Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Contend

Contend

Last updated on: July 4, 2020 at 11:45 am by John Mark N. Reynolds

Contend 2020-07-04T11:45:55-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

In the first chapter of Jude, Christians are commanded to contend for the faith.

There were ages when this command was popular, times when fighting blood was aroused easily and without guilt. This is not such a time. We prefer “Twitter
Heroes” who abandon the faith of the Apostles, but do so coyly, attacking their foes by being hurt or claiming to be misunderstood after chuffing some old heresy tarted up in modern academic jargon. I fear that most of us wish to dodge the clarity and concision of Jude.*

Personally, I would prefer if Jude commanded us to think hard about the faith, consider we might be wrong, or be nicer to people with bad ideas. Pulpit fashion nowadays is not to thunder, but to emote and so this old book is offensive.

The glory of multiculturalism is when it forces me to consider new points of view and the advantage of old books comes when they have attitudes not my own. Why did a persecuted church take such strong stands? Why do I resist this attitude?

I think partly history burdens me. The Thirty Years War and the blood of religious strife stand between me and Jude. He is harder for me to hear because he appears to justify actions that in fact would have been unthinkable to this holy man. The church he led was unburdened by the mistakes we have made. Nor is Jude to blame for the mistakes, because only an irrational man would move from taking ideas seriously, gaining needed clarity, to killing people who disagreed.

Christians have been that irrational, but that was not Jude’s fault.

In fact, Jude is a perfect antidote to the intellectual vapidity of education. Jesus, we are told today, had no creed. This is true, but Paul certainly did and Jude doesn’t read like a man who would be distressed by drawing doctrinal lines. Why the difference?

Jesus was God, the Word incarnate. We can be like Him, but we cannot be Him. When the Word was around and you could see the Truth, the situation was . . . different. The Holy Spirit is now with us, and that is a good thing, but not the same kind of good thing.

Jesus drew lines by walking into a room. If you were for Him, you were an insider, if you were against Him, then you were out. Safe to say, no leader not the Son of God should emulate this personal style.

Creeds, coupled with the Holy Spirit, act in a similar way, but with a safer division of power. Truth and grace are not merely personal, but not simply propositional.

Why draw lines at all? Why form communities where anybody can be “other?”

God Himself draws lines, but again we are not God.

Lines must be drawn, because of human pride and hatreds. The proud man who uses “faith once delivered” for power is obvious to moderns. Less obvious is the passive-aggressive power play of those who pretend not to know what they know.

Best reason, experience, and revelation has taught the church things over the centuries. These truths have come as the community has reflected on the life of the church and divine wisdom. To pretend we don’t have a deposit of knowledge is a lie and to assume that our generation has “wisdom” that quickly can overturn what has believed in all places at all times is proud.

Human experience shows that when the lines are not written, they exist in an unwritten way. While I can challenge a creed, knowing when I am leaving a group, those refusing to spell out what they think soon develop unwritten rules. These unwritten structures are harder to challenge, because they don’t exist.

Such communities end up as communist states which refused to talk about class, since they were classless. They needed just one party, because they were the party of all the people.

My experience of churches shows that if they will not contend for the faith once delivered to the apostles, they are soon contending for social norms delivered to the cool kids.

In a free society, which Christians helped form, smaller communities with rigorous views can compete with each other. If each melts down into theological vacuity, these arguments never come to a point and the work of the Spirit is obscured. Wheat always grows with tares, but no church should set up a tare planting program.

Facing an abuse of power from Rome, the church did not respond passively. They drew lines and challenged the establishment. Internal heresy blurred that distinction. The less powerful a church is, the more it must exercise power internally. A culturally powerful church, unlike that of the New Testament, must be cautious . . . it is harder to escape if it goes bad. Contending for traditional Christianity can be done in a crabby and narrowing way or it can present a joyful contrast with other groups. Orthodoxy allows me to move to new issues and not keep going over “same old issues.”

Are we winning? Are we losing? Who knows! Who cares? Our job is to love, endure, and be saved.

*Of course, there are also the Twitter Polemicists who even in a pandemic cannot stop wild attacks, crazy conspiracy theories, and a fear based defense of the faith.

Apologetics

Spiritual Reflections

Previous Post

July 2, 2020

The Value of Unchanging Goodness (Happy Birthday Brother Daniel)

Next Post

July 4, 2020 The Hopeful Theodicy: God takes on all our pain. . .

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Apologetics Art Culture Education On Books On Education Philosophy Politics Pop Culture Spiritual Reflections Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 July 2025 June 2025 September 2024 July 2024 June 2024 December 2023 June 2023 September 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which city did the Philistines give David as a base during his exile?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Bethlehem Gibeah Ziklag Hebron

Books by This Author John Mark Reynolds

See All Titles »