Once people believe they are confronting an external existential threat, they get into a protective mode tolerati g everything going on within thinking what will destroy us is external. You then get paranoid believing every action taken by others is being done "against" you.
You make excuses for all the vices developing within believing that the ultimate enemy is actually without. Things like unforgiveness, lack of integrity, moral defects are overlooked because the existential threat is now seen to be without. There is this imagined enemy without.
We must understand that God's people have always had external enemies & on no occasion were they defeated by the external except when they walked in disobedience to God in their private lives. If they walked in fellowship, history shows every external threat led to multiplication
The existential threat to the Church is therefore a lack of following the basic principles of our faith, remaining in deep fellowship with God walking in obedience to him. It is impossible for the incorruptible and immortal life of Jesus bestowed on us by his blood to be defeated
