(EPH. 6, 16)
PAUL is imprisoned at Rome and is writing to "the saints which are
at Ephesus." He beholds Christian life as one immense struggle--not
against flesh and blood, that is, against the depraved elements in the
life of mankind and the evil tendencies in man; no, back of flesh and
blood are principalities and powers, a host of spirits trained in the
wiles and the cunning of the devil, and exercising a tremendous power
in the world, through evil persons.
Against these gigantic powers we must needs fight, and we must vanquish
them. But we cannot do so by our own power. We must be "girt about with
truth," must be clothed in "the whole armour of God." This is not an
armour that can be forged from the steel within ourselves--although we
say that with all due deference to bravery, shrewdness and wisdom; but
in the great struggle against the powers of darkness we must be girt
with something stronger. Fortified with _our own_, we sustain wounds,
but win no victory. The armour of God gives victory, but protects
against wounds if we know how to use it rightly.
But when Paul describes the whole armour of God, he strongly emphasizes
a particular part of it, for he says: "Above all, taking the shield[A]
of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of
the wicked." Thus it is a question of making proper use of the shield
rather than of the sword. The church of the Lord has hitherto laid
stress on the use of the sword, and therefore the result of the fight
has often been a number of wounded souls, for the sword wounds, while
the shield protects.
It is said of our heathen forefathers that they knew how to _fight_
as well as how to _rest_ behind the shield. They knew how to grasp
all the hostile arrows in their shield while they fought; when they
had fought themselves weary or spent all their arrows, while the foe
still had plenty of deadly arrows to hurl against them, they knew the
art of taking a rest behind their shield in the midst of the shower of
arrows. Covered by the shield they gathered strength for the purpose
of resuming the fight with axes and spears while the enemy uselessly
wasted his supply of arrows.
I wish sincerely that we possessed somewhat more of this ability of our
forefathers to use the shield, to _fight and to rest behind the shield
of faith, spiritually speaking_. That would make it possible for us to
give battle the thunder of which would resound in the remotest corners
of the earth, as in days of yore the song and the hammer strokes of
our forefathers were heard in distant countries. Then we would not use
our fighting ability to plunder foreign shores, but to lead the fight
against the spiritual powers of evil--to be in the front ranks during
the fight that shall be fought from the sea to the ends of the earth,
in which thousands must bleed because they have not learned how to use
the shield of faith.
_We shall make a stand against the wiles of the devil!_
If I am not very much mistaken by the signs of the age, the attacks on
the church of the Lord will during the present century become still
more marked by diabolical cunning and cleverness than ever before.
_The arrows_ will be sharpened with all the shrewdness of science,
directed against us with cunning, glowing with a devilish hatred
against everything that is of heavenly birth, and aims at heavenly
goals. Indecent jokes, cutting scorn and cleverly formulated inquiries
will constitute a cloud of arrows which will darken the sun to many.
They will be hurled against us through the means of literature and
science, with violent haughtiness, with fierce hatred. And we--we have
not that unconquerable courage which enables us to say with the hero of
Thermopylae: "So much the better--then we fight in the shade!"
How shall we approach the struggle of the twentieth century?
Someone may say: We shall sharpen our arrows, make them pointed, and
send them forth with shrewdness and wisdom. We shall use our common
sense, meet the opponents on the battlefield of thought and cleverness,
show them what is unenduring in the chimera of the atheists and what
is depraved in the life without God. In the church of the Lord we have
men who are not inferior to our opponents in respect to cleverness and
wisdom--indeed, we have, praised be God!
But it does seem to me that many a valiant fighter will succumb in this
kind of a struggle, and many plain-thinking Christians may flee, as
did the Philistines in ancient days when their giant had fallen. All
honor to those who defend and promote the Kingdom of God by thought, by
reasoning and by wisdom! But along that way we do not accomplish much
more than to humbly admit that
"Stood we alone in our own might,
Our striving would be losing."
