Contending for the Faith

Example of Contending

I. Illustration and Example

The best way to illustrate a point is to use a story

In this Example we have Michael the Archangel vs Satan, they are fighting over the body of Moses.

I do not know the specifics of why they are disputing over Moses Body but its interesting how this is handled and I believe is the correct way to deal with contending or engaging with those in false teaching.

The story of an angel slaying thousands is found in the Bible, specifically in the account of the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem. According to one of the articles, an angel of the Lord intervened on behalf of the Israelites, striking down 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in a single night[1]. This event occurred during the reign of King Hezekiah, who had prayed for divine intervention against the seemingly insurmountable Assyrian army led by King Sennacherib[1]. The miraculous slaughter is also mentioned in another article, which notes that this angelic intervention is recorded in multiple biblical texts[2]. It's worth noting that while this specific incident is the most relevant to the query, the articles also mention other instances of divine or angelic involvement in battles and judgments, though not always with such large numbers of casualties[3].

The power of these angels is far past what me and you are capable of.

2 Kings 19:35 “And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.”

II. No railing accusations

Michael being one of the righteous continuing to serve God (not one of those left their habitation in vs 6) even with the Moral high ground did not rail accusation against the devil.

As Christians we cannot stoop to the level of humiliating or degrading people as we talk. Even against false teachers. The devil would be at the top of the list for bringing accusations and Michael would have been correct, but that is not the way.

If we get into conversations about false teaching with a person and our immediate reaction is to attack the person itself, we discredit ourselves in the process. Nobody wants to hear a screaming match between two people.

This would include online. I have a confession to make. I use to be the person that would constantly fight online

No one has ever changed their mind online

III. His Appeal

Jude 9 “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.”

The LORD REBUKE thee

Our response, our authority, our appeal should be to God

Persuasive essays have 3 main types of arguments

Ethos - Ethical

Pathos - Emotional

Logos - Logical

There are more types but almost all are classified into variations of these three.

How are you contending for the faith? Does it come off more as crazy yelling and accusations? Can I tell you something? You won’t change any minds that way, you will push people further away. Can we as a youth group endeavor to be like Michael and contend for the faith while having our authority from God’s Word