Are Conservative Christians at War With the Left? (Part 1)

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By all indications, conservative Christians have strife and conflict on their minds these days. But do we understand what sort of war we’re in, who the enemy is, and how we’re supposed to fight?

I’d love to do some man-on-the street interviews at a conservative evangelical event and ask, “Who or what are Christians at war with?” Answers would probably include “the world,” and “the devil.” Someone might quip, “one another!”

I suspect many would say “the Left,” and many who said “the world” would have the Left in mind.

This is a serious problem! Christians need to be lovingly confronted with the biblical truth about our place in this world and the nature of our conflict with the cultures we find ourselves in. Those involved in preaching and teaching ministries are in an especially vital position to do that.

A passage in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer aptly summarizes the war Christians are really in. It’s a much older war than political parties, elections, corporations or “mandates.”

LORD, we beseech thee, grant thy people grace to with stand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil; and with pure hearts and minds to follow thee the only God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Though the three-part formula of the world, the flesh and the devil can be assembled from many portions of Scripture, Ephesians 2:1-3 has all three.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (ESV, emphasis added)

Some observations from these verses:

  • If we’re going to think in terms of us vs. them, the “them” is what all of “us” used to be, not some elites.
  • What we all used to be are “sons of disobedience,” and neither major U.S. political party has any shortage of those.
  • What we’re called to reject are the “sins in which [we] once walked,” a specific “course” ultimately directed by a living being, “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit now at work.”
  • The way of life we’re at war with centers on “the desires of the body and mind,” not political parties, the media, governments, corporations, freedoms, or long-cherished traditions.

We’re in a fight against our own nature as fallen humans, and that nature is pervasive, not the special problem of a particular group in 21st century American society.

Where is this battle fought?

In light of Ephesians 2, what does the real war Christians are in look like? Where is the battlefield?

1. Myself, every hour of every day.

In Ephesians 2, the apostle speaks of the “walk” and “course” as something from our past, a way “we once lived.” It’s past tense because believers are truly on a different course and living a different way of life. Further, from the point of view of the God who “was, is, and is to come” (Rev. 4:8) and who is “from everlasting to everlasting” (Psalm 90:2) our spiritual battles are all over already. We are predestined, called, justified, and glorified (Rom 8:30).

As we experience time, though, the struggle with self continues. Though we are no longer children of wrath (Eph 5:1, 8; 1 Thess 5:9), and the Prince of the Power of the Air is no longer our master, the “desires of the body and the mind” (Eph 2:3) still exist and vie for dominance in us.

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. (Gal 5:17)

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. (1 Pet 2:11)

Let’s take this reality back to the classic trio of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

  • As the system/order of anti-God beliefs, values, desires and actions, “the world” is not just outside. It’s partly within us. We’re not entirely re-ordered. We’re instructed to be transformed by renewing our minds (Rom 12:2). The good work Christ has begun in us is yet to be completed (Phil 1:6).
  • In the sense of the old tendency to sin, “the flesh” is very much a part of our daily struggle as Christians.
  • The devil no longer has any claim on us, but we’re capable of giving him a place that doesn’t belong to him (Eph 4:27, James 4:7). We can wrongly allow him to use what’s within us against us (James 1:14).

If each of us were to take a piece of chalk and draw a circle around our feet, more than half of the battlefield of Christian warfare for us would be inside that circle. So, if my battle focus and energy are on the left, the media, the government, or the corporations, I’m fighting the wrong war.

As the apostle Paul reminded Timothy, we all know where our marching orders come from and it’s not Fox News, The Gateway Pundit, or Lauren Boebert any more than it’s MSNBC, The New York Times, or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez .

Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. (2 Tim 2:3–4)

Discussion

I do not understand how it can be that you do not seem to take Ephesians 6:10-17 into consideration in this article:
Ephesians 6:10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 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. 13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; 15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
This is a premier passage concerning the warfare that all believers unavoidably and inescapably must engage in, both individually and corporately. According to what Paul teaches here, we are not battling foremost against human beings, but rather we are battling against continual attacks from the devil and his demons.
Is it your position that this passage does not apply to us as believers today? If so, why do you believe that?

