The Failure to Contend

Though Jude's epistle consists of just one chapter that appears before the Book of Revelation in the Bible's New Testament, it contains a stern caveat to the early church to never become complacent in the faith.

What did Jude write? Here's a portion of his letter: "Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt that I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints." (Jude 1:3)

What did Jude mean? He continued: "For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord." (Jude 1:4)

Contending for the faith means this: That all Christians have a moral responsibility to keep the enemies of Christ out of the church.

If we fail to do that, then the church becomes vulnerable to being invaded by false preachers who use the name of Jesus Christ to promote heresies and false doctrines that destroy lives and condemn people to hell.

A good example of that can be found in many of America's African-American churches that long ago abandoned the biblical gospel for the powerless and corrupt social gospel.

The social gospel substitutes God's grace in Jesus Christ for Big Government that exploits poor people by making them a permanent dependency class beholden to big government social programs that discourage academic achievement and ruin individual incentive.

Certainly, the social gospel has deep political roots. Many politicians are political whores who offer gratuities for votes.

They exploit the poor by holding them down in poverty and keeping them dependent upon social welfare programs that never help anyone rise from the gutter. That's how many politicians continue to win elections and survive for decades in politics.

If he was alive today on the day that America claims to honor his legacy, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would excoriate much of the church and America's political class for using African-Americans as human pawns for personal and political gain.

He would be appalled that his dream had been turned into a nightmare by ravenous wolves who slipped into African-American churches disguised as benevolent sheep.

And he would remind Christians that this is what always happens when they take their faith for granted.

Would Dr. King want to be remembered and feted by those who have defecated all over his legacy? No, he wouldn't.

Rather, if he could, he'd condemn them to hell for the carnage they've committed in his name.