More and more the shibboleth must be: "Above all, taking the shield
of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of
the wicked." Learn how to fight, covered by the shield! That means:
All your struggle must be based upon the words of faith, all your
arguments must take these as their point of departure instead of using
human sagacity and the tricks of interpretation; then you will be
unconquerable. And if it does happen that you become weary in the fight
against the wiles of the devil, or that your arrows are all spent while
the foe has plenty, then do as our fathers did: Take a rest behind the
shield! Cover yourself completely with the words of faith, then no
hostile dart will reach you, far less wound you. On the contrary--you
rest and gather strength while the foe exhausts himself uselessly, and
"all the fiery darts of the wicked are quenched."
This method of fighting is especially adapted to the people, and it
is _the age of the people_, also in the church of our Lord. The future
does not require a great chieftain with a host of good-for-nothings
behind him, but an army whose every individual is trained in the use of
the shield of faith.
When Mr. Moeller-Anderson, a Dane with a warm and faithful heart, a
Dane whose quiet ways his compatriots abroad do not forget--in the
summer of 1888 made regular sailing trips from Copenhagen to Sweden
for the sake of his health, it happened one day aboard the vessel
that some scoffers wished to have fun with him. They may have thought
that it would be an easy matter to subdue him. They, therefore,
started a conversation with him, but soon their speech changed to
scoffing and witty questions, daring attacks upon Christianity. Then
Mr. Moeller-Anderson replied: "I don't know how that all may be, and
I cannot answer you, but if you wish to know what my faith is, then
I will confess my faith through the Apostles' Creed before you right
here!"
_The scoffers had nothing more to say!_
What had Mr. Moeller-Anderson done which made them silent? Had he told
them a striking joke which could not be commented upon, or had he
stated a cleverly formulated truth which they could not resist? No,
he rested behind the shield and the scoffers realized that _he was
protected_.
You Christian man and woman from the everyday walks of life--when you
meet the scoffers, then don't try to find clever thoughts with which
to defend Christianity, as though that were your way to victory. In
that case it would merely become a question as to which side was
supported by the greatest wisdom, the most cleverly pointed shrewdness.
The great struggle of the world is the _struggle of faith_, and it
must by no means be changed into a chaos of personal trickery and
clever stratagems. Above all, grasp the shield of faith instead of
resorting to your own wisdom and cleverness. Say your creed plainly
and simply, you mother of a child, you master of the home, you young
man and woman among your chums, when you meet the devil and his wiles
in the form of clever questions formulated so as to entangle you in
self-contradictions--catch you in the net of words as formerly the
Pharisees and the Herodians tried to catch Jesus asking: Is it lawful
to give tribute unto Cæsar?
You often hear it said: You claim that God loveth mankind: But why,
then, does _He_ let some suffer in all eternity? Or, you claim that
you have a good Father in Heaven who can do everything: How is it,
then, that He lets His children suffer distress on earth? etc.--Say it
plainly and simply: Well, I can't answer questions like these, for I do
not see through all these things, but if you want to know what my faith
is regarding salvation, then I will confess my creed right here before
you! That's to rest behind the shield, and you will feel how blissful
that is compared with the fight by wisdom and reasoning in which there
is the fear of being wounded and vanquished, and of rendering harm unto
Christianity by attempting an unsuccessful defence.
_Behind the shield of faith: there is victory both when you fight and
when you rest!_
Paul was not afraid of fighting. Neither must we be. But that fight
which gives victory without wounds, without one painful sensation to
limit the joy of victory, must be directed from a _covered position_.
And the agility necessary to enable one to seek cover behind the
shield of faith is obtained only by _daily training_. Therefore, train
yourself every morning to protect yourself by the words of faith before
going to your work and fight your fight; and in the evening when you
lie down to rest, you must train yourself so that in fight as well as
during the lull, you can be covered by the shield of faith; then you
will conquer the wiles of the devil, and his fiery darts will not wound
you.
Thus I consider it essential for the church of the Lord in the
twentieth century that it learns how to use the shield rightly whether
in fight or at rest. The _struggle_ of the church will then result in a
greater victory and in fewer wounds than during the last century, and
its _rest_ will become increasingly beneficent and strengthening while
its restlessness will become less nervous and less strength-consuming.
Wonder if the time has not come when the church, driven by inner
friction and by enemies from without, will listen readily to the
apostolic warning: "Above all, take the shield of faith, wherewith ye
shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked."
I look forward to the day when the Apostles' Creed becomes the
_universal slogan_ for all Christian organizations. Then the church of
the Lord will march forward to victory.