Rajesh,

This comment is absurd.
“Is it your position that this passage does not apply to us as believers today? If so, why do you believe that?”

A person chooses not to include a verse in an article and this is where your mind goes? Come on brother. I’m all for you expressing your thoughts on the occult but just because you have a hammer in your hand that doesn’t make everything a nail.

[josh p]

Rajesh,

This comment is absurd.
“Is it your position that this passage does not apply to us as believers today? If so, why do you believe that?”

A person chooses not to include a verse in an article and this is where your mind goes? Come on brother. I’m all for you expressing your thoughts on the occult but just because you have a hammer in your hand that doesn’t make everything a nail.

Josh,
As I see it, it is not a minor matter of his merely choosing “not to include a verse in an article”; he is setting forth a viewpoint that I disagree with strongly about what the primary nature of the warfare that we continually face is. Ephesians 6:10-17 is a premier passage about our spiritual warfare and what it says about the nature of our warfare should not be left untreated in an article that seeks to set forth the real nature of the warfare that we face.
Although Aaron acknowledges that the devil can still attack us if we give place for him to do so, what Aaron says in this article strikes me as not in keeping with the force of what Ephesians 6:10-17 declares is true about demonic assaults upon us as believers.
Furthermore, there are believers who hold that Satan is bound today and therefore incapable of attacking believers today. Because of their beliefs in that they regard, they hold that our warfare is primarily against our own sinful selves (or other people) and not at all (or almost not at all) against evil supernatural beings. I profoundly disagree with such viewpoints.

So you would be perfectly fine with me reading your multitudinous articles about music and concluding that you have a deficient view if you neglect any verse? I can see why you deal with one verse at a time since dealing with two and not the entire Bible would in your mind apparently be a repudiation of all the other verses on a subject.

[josh p]

So you would be perfectly fine with me reading your multitudinous articles about music and concluding that you have a deficient view if you neglect any verse? I can see why you deal with one verse at a time since dealing with two and not the entire Bible would in your mind apparently be a repudiation of all the other verses on a subject.

I do not have anything further to say to you on this subject and what I have said about what I believe is true based on Ephesians 6:10-17. I have expressed my concerns and why I have them. You have to decide what you believe about what God has said in that passage and what you will do with it.

Your last two paragraphs:

If each of us were to take a piece of chalk and draw a circle around our feet, more than half of the battlefield of Christian warfare for us would be inside that circle. So, if my battle focus and energy are on the left, the media, the government, or the corporations, I’m fighting the wrong war.

Hmmmm…

As the apostle Paul reminded Timothy, we all know where our marching orders come from and it’s not Fox News, The Gateway Pundit, or Lauren Boebert any more than it’s MSNBC, The New York Times, or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez .

I think we all agree with this last sentence.

The difficulty I have with your position is that it seems to argue that the only enemy we have is spiritual. I would not want to diminish a call to recognize and engage in our fight with the flesh (mortification).

But you seem to be arguing that we should have no human enemies at all.
Of 25 uses of “enemy” in the Psalms, the majority or all are human.

Let me be clear. I’m not advocating violence. But the left in our political world is squarely against God and what He has declared is good. It’s a Christian duty to oppose them. This leaves many questions, some of which your present article is helpful with: How much energy should a Christian devote to that opposition, given the other important Christian duties we have? And some you don’t deal with here, but elsewhere: What form should our (or my, as we will answer differently) opposition take?

I think I referenced it briefly in Part 2, if I kept it through all the edits. If not, it may show up in a future post on the war theme. I have a lot of ideas on that floating around my mind, inspired mostly by apparent widespread preoccupation with the tiniest part of that war.

