The Truth War Read online

  © 2007 by John MacArthur

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Published in Nashville, TN, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

  Thomas Nelson, Inc. titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected] Nelson, Inc. titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected].

  All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from The New King James Version, copyright 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.

  Scriptures marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

  Scriptures marked NASB are from the New American Standard Bible®. Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

  Scriptures marked NIV are from The Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  MacArthur, John, 1939-

  The truth war : fighting for certainty in an age of deception / John MacArthur.

  p. cm.

  ISBN-13: 978-0-7852-6263-3 (hardcover)

  ISBN-10: 0-7852-6263-6 (hardcover)

  1. Truth--Religious aspects--Christianity. 2. Evangelicalism. 3. Christian life. I. Title.

  BV4509.5.M253 2007

  239–dc22

  2006032323

  Printed in the United States of America

  07 08 09 10 11 12 QW 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5

  Through the years my partnership with Phil Johnson

  has proven to be divinely ordained. The contribution of his

  theological knowledge, clear thinking, and strong conviction

  has been essential to the success of our collaboration

  in projects like these. I owe Phil a deep debt of gratitude

  for his considerable editorial efforts in this book.

  THE Church of Christ is continually represented under the figure of an army; yet its Captain is the Prince of Peace; its object is the establishment of peace, and its soldiers are men of a peaceful disposition. The spirit of war is at the extremely opposite point to the spirit of the gospel.

  Yet nevertheless, the church on earth has, and until the second advent must be, the church militant, the church armed, the church warring, the church conquering. And how is this?

  It is in the very order of things that so it must be. Truth could not be truth in this world if it were not a warring thing, and we should at once suspect that it were not true if error were friends with it. The spotless purity of truth must always be at war with the blackness of heresy and lies.

  —C. H. SPURGEON1

  CONTENTS

  Introduction: Why Truth Is Worth Fighting For

  1. Can Truth Survive in a Postmodern Society?

  2. Spiritual Warfare: Duty, Danger, and Guaranteed Triumph

  3. Constrained into Conflict: Why We Must Fight for the Faith

  4. Creeping Apostasy: How False Teachers Sneak In

  5. Heresy’s Subtlety: Why We Must Remain Vigilant

  6. The Evil of False Teaching: How Error? Turns Grace into Licentiousness

  7. The Assault on Divine Authority: Christ’s Lordship Denied

  8. How to Survive in an Age of Apostasy: Learning from the Lessons of History

  Appendix: Why Discernment Is Out of Fashion

  Notes

  INTRODUCTION

  WHY TRUTH IS WORTH FIGHTING FOR

  Who would have thought that people claiming to be Christians—even pastors—would attack the very notion of truth?

  But they are.

  A recent issue of Christianity Today featured a cover article about the “Emerging Church.” That is the popular name for an informal affiliation of Christian communities worldwide who want to revamp the church, change the way Christians interact with their culture, and remodel the way we think about truth itself. The article included a profile of Rob and Kristen Bell, the husband and wife team who founded Mars Hill—a very large and steadily growing Emerging community in Grand Rapids, Michigan. According to the article, the Bells

  found themselves increasingly uncomfortable with church. “Life in the church had become so small,” Kristen says. “It had worked for me for a long time. Then it stopped working.” The Bells started questioning their assumptions about the Bible itself—“discovering the Bible as a human product,” as Rob puts it, rather than the product of divine fiat. “The Bible is still in the center for us,” Rob says, “but it’s a different kind of center. We want to embrace mystery, rather than conquer it.” “I grew up thinking that we’ve figured out the Bible,” Kristen says, “that we knew what it means. Now I have no idea what most of it means. And yet I feel like life is big again—like life used to be black and white, and now it’s in color.”1

  One dominant theme pervades the whole article: in the Emerging Church movement, truth (to whatever degree such a concept is even recognized) is assumed to be inherently hazy, indistinct, and uncertain—perhaps even ultimately unknowable.

  THE IDEA THAT

  THE CHRISTIAN

  MESSAGE SHOULD BE

  KEPT PLIABLE AND

  AMBIGUOUS

  SEEMS ESPECIALLY

  ATTRACTIVE TO

  YOUNG PEOPLE

  WHO ARE IN TUNE

  WITH THE CULTURE

  AND IN LOVE

  WITH THE SPIRIT

  OF THE AGE.

  Each of the Emerging Church leaders profiled in the article expressed a high level of discomfort with any hint of certainty about what the Bible means, even on something as basic as the gospel. Brian McLaren, for instance, is a popular author and former pastor who is the best-known figure and one of the most influential voices in the Emerging Church movement. McLaren is quoted in the Christianity Today article, saying at one point: “I don’t think we’ve got the gospel right yet. . . . I don’t think the liberals have it right. But I don’t think we have it right either. None of us has arrived at orthodoxy.”2

  Elsewhere, McLaren likens the conventional notion of orthodoxy to a claim that we “have the truth captured, stuffed, and mounted on the wall.”3 He likewise caricatures systematic theology as an unconscious attempt to “have final orthodoxy nailed down, freeze-dried, and shrink-wrapped forever.”4

  That is very popular stuff these days. McLaren alone has written or coauthored about a dozen books, and his utter contempt for certainty is a motif he returns to again and again. In 2003 Zondervan and Youth Specialties teamed up to start a line of products called Emergent/YS. They publish books, DVDs, and audio products at a prolific rate, with titles ranging from Rob Bell’s Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith to Adventures in Missing the Point, an aptly titled collaboration of Brian McLaren and Tony Campolo.

