by E.E. Greyson
Dangerous times. What a curious expression. When have there not been dangerous times? Ever since our first parents did not perceive the danger of eating the forbidden fruit we have been in dangerous times. For the wicked have ALWAYS persecuted the godly from the time that the first man born on this planet murdered his brother, the second born and righteous. Paul himself observes that “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” when speaking of his own persecutions and sufferings.
It has always been dangerous to be at peace with God and at enmity with the world for you will always be at peace with one and enmity with the other. Just recall that “The world is passing away and also its lusts, but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”
Dangerous times have been borne by the church of the living God from our beginning and will until our victorious end. Even now, in many countries, Christians are disappeared; kidnapped and murdered. They are beaten for offering a prayer, jailed for singing a hymn, beheaded for believing that God so loved the world by those who believe God hates everyone but them.
Here in America, we have enjoyed an unusual time of peace in the garden with Christ where we too, like Jesus’ favorites, slumbered while our Lord was in agony for the world. But I admit to you that this is changing quickly. It is not that the church has become more bold, but that the wicked have become more proud, more brazen, and more assured of their footing while we wait for God to vindicate us and prove their gods in whom they trust are no gods at all.
I note that the danger for all Christians worldwide is rapidly increasing with the proliferation of AI and other tools of misinformation and oppression that are even now being placed in all the digital hubs with sensors everywhere, even the one you carry in your pocket and on your wrist. Peace and safety they say, this is all for your peace and safety while they even now plan for your disquiet and enslavement.
Come now, wake up and to your duty! If you will not go to the war, then it is coming to you and you should be ready for it. If the wicked can show valor on the battlefield, should not the sons of light do more so? We are for peace, but they are for war. If it be peace, then let us be at peace with all men so much as it depends on us, but if it is for war, let us act like men in the face of battle.
You may wonder at the title of the article and its content. In this world, as God has foreordained it to be, we find ourselves either making peace with the world, as so many have and carry the mark of it; or come to an agreement, an armistice, while our enemy prepares for our slaughter; or having peace with God we have always been and always will be at enmity with the world.
When one is at war, they are in need of discretion which has been called “privacy” as of late. When to muster, when to gather, when to plan, when to encourage, when to worship when the battle belongs to the LORD. You need to do these things, sometimes away from the eyes of the enemy and sometimes facing them.
But God has made you a warrior and warriors do not leave the battlefield, they do not abandon the fight once it is joined. To do so is to desert in cowardice. But God has not given us a spirit of cowardice but of power and love and self-control.
Thus a Christian needs to know when to show discretion and when to be bold. Those who have bartered a peace with the world at the cost of their soul need neither. The world will not bother them until it consumes them and they will not be bold, or at least not bold for God.
Now that you know the battle is being joined, you ought to know how to conduct yourselves in it. In the remaining three articles in this series I will give you no more than a direction in which to point. As always deliverance by man is vain. I am only a man, but I am a man that points you to God in whom is your salvation and your victory.
Finally, in a fifth article, I will show you the weapon by which your enemies can not stand, for it is powerful, more powerful than all the enemy has or could have. But its use comes at a high cost so that no one wields it but those who belong to God and, hating their own lives, seek to live Coram Deo (in the presence of God, before His face) and Soli Deo Gloria (for God’s glory alone).
Helpful Books on Christian Warfare
Holy War by John Bunyan
Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
Precious Remedies to Satan’s Devices by Thomas Brooks
The Christian in Complete Armour by William Gurnall
Foxe’s Book of Martyrs by John Foxe
