MacArthur begins his Introduction with..."Who would have thought that people claiming to be Christians - even pastors - would attack the very notion of truth?"
He ends with... "As vital as it is for us to enlist in the Truth War and do battle for our faith, it is even more important to remember why we are fighting - not merely for the thrill of vanquishing some foe or winning some argument, but out of a genuine love for Christ, who is the living, breathing embodiment of all that we hold true and worth fighting for."
MacArthur doctrinally expects this battle, this war, to be fought and to ignore and not fight it is not what Jesus wants of His soldiers. He fully expects there to be false teachings taught by men and women who refuse to accept a real truth and MacArthur expects the believer to fight the good fight.
Where MacArthur differs from many, even most, is his desire and willingness to fight the war on truth....The Truth War.
My first encounter with Dr. MacArthur was with his book The Gospel According to Jesus where he was willing to take on some well established institutions in that Truth War. When MacArthur sees the truth being attacked, he brings the battle home to the offender, and he names names. He'll bring it into their backyard and will unashamedly go toe-to-toe.
I don't know if MacArthur battles first in a more private arena before bringing it out in such a public venue, but I would think so, I hope so. In any event, MacArthur engages again and the war is on again in Truth War's 200 plus pages.
The book is rich with history, stories, and scripture. I'll be writing excerpts from the book while also looking on the internet for any counters and rebuttles to his assertations. Any comments from me will be in italics.
Page ix - x: A recent issue of Christianity Today featured a cover article about the "Emerging Church.".......One dominant theme pervades the whole article: in the Emerging Church movement, truth (to whatever degree such a concept is even recognized) is assumed to be inherently hazy, indistinct, and uncertain - perhaps even ultimately unknowable.
Page x: McLaren is quoted in the Christianity Today article, saying at one point: "I don't think we've got the gospel right yet...I don't thing the liberals have it right. but I don't think we have it right either. None of us has arrived at orthodoxy. Elsewhere, McLaren likens the conventional notion of orthodoxy to claim that we "have the truth captured, stuffed, and mounted on the wall." He likewise caricatures systematic theology as an unconscious attempt to "have final orthodoxy nailed down, freeze-dried, and shrink-wrapped forever."
Page xi: The idea that the Christian message should be kept pliable and ambiguous seems especially attractive to young people who are in tune with the culture and in love with the spirit of the age and can't stand to have authoritative biblical truth applied with preceision as a corrective to workldy lifestyles, unholy minds and ungodly behavior. And the poison of this perspective is being increasingly injected into the ebangelical church body.
Page xi: But that is not authentic Christianity. Not knowing what you believe is by definition a kind of unbelief.......Refusing to achknowledge and defend the revealed truth of God....Advocating ambiguity......or otherwise diliberately clouding the truth is a sinful way of nurturing unbelief.
Page xi: Every true Christian should know and love the truth.....The clear implication is that a genuine love for the truth is built into saving faith. It is therefore one of the distinguishing qualities of every true believer.
5/17/09 - most everything about "Truth Wars" on the internet is about the war in Iraq or the war on drugs. One blog with this name had some good stuff, but the author is extremely stealth, which causes me to wonder what he's hiding. Googling "Truth Wars" brings up some 28 million hits.
5/22/09 - http://books.google.com/books?id=T6nt7lLz1gsC&dq=truth+war&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0
to be continued....
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