The prevalence of words and ideas borrowed from the world of battle and war and military training in the midst of inspired Scripture must bother a lot of post-modernist style folks. But they are there. I’ve been thinking a lot about those terms of late. Ever seen that picture (they used to have them on t-shirts back when I was in college) of the one fish swimming upstream against all the rest of the fish, and the rest of the fish look just a little less than…loving? If you’ve been following events of late, you can’t help but feel that way. On every hand the lover of the old truths that kept Calvin going in the face of his enemies–that took Ridley and Latimer into the flames–that fired the preaching of John Knox–that empowered Whitefield as he traveled the world calling men to Christ with a clarion and clear gospel–that captured the hearts and minds of Londoners as they listened to Spurgeon preaching on them–find themselves opposed by the culture and by much of what calls itself the “church.” Rome is as aggressive as ever, but now she is joined by so many who have given in to her on the “grand turning point of the cause” (as Luther put it to Erasmus) and in fact have traded the gospel itself for a pittance. Every day pressure is placed upon anyone who still believes the Bible to be the living, powerful, accurate, inspired, understandable Word of God to be quiet, to stop applying God’s truth to the arena of ideas. “Don’t let your worldview influence your thinking!” we are told. “Keep your religion to yourself!”
It is one thing coming from the dedicated secularists, but it is even worse when it comes from those who pay lip service to those truths that give you life and are the object of your love and passion and study but who then turn around and subject those same truths to any range of human authorities and beliefs. If you dare follow in the footsteps of the Apostles, get ready for the normal arrows: Divisive! Unloving! Narrow-minded! Unkind! Arrogant! You think you are infallible! You are not spiritual! Etc. and etc. But when you turn to your Bible and simply listen to God speaking, you hear all about sound doctrine and divine truth and the Spirit’s driving us ever deeper into the Word–not into man’s shallow substitutes.
The torrent of “forget the gospel, let’s be nice, pass the Pope into heaven just to show how loving we are” of the past few weeks got me thinking, once again, about those commands of Scripture, like “stand firm!” “Hold fast!” Those are fighting words, words that speak to our battle, our warfare. Bunyan would be proud. 
And so, to encourage the small but dedicated band that read this blog and who seek to honor God by honoring His truth in their lives and their witness, we have ordered a press run of the very popular rubber-band style wrist bands in royal blue. And what is imprinted on them? Well, for this first run (we might do others, if these go well), I thought the best possible imprint would be, “No Compromise.” Is that not right where the battle is today? Compromise your faith, compromise the truth, give in, go with the flow. May the Spirit keep us strong.
Now, we had hoped to have them in today. We have been, shall we say, providentially hindered. But what we are going to do is start to take pre-orders for their arrival May 2nd. Obviously, if there is a response that warrants it, we can be better prepared for further orders this way. If you are familiar with these wrist bands, you know that they are generally associated with some particular charity or cause. Well, this one is, too. Aside from showing your commitment to remain steadfast, to stand firm, to not compromise, you are also standing with this ministry. You can order yours here. We will be asking only $5 (plus shipping), so if you know others who would appreciate that reminder and that call to faithfulness, don’t forget them as well.
