“11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, 15 and having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE; 16 in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
We already know that a fallen, secular world will be hostile to the gospel. That’s a given. Our Lord told us this repeatedly. So, if attacks are inevitable, how do we deal with it? Do we retreat from the culture and fortify ourselves behind the church walls, preparing for seige? Of course not. That’s not the example we were given anywhere in the New Testament. Instead we see the Apostles and early church fathers going out boldly to proclaim the good news to their culture.
The question for us today though, is to consider how our culture is different than it was in the early church so we can best “prepare” the gospel of peace for proclamation. The content of the gospel never changes, but the challenges that come against it do. They change form from generation to generation. Whereas 80 years ago, a typical defense of scripture may have revolved around transmission (errors in the handing down of text). Today, the scripture is typically attacked from the standpoint of physicalism (there is no supernatural). This is something the average Christian needs to be prepared for, but probably is not. That needs to change.
That’s one of the goals of Tactical Faith: to bring in good, quality apologetic training to the local church, so that the average Christian feels equipped to prepare the gospel for his or her community. We aim to be an armor catalog for the local church, so that they can access the training they so desperately need. We hope that you will pray for us, and support us as much as possible in this endeavor. The best defense is always a good offense. The full armor of God has a sword as well as a shield.
In Him,
Dave Jones – Board Member of Tactical Faith
