Re: Contend for the Faith

From all corners of the world comes a challenge to God's Word [and] against the Gospel of Christ. But we must...fulfill our duty...devoted to the defense of the Gospel....

Indeed, truth cannot be stated clearly at all without being set over against error. Thus a large part of the New Testament is polemic; the enunciation of evangelical truth was occasioned by the errors which had arisen in the churches. So it will always be....

At the present time, when the opponents of the Gospel are almost in control of our churches, the slightest avoidance of the defense of the Gospel is just sheer unfaithfulness to the Lord.

There have been previous great crises in the church. [One] in the second century, when [Christianity] was threatened by the Gnostics. Another came in the Middle Ages when the Gospel of God's grace seemed forgotten. In such times of crisis, God has always saved the church. But He has always saved it not by theological pacifists, but by sturdy contenders for the truth. --J.Gresham Machen (1881-1937)

Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, ...whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain. (Titus 1:11)... who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. (Jude 1:3-4)

...give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. (1 Tim 4:13) (VW)