Know Thy Enemy

I’ve gotten a couple of e-mails of late asking why I’ve started to focus on the culture of the day more than before, and haven’t stuck to exegesis. These were friendly queries, by no means confrontational or mean-spirited, and if someone has an honest question, I go out of my way to answer them.

Although the books I am currently working on are exegetical in nature, I will be the first to admit that some of the articles I post on the blog are focused on the current culture, and the implicit danger it poses to morality and decency.

The way I work is simple. I sit down in the morning, with no preconceived topic, I read my Bible, I say a prayer, spend some time with God if I’m up before the sun and the girls aren’t running around wanting my attention, then I start to write. It’s very organic, unforced, and cerebral, and this is how I’ve always done it.

Perhaps it has to do with the fact that I now have children, whom, if the Lord tarries, will inherit the chaos we will leave behind, but having thought about it at length this morning, I don’t believe it’s the only reason.

Whether we want to admit it or not, culture does affect us as individuals. Practices, peccadillos, and perceptions we would have balked at two decades ago have now been normalized, and things that would have incensed an overwhelming majority not long ago, are no longer seen for the dangers that they are.

Some might say it’s just progress, but from a spiritual standpoint, progress has nothing to do with it. Embracing sin is not progress. Embracing sin is the very definition of having a seared conscience, wherein that which would have repelled the spirit of righteousness living within us no longer does so.

We have grown comfortable with depravity, we have grown comfortable with abomination even within the household of faith, and once we, as a society or even a body grow comfortable with those things seeking to destroy the pursuit of holiness and morality itself, we become complacent, disengaged, lethargic, and indifferent.

I’ve been focusing on the current culture of late because it is a conversation that believers must engage in. It is something many choose to ignore, but do so at their peril because to defend against one’s enemy, one must first know their enemy.

The more you know of your enemy’s schemes and means by which he carries out his attacks, the better you will be able to defend against them.

Ignoring the issues, pretending as though our children aren’t being indoctrinated and propagandized, or that Christianity isn’t being assailed, demonized, and vilified just makes it easier for the darkness to carry out its sinister plans.

Yes, we are in the world but not of it, but that does not mean we ought to do nothing about the constant attempts at tearing down the foundations, and transforming the church into nothing more than a better dressed, less rambunctious version of the world.

Know your enemy, understand his plans, identify his minions, determine what their objective is, and you will be in a position to not only stand against the darkness but actually beat it back. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.