“Christians Must Fight” by Foy Wallace, Jr.
“The spirit of pacificism is taking the fight out of the church. But the conflict between truth and error is unending. Victory does not come by truce. God’s terms are unconditional surrender…The church grew when the fight was waged and the battle raged. When the let up came in the fight, the let down came in the church. It is said that the sectarians do not fight anymore. That is because the church has quit fighting and they have nothing to fight. If gospel preachers will fight now as they fought then…and truth will triumph as it did then. Shall we yield to the line of least resistance, or shall we challenge error in its strongholds and citadels?”
(Why did I choose to “resurrect” such a statement that is more than 50 years old? We must observe from this quote a certain truth: this sentiment is rare in our time of extreme tolerance. Times have changed and many among us have changed with it. When the preaching of the gospel is done in our time, it is very rare to hear preachers express their desire to be militant in their expression of the gospel. No one relishes the concept of “fighting” in any religious sense today.
However, please remember God’s will, His view, His mind about this very manner of presenting the truth of His word no matter what the times are like and the popularity by current trends may be: 2 Timothy 3:16 – 4:2, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. 1 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: 2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.”
Can we who are responsible for the delivery of the gospel forget Jude 3 [?] which reads, “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”
Brother Wallace was absolutely correct in this, when he said, “But the conflict between truth and error is unending.” Brethren, let only our mode of speech reflect our place in time. Let it not be our lack of militancy because we have become less than what the Lord requires us to be. “Preach the word!” Preach it bravely, without equivocation or compromise or apology!)
