the enemy without

"The Imports of Great Britain from France", by Louis Philippe Boitard, above, is from the year 1757.  The War of Independence in the American Colonies was then nearly another quarter-century in the future.  On January 2, 1758, Rev. John Witherspoon, who within the next decade would become President of the College of New Jersey (now called Princeton University), gave a speech in Edinburgh, Scotland.  Here are some of his opening remarks:

"We live in an age in which (as is often complained) infidelity greatly prevails; but yet in which the cause of truth hath much less to fear from the assaults of its open enemies, than from the treachery of its pretended advocates.  The latest infidel writers have carried their own scheme to such perfection or extravagance, that it must discredit the cause [of Christ] in the eye of every sober judge."*

What?  Was the state of society even then in such bad shape as that?  Evidently, so.  John Witherspoon was no sensationalist, but he was a sober-minded Christian minister, intelligent and well educated.  His above 'complaint' - which he said was "often" expressed by others in his day, would strike most churchgoers, today, as something belonging to another time period.  Modern 'Christianity' is nothing at all like what Rev. Witherspoon knew Christianity to be.  In the days of John Witherspoon, Christianity was something explicitly defined by the Holy Bible.  Today, however, 'Christianity' has very little to do with the actual words of Scripture, but 'Christianity' is whatever anyone supposes it to be.  In fact, that notion has come to be widely accepted, at least, in American culture.

The widespread acceptance in contemporary American society, of the idea that Christianity may be defined relativistically - or even arbitrarily, has grave consequences.  Whereas Rev. Witherspoon was readily able to discern that the Church was being subverted at that time by "pretended advocates" of Christianity.  But in the case, as it is today, that Christianity is not any certain thing defined and circumscribed by doctrines of Scripture: then, the suggestion, that Christianity is being subverted from 'within', is no longer meaningful.  Rather, it should be understood - according to contemporary thinking - that 'Christians' are free to 'interpret' Christianity according to their own liking, and to express their subjective opinions of that in whatever ways and at whatever time they may choose.  Christianity, in other words, is a uniquely personal thing; 'Christ' is not Lord of all, but 'Christ' is a beautiful symbol around which gathers a potpourri of Postmodern 'spirituality'. 

A generation ago (1976), Dr. Harold Lindsell, in his important book The Battle for the Bible, warned that the battle involving Biblical infallibility and inerrancy (the idea that the text of Scripture is without error) had already been decided, negatively, among liberal churches.  His urgent pleading for 'conservative, Evangelical' churches to firmly defend the historic Christian belief of Biblical infallibility and inerrancy, has evidently fallen upon deaf ears.  In my well considered judgment, that battle has now been decided among the great majority of erstwhile 'conservative, Evangelical' churches, that is to say, that they do not believe that the Church has anything like the 'pure' Word of God, but only fragments and relics of what they imagine might have existed a couple of millennia ago. 

It is no wonder, then, that contemporary 'Christianity' is all over the map: for, there are a potentially limitless number of 'maps' (so-called Bible 'versions') to follow...to anywhere one wishes to go, spiritually speaking: anywhere, that is, but to God's heaven!

Thus, there are no longer any real enemies 'within' American 'Christianity'.

The only enemies to that Antichrist system are 'without'.  Count me in - I mean, out.

* John Witherspoon.  The Absolute Necessity of Salvation Through Christ: A Sermon (W. Miller, Edinburgh, 1758), pp 3,4.