It was Saul Alinsky in Rules for Radicals who wrote, “Do one of three things. One, go find a wailing wall and feel sorry for yourselves. Two, go psycho and start bombing—but this will only swing people to the right. Three, learn a lesson. Go home, organize, build power and at the next convention, you be the delegates.”[1]
It could be argued that, because we have limited our application of the Bible to heaven and or the next eschatological event, we have left a worldview vacuum that has been filled by those with a competing set of values, who, rightly, believe there is no such thing as neutrality. Dr. Gary North (1942-2022) had two impactful pieces of advice.
• You can’t beat something with nothing.
• You can’t change just one thing.
Jesus warned His disciples not to be led astray by traditions that have the effect of setting aside the commandments of God (Mark 7:9). Paul cautioned the “elders of the church” at Ephesus that after his departure “savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them” (Acts 20:17, 29-30). It’s no less true today than in John’s day that “many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1), many of whom “went out from us” (2:19), that is, from within the church community.
Jesus saved his harshest criticism for the religious leaders of Israel because they carried the weight of authority with their words (Matt. 21:23-46; 23:2-3; James 3:1). While a false doctrine has the outward appearance of orthodoxy, in terms of what the Bible tells us, it has a soft and oftentimes rotten core (Matt. 23:25-28) but is presented as Bible truth......
