Contend For The Faith

In the message "Never Let Them Forget" we were challenged to continually share God's miraculous gift with those He places in our path. We considered this mainly from the aspect of sharing what God has done in our life and continues to do as we walk with Him. But we are also responsible to share the absolute truth about God and His plan; to do this, we must KNOW what we believe!

Jude wrote only one short letter (25 verses) of the Bible. He began the letter with a desire to encourage his fellow believers with the joy of Salvation. But as he sat down to write, he realized God was directing him to write a different message.

Jude 3
"Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints."

There is great joy in our Salvation - a joy which must be shared. But we have been entrusted with the truth of the gospel message, and this truth is often under attack.

As we draw closer to God and begin to understand His perfect holiness, we are also made aware of the utter sinfulness of man and our hopelessness without Jesus. Each of us are born with a sin nature; and if left to ourselves, we would become "filled with every kind of wickedness" (Romans 1:29). It's not surprising how much evil abounds in the world. To a large degree, the world has rejected the Light of Christ and is living in an empty and confusing darkness.

The church is definitely not immune to the darkness of the world. We are attacked from those who are openly outside the church; but we are also under attack from those who have "secretly slipped in among you" (Jude 4a). These are people who claim to be called by God, but live an immoral life and "deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord" (Jude 4b). They seek to cause division and "follow their own ungodly desires" (Jude 18). We are told to fight this form of attack by strengthening our faith; "build yourself up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit" (Jude 20).

Yes, we must know the truth, protect the truth, and share the truth. If we are to become a light which leads others to the saving grace of Jesus, we must not allow the gospel which has been entrusted into our care to become distorted for personal gain or diluted for greater acceptance. We can personally fight this battle on a daily basis by drawing closer to the presence of God and knowing Him better through study and prayer; and we can fight as groups of believers as we encourage one another to live without compromise. Let's test all teaching against His Word; let's share the absolute truth of our Lord and Savior and be prepared to stand as we contend for the faith.

Would you say this is what Steve means by: "we must not allow the gospel which has been entrusted into our care to become distorted for personal gain or diluted for greater acceptance.?" This was taken from an article in Christianity Today titled, One Way, Many Views.....The Reverend Jon Hoekema, now in his twelfth year as pastor at First Reformed, views these interfaith activities as a natural expression of Christ's teachings. The congregation's theological orientation, he says, is firmly trinitarian, mainstream as far as the denomination (Reformed Church in America) is concerned, and conservative. He believes that Christ opens people to a relationship with God that deepens and enriches their lives, and for this reason, he strongly urges people who want a relationship with God to study the Bible and become involved in a community of believers where they can learn about Christ. His understanding of salvation is more positive than negative: those who know Jesus have an abundant, eternal relationship with God; those who resist God's will may in the end also be forgiven or perhaps a merciful God will simply terminate their existence, rather than sentencing them to eternal suffering. Mr. Hoekema says that there is no way to be sure about this, so it is better to focus on other aspects of Christianity.

The most important teaching, in his view, is to love one another as God has loved us, and this means loving everyone. "Because of Jesus, I now have a new relationship with every other human being on the face of the earth. They are my brother and sister because God is our father. The way I describe it is because of the exclusive nature of my commitment to Christ I have become a very inclusive person. There is this exclusive nature of Christianity. It is a commitment to Christ which seems to exclude others, but because of my relationship to Christ he has showed me that I am a brother and sister to every other human being on the earth." Thus, in his ministry, he tries to live up to this ideal of inclusivity. He is pleased, for example, that his once all white congregation is now a melting pot of European Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Puerto Rican Americans and that it helps sponsor a couple of foreign missionaries. He takes an active role in the local clergy council, which includes rabbis as well as pastors, and has been working through this organization to combat hate crimes reflecting the racial, ethnic, and religious tensions in the community.

Over the years, Mr. Hoekema has had ample opportunity to think about the implications of his seemingly paradoxical view about the exclusivity of Christianity being conducive to an inclusive approach to religious diversity. Reared in a predominantly Christian community in the Midwest and having attended a conservative Christian college, he was challenged by some of his college and seminary professors to think hard about his religious assumptions, rather than merely taking them for granted. Traveling in Europe, visiting Holocaust sites, and having close friends who were Jewish and Hindu, as well as his reading, forced him to think about how to be Christian in a religiously diverse environment. It concerns him that some of his friends have decided that there is little reason to be Christian at all because they regard all religions as equally valid, and he worries about people who seem to embrace tolerance and pluralism without having thought through the implications of these values for their own faith.

His own views are still developing. He says, for example, that he would have no trouble talking to a Muslim about how to become a Christian if that person were interested; at the same time, he thinks there is a kind of devotion and piety in Islam that God probably respects and, indeed, from which Christians could learn. He believes that Jesus is God and is God's revelation to humankind, yet he also believes that people of other religions find God through the way of humility and obedience that Jesus taught even though they may not consciously invoke the name of Jesus. He regards the Bible as God's infallible word, meaning that it is trustworthy, but rejects the idea of biblical inerrancy and insists that the Bible is one of many ways in which God is revealed. His interpretation of Jesus' statement about being the way, the truth, and the life emphasizes the differences between this statement in the gospel of John and those of the other gospel writers; while respecting the teachings of other religions, he also dismisses the notion that all religions are equally true or simply substitutable for one another.

For a person like Mr. Hoekema who takes theology seriously, the reality of other religions not only in the world but in his immediate neighborhood poses an opportunity to think more deeply about his faith than otherwise might have been the case. He expects Christianity to become a minority religion in the United States within a generation or two and says that this will probably be a good development. At least those who remain Christians, he hopes, will have a clearer understanding of why they are trying to follow the teachings of Christ. Meanwhile, he acknowledges that he does not have all the answers but believes his God is big enough to encourage Christians to interact on level ground with followers of other religions without fear.

Yes Reenie! Good example of someone allowing the gospel to become distorted or diluted. One does not have to read far into the only WORD of GOD(The Holy Bible) before they would relize that Mr. Hoekema has distorted God's truth.

NOTE: The full article that reenie took this section from is HERE if someone wanted to read this section in context with the whole article.