"To be an effective warrior in the battle for truth today, several old fashioned, Christlike virtues are absolutely essential: biblical discernment, wisdom, fortitude, determination, endurance, skill in handling Scripture, strong convictions, the ability to speak candidly without waffling, and a willingness to enter a conflict."
~John MacArthur: The Truth War, page 146
Last week, we looked two of these critical virtues in the defense of the faith: discernment and wisdom. Today, we will look at fortitude, determination, and endurance. All three of these work together. Fortitude is an old-fashioned word for strength. It’s the noun form of the verb “to fortify.” The verb means to make strong; the noun means to have strength. Determination is a mindset – it’s the heart, interest, and focus on the task at hand. Endurance is the ability to stay with it for the long haul. Let’s take a look at how these play a role in apologetics and being an effective warrior in the battle for truth.
If someone has “fortitude,” it means they have a position of strength. It’s the “high ground.” Unfortunately, Christians have long surrendered this position in the face of those who think they have “educated” themselves out of the necessity of belief in God. There are many atheists and quasi-believers who are quick to challenge a Christian on any topic (doesn’t matter what it is), and they are just waiting for you for bring the Bible into the discussion. Their response is often, “I don’t believe in the Bible, so you can’t use it.” Or they will say, “The Bible is what is making that claim, therefore you can’t use it as evidence.” It doesn’t matter what the topic is. Their target is to get you to remove the Bible from the discussion. Voddie Baucham compares this to two knights going to duel and one knight says, “I don’t believe in your sword,” expecting the other knight to set it down. It’s foolish in a duel, yet it has succeeded so many times with the Bible. Baucham continues to show what should be done. You can either set the sword down and explain how swords work, or you can hit him with the sword anyway.
To the Christian, the Bible is our ultimate authority. It’s our high ground. It’s our position of strength. We don’t need to defend it. It can defend itself better than any of us ever could. (Check out this resource for more on that.) Instead, we need to attack with it. The Bible is more than a shield; it’s a sword. But let us remember that our war is not against flesh and blood, but against ideas and arguments and spiritual forces. A Christian who has fortitude knows his Bible and knows what it says and knows its strength. There are many verses in Scripture which tells the believer to stand firm, hold your ground, be strong and courageous. The Hebrew word for this is chazak, and it’s part of the Israelite War Cry that I wrote about way back in 2014. Be strong! When you engage with lies from the enemy, hold your ground. Don’t let them advance. Don’t let them pull you aside for a “discussion.” Nehemiah saw that tactic and would not let a discussion with an unbeliever that had no chance of getting that unbeliever saved detract him from his mission. Nehemiah had fortitude, and he needed every bit of it.
We must be determined. The Christian must not have “quit” as an option. Now, there is a difference between being stubborn and trying to force something to happen and determination. Determination is the other part of the Israelite War Cry: amats. It’s the unwavering, unyielding, relentless charge that refuses to say no. Determination in this war sees that teaching is a lie and it is destroying us. It must be exposed and brought down. It also sees that the truth must be defended, and we must not allow our walls to be compromised. Determination refuses to stop or slow down until the objective is complete. Determination may back off when pressing forward in one direction proves to be futile, but determination always comes back from another angle or approach.
We better have determination in our stance for truth because the enemy has the determination to tear it down. And he is relentless. One of the enemy’s goals is to wear us down so we quit fighting. So we have to be as Eleazar, one of David’s mighty men, who fought so hard to the point where his hand stuck to his sword. Eleazar physically could not let go of it after the battle was won. That’s the kind of determination we need to have. Or that of Jashobeam who single-handedly fought off 800 men in one battle. That’s determination. In our apologetics and our defense of the faith, it doesn’t matter how many people come at us, it doesn’t matter how many credentials they have, and it doesn’t matter what arguments they have; we are to stand firm and not quit. The truth is worth fighting for. Without truth, we lose everything. We need tireless, unrelenting determination to fight for it until the battle is won.
This also calls for endurance. As I mentioned, the enemy is determined, too. And the enemy does not relent and does not quit. So, we need endurance. I heard a statistic that the average pastor only lasts a few years before quitting. Why? Because he lacks endurance (among many other reasons). Endurance means we are in it for the long haul. To defend the truth is not a quick sprint; it’s a super marathon. MacArthur gives a case of who had this from The Truth War: Athanasius. Athanasius led the charge against Arius and his heresy of Jesus not being the actual son of God. Much of the church bought into his lies, and Athanasius refused to give this up. He was so determined and so strong on his point that Constantine called him saying, “The whole world is against you.” Constantine was talking about the church. Athanasius said, “If they be all against me, then I am against them.” The phrase Athanasius Contra Mundo came from that encounter. This battle raged on for decades and because of Athanasius’ determination and his fortitude, he built up the endurance to the end. In the end, Aruis’ teachings fell away, primarily because truth had a soldier who would not let go and would not quit.
We need such soldiers today. But unlike Athanasius’ day, I don’t believe some of these false teachings are going away until Christ returns. The lies have proven to be false and weak, but they aren’t going way. I do wonder if Athanasius thought the same thing. After the Council of Nicaea when Arius was proved a heretic, he still went about teaching his lies, all the while proclaiming the same truths as everyone else, even agreeing with the very council that refuted him. All he did differently was redouble his efforts in making his language and terminology closer to the sound doctrines. Arius didn’t quit teaching his lies after being refuted. Likewise, we should never quit speaking the truth and refuting the lies. Next week, I’ll have a full post on how we must have skill in Scripture to defend the truth.
This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
0 comments:
Post a Comment