WAR ON ERROR - What should our witness be while taking it to the enemy?

The War on Error (WOE) is a term I concocted several years ago to ID the constant battle we have before the church. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but rather against forces of evil in the heavenlies, powers and principalities of darkness [Ephesians 6:10-17] ... so as we fight we should not bite and devour the brethren we disagree with. [James 4:1ff]

Dan Eleden, at Cerulean Sanctum (what in the world does that mean anyway?), reminded me of this in a hard-hitting piece called Has the Christian Blogosphere Lost Its Collective Mind? Bottom-line: we are sacrificing our witness before the world when we imitate the world and not Christ!

Has the Christian blogosphere lost its collective mind? I believe it has! It has not just in the blogosphere and not just recently. I believe it did so when its people began to bring the world into the church and their leaders aided and abetted them.

All one has to do is look at Christian TV ... something Phil at Spirit Formed Life did a few days ago. Or read the Christian print media ... something that will give you a headache for sure. The blogosphere is a gift of God for good to those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. [Romans 8:28]

While fighting our WOE we should remember the following:

• Our battle is not "our" battle; it is the Lord's!
• We will not ever, in a thousand millennia, ever have a victory; for the victory is the Lord's!
• Our battle is not against people but the real enemy: the Prince of the Power of the Air, the Serpent of Old, the Ruler of This World, Satan himself!
• Our weapons are divine provisions: the helmet of salvation, the truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, Gospel sandals, and the sword of the Spirit - the Word of God, even Jesus Himself! [Ephesians 6:10-17]
• The army of God is not of this world, for it is of the Kingdom ... which is not of this world! [John 18:36]
• Not everyone who calls himself or herself a Christian is a Christian; so, be certain of who you are dealing with before you take on his or her apparent error! [2 John 1:7]

We must certainly contend for the faith once for all delivered [Jude 1:3]; yet there is a way which man believes is the right way, but it is the way which leads to destruction [Proverbs 14:12].

Enough already ... you get the picture! Dan is right (devouring one another is a lousy witness), so is Phil (Christian TV is a lousy witness), and I believe I am too - yoking the church to the ways of the world was a deadly mistake for the Western church family [1 John 2:15-16]!

So what is our witness? We must reflect the Light that came into the world [John 1:9], we must become whole and living sacrifices [Romans 12:1], we must run and not grow weary, we must deny ourselves, and consider others as more important than ourselves! Is that all? No! But we'll have trouble doing this let alone the rest! [Romans 7:14-25]

I stand as guilty of the error of attacking too harshly at times and have some moderation to do in my own personal WOE; but I contend for the faith wherever error rears its ugly head ... just with velvet gloves instead of brass knuckles.