Big wars, little wars, long wars, short wars, world wars, local wars. Enemies, armies, adversaries, soldiers, destroyers, accusers, persecutors, attackers, provokers, murmurers, criticizers, trouble-makers. Big discord, little discord, long discord, short discord, world discord, local discord. Centuries of conflict have come forth from the original conflict when Lucifer, the highest of the angels, desired to be equal with God, and determined to smash everything in his way in order to accomplish his purpose.
The war that started in the heaven-lies was continued on earth as Lucifer, now Satan, came in the form of a serpent and talked Eve into being dissatisfied with what God had given her. He tempted her into smashing the truth of the Word of God in order to gain something he dangled before her eyes as superior knowledge. Satan fought his war against God by capturing the minds of Adam and Eve and getting them to believe a lie rather than truth, but it didn’t stop there. Satan has continued to twist people’s minds, to persuade them to use their talents and intelligence and energies to try to prove God wrong, or nonexistent. This basic war has been the seedbed of all the wars and rumors of wars throughout the ages, wars that will continue as long as Satan has power.
Christians often feel superior because they are not among those crying “peace, peace, when there is no peace.” They think they are being realistic because they expect wars and rumors of wars until Christ comes back again. But there is a deafness, a blindness, an insensitivity among many Christians, for they refuse to recognize the war in which they are involved. They are letting the enemy attack and score victories without resistance. Satan is achieving his minor victories in an increasing number of conflicts in Christian circles—in schools, seminaries, churches, missions, Christian groups of all sorts, and inside many of us as individuals. The cleverest strategy of an enemy is to achieve an attitude of friendliness and to succeed in being accepted within the ranks. There an enemy can accomplish his work unhindered as he gradually twists and turns ideas and principles into opposite positions, and poisons minds with tiny amounts of poison.
God has warned us. We cannot one day say, “Why didn’t you tell us? Why didn’t you warn us to look out for that fifth columnist? Why didn’t you say he would be disguised as an angel of light?” We have been sufficiently warned. The fires of our cities burning down are in plain sight. The whistling bombs can be heard. We are as stupid and negligent as any Nero if we simply entertain ourselves with Christian entertainment and let ourselves and our children be attacked and devoured without entering into the army and setting up a defense as we have been told to do.
What are some aspects of the warnings? “Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer” (1 Cor. 10:10). We are warned not to murmur against God by complaining, criticizing, cutting down people within our believers’ groups. The destroyer Satan, is ready once again to destroy murmurers as he did in the time of Numbers 14:2, 11:
And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt!… And the LORD said unto Moses, how long will this people provoke me? And how long will it be ere they believe me for all the signs which I have showed among them?
Believers are constantly to remember, in their conversations as well as their actions, what God has done, and are not to be full of complaint about things they want changed in the immediate future. Satan is waiting to pounce on people who use all their wit, intelligence, energy, and talents to “pull down,” and who turn aside from glorifying God and recognizing the marvel of what he has done and is doing. To neglect to recognize the work of the Lord in lives and in situations, to insist upon using human measuring sticks that conceal the wonder of what God has done, gives the enemy an important foothold.
“We would have come unto you, even I, Paul, once and again: but Satan hindered us” (1 Thess. 2:18). Satan accomplished something against Paul because of some neglect in the war on the part of believers. Peter both warns and comforts us in calling us to watch out for Satan’s wiles:
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world [1 Pet. 2:8, 9].
We are warned that Satan is looking for people to devour. We are comforted that it is not impossible to “resist” him; we can do it if we are “steadfast in the faith.” We are further comforted that we have company in our war.
Writing to the Ephesians, Paul says:
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places [Eph. 6:10–12].
Read all of Ephesians 6:11–19 and note that we are warned, but also given instructions as to how to stand, and how to fight. We need to be “girt about with truth” (Ps. 119:142b). “If any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part of the book of life, and of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book” (Rev. 22:19). There is no reason to expect victory in the battle if we use only a part of the truth to “girt us about.” We are poorly protected if we give up bits and pieces of the Word of God.
The protecting helmet is salvation, but the sword with which to stave off Satan’s weapon against us is the Word of God. With this sword we are to attack and to defend. Many people have a sword that has nicks in the blade and a bent point. The sword, the Word of God, isn’t in good condition because parts have been discarded as unimportant! What a foolish sight. The shield of faith will quench the fiery darts the wicked enemy is able to throw. That faith, which can be as small as a mustard seed, is nevertheless effective when the further admonition is carried out: “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching hereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.”
To say that there is no war is to give comfort to the enemy, who then knows he has succeeded in his infiltration. “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb” during the centuries of conflict.
