The enemy of our souls is a master at pitting Christians against each other and dividing the body of Christ. One of Satan’s most successful techniques is to have Christians engage in a form of spiritual nihilism, one against another. Anyone who is unaware of the division among professing Evangelicals should look no further than the mega-website YouTube. I cannot even begin to count the hundreds of thousands of diatribes professing Christians have posted railing against notable theologians such as Sproul, Piper, MacArthur, and White to name just a few and calling their salvation into question. What is the justification for such attacks? Disagreements—differences over non-essential elements unrelated to the core of the gospel message.
While it is not wrong to question the specific theology or methodology of any one individual, there is a spirit of engaging in spiritual nihilism. The conclusion one is inevitably left with—after watching some of the more outrageous videos—is that nothing any one of those spiritual figures says is of any consequence, nor should any one of them have a following.
YouTube is not the only source of Evangelical disruption, but it is undoubtedly one of the fastest growing avenues in the internet age used for assaulting the character of other Christians. (Please do not misunderstand what I am trying to say. YouTube is a source of much blessing but also a path for one's destructive agenda.) I can still remember from my youth the attacks against the biggest names in Christendom, namely, Billy Graham. Some of the vilest statements against Graham and his family have come from the pulpit of churches. One minister once stated to me that Mr. Graham is a man to be pitied and prayed for, but he is not to be quoted. Furthermore, I have met others who dismiss the totality of a person’s life and ministry by refusing to publish any of their works or even a small selection of their writings because of minor doctrinal disagreements.
The Word of God stands in judgment upon each and every heart that engages in spiritual nihilism whereby the totality of a person’s ministry is discredited and dismissed. No Christian has learned this spirit of intolerance from studying the life of Christ. In fact, the story is told in two gospel accounts of Jesus criticizing John because he had rebuked someone who was not performing ministry in a way John thought was proper (cf. Mark 9:38-40; Luke 9:49-50).
Nevertheless, it is appropriate to speak up and say something when clear error can lead someone astray as in the case of Paul confronting Peter—because "he stood condemned" (Gal. 2:11). My concern, however, is that in unholy anger, well-meaning individuals will engage in spiritual nihilism by dismissing and denouncing the totality of a person’s life and ministry over an issue that is unrelated to the purity of the apostolic message.
Former President George Bush once called for a kinder, gentler nation. A clarion call for more kindness needs to be heard in the church, for we are not ignorant of Satan’s devices in dividing the body of Christ. As the German Lutheran theologian, Rupertus Meldenius, once penned in a tract on Christian unity in the early seventeenth century: In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.
