For a long time now, I’ve been trying to get a handle on the compromises that seem to be everywhere within seminaries, Christian publishers, Christian media, and our churches.

It seems like most of the believers I encounter are immersed in a Christian culture of appeasement when it comes to spiritual things.

In other words, very, very few of my brothers and sisters in Christ seem to have any real sense of the errors that are swirling all around them – even within the church itself.

And, of those who actually see these errors, very few are willing to fight against them. In fact, few are even willing to discuss them.

Since that would be, in their minds, to exhibit a kind of arrogance or lack of humilty. Since the popular view of “humility” is to not be too “absolute” in what you believe; or at least to never say so.

Which seems to be a greater danger, according to the popular Evangelical culture, than actually discovering doctrinal error within your church!

It’s really kind of maddening to deal with all this.

To deal with fellow Christians who choose not to exercise spiritual discernment and who lack the stomach to stand upon the truth – even when they know things are wrong.

What I’m saying is due, in large part, to a couple articles I read recently.

Which were older ones taken from a few different Christian sites. These were articles discussing the New Evangelical movement and how it all started.

They were mostly in praise of the movement and of those leaders who caused it to have such a wide and deep-reaching effect over the last 100 years. Which affected not only the United States but the whole world.

(Which I’ll go into in greater detail in some future posts)

A Confederacy of Dufuses

At this time, I just wanted to take a brief moment to share a kind of “revelation” I had as I read these articles.

What hit me most was just how impossible it is to nail anything down today. To find a real cause-and-effect relationship in the errors in our churches. Or any single, underground spring from which all of this compromise has bubbled up.

And, by the way, I am under no illusion that most of the people who will read this will really know what New Evangelicalism is. Not really. Maybe they’ve heard the term. But little else.

And most of the blame for that lack of understanding can be put squarely at the feet of our Christian leaders. To whom the folks in the pew look for both in-depth teaching of the word and for training in how to identify and fight the spiritual dangers that surround us.

A Seriously Huge Octopus

Nevertheless, for years I’ve tried to make sense of this philosophy that now rules in our churches and seminaries. Because as soon as I stumble upon a person or book that seems to be the source of it all, sure enough there is another dufus who was the initial inspiration for that source.

In other words, there’s always some other dufus one can find.

Another root that we have to chop through in order to dig deeper. Like when I had to dig, by hand, all the foundation holes at our local cemetery. Old cemetery. Old trees. Roots that would pop up in the middle of nowhere!

Or just one more tentacle we have to wrestle with.

I’m speaking of the million-tentacled octopus, which is the New Evangelicalism, which has spread out in every conceivable direction. Spreading its influence of appeasement with error everywhere.

There just aren’t enough axes or chainsaws to kill the beast.

And very few Christian men and women who possess the courage to take up the sword of the Spirit and go into battle. To not only stand upon but defend the faith.

But I guess they’re all just “lovers” instead of fighters. At least that’s what most of them keep telling me.

Image by sabrinabelle from Pixabay