The War Of Ideas

A war of ideas is a clash or disagreement of opposing ideals, ideologies, or concepts through which groups use strategic influence to promote their interests. The "battle space" of this conflict is the target population's "hearts and minds", while the "weapons" can include, among other sources, think tanks, TV programs, newspaper articles, the internet, blogs, radio broadcasts, and evangelism.

Antulio J. Echevarria, the director of research at the Strategic Studies Institute at the U.S. Army War College defined the "war of ideas" in his book Wars of Ideas and The War of Ideas as:
dogma: a doctrine or code of beliefs accepted as authoritative.

Yesterday my mentor and I was talking over the sad shape of our modern churches. How our religious dogma between churches is like cancer to the body. Some churches refuse to even work with other churches and some even say if you do not believe as they do you are going to Hell.

Churches fight over what to wear, the type of music, how loud of music, how to pray, which spiritual gifts are applicable, the difference in doctrines held by such groups as in Adventism, Anglicanism, the Baptist churches, Calvinism (Reformed Protestantism), Lutheranism, Methodism and Pentecostalism. Nondenominational, Evangelical, charismatic, neo-charismatic, independent, etc. How to serve communion, how to baptize, how to evangelize.

It gets old. The debates get old. Granted I'm not naive to say all Christian beliefs should be tolerated but it does seem odd how every group tries to say they have all the answers. We are at war within while we lose the war on the foreign lands.


https://www.pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/

While we fight over the many differences in interpretation and the centuries input of past theologians, we are losing the war on the foreign soil of reaching the lost.

And at most we are showing the lost how lost we are within the Church. What fruit is produced from the many debates you see in these forums?

Matthew 5:9 New International Version (NIV)
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.

There are some who will even fight me over translation. But despite that I believe we do not often see peace keeping but more like divide.

I dont agree with everything said or every belief but most of the people I meet on here I wouldn't even start to believe they wasn't saved, wasn't a Christian, or somehow lower than me. I look at the fruit of churches, the fruit of individuals, and judge things in the perspective that we all are one body but have different functions.

A foot doctor may not quite understand the technicalities of the hand. If something looks like a blemish he may want to cut it off due to ignorance. But in reality both are important to the body, both have different functions.

And it is out of faith and trust in God that even if we dont fully understand the others perspective, they are still being guided by the Spirit. That the Spirit is still at work preserving the Church.

(Again in context I am not defending all Christian groups who use Christian beliefs but in my opinion those who hold to the core Christian beliefs. As for example if Jesus isn't Lord or Savior then yes I will draw a line. I suppose unfortunately some even debate over what are the core beliefs.)

I can see the good that freedom of conscience can bring as in preventing something like the ancient Roman Catholic church. But we should use such freedom wisely.



We dont have control who believes what but we do have control of what hill we want to die on. Which line we are willing to hold. When Peter proclaimed the words "We must obey God rather than human beings!" The Apostles had chose what hill to die on.

I doubt any good or change would come from this post but I suppose my proclamation to any reader is to make sure your actions are worth the divide.

I found it quite edifying. Thank you.

Just some thoughts of I suppose wishful thinking.

Seriously I know I have said this to you several times already but you need to be a teacher, like if you made a youtube channel or something I would be watching every video like wow! your mentor taught you well in fact I wish I could email him or something I would learn so from him. And you know me always the hungry one XD

Lol thank you. I'll add that to my to do list. YouTube ✔
His name is Archie.
I have only known him since January as with the first time we met I recorded it in this thread.
https://christianchat.com/testimonies/god-sent-me-a-powerful-message.188587/

If you have some questions that you think he could answer he probably would be just fine if you emailed him.

Good stuff (not just the quoted portion)!

Thanks for sharing!

No problem. I think we all at one time or another been contributors or victims of such battles between beliefs. And for me it has brought much freedom and peace within this perspective I have shared.

As you correctly pointed out, the amount of doctrinal disagreements and theological differences between Christians is vast and absurd. It would be one thing to identify a difference in Bible interpretation, take an honest look at it together, then reach a mutual understanding. As you have undoubtedly noticed, that doesn't happen very often.

I feel like I can almost see your frustration through your words and it's understandable, but there isn't much we can do except always make a sincere effort to be honest with ourselves and God.

What is difficult to read are scriptures like this

Matthew 7:13-14 New International Version (NIV)
The Narrow and Wide Gates
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

While the believers fight and divide, scripture says

Matthew 9:37 New International Version (NIV)
37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.

Is it possible the workers are few because we are divided and a divided system is just like a faith in doubt. They are tossed one way or another with no sense of direction. The gate is wide that leads to destruction, we just cannot afford such a luxury to iron out every theological difference. People are dying and I'm positive the thief on the cross only had the basics for soul salvation.

