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There are certain mistakes that are viewed as virtues. And I’m not referring to when the man at the store gives you too much change.

A Christian friend asks you to lunch. With great earnestness, he sits across from you and begins to ask how you are doing. Then he asks whether you have had any success in finding a new job. You look puzzled and tell him your old job is going just fine. He laughs, explains how he heard the opposite, and visibly relaxes. He was wrong—but you think better of him, not worse, for asking.

In Joshua 22, news comes from the region of the Jordan River. “When they came to Geliloth near the Jordan in the land of Canaan, the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh built an imposing altar there by the Jordan” (v. 10, NIV).

Well, how nice, you might think. With a church on every other corner in America, and so very few in Canaan, another altar was a sign of growth, possibly a sign of full-scale revival. Instead of church planting, they were altar planting. How lovely.

The tribes back in Canaan saw it a bit differently. “And when the Israelites heard that they had built the altar on the border of Canaan at Geliloth near the Jordan on the Israelite side, the whole assembly of Israel gathered at Shiloh to go to war against them” (vv. 11–12, NIV).

It was all a misunderstanding. The Transjordanian tribes had not committed apostasy by setting up an altar to compete with the one at Shiloh; they were simply setting up a memorial that looked like an altar. But Israel was following the word of the Lord in Deuteronomy 13, which says, “ ‘If you hear it said about one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you to live in that wicked men have arisen among you and have led the people of their town astray, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods you have not known), then you must inquire, probe and investigate it thoroughly. And if it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done among you, you must certainly put to the sword all who live in that town. Destroy it completely, both its people and its livestock’ ” (vv. 12–15, NIV). Before they went to war, the Canaanite tribes investigated and probed—and then they relented from their plans to destroy thousands of their kinsmen.

Note that they were willing to obey God and destroy any rival religion that might arise within their country. They would tear down any altar, burn any image, and utterly destroy a whole town if the people were to pledge themselves to worship anyone but God. By willing, I do not mean they began to write magazine articles about the problem, or that they contacted their congressman, prepared a lawsuit, or started a boycott of Transjordanian olives. They sharpened their swords and gathered for war. Such was their zeal for their God that they were willing to die to make sure it would be Him alone who was worshiped in His covenant community. His church would remain pure.

This passage is rich in encouragement for those of us who see chaos in the church today. We struggle over how to deal with a church gone theologically bad, a friend gone astray from orthodoxy, or a movement that sheds its broad evangelicalism, revealing a naked gnosticism at the core.

For those who are bold, ready to do battle, the wisdom of God from this text is to consider. The Israelites carefully searched to discover whether the reports about their brothers were true. Because of pride and arrogance, some find it very hard to slow the judgment and execution of those about whom they hear a bad report. These bold for truth among us must carefully gather information. Then they must congregate. The Israelites did not go off as Lone Rangers for Yahweh. They gathered to confirm the reports from the Jordan (they did not have telephone or e-mail, after all) and to prepare for a possible attack. In numbers, they found certitude concerning the charges and legitimacy as they mustered as God’s army, not as roving bands of vigilantes.

Others of us, however, flee from battle. Their life verse is Matthew 7:1: “ ‘Judge not, that you be not judged.’ ” Even if they have all the information in the world, they will not do anything to speak or act against someone with the label “Christian” on his church. This text carries a frightening warning to such. Notice the logic of the Israelites as they confronted those they suspected of idolatry: “ ‘When Achan son of Zerah acted unfaithfully regarding the devoted things, did not wrath come upon the whole community of Israel? He was not the only one who died for his sin’ ” (v. 20, NIV). They knew that allowing idolatry to reign in God’s covenant community would harm everyone.

Oh, how evangelicalism has suffered. It has suffered because of self-styled heresy hunters, too immature to be leaders in the church and too good at raising funds for their own good. And it has suffered because men and women have been silent when they should have gone to ecclesiastical war over false worship, fake revival, and demonic strategies for increasing the apparent power of the church in our culture.

Be vigilant, brothers and sisters. Do not let yourselves be guilty of these sins—or of overreaction or underreaction to them.

Clear Consciences

Fears of Exclusion

Keep Reading Revivalism: An Impotent Wind

From the June 2001 Issue
Jun 2001 Issue