The world of ideas is a battleground, and everyone who ventures there must be prepared to fight. We are told that "our struggle is not against flesh and blood," (Eph. 6:12), and Jesus, when being tried by Pilate declared, "If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting ... but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm," (John 18:36). In the animal world, where emotions rule, beasts attack each other, tear and kill, and then devour the carcasses. In the world of unregenerate men, where lust rules, they also engage in physical conflict to achieve their desires, (Jas. 4:1-3). But the Christian must rise above the emotional level of animals and above the lust-driven plane of most people, to enter and dwell in a spiritual context.
While we live in this earthly dimension, that contest is a mental warfare, because Satan's influence here is manifested as lies, deception, illusion, and perversity. He started it all in Genesis 3 when he beguiled Eve's mind with suggestions and illusionary lies to lead her away from faith in God to trust in what she could sensorially verify, (vs. 1-6). This archfiend still operates in the spiritual sphere in much the same fashion. Probing our minds with ideas that are appealing, suggestive of great wisdom, and even convincing in the matrix of logic, self-verification, and blatant claims of irrefutability. People accept these ideas to the extent that they become the orthodox view of society. To challenge them is to mark yourself in the eye of society as being ignorant, naive, and ridiculous.
When these ideas concern man's relationship to God, as most of them do directly or indirectly, it becomes the immediate concern of the Christian to arm himself with the truth and do battle with the error involved. The "truth" is "the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints." The word "faith" here refers to the source of Christian faith, to the object of that faith, and to the substance of such faith. In short, it means the gospel. the "word of truth," (II Cor. 5:7; Col. 1:5; II Tim. 2:15; and Jas. 1:18).
There is so much evil in the world of ideas that Christians face a colossal task in opposing it as they "contend earnestly for the faith." But with the word of God, which is a mighty "sword of the Spirit," (Eph. 6:17), in the hands of those who prepare themselves to use it, (II Tim. 2:15), the Christian soldier can defeat falacious ideas and victoriously "contend for" and defend "the faith." We are told by Paul the apostle that "though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete," (II Cor. 10:3-6).
Christians have the spiritual weapons for defeating all error, (Eph. 6:10-18). God will supply the wisdom in how to use these weapons effectively, (Jas. 1:5), as His people take them up and exercise themselves in them, (Heb. 5:14). If error triumphs over the faith in the world of ideas in our generation, it will not be because the error was the stronger or was irrefutable. It will rather be because Christians will fail to arm themselves with the truth, "have their senses trained to discern good and evil," and advance courageously into the ideational conflict.
But whether Christians succeed or fail in "contend(ing) earnestly for the faith," one thing is sure, "the word of God is not (and cannot be) imprisoned, (II Tim. 2:9). In the end that Holy word, "the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints," shall destroy all erroneous ideas and their deceptive constructions, (II Ths. 2:8-10). And then, with the untenable half of the world of ideas obliterated for-ever, the word of God, which is the gospel. (Rev. 14:6), shall endure forever.
