Mere Missions

148 • M ere M issions : M oving F orward to M ultiply

His sick evil ways know no bounds. There is no good in him. He hates the Church and will never stop his onslaught against her. This doesn’t even begin to dive into the depths of this created angel bent on nothing less than the overthrow of God, His Kingdom, and the saints who have been rescued from the clutches of this prince of the power of the air. Just a small understanding of this, one can understand why the Church must be militant. Our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Eph. 6.12). We need to be aggressive, violent, combative, and confrontational towards the sin which can so easily entangle us (Heb. 12.1). Notice how it tells “us” this, and not the world. We are not to be this – aggressive, violent, combative, and confrontational towards the world. They are already entangled in sin and under the wrath of God. The only means and power in which to untangle them and appease God’s wrath is the Gospel of peace. By militant I also mean that we must be aggressively moving forward in missions to expand and advance God’s Kingdom in enemy occupied territory. We must not let sin, Satan or the world hinder us. Our cause is to honor and glorify God in the spiritual war we were born into, knowing that the enemy will never stop. The Church is the Community of the Kingdom but never the Kingdom itself. The Kingdom is God’s reign and the realm in which the blessings of his reign are experienced; the church is the fellowship of those who have experienced God’s rule and reign and entered the enjoyment of its blessings. The Kingdom creates the church, works through the church, and is proclaimed in the world by the church. The Church is the end game in town. Is your faith deep enough to believe this about the Church, no