Collaborating With The Enemy

Christians are at war.  We are at war with satan, evil people, and ourselves.  I know how to combat my own sin by prayer and repentance.  With evil people we pray, have government to protect us, and preach the gospel.  But how are we to combat the world's main occupier-- the prince of the power of the air, Ephesians 2:1-3?

While thinking about this, I recalled a PBS mini-series that I enjoyed watching, “Foyles War,” click here. The enemy activity-- such as a bomb or a spy-- does not happen on occupied turf but in British territory.  So this did not help to show how to deal with an occupying enemy.

Another mini-series called “Island at War” shows a British Island being taken over peacefully by the enemy, click here. The romance between a German soldier and an islander girl that portrayed favorably the German military commander of the occupation further inflamed the debate about the depiction of collaboration in the film.  For more details go to here.

Another instance of collaborating with the enemy was the Vichy government in France. It is one of the best-known and most significant examples of collaboration between former enemies of Germany and Germany itself. For more details go here.

So here is the problem.  The Church is divided.  Some support the view of the occupier of the  “world”--  satan. Some support Scripture.  Here is what Ross Douthat said:

“MODERNITY has left nearly every religious tradition in the Western world divided.

The specific issues vary with the faith, but there is an essential sameness to what separates Reform Judaism from Orthodox Judaism, evangelical churches from mainline Protestantism, the liberal Episcopal Church from the conservative Anglican Church in North America.

In each case, disagreements about the authority of tradition, the reliability of Scripture, and eventually the proper response to the Sexual Revolution have made it impossible for liberal and conservative believers to remain in community or communion.”

So what is a Christian to do?  What am I to do?  To me it looks like the churches that take the view of the “world” are collaborating with the enemy.  They approve of killing innocent unborn babies, approve of gay marriage, and approve of unmarried couples living together in housing that some churches support.  They say they have to do so because the secular population doesn’t understand our religion and can’t be expected to live according to God’s laws.  But what is actually happening here?  The Christians who support these things endorse what "the deceiver" is doing by not standing for morality.   They are worthy of death—Romans 1:32.  I pray that those in The Church who have been working with the enemy, will wake up, and turn away from sin before it is too late.  Meanwhile, those in The Church, including myself,  who refuse to collaborate with the adversary, will need to seek God through prayer and Scripture.  We will need God’s protection and wisdom in dealing with our foe.