The solution to our cultural calamity is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our only hope is simple repentance and trust in the Lord of all. We will never have social justice until we become committed to biblical justice. We have appealed to the better instincts of goblins and sought to find common ground with them on natural law in vain. We must preach the truth, all of it, without apology, embarrassment, or reserve. We must not only preach the Bible, we must tell the world what it means. Apollyon is standing in the path. We are doing Christian no favors by telling him simply to rest in his justification.

In the first century, Jewish Christians from Jerusalem spread false doctrine among the Gentile churches and “unsettled the souls” of faithful brethren there (Acts 15:24). Two millenia later, another generation of self-important teachers unsettle the souls of brethren outside of their own region by correcting what they perceive to be the errors of pastors and teachers in other congregations. Of course, these men are certain they are not like the Judaizing teachers who needed to be corrected in Acts 15. They imagine themselves to be on the side of the apostles and elders who get to do the correcting. That is why they write letters, make social media posts, and send warnings to brethren they have never met about brothers they did not trouble themselves to talk to directly. They think they are battling a new Judaizing error, but in fact, they are perpetrating a very old and equally wicked error by sowing division.

Human beings always cast themselves as heroes in the story of their lives, and if not heroes, then as a tragic, misunderstood, and pitiable character, a victim to awaken sympathy. Either way, we are sure that when we are on-stage, ladies will alternately coo, swoon, and weep while the men admire, applaud, and are moved in an appropriately masculine way. Pastors are prone to this as well, imagining they are some combination of John Calvin and Jack Reacher when in reality most are closer to Mr. Collins and Dwight from The Office. We think that we are dashing, but most of us are dweebs. We might do well to meditate on James Thurber’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” as a penitential text rather than reenacting it behind a keyboard.

The fact is there is real evil and danger in this world. Orcs are amassing outside the Church’s gates, and we may feel somewhat restless and a little desperate as we look for the White Rider in vain.

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