Anyone right now can go up to their local or state liberal college as a guest and get a good dose of questions and concerns related to Christianity that are actually keeping people from belief. And I am quite positive the questions are not what is a typical (not always) question that churches fight over. In general you see moral issues, science objections, truth objections, philosophical objections, emotional objections, intellectual objections.

I suppose it is sad. People pray for revival but dont realize in every historical great Awakening it was the churches that United on one cause. To reach the lost. This is why the great awakenings are attributed to people from different denominations.

You lnow I didn't see this thread before I was on another one titled who are you and in that thread I expressed how denominations just seem to divide not unite and that a kingdom divided cannot stand.
It seems that this division is an issue even to God, the holyspirit speaks through us it is one thing for a couple of people to say and feel the same thing but for several believers to do that... I think he is trying to say something

Ephesians 6:12 (KJV) For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

I would agree that at this stage it is wishful thinking to expect any kind of cohesion among denominations. Or even among evangelical or fundamentalist Christians. The best that Bible-believing Christians can and should expect is unity and harmony within their individual local churches.

As to the "war of ideas" it breaks down into the Kingdom of God vs the kingdom of Satan. The Bible says that "the whole world lieth in wickedness" and that is quite evident. The weapon against wickedness is the Gospel, and the focus of all Christians should be (1) the propagation of the Gospel worldwide and (2) the edification of the saints with sound Bible teaching. At the same time believers who are in great need, or being oppressed by various governments (even within North America and Europe) need to be helped and supported.

Most definitely. People got to wake up and realize who the true enemy is behind the division. In the war of ideas, the church is currently losing on major fronts. We are having a hard time reaching new generations. We are not preparing our people to answer many objections that come from the world. Many are scared to stand for the word while facing backlash from radical feminists, LGBT, atheists, etc. Too often they are focused on entertainment, flashy pastors, pew numbers, bills, and the congregations are in spiritual slumber zombified by the religious rituals, and the list goes on.

Yes. The narrow gate is clearly Jesus and faith that as Son of God He can save the believer. As you said, the thief on the cross must have had the bare minimum of soul salvation which was His sincere confession and belief in Jesus as Christ. Jesus is the narrow gate. That's what I think.

That's interesting what you said about great awakenings being attributed to people from different denominations. Never really thought of it that way.

I do think the Bible does get more complicated the more one tries to mesh all of the different concepts, decode prophecies, translate words, examine entire context, cultural references, intended audiences, all together with each other while still staying in accordance with known history and science. The Bible does a good job of all of that, but it's a lot to take in. Lifetime Bible students are still learning new things occasionally.

I agree but I dont believe the best we can do is

We be the change we want to see. There are churches that do this. They work together even if they dont totally see eye to eye. It happens locally in my town often. My pastor a Methodist has told the congregation several times if you are not getting fed here then by all means visit a Baptist or different church but dont just check out. We often see people come from our local Baptist mega church to our church and sometimes people leave to go to the Baptist church.

Every disagreement among Christians has to do with accepting scripture as given to us or letting man's ideas enter and accepting that. If people belong to a church instead of to God, they disagree. If some change the holy days they go into disagreement. If they say the new covenant cancels what God tells us instead of adding to our faith they go into disagreement. When God is put in control there is love and agreement.

Check out every disagreement, lots of them on this site. It has to do with saying God cancelled something.

Definitely. The Bible is very rich in detail or obviously we wouldn't have so much differing interpretations.

Nothing wrong with debate or study but my thing is, look at the thief. He only needed bare minimum which means we should atleast be able to unite over that and once people are saved then they can study as far as they want to go about what they believe in theology.

It is evident in dealing with Great Awakenings that if it wasn't for the 1st Great Awakening the world very possibly would look completely different today as most historians contribute the aftermath of the 1st Great Awakening to the spark of America and independence.

Eternity may well be spent in learning from God.

The Bible (the New Testament) is crystal clear that the New Covenant CANCELS the Old Covenant. So you already have a very serious misunderstanding of the finished work of Christ, and the New Covenant in His blood. Just another reason why we will not be seeing unity within Christendom.

Then we have the Catholic Church claiming that the god of Islam -- Allah -- is the same as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (the triune Godhead). As the OP will note, there are good reasons for why Christianity is not monolithic, and even cooperation between denominations can be spiritually dangerous.

Well if the laborers are few but the harvest is great let us remember it only takes a spark to make the fire burn. It may seem like a lost cause but so did Jesus coming to give salvation, people hoped for it they wanted it they looked for it but didn't expect it.
We are on cc all the time and we see this division we don't like it but what do we do about it? If we are to be on here let it be in love, if we are to speak on here let be in love and if we are to be in the midst of arrows on the front lines let it be in love.

Every group in history that made a difference that made the impossible seem possible started in small numbers but they didn't do what they did because they saw a lost cause they did what they did because they saw hope because they believed because against all odds they fought the good fight.

If one sees and knows the problem they are responsible to be part of the solution and if indeed God himself sees and knows the problem what or rather who does he usually use to fix it? His children.