...be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time... 1 Peter 5:5-6

    I've noticed online a flurry of disconcerting activity from many self-proclaimed Gospel defenders.  These are folks that are constantly telling others about how freewillism is wrong, or a particular church or groups of people are bad, or people who follow this teacher or that teacher are not brethren, etc...   I've observed many of them over the past several years and I've noticed that while much of what they post online is accurate, their focus on the negative is often accentuated.  They are constantly railing on their perceived opposition and much of their speech is vitriolic and confrontational.  They also tend to be very combative.  And I've come to this opinion about a good many of them I've encountered on facebook.  Their "defense" is not rooted in a love of the truth.  Their speech is rooted in self-righteousness that uses the online medium as a form of boasting.

    Can you imagine that?  Boasting in one's knowledge of the Gospel?  But I think that's what they are doing.  Imagine using the Gospel - to puff up one's pride!  The very Gospel which HUMBLES God's elect.  But men have endless ways of taking something that which is good and twisting it in ways to please their sinful flesh.  To use the Gospel in this way, well in my opinion, is in some ways worse than the freewiller they rail upon in their ironic hypocrisy.  William Romaine once said, "Whatsoever it be that makes you pleased with yourself, that is not true grace."

    Let us be like babes, to whom only the Lord reveals His truth.  May the Lord humble His people so that they may be rightly taught.  And if we are to boast, let us boast only in the cross of Christ (Gal. 6:14) and never in our knowledge or our service to Him and His body.