In any case, Eph 6 is—surprise—consistent with what we find in the rest of the NT. It’s a lengthy passage, due to Paul’s decision to use an extended metaphor. And that’s really interesting all on its own (reminds me of 1 Cor 12), because he doesn’t do that super often.

Without doing a full exegesis on it, I can note a couple of things. First, of course it applies to believers today. Second, shouldn’t need saying, but nothing in Scripture erases anything else, so beautiful, powerful and important as the passage is, it doesn’t altar the principles I pointed out based on many other passages.

So Eph 6 seems to fall mainly under the devil piece of the world-flesh-devil trio. My favorite part of the passage though is that it explicitly emphasizes that we are not at war with our fellow humans.

One reason I didn’t go into in this post is that I’ve referred it multiple times in others over the last several months (or in comments… hard to remember which. Probably both). Since there is so much on the topic in the NT, I went with some other passages.

I frequently hack quite a bit out of first drafts because they’re just too long. It’s hard enough to read/get read these days. It’s not unusual for the final draft to be 33% shorter.

So, Rajesh, if something important seems missing, a more probable assumption would be that I just wanted to make it shorter.

One more detail on Eph 6

Do want to add: the fact that we wrestle against the devil and fallen angels doesn’t mean we don’t fight against the world and the flesh. And there’s no reason really why it can’t be all of these at the same time, sometimes at the same moment. Just as we say “God did it” when someone is healed—knowing that cells and chemicals and so forth also “did it,” the work of Satan and his servants should be expected to involve the use of means.

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.

Overlooked a bit…

But you seem to be arguing that we should have no human enemies at all.

Of 25 uses of “enemy” in the Psalms, the majority or all are human.

I think I addressed this in Part 2. Sort of.

No, as Christians we’re not at war with humans. We’re at war with the world, the flesh, and the devil. Of course we can have personal enemies, but that’s not a Christian fight, it’s only a human one… and we’re only called to ‘fight’ it at all to the degree necessary as stewards—of our bodies, the people under our care, etc.

This is mostly what’s going on the Psalms. As a divinely appointed king over a nation in a unique covenant relationship with God, those who opposed David were pretty much God’s enemies. But in any case, they were hindering his ability to do what he was entrusted with the responsibility to do.

This is how I read the sermon on the mount also—turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, etc. We’re not free to let others hinder us from our responsibilities, so turn the other cheek doesn’t mean “let someone seriously injure me.” And go the extra mile doesn’t mean “let someone take time and energy from me that I already owe to someone else.”

What we’re at war with is whatever hinders us from believing, desiring, and doing what God wants from us. And in the world, we’re at war with what hinders others from believing, desiring and doing what God wants from them. I’m oversimplifying a bit probably, but the overarching point is that the struggle we’re called to has very little to do with the left, the media, the government, and the corporations.

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.

[Aaron Blumer]

One more detail on Eph 6

Do want to add: the fact that we wrestle against the devil and fallen angels doesn’t mean we don’t fight against the world and the flesh. And there’s no reason really why it can’t be all of these at the same time, sometimes at the same moment. Just as we say “God did it” when someone is healed—knowing that cells and chemicals and so forth also “did it,” the work of Satan and his servants should be expected to involve the use of means.

Yes, I do not hold that wrestling against supernatural evil beings means that we do not battle against the world and the flesh. I also agree that it could be all at the same time, etc.

What especially concerns me is what you say here in your opening post:
“The devil no longer has any claim on us, but we’re capable of giving him a place that doesn’t belong to him (Eph 4:27, James 4:7). We can wrongly allow him to use what’s within us against us (James 1:14).”
If you hold that the devil and his demons can and will only attack us when we give him “a place that doesn’t belong to him,” I believe that you are not setting forth a fully biblical position.
It is not necessary for us to give them a place in order for them to attack us. etc. Consider that Scripture does not provide us with any basis to hold that Satan was only able to attack Job because Job gave him a place or opportunity to do so.
No, Satan’s attacks on Job were not due to any failures on his part in which he allowed the devil to attack him.

