Feeling marginalized due to
our confession of Christ is an increasingly common phenomenon. It’s a form of
persecution (albeit a mild one). And the more one gets pushed to the margins,
the more one feels that holding fast to that which is prompting the persecution
is futile. The pressure to abandon the faith increases. But the abandonment
does not take so blunt a form as cursing Christ and being done with it. It’s
subtler than that. It’s leaving out the bits that cause problems. It’s majoring
on issues that are palatable to the opposing populace. It’s trying really hard
to blend in. It’s engaging in unilateral compromise.
The theological drift is
always toward liberalism. Feeling its exclusivity and holiness the tendency is
to substitute comfort food for the robust fare of the Bible. The result,
succinctly described by H. Richard Niebuhr, is a message that challenges and
changes no one: “A God without wrath [brings] people without sin into a kingdom
without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.”
As the pages of Scripture
attest, the pressure to yield our confession of faith has always plagued the
church. The writer of Hebrews famously instructs his readers to “hold fast the
confession of our hope without wavering” (10:23). When Paul writes the
believers in Philippi he feels compelled to exhort them to “[stand] firm in one
spirit, with one mind” as they strive “side by side for the faith of the gospel
. . . not frightened in anything by your opponents” (1:27-28). Recall Peter in
the precincts of Pilate pushing aside any notion that he was somehow associated
with Jesus; then the rooster crowed prompting bitter tears (Matthew 26:75). I’m
not sure what form it will take for us beyond what I’ve pictured above, but we
shouldn’t be surprised if we run up against stiff opposition. The challenge
will be to stand firm, striving for the faith of the gospel.
