William MacDonald emphasizes the critical need for Christians to remain true to the Lord amidst a culture that often prioritizes intellectualism over faithfulness to Christ. He warns against the danger of valuing scholarly achievements while overlooking heretical views that undermine the core truths of Christianity, such as the Virgin Birth and the resurrection. MacDonald calls for a righteous anger against those who betray Christ in academic circles and urges believers to stand firm in their loyalty to Him. He highlights the examples of prophets, apostles, and martyrs who prioritized God's approval over human accolades. Ultimately, he challenges Christians to be unwavering in their commitment to uphold the truth of Christ's identity and work.

“…he began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord.” (Acts 11:23 NASB) There is an alarming tendency in some Christian circles to fawn over men because they are scholars, even though they are disloyal to the Person of Christ. Here is a man, for instance, who is a brilliant writer, a master in the use of illustrations, a commentator whose word studies are superb. But this man denies the Virgin Birth. He explains away the miracles of our Lord. He rejects the literal, bodily resurrection of the Savior. He speaks patronizingly of Jesus as one who must find a place in any gallery of the world’s heroes. To him, Jesus is just one among many heroes. What this amounts to, of course, is damning the Son of God with faint praise. This man is simply not true to the Lord. It is shocking, then, to find Christians defending a man like this for his brilliant scholarship. With mealy mouth, they extol his intellectual prowess and pass lightly over his heretical treatment of Christ. They like to quote him as a respected authority and to move in the same scholarly circles. If challenged for fraternizing with one who is an enemy of the Cross of Christ, they use weasel words to play down the seriousness of the offense. Not uncommonly, they attack fundamental, Bible-believing Christians for daring to speak out against one who is such an acknowledged authority. It is time that Christians recapture a sense of righteous anger when their Savior is being betrayed in the halls of scholarship. This is no time for compromise. The truth concerning His Person and work is not negotiable. We must stand and be counted. The prophets did not speak equivocally when the truth of God was at stake. They were fiercely loyal to the Lord and lashed out at those who dared to deny or belittle Him. The apostles too bristled at any effort to rob the Lord of His glory. They chose loyalty to Christ over renown in the theological world. The martyrs chose to die rather than compromise their loyalty to the Son of God. They were more interested in God’s approval than man’s. Our responsibility is to be faithful to the Lord Jesus in all things, and to take an adversary relationship to anyone or anything that fails to give Him His proper place of preeminence.