Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jude 1:3-4
More than sixty years ago, A. W. Tozer wrote, “Little by little, Christians these days are being brainwashed. One evidence is that increasing numbers of them are becoming ashamed to be found unequivocally on the side of truth. They say they believe, but their beliefs have been so diluted as to be impossible of clear definition. Moral power has always accompanied definite beliefs. Great saints have always been dogmatic. We need a return to a gentle dogmatism that smiles while it stands stubborn and firm on the Word of God that lives and abides forever.”
The resistance to the truth goes back much further than our day or Tozer’s day. The religious leaders in Jesus’ day absolutely refused to believe the truth even when He told them: “Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you” (John 10:25-26). Truth is not determined by popular vote or public opinion. Truth is determined by what God says.
The more the world tries to undermine our confidence in truth, the more important it is for us to stand firm in what we believe. There is always a temptation to tone down the message, removing the parts the world finds most offensive in hopes of getting them to listen, but that approach is doomed to failure. The more we compromise the truth, the less effective we are in serving as messengers of Jesus Christ.
