What Are You Going to Do About It? by Rev. Benjamin Glaser

  

    

    One of my favorite quotes is by D.L. Moody, and you are probably aware of it. One time a lady criticized his way of preaching the gospel and doing evangelism, and after some questioning this older woman admitted that she hadn't actually ever done much of the later. Moody responded with, "I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it." 

    The world of the late 19th century was a cesspool of Sabbath desecration, antinomianism, and growing sexual licentiousness. The Church was giving itself over to the doctrines of hell found in Darwinism, Freud, and Wellhausen. There was even an election controversy ravaging the United States. And yet the cultured smart people were chastising men like Moody and other evangelists for having the audacity to call out the world for its wickedness. They didn't like "how" they went about it. Wanted them to be winsome and oratorically pretty, so the smart people talked them down and eventually were fairly successfully in marginalizing them. Now there are some criticisms to be had of Moody et al but their desire that men know Christ was not one of them. 

    In the opening of his declaration to Parliament recorded on July 7, 1572 Thomas Wilcox, a minister in the Church of England wrote, "It is not enough to take pains in taking away evil, but also to be occupied in placing good in the stead thereof." In other words to be engaged in the labors of calling out sin and seeking revival you actually have to at some point put something tangible together. It does no good to just get rid of transgressions of the law of God, righteousness has to be placed in there, a return to holy worship must follow the removing of the groves. 

    There is much in what young Wilcox says here that is applicable to today.

    A man who is always fighting doesn't know what to do when the fighting is over. I remember a friend of mine in junior high school's dad spent most of the 1970's and early 1980's being a mercenary-for-hire in places as disparate as Rhodesia and El Salvador because he could never leave Vietnam. Every time he came back to the States he'd get ancy and need to find a new war to be engaged in. By the time I met him he was a broken down empty shell of a human, unfit for much of anything but hard drinking, which he excelled in at a hall-of-fame level.

    My friend is still bearing the burden of that.

    I think for many internet Christians they are of the same ilk as my buddies' father. Always looking for a battle, a cause to endorse, an enemy to tilt at and take down. They spend their free time tracking folks all over the internet, engaged in search-and-destroy missions against every handle and avatar that strays from orthodoxy. Once vanquished, or banned, they move on to another field in which to ply their trade. Like a pirate on the sea quietly hiding in Tampa Bay or a brigand on the highway awaiting the next coach down the pike to strike so they can once again prove their mettle to a watching audience. That endorphin rush must be something. Victory is addictive, especially in a losing cause. Though, it must be said their efforts are not totally wasted. There is a war on and someone's got to do the fighting and it's not the armchair peacenicks who lament the aggressiveness of the berserkers that usually get much done. They get all verklempt at the battler's tone, but never actually do anything, before or after, to get their hands dirty. Merely satisfied to Luke 18 the situation they retire back having taken care of the dirty fighter while the enemies of Christ multiply and gain ground on the holy. 

     Mad Mike Hoare was the consummate example of this kind of military entrepreneur. A decorated veteran of World War II and the African bush wars he saved thousands of lives in ways that made the working class love him, while the Downton Abbey set were embarrassed by his excesses. 

    A growing danger we face today in the church is weak shepherds so afraid of being called out by the world that they spend all their time on social media and in the courts of the church shooting the wounded Mike Hoare's rather than turning their guns outward against the real enemies of the body. They don't mind the zealous taking care of Atheists on Twitter, but once those criticisms hit too close to home, well then they need domesticated and quieted. We can then mock and deride these folks because we want them on the wall, not in the barracks.

    The problem is that today's not a time for a peace-time army. The people of God are engaged in a dirty fight and sitting around moaning about certain tactics is not only counter productive, but it majors on missing the point. 

    But a question remains for Col. Jessup as much as Lt. Kaffee. The following is really applicable to both parties. So you are code redding lazy soldiers. Okay. How are you preparing the rest of the unit for the attack? Hey Mr. Judgmental. Other than screaming at the commander what are you actually doing for the defense of this great nation? 

    Let's turn this to the practical.

    Did you catechize your children tonight? The world spent all day doing it. "But I don't have time". 

    Really? You had time to binge-watch Cobra Kai but no time to teach the future leaders of the church what God requires of Man? 

    How many things did you take care of this morning before turning to the LORD in prayer? 

    What gained your attention first after you opened your eyes? The Bible or Facebook? 

    It's all good and well if you destroy a freshman philosophy student on Twitter, yet did you share the gospel with him or just show him that he is self-referentially incoherent? 

    Likewise, yeah that guy might go whole hog on Advent and all other pretended holy days of obligation, but are you more concerned with that speck or the log in your own eye? 

    Wow. Congrats. You really showed that guy who loves the Sabbath Day that he's a jerk. Now, what are you doing to worship the Lord Jesus on His day? What preparations have you taken to make ready your heart for the 4th Commandment? Or is the goal here just to bully the dude who tracks a little closer to what our confession teaches so that you don't have to be challenged by it any more? 

    I could go on forever but hopefully you get the point (whatever that might be). 

    If you don't like the way someone is going out and presenting Christ you better make sure you are actually doing it yourself. There's nothing worse than a lazy hypocrite who sits behind their keyboard whining about others when you are too afraid, or again just too lazy, to do anything about it yourself.