"It's easier to fighter (I think he means "fight" or maybe he means "be a fighter") for truth than live it. It's why there are more Defenders than Disciples."
Rick Warren, Twitter, April 2011
Are there really more "defenders" than "disciples"?
Are there actually these two categories of people, a defender, and a disciple? (oops, caps o the "D's", if you please) Really, are people one or the other?
Do you, like Warren apparently, think that a disciple of Jesus would not be a defender of the faith, a defender of the truth of God? HE makes it seem like you are either one, or the other....
Rick is attempting to separate people into these two distinctions, and it is an old strategy, called, "divide and conquer." By making you pick a side, preseferably his, you have just mae his enemy smaller.... and made the smaller group... (in this case, those who might "defend" your enemy too. So, which side of the Warren "coin" would you put yourself.. a defender or a disciple?
All that one has to do is pick one of the two options, and WHALLA! You have either just sided with Rick and frown on those who would defend the truth rather than live it like you do... or you are about to be an enemy to Rick and those who think like him. The important thing that happens though is that now, instead of one large group of believers who are both disciples and defenders of faith and truth, the group of potential defenders of truth is smaller, because he has convinced some, not all, to be silent about true faith in Christ, just like him.
According to Rick, defenders are the "bad" choice to want to be and disciples, are the "good," who "live out the gospel," (that is the "gospel, accroding to Rick and the purpose driven paradigm he touts) He would have you believe that "Disciples," unlike those nasty "Defenders" who speak out against false doctrine like his own, live out their faith.
That, in case you didn't notice, is falttery... to those who believe what Rick has to say on matters of the practice and undersanding of the Christian faith, but take a look at what "living out the truth," looks like, in the scriptures.... and you will see it looks most like Jesus, who gave his life trusting what he believed and then too the apostles who preached not themselves, like Rick does, but Christ and him crucified to set the captives of sin, and death... finally.... and forever, free!
Jesus is the way and the TRUTH and the life! (John 14:6)
He is the true God from true God. As a man, the only begooten son of the Father, He was born into this body we all share called humanity. He died, was buried and was raised from the dead....on the third day... according to the scriptures which he not only fullfilled but also taught... and this is the truth that we believe as Christians, disciples of JEsus as we follow him and believe in him with that mysterious thing called FAITH. This is the truth that we stand upon and even perhaps "defend" as being true.... for it is worthy of our trust, if God, and if his sin Jesus Christ are true. As for living out the truth... the thief on the cross, crucified beside JEsus, lived out the truth when he believed and so will we who will live, even though we die. This is of course, because we do believe and are saved.
Rick certainly has a bad habit of whining about the church and here we see yet another example of him whining that people in the church defend their faith. These are those who stand firmly grounded in the truth of God's word to us and do not accept Rick's ursupation of leadership which is what he would like to see.
Those "defenders"... are an offense to him, impermeable to his manipulation and high sounding, lofty words, and so one of his devices is to turn people who like his flattery of being those who "live out the gospel" against those who would "defend." He derogatorily calls them, "defenders;" and insinuates that those who would defend the faith do not "live" the truth.
Christian, what do you believe?
There are ungodly men who deny our Lord Jesus Christ, willing to take captive those who fall prey to them, unware. What should we do, be silent? Let them?
Jude 1:2-4
Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
There are those who would believe it is the law, not faith in JEsus Christ that saves....
Galatians 2:16-21
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Christian, what do you believe?
