Who Is My Enemy
Kenneth Ryland
“Let the bloodletting continue!” As Christians that should be our announcement to the world. One of the amazing characteristics of the Christian Church of the twenty-first century is that we are unable to define our enemies. But worse yet, we cannot even seem to identify our friends. It is a constant source of bewilderment to me to see how Christian people who were the best of friends one day can accuse each other of being “agents of the devil” the next. I have been a Christian for over 35 years and could write volumes on the abuse that Christians suffer at the hands of their brethren. The devil has little to do these days because Christians are doing all his work for him. Occasionally he may have to step in and tidy up a few “loose ends” after brother has skewered brother, but essentially, he allows us to do his work for him — and we seem more than willing to do all the devil’s work “in the name of the Lord.”
As a Sabbath-keeper I have belonged to groups that have made sport of Sunday-keepers over their lack of “knowledge of the Truth” about the Sabbath. I have also been shunned by Sunday-keeping “friends” who were horrified when they discovered that I attend church on Saturday and refused even to sit down as friend with friend to discuss the matter — presumably for fear that they might be contaminated by the devil himself. After all, how could I “turn from grace” back to the law? In the world of Sunday-keeping Christians many anti-rapturists absolutely detest the rapturists. Some say that if you speak in tongues, you are of the devil; others contend that if you don’t, you are of the devil. Then there are the once-saved-always-saved Calvinists against the Arminian-Wesleyan groups. If there is any pretext for division, those who call themselves Christians will find it…”
(This article is an excerpt from the May-June 2001 edition of the Sabbath Sentinel)
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The Sabbath Sentinel 