  The idea that the Christian message should be kept pliable and ambiguous seems especially attractive to young people who are in tune with the culture and in love with the spirit of the age and can’t stand to have authoritative biblical truth applied with precision as a corrective to worldly lifestyles, unholy minds, and ungodly behavior. And the poison of this perspective is being increasingly injected into the evangelical church body.

  But that is not authentic Christianity. Not knowing what you believe (especially on a matter as essential to Christianity as
the gospel) is by definition a kind of unbelief. Refusing to acknowledge and defend the revealed truth of God is a particularly stubborn and pernicious kind of unbelief. Advocating ambiguity, exalting uncertainty, or otherwise deliberately clouding the truth is a sinful way of nurturing unbelief.

  Every true Christian should know and love the truth. Scripture says one of the key characteristics of “those who perish” (people who are damned by their unbelief) is that “they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:10). The clear implication is that a genuine love for the truth is built into saving faith. It is therefore one of the distinguishing qualities of every true believer. In Jesus’ words, they have known the truth, and the truth has set them free (John 8:32).

  In an age when the very idea of truth is being scorned and attacked (even within the church, where people ought to revere the truth most highly), Solomon’s wise advice has never been more timely: “Buy the truth, and do not sell it” (Proverbs 23:23).

  THE ETERNAL VALUE OF THE TRUTH

  Nothing in all the world is more important or more valuable than the truth. And the church is supposed to be “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15).

  History is filled with accounts of people who chose to accept torture or death rather than deny the truth. In previous generations it was generally considered heroic to give your life for what you believed in. That is not necessarily the case anymore.

  Part of the problem, of course, is that terrorists and suicide bombers have co-opted the idea of “martyrdom” and turned it on its head. They call themselves “martyrs,” but they are suicidal murderers who kill people for not believing. Their violent aggression is actually the polar opposite of martyrdom, and the ruthless ideologies that drive them are the exact antitheses of truth. There is nothing heroic about what they do and nothing noble about what they stand for. But they are significant symbols of a deeply troubling trend that plagues this current generation worldwide. It seems there is no shortage of people nowadays willing to kill for a lie. Yet few seem to be willing to speak up for truth—much less die for it.

  Consider the testimonies of the Christian martyrs throughout history. They were valiant warriors for the truth. They were not terrorists or violent people, of course. But they “fought” for the truth by proclaiming it in the face of fierce opposition, by living lives that gave testimony to the power and goodness of truth, and by refusing to renounce or forsake the truth no matter what threats were made against them.

  The pattern starts in the first generation of church history with the apostles themselves. All of them, with the possible exception of John, died as martyrs. (Even John paid a dear price for standing in the truth, as he was tortured and exiled for his faith.) Truth was something they loved and fought and eventually died for, and they handed that same legacy to the next generation.

  Ignatius and Polycarp, for example, were early Christian truth warriors. (Both were personal friends and disciples of the apostle John, so they lived and ministered when Christianity was still very new.) History records that both of them willingly gave their lives rather than renounce Christ and turn from the truth. Ignatius was personally interrogated by the emperor Trajan, who demanded that he make a public sacrifice to idols to prove his loyalty to Rome. Ignatius could have saved his life by yielding to that pressure. Some might try to excuse such an outward act under pressure, as long as he didn’t deny Christ in his heart. But the truth was more important to Ignatius than his life. He refused to sacrifice to the idols, and Trajan ordered that he be thrown to wild beasts in the stadium for the amusement of pagan crowds.

  Ignatius’s friend Polycarp, wanted by authorities (because he also was known to be a leader among the Christians), gave himself up willingly, knowing full well that it would cost him his life. Brought to a stadium before a bloodthirsty mob, he was ordered to curse Christ. Polycarp refused, saying, “Eighty-six years have I served him, and he never once wronged me. How then shall I blaspheme my King who saved me?” He was burned alive on the spot.5

  In every generation across the history of the church, countless martyrs have similarly died rather than deny the truth. Were such people just fools, making too much of their own convictions? Was their absolute confidence in what they believed actually misguided zeal? Did they die needlessly?

  Many these days evidently think so—including some who profess faith in Christ. Living in a culture where violent persecution is almost unknown, multitudes who call themselves Christians seem to have forgotten what faithfulness to the truth often costs.

