Who Are We Really Fighting?

The real enemy isn’t flesh and blood

Let me start with the question that keeps me awake. Who are we actually fighting?

It would be easy to point at the obvious targets. The Church of England. The Catholic Church. The Baptists. Every man-named denomination with a steeple and a sign outside. It would be easy to make them the enemy. But that would be a mistake — and worse, it would be unbiblical.

Because Scripture is plain about who the real enemy is. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places [Ephesians 6:12 KJV].

Read that again slowly. Not against flesh and blood. Our fight was never meant to be with the man in the pew or the vicar in the pulpit. They are not the enemy. They are, in many cases, the casualties.

The blindness no one talks about

Here is what amazes me, and it should amaze you too. The devil has managed to blind people who carry the name "Christian." Not the world out there — the church in here.

In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them [2 Corinthians 4:4 KJV].

We expect the world to be blind. What we don't expect is to find that blindness sitting comfortably in church on a Sunday morning, singing the hymns, knowing the routine, wearing the badge — and never once reading the Book for itself.

That's the trick. The enemy doesn't need to drag people out of church. He just needs to make sure that while they're in it, they never come to know God and His Son Jesus Christ. He's happy for them to keep the name tag, as long as they never read, never question, never grow.

And so two camps form. The first are those who simply don't read — content to believe whatever they're told from the front, never testing it against Scripture. The second are too busy living ordinary lives, no different from the rest of the world, to bother getting to know the Father and the Son at all. Both are heading for the same shock.

The lost art of knowing God

Eternal life was never defined as church attendance. Jesus defined it Himself. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent [John 17:3 KJV].

Knowing. Not knowing about. There's a world of difference between knowing the facts of a person and actually knowing them. Plenty of church members can tell you facts about Jesus. Far fewer could tell you they walk with Him daily, talk with Him, obey Him, and are being changed by Him.

God said it through Hosea, and it still cuts: My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge [Hosea 4:6 KJV]. Not lack of buildings. Not lack of programmes. Lack of knowledge — the kind that only comes from opening the Word and letting it speak.

How the doctrine got swallowed

None of this happened by accident. Paul warned Timothy exactly how it would unfold. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables [2 Timothy 4:3-4KJV].

That's the modern church in two verses. Sound doctrine became uncomfortable, so it was quietly replaced with something easier to swallow. Teachers were chosen not for faithfulness but for how good they made people feel. And truth was traded for fables — comfortable, popular, and powerless to save.

So people sat under it, year after year, and swallowed it whole. Not wickedly. Often sincerely. But sincerity has never made a lie true.

The day the trick is exposed

This is the part that grieves me most. There is a day coming when the deception ends, and not gently.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you [Matthew 7:22-23 KJV].

Notice — these aren't atheists. They're religious people, confident, busy, using the right words. And the verdict is the most devastating sentence in all of Scripture: I never knew you. Knew. The very thing eternal life was built on [John 17:3 KJV].

A great many church members will be devastated on that day when they realise the trick they believed and the wrong doctrine they foolishly swallowed. That is not said to frighten — it's said because love warns. Better a hard word now than a wasted eternity later.

So how do we fight?

We fight the way the battle was always meant to be fought — not with anger at people, but with truth aimed at the blindness.

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds [2 Corinthians 10:4 KJV]. Our weapon is the Word, plainly taught and plainly lived. We don't shout at the blind. We hold up the light.

And we refuse to be hearers only. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves [James 1:22 KJV]. The answer to a church that only listens is a believer who actually obeys.

This is the whole heart of Back to Basics: Christian living stop wearing the name and start knowing the Lord. Read for yourself. Test what you're told. Walk it out daily — that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work [Colossians 1:10 KJV].

That is who we're fighting for. Not against people — for them. Against the blindness that's robbing them. And the Word, in the hand of a doer, is still mighty enough to open eyes…

Key Takeaways:

• Our real enemy is spiritual, not denominational — [Ephesians 6:12 KJV]
• The god of this world blinds even church-goers — [2 Corinthians 4:4 KJV]
• Eternal life is knowing God, not knowing about Him — [John 17:3 KJV]
• Sound doctrine gets traded for comfortable fables — [2 Timothy 4:3-4 KJV]
• "I never knew you" is the warning we must not ignore — [Matthew 7:22-23 KJV]
• The cure is to read, test, and obey — be a doer — [James 1:22 KJV]