“My prayer is that when I die, all of Hell will rejoice that I am out of the fight.” –CS Lewis.
We live in a world run by evil and evildoers. This is evident through the suffering endured by everyone who has ever lived in this fallen world. Lies, betrayal, violence, and darkness are just the price of being born into a world that’s deeply corrupted by sin.
As human beings, we have two different paths to follow. You can choose the path of succumbing to the evil around you and let it have its way.
You become docile, weak, and complicit in the evil that takes place in this world with your inaction. This, unfortunately, is the route that most American Christians take today.
They sit back and watch as their communities are overrun by evil ideologies. Transgenderism, LGBTQ-ism, drag queen story hour with their kids, it all is allowed to take place because Christians are told that standing up against it is not “loving”.
They allow the word of God to be twisted by those who hate every word of it to shame Christians into silence and compliance. However, this is not the way. This is not the path that God calls us to take.
The other path available is that of standing up. Speaking up and saying no to the evil of the world. You become a threat to those who seek to kill and destroy, and make evil think twice before trying to impose its way of life on you and your community.
Now, when I say to be a threat, this will automatically be twisted by said evil-doers to mean I’m calling for violence. On the contrary, I’m calling for peace. Peace can only exist in the presence of strong, dangerous men who can control it.
Among my favorite interactions is that of Jordan Peterson when he’s confronted with the belief that men must be dangerous and capable, and then control it.
The interviewer questions Jordan, saying “When you say that men should be dangerous, that implies that I should be ready to threaten someone and hurt somebody!” Jordan replies, “No, you should be capable of it. But that doesn’t mean you should use it. There’s nothing to you, otherwise. If you’re not a formidable force, then there’s no morality in your self-control.”
Here’s how you become an effective and righteous threat against evil: First, become a strong, dangerous man. Then, you intelligently use your words to counter evil. You speak up, and you expose the fragile foundation of their evil.
The perfect example of this was Charlie Kirk. A strong, Christian man who was so intelligent and able to use his words to counter evil that evil had to violently take him out of the fight. Charlie is a Christian martyr, and Hell definitely rejoiced when he was taken out of the fight.
But that’s how you effectively defeat evil. Your strong and dangerous nature deters evil from forcing its way into your life, and then you dismantle and defeat it in discourse.
Too many Christians are too scared to speak up for fear of being called mean words. A transphobe, homophobe, Christian nationalist, or any other -phobe under the sun. They’re told that their Bible tells them to love everyone and be accepting. This could not be more incorrect. Love does not mean accepting others in their sin and allowing them to spread it to you.
Loving your family and community means raising them in the Word and protecting them from evil, and loving your enemy means bringing them to the light while exposing how lost they are without Christ. Truth be told, if you’re not being called mean names by those who seek to inflict evil, then I question if you’re really in the fight.
If you’re not a target in the eyes of evil, they clearly don’t see you as a threat. They see you as complicit and not a roadblock to their plans to remove Christ from this world.
Show me who sees you as an enemy, and I’ll see who you really are.
Therefore, become a threat to evil. Make it think twice before coming to your neck of the woods. And when it does, walk in victory in the name of Christ.
Justin “JP” Plott is the executive producer/co-host of “The Rightside” and co-owner of Rightside Media. You can find him on X @JPRightside. This column originally appeared in Athens Now.
