What Are Attacks?
What are personal attacks and what is the difference between doctrinal confrontation and verbal assaults aimed at the person and with the intent to cause harm to him or her personally? We as Christians must strive, however imperfectly, to speak forcefully about Bible truths while asking the Spirit to keep us humble, emotionally dispassionate, and very careful to avoid personal verbiage about the teachers of the doctrines with which we differ. Let me provide some examples.
I have heard Rob Bell preach and speak and he seems like a charming family man who is much more intelligent than am I. The same with Erwin Macmanus when I saw an interview on television, he was very articulate and engaging. I have read Brian MacLaren and by all accounts he is a gentle and humble man who probably makes friends easily. The personalities and personal lives of these men should have no bearing upon my strong disagreement with their doctrinal teachings, and my labeling of “heretic” is within doctrinal parameters. I would feel sad to hear if any of them were sick or were getting a divorce or even had an affair, those are not my issues and the information about those things doesn’t come from their own pen. I feel that Bell and MacManus are probably brothers in Christ, but even if I did not I still should avoid any personal attacks.
The doctrinal dialogue will continue to get more heated and we must not get carried away with the emotion and the personalities involved. We must humbly be true to the teachings of Jesus Christ as revealed in the 66 books we know as Holy Scripture. Paul issued many such admonitions/attacks in his epistles complete with the word heretic and heresies. He also said the Scriptures were beneficial for rebuke and reproof and he even said to reject those who would not repent of their doctrinal error. We should be very careful about using satire or personal invectives about anyone including the unsaved, but we should not recoil at making strong, Scriptural rebukes and confront those teachings which do despite unto the Word of God.
Those who ,stand for truth, however imperfectly, will be verbally assaulted in many different ways. We will be accused of attacking others, misrepresenting the doctrinal stands of others, and being intransigent Pharisees. We must strive to not justify those labels but still speaking forcefully about our convictions. Those that have significantly strayed are not coming back absent a providential miracle of God’s grace, but our ministry is to those who have not yet been deceived or are still to be added to God’s family.
We also must not rest on our doctrinal laurels and discontinue to scour the Scriptures to both freshly substantiate our beliefs and also find rebuke and reprove in the Word for our own lives. Our doctrinal battles must not prevent us from hungering and thirsting for the Word of Life and our Savior’s face revealed in them. Our devotional life must not be a causality of doctrinal combat and in time it is redefined and actually gets lost in the fray. Our first calling is to seek Christ in our own lives and with that comes a responsibility to reject and confront error.
I am not wearied by personal attacks or demeaning adjectives for without the grace of God I am all of those and much, much more. I am a certifiable nobody and my voice is very small among the many voices on both sides. My writings are in obedience to what I cannot deny is the Spirit’s calling in my life and my miniscule talents, I can do no less. It is difficult to speak boldly while reflecting humility and conversely it is difficult to speak humbly and still be bold. So there are times where my words seem harsh and even prideful, but if there is any of me in them I publicly denounce me and my flesh because that is not my intention. God has chosen to use imperfect earthen vessels and with that comes many liabilities which are often represented in our flesh. A word choice, a fleshly emotion, or even a mistaken assumption are just a few of the errors we all are sometimes guilty of, but let us never be satisfied with those.
I am not representing and defending myself, I honestly believe I am contending for God’s Word. If you are not convinced of that then you should remain silent. And then there is that “love thing”. Do I love Rob Bell or Brian MacLaren or the others as God would have of me? No, I admit, I do not. I must pray for them everyday and especially when I write about their teachings and use their names. They have families, loved ones, spouses, and children who can easily become casualties if our spirits do not reflect genuine love and concern in the midst of our disagreement. Being in the pastorate, I know the hurt someone’s family can suffer at the words of others. We must be lovingly careful without compromise either in our love or God’s truth.
So we should contend not attack, but we should endure attacks with patience and forgiveness.
Never respond to an attack and especially within the first week, give the Spirit the time to circumcise your flesh. Our battle is not with flesh and blood and names like Bell, Warren, Pagitt, and others are no better or worse than ours. It is truth as taught in God’s Word that is the issue, and it is the spirits of wickedness and error with which we wrestle. The only flesh I should be battling is my own and that battle is a full time occupation and if our attacks don’t include our own flesh then we are hypocrites.
Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
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