Wolfish Benefits

 By Keith Evans - Posted at Gentle Reformation:

I finished The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill last week (I know, I’m behind on the times, please bear with me), and the reformed world is currently re-embroiled in staving off Federal Vision for a second time, as Doug Wilson is experiencing a resurgen…no, that’s too on the nose. A renaissance…that’s it, as Doug Wilson is experiencing a renaissance. So I have found myself wondering recently: why do we keep doing this—why does the church keep listening to wolves? What is it that we believe the wolf has to offer that faithful shepherding does not? Let us consider that very notion under the following 5 reasons why the church keeps turning to un-Christlike examples to lead us:

1. Wolves fight back, hard. And they play offense. Like literal wolves, the proverbial ones in the church are ferocious. They come at the church’s cultural opponents with a vengeance. They fight fire with fire. The world may play dirty and unfair—“but so what?” the thought would go, “at least my wolf comes back swinging and is leveling some serious damage against Christ’s opponents.” What we are given, then, is a macho version of Jesus, not weak and pacifist Jesus, but a Jesus who wins my battles in a way I can relate to. (We needn’t worry that this is not how Christ tells us to “fight”, or that these are not our particular weapons — cf. 2 Cor. 6:7, 2 Cor 8:10)

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