Aaron, you used “war.” And “enemy.” But now after two articles, I’m not sure we’re thinking of these the same way.

“War” and “enemy” should be defined. On the extreme, if we’re not careful, “Love your enemies” becomes a command regarding a empty set.

Based on much of what you’ve written, you and I have VERY different ideas about what sort of political position is good and Biblical.

But - I hope we both trust that God is sovereign and His decrees will stand. We’re called to work for what’s right (we might disagree on how to do that). And we’re also called to trust that God holds the future.

[Dan Miller]

Aaron, you used “war.” And “enemy.” But now after two articles, I’m not sure we’re thinking of these the same way.

“War” and “enemy” should be defined. On the extreme, if we’re not careful, “Love your enemies” becomes a command regarding a empty set.

Interesting… I thought defining was pretty much what I was doing in both of these. Well, I assumed that “war” was understood as conflict, opposition, an effort to be victorious over. So, as Christians, Satan’s goal is to defeat us in the sense of preventing us from believing, desiring, and doing what God wants us to believe, desire, do: orthodoxy, orthopathy, orthopraxy (orthopraxis?). The ‘war’ is largely defensive: keeping that from happening. But also offensive: doing what we can to bring people to the place where their beliefs, values/affections, actions are as God designed.

As for enemies…

People can be personal enemies and/or enemies of God and His goals and purposes. We’re supposed to love both. But there is loving opposition and hateful opposition. We love our enemies by opposing them in a loving way.

Going back to my title: are we at war with the Left? On the whole, “we” probably are, but shouldn’t be. We’re certainly at war with anti-God ideas and agendas, and this should be the focus of our opposition. The people advancing the ideas and agendas may or may not be “enemies.” It’s often not easy to tell, and a person may act like an enemy of God in one area while doing quite the opposite in another.

So I think “love your enemies” isn’t supposed to be taken as “love people who are definitely and objectively on the enemy side of a great divide,” but “love even the people who seem at the moment to be those you’re least inclined to love: those who seem to be enemies.” Whether they really are or not isn’t all that important, because of course we’re supposed to love our nonenemies. Jesus point is, love human beings regardless of friend/enemy status. One of the best ways to do that is to just not categorize people as enemies in the first place. (In other words, it’s OK if ‘enemies’ is an empty set objectively… it’s never going to be an empty set emotionally.)

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.

Scripture says that many of the rich and the powerful are prominent oppressors of other humans, especially of believers:
Acts 13:50 But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts.
James 2:6 But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats? 7 Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?

Given what Scripture says, we would be remiss were we not to understand or to keep in mind that many such people are actively the enemies of God’s people.

Probably the best way to avoid confusion about “enemies” and be faithful to Scripture is to remember that we’re to love people, enemies or not.

To most people, “enemy” means “somebody I get to hate.” They wouldn’t say it that way, usually, but in practical terms that’s how it works out: someone I don’t owe the respect of bothering to understand before rejecting or opposing or being angry and hostile toward.

These verses come to mind…

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Mt 5:43–48)

There’s definitely a tension between the call here to greet—which I take as expression of respect (cf 1 Pet 2:17)—vs. passages like 2 John 10, Titus 3.10 etc.

What’s clear is that Scripture never calls us to reject people as enemies before we have actually verified their conduct and beliefs. We don’t ever get to say “they’re on the wrong side of issue X therefore someone I get to hate or treat like I hate.” Also, these passages are all in reference to men who claimed to be Christian teachers but were teaching false doctrine and/or openly behaving in defiance of clear Christian doctrine.

They really don’t apply to politics or social issues.

Hearing before answering is a non-negotiable (Prov 18:13). We owe all fellow humans that much. So, regardless of how one defines “enemy,” it does not include reflexive, unexamined hostility.

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.