  Did I say “often”? As a matter of fact, faithfulness to the truth is always costly in some way or another (2 Timothy 3:12), and that is precisely why Jesus insisted that anyone who wants to be His disciple must be willing to take up a cross (Luke 9:23–26).6

  MUCH OF THE

  VISIBLE CHURCH

  NOWADAYS SEEMS TO

  THINK CHRISTIANS ARE

  SUPPOSED TO BE AT PLAY

  RATHER THAN AT WAR.

  THE IDEA OF ACTUALLY

  FIGHTING FOR

  DOCTRINAL TRUTH IS

  THE FURTHEST THING

  FROM MOST

  CHURCHGOERS’ THOUGHTS.

  The evangelical movement itself must take some of the blame for devaluing the truth by catering to people’s itching ears (2 Timothy 4:1–4). Does anyone really imagine that many of the entertainment-hungry churchgoers who pack today’s megachurches would be willing to give their lives for the truth? As a matter of fact, many of them are unwilling to take a bold stand for the truth even among other Christians in an environment where there is no serious threat against them and the worst effect of such a stand might be that someone’s feelings get hurt.

  Much of the visible church nowadays seems to think Christians are supposed to be at play rather than at war. The idea of actually fighting for doctrinal truth is the furthest thing from most churchgoers’ thoughts. Contemporary Christians are determined to get the world to like them—and of course in the process they also want to have as much fun as possible. They are so obsessed with making the church seem “cool” to unbelievers that they can’t be bothered with questions about whether another person’s doctrine is sound or not. In a climate like that, the thought of even identifying someone else’s teaching as false (much less “contending earnestly” for the faith) is a distasteful and dangerously countercultural suggestion. Christians have bought into the notion that almost nothing is more “uncool” in the world’s eyes than when someone shows a sincere concern about the danger of heresy. After all, the world simply doesn’t take spiritual truth that seriously, so they cannot fathom why anyone would.

  But Christians, of all people, ought to be most willing to live and die for the truth. Remember, we know the truth, and the truth has set us free (John 8:32). We should not be ashamed to say so boldly (Psalm 107:2). And if called upon to sacrifice for the truth’s sake, we need to be willing and prepared to give our lives. Again, that is exactly what Jesus was speaking about when He called His disciples to take up a cross (Matthew 16:24). Cowardice and authentic faith are antithetical.

  WHAT IS TRUTH?

  Of course, God and truth are inseparable. Every thought about the essence of truth—what it is, what makes it “true,” and how we can possibly know anything for sure, quickly moves us back to God. That is why God incarnate—Jesus Christ—is called the truth (John 14:6).

  That is also why it is not particularly surprising when someone who repudiates God rejects His truth as well. If a person can’t tolerate the thought of God, there is simply no comfortable place for the concept of truth in that person’s worldview, either. So the consistent atheist, agnostic, or idolater might as well hate the very idea of truth. After all, to reject God is to reject the Giver of all truth, the final Judge of what really is true, and the very essence and embodiment of truth itself.

  As we will observe shortly, that is precisely the conclusion at which many in the academic and philosophi
cal realms have now arrived. They no longer believe in truth as a sure and knowable reality. Make no mistake: unbelief is the seed of that opinion. The contemporary aversion to truth is simply a natural expression of fallen humanity’s innate hostility toward God (Romans 8:7).

  But these days a majority of Americans claim to believe in the God of the Bible, yet still they say they are comfortably uncertain about what is true. A suffocating apathy about the whole concept of truth dominates much of today’s society—including an expanding segment of the evangelical movement.

  Many self-styled evangelicals today are openly questioning whether such a thing as truth even exists.7 Others suppose that even if truth does exist, we can’t be sure what it is, so it can’t really matter much. The twin problems of uncertainty and apathy about the truth are epidemic, even among some of the evangelical movement’s most popular authors and spokespersons. Some flatly refuse to stand for anything because they have decided that even Scripture isn’t really clear enough to argue about.

  Except for the massive scale on which such thinking has attained popularity today, and the way it is seeping into the church, such ideas themselves are really nothing new or particularly shocking. It is exactly the same attitude with which Pilate summarily dismissed Christ: “What is truth?” (John 18:38).

  Certain avant-garde evangelicals sometimes act as if the demise of certainty is a dramatic new intellectual development, rather than seeing it for what it actually is: an echo of the old unbelief. It is unbelief cloaked in a religious disguise and seeking legitimacy as if it were merely a humbler kind of faith. But it’s not faith at all. In reality, the contemporary refusal to regard any truth as sure and certain is the worst kind of infidelity. The church’s duty has always been to confront such skepticism and answer it by clearly proclaiming the truth God has revealed in His Word. We have been given a clear message for the purpose of confronting the world’s unbelief. That is what we are called, commanded, and commissioned to do (1 Corinthians 1:17–31). Faithfulness to Christ demands it. The honor of God requires it. We cannot sit by and do nothing while worldly, revisionist, and skeptical attitudes about truth are infiltrating the church. We must not embrace such confusion in the name of charity, collegiality, or unity. We have to stand and fight for the truth—and be prepared to die for it—as faithful Christians always have.