(The undercover war)
By
Lt Col. Gordon "Jack" Mohr (AUS, Ret.)
"This is the victory that overcomes the word, even our faith." (I John 5.4)
In 2 Timothy 2:3, 4, we read: "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier."
It is quite obvious from this scripture, that the young Christian minister Timothy had been issued a "call to war!" Paul was reminding him of this fact and of how easy it is for a Christian soldier to fail. I think it becomes quite apparent at this point, that Paul was writing to all Christians, when he issued Timothy this warning. All Christians are called to war! I think most of you will agree with me, before this message is finished, that all Christians, or maybe we should use the term all those who have been "born from above" are called to war. Paul emphasizes this in Ephesians 6:11 when he tells ALL Christians to "Put on the whole armour of God...'' in preparation for this war. Then inverse 12. we find some startling things. Notice Paul's use of the word WE. Here he is telling who the soldiers are to be. He is talking about those who have been "washed in the blood of the Lamb" and have become "new creatures in Jesus Christ." Then he tells us who the enemy, is. It is not a "flesh and blood" enemy - it is not the Jews, or the aliens in our midst, although they surely are part of the fight, neither is it a single foe. Note that the enemy is plural, "the rulers of darkness, spiritual wickedness in high places.' The word RULER in the Greek language comes from the word "kosmokrator" (2888) which means "a world ruler, a name for Satan." The word for HIGH is "epouranios" (2032) which means "in the heavens.'' The word SPIRITUAL comes from the Greek word "pneumatikos" which means: "demonic, supernatural." WICKEDNESS comes from the Greek ''poneria" (4189) which means: "depravity; malice; iniquity."
So we see that the Christian's adversary is not a "flesh and blood" individual, but a powerful, spiritual being, who is utterly depraved and set against God.
This is further confirmed in 2 Corinthians 10:3,4. where we read: "for though we (Christians) walk in the flesh (the natural world), we do not war ("strateuomai," (4754) serve in a military campaign: contend with carnal inclinations) after the flesh. For the weapons ("hoplizo'' [3696] "to arm oneself.) of our warfare (''strateia'' [4752], ''military warfare'') are not carnal ("sarkikos" [4559], meaning "fleshly"), but mighty ("dunatos" [1415], meaning "powerful; capable of") through God for the pulling ("kathairesis" [2506], meaning: "destruction of; demolition of") down of strongholds ("ochuroma" [3794] meaning: "fortified places".)
So what we literally see is that while those who have been born from above walk in fleshly bodies, we do not carry on our main military campaign in these bodies. The reason being that the weapons of our military war-fare are not fleshly weapons, but are the powerful weapons, capable through God's help, of allowing us to demolish the fortified places of the enemy. What a power we have available to us, if we will only use it. The HIGH PLACES mentioned here, are the same ones mentioned in Ephesians 6:12.
The enemy we face is a spiritual enemy. He is many! He is a government! lie is an organization of spiritual beings!
Our enemy has the spiritual realm, a being we sometimes call Satan. We Christians, those of us who have had a "born from above" experience in our lives, are at war with this spiritual enemy, whether we want to be or not. Lost people, those who are unsaved, including millions who go by the name of Christian, but who have never had their sins come under the blood of the Son of God (John 1:12), are not called into this fight. They cannot fight, since they are prisoners of this spiritual authority and prisoners of war cannot fight. This is why there is such a lack of effort on the part of the organized church, the Judeo-Christian church, to take a stand against evil. Too many of their members, are held captive by the enemy. They may come to church every Sunday: they may put some money in the collection plate; they may praise God and even speak in tongues, but they are as much prisoners as those who are behind steel and concrete. These people are worth-less as soldiers in the Kingdom of God.
In 2 Timothy, 2:25, 26 we read that one of ihc tasks of a ''servant of the Lord,'' is to ''instruct those that oppose ("antidiathithemai'' [475], meaning ''set onself opposite of: dispute") themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; AND THAT THEY MAY RECOVER ("ananepho'' [3661 "regain their senses; become sober again") themselves out of the SNARE ("pagis" [3803] "trap; strategy or temptation") of the DEVIL ("diabols" [1228] "false accuser; Satan"), who are TAKEN ("zogreo" [2221], "taken alive; captured or ensnared") by him at his WILL ("thelema" [2307] "desire; pleasure.")
These unsaved people cannot escape from the prison house of Satan. Peter tells us in I Peter 5:8, that this "spiritual authority" he calls the "devil" is going around in the world like a wild lion, "seeking whom he may DEVOUR ("katapino" [2666], "to gulp down entirely; to swallow up"). James tells us in 4:7, that before we can resist this evil, (RESIST "anthestimi" [436], "to oppose; withstand" this evil authority by first SUBMITTING "hypotasso" [5293], "obey; become obedient to; put yourself under; be in subjection to"). This means of course that we must submit to the laws of God, which were never done away by Jesus Christ, since we learn in I John 3:4, that "sin is the transgression of the Law."
What does all this mean? It means that you and I, in order to be good soldiers for Jesus Christ, must first have a personal knowledge of the Commander-in-Chief. It is impossible for anyone to "submit themselves to God," unless they have gone through the scriptural process spoken about by Jesus in John 3:3, sometimes being called "born again." (I like "born from above" better.)
One of Jesus' principle reasons for coming to this world in human form; think of it; GOD THE WORD. in human form, was to "preach deliverance to the captives." DELIVERANCE ("aphesis" [859], "forgiveness; pardon; liberty" to the CAPTIVES "aichmalatos'' [164], ''a prisoner of war.'')
So you see, there is a war going on and the enemy, has taken prisoners.
From these few scriptures we have already learned two truths.
1. - It is impossible for the unsaved to resist evil, since they are captives of this evil, and,Where do you think the fleshly lusts which born bard men and women come from? Some may say: "Its the old human nature coming to the fore. The Old Man. But why is all flesh basically evil? How does flesh-lust drive men and women to sin. Let's go back to