflict.

When John wrote the introductory section to the Revelation, he had an admonishing word for every member of every congregation - “he that overcomes”. That has been the message from the beginning! God reasoned with Cain when he came to the crossroads of his life that he was in a battle, sin was like a stalking lion waiting to pounce and devour him, but he must overcome! The same Devil still walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. We are in a fight brethren, and we must overcome!

We must fight against worldliness. The way some people talk about it you would think that the world isn’t as worldly as it used to be. I’ve got news for you and it’s all bad - the world is still as worldly as its ever been! There was a time when if you mentioned you were a Christian people wouldn’t offer you a stubbie of beer because they knew that Christians didn’t drink the stuff. They don’t know that anymore, simply because members of the church feel like that in our sophisticated age Christians have a licence to indulge. The scriptural reasons for abstaining are just as valid as they were yesteryear. The same can be said for all the social sins. We will never bear witness to the truth by becoming like the world. All we will do is lose our salt, our leavening influence, our distinctiveness and our souls.

We must fight against denominationalism. Denominationalism is still as contradictory, confusing, truth-betraying and God-dishonouring as it ever has been! No matter how it is dressed up with its errors all papered over, it is still the same old Babel it ever was. It doesn’t matter how much back-slapping goes on, or how much praise for another’s sincerity goes on, it is still the same old hodge-podge of human philosophy. Truth is not determined by how nice people are - or how sincere (cf. Rom. 10:1 ff, Acts 26:9). Know ye not that the Devil’s ministers are made to appear as ministers of righteousness? Some are advancing a definition that says that false teachers were those who taught immoral doctrines. Sure some did, but that is not all that qualifies one as a false teacher (cf. 2 Tim. 2:17,18).

“But people in denominations love Jesus - they’re just a bit misguided on some technical matters”. That’s easy fixed; show them the truth in God’s word and their response will tell you how much they love Jesus (Matt. 7:21, John 14:15) Besides, aren’t denominational preachers under the obligation as we are to “take heed to their teaching”, and aren’t all the members under obligation as we to search the Scriptures to see if these things are so?

And we must fight the good fight within the church. What a thing to say! But Paul spoke of perils among false brethren, of enemies of the cross within the ranks of gospel preachers, of wolves among the flock, of those who would pervert the gospel of Christ, of elders speaking perverse things, of preachers whose word was like a cancer, those who would teach fables and not truth, profane and vain babblings, ever learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth, commandments of men that turn from the truth, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm, speaking lies in hypocrisy and doctrines of demons, proud, knowing nothing and doting about questions and strife’s of words, oppositions of science (falsely so called), out of contention, to feed their bellies and so on ad infinitum. Suppose ye that all false teachers are found in the denominational world? Only a fool or a man who would bury his head in the sand, and he would be a fool for so doing, would think so.

Brethren, we are in a fight - it is the fight of our lives and the great fight of history and eternity. We must put on the whole armour of God and quit ourselves as good faithful soldiers of the cross. The destiny of our congregations is up for grabs and we must hold the line.

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