Re: Battleground or Playground?

Our fathers believed in sin and the devil and hell. . . [and in] God and righteousness and heaven....Humans, our fathers held, had to choose sides-they could not be neutral. For them it must be life or death, heaven or hell, and if they chose to come out on God's side, they could expect open war with God's enemies. The fight would be real and deadly and would last as long as life continued here below....

How different today....People think of the world not as a battle ground, but as a playground. We are not here to fight; we are here to frolic. We are not in a foreign land; we are at home....[This idea] has now been accepted in practice by the vast majority of fundamentalist Christians. They might hedge around the question ... but their conduct gives them away. --A.W. Tozer

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. (Phil 3:20-21)

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. (1Pet5:8-9)

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. (2 Cor 10:3)

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. (Eph 6:11-13) (VW)