“A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God’s truth is attacked and yet would remain silent”

― John Calvin

I hope you have noticed as much as I have how divided and confused Christians are today. A large part of this is the failure to develop the Christian mind (Mark 12:30-31). We have been very focused on personal piety in a time when Christianity was the culture’s rudder. This however led to that absentminded Christianity that failed to develop total Christianity in the lives of Christians. The void created by the Church’s ignorance, naivety and even refusal to fight has been filled by our now unbelieving Culture, a recapturing of our understanding of heresy and the Christian mind is in order.

To that end let me share a few passages that show us how the devil works, and how we are commanded to fight for the truth Christianity not just as a doctrine of salvation, but as a cohesive world of thought.

There are at least two reactions to cultural pressure. The reactionary form and the liberalizing, accommodating form we see winning today. The former becomes the typical legalism, the latter a more libertine way of being that has a law of it’s own. Both of which, in actuality reinvent the Christian faith.

The Judaizers legalism is perhaps the most familiar form of heresy in Evangelical circles, one that falls in the category of reactionary. Their approach was to mix the old in with the new (Gal 3:1:14, 4:8-11). This resulted in a legalism that acted as if Christ hadn’t really accomplished anything. Instead, you had to earn salvation on your own, even more so you could. The appeal is plain for the human ego. If true those who had been keeping God’s law through the externals such as holidays and diet were better off, and anybody could earn salvation by doing the same. The old laws did not simply have moral applications but were saving work for us. A faith producing works was not taught but a more subtle works producing saving faith. What good then is Christ’s work if the same old same old held true? Paul argues plainly against this by putting in proper light, that the law exposes our sin and points to Christ (Romans 3:1-4:25).

The Church of Philadelphia contended with this Judaizing tendency.
Revelation 3:9“‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. ⁹ Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you.” This reactionary spirit waxes and wanes but persists when and where negotiables become non-negotiables. One can see when a reactionary Spirit (more common in Fundamentalist circles) has taken hold when people add to what God has said.

These reactionary Judaizers were claiming to be the faithful community but added to the Gospel. If you add to the Gospel, you really take away and this is the heart of the reactionary mistake.

The Fortune Telling Girl (Acts 16:16-18) is viewed as a particularly odd account in scripture, but it is one vitally important to the subject at hand. The typical understanding is simply of Peter being annoyed with a persistent girl (albeit it one possessed by a demon). The question “Why would Paul push back on someone pointing to the Gospel? is a valid one if we ask it to understand, but also assumes something, that his is what she is trying to do.

So, let’s consider who this girl is. She is demonically possessed and part of a religious system of paganism. We are told the pagan world is under the Devil’s influence (Jm 4:4, Lk 4:1-9). This demon possessing the fortune telling girl followed Peter and his group, proclaiming his was the way of salvation. Odd, until you think of what this accomplishes for it. The one speaking is a demonic entity trying to attach Peter’s ministry to her own work. She is not trying to save people but introduce paganism into the Church by attaching herself to Peter. If the demons can corrupt the message of salvation by making it seem the same as falsehoods, they can hurt the church’s ability to make actual Christians. If she were successful, Christianity would look like just another form of the same unbelieving faith. The strategy of the fortune telling girl is to try to make Christianity worldly, and in this case just like Liberal Mainline today.

The Nicolaitains are one group where the same tactic is being used in an example of cultural accommodation by osmosis, the approach of the Liberal Mainline Churches. The Nicolaitains appear to have taught you can live in sin and use witchcraft. Jesus becomes just another form of the pagan belief system. You will find incredible similarities, including licentiousness among the Nicolaitans and the embracing of witchcraft and worldly wisdom. The unbelieving world and the demons behind it have long followed the simple idea of “if you can’t beat them, corrupt them” like Balak who corrupted Israel (Revelation 2:14) You hear this Nicolaitan “Christianity is just the same truth” as every other religion today. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Fighting is even commanded for life, a sign of a faithful church. Whereas reactionaries add to God’s law, these liberals jettison the whole while keeping Christian words to appear Christian.

Jesus commends two churches in Revelation for fighting this culturally accommodating heresy. He gives praise to the church of Ephesus in Revelation saying in Revelation 2:2
“I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.”

Ephesus receives praise for orthodoxy but is warned for it’s lack of love (Revelation 2:1-7). The latter is often remembered, but the praise for fighting evil in the church is an often-forgotten truth. This is Evident for the Church at Pergamum as well (Revelation 2:12-17), who are encouraged for their discernment of false teachers who preach false words.


The solution is given us in many places, but 2 John illustrates it in a wonderfully simple way.
2 John 6-11
⁶ And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. ⁷ For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. ⁸ Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we^[a] have worked for, but may win a full reward. ⁹ Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. ¹⁰ If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, ¹¹ for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.”

Wisdom seeks out the matter (Proverbs 25:2), what they believe, in detail. John was referring to a group that denied Jesus came in the flesh. If it is a different Christ, they are false teachers. So, to find out which Jesus they serve, ask them the meaning of their words.

The shield I chose for this articles image was not chosen by accident. It is clearly obvious the symbolism, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It is the original symbol of the Fabian Society, the socialist (and woke) institution dating back 139 years. These people are real, and they know how to manipulate. Wolves in sheep’s clothing will always be a problem, so fight.

Remember it is not just blessed are the peacekeepers, but blessed are the peacemakers (Mt 5:9) , and peacemakers will have to fight. Shepherds are called to fight and are warned that wolves will be among them (Acts 20:28-29) and Christians are called to discern (2 Timothy 2:15). If we live out this calling, we will win and spread the Gospel and it’s influence. There are many excellent passages I hope to explore as we go on, but be encouraged, wise as serpents, and gentle as doves (Mt 10:16). Contend for the faith (Jude 1:3) in this world that so thoroughly rejects Christ.