Will this age of compromise lead us astray or will the Lord of the Harvest intervene?

Early this morning I read that Isaac Newton was a closet Arianist, which means that despite his public testimony, privately he questioned the Trinity and believed that Jesus was created, making Him less than God. Later a friend invited me to join a group which advocates a Trinitarian position, but I chose to write instead.

Arius was a dissident of the Nicene position, the council commissioned by Constantine the Great to canonize the bible and its doctrines. He preached his alternative theology around 250 to 336 AD and was significantly influenced by Lucius of Antioch. However, proliferation of Arianism helped to reinforce and cement the Nicene view of a Triune God.

The error persisted to the modern era, but it intrigues me that such a seemingly small departure from truth should have had such an influence on the church. Of course Arianism is a big error to Christians, but Arians still believed in Jesus and many other doctrines - they just could not see Jesus as equal with God.

That brings me to the crux of this article. Much of what the church is struggling with now, is not a glaring set of errors, but variations on a theme with significant consequences, which are so veiled that they are being assimilated into the mainstream faith. The orbit of the earth around the sun is just erratic enough for scientists to say that its position 100,000 years from now is unpredictable, just as seemingly little errors will ultimately compromise the essence of our faith.

Thankfully, the Nicenes rallied when their position was challenged. Indeed, it was thanks to persecution that the faith preserved its integrity and stayed on track. Does that predict a coming struggle for us?

Jesus, in the parable of the tares and wheat, makes allowance for the fact that truth and untruth will grow alongside each other in the course of history, until they both reach maturity - at which point He will separate the two and cast the tares into the fire. Given what we read in 1 Peter 4:17 about judgment beginning in the house of God, we must appreciate that the separation process will not be organic, but an act of God - one that will begin with the pain of judgment. It means that tough times will come on the church to force believers out of our prevailing apathy into a decision about what it is we believe.

Jesus despised a lukewarm faith, whilst Hebrews 10:38 adds that if we draw back God will not take pleasure in us.

Sadly I am seeing a growing apathy and indifference in believers. Daily I read trivia that shows no sense of Godly fear and a scant sense of the seriousness of our times. But, that is all about to change. We will be shaken up. Such shakings will renew convictions and redefine the faith, of the faithful, but they will present a very uncomfortable reality to those who have settled into the comfortableness of our collective compromises. The process will force all of us to nail our colors to the mast and choose our paths, but once the moment has come and gone, the gulf between truth and untruth will widen into a great chasm. Then will come the end when the Lord of the Harvest will use His scythe to finally and permanently separate the tares and the wheat.

(c) Peter Eleazar @ www.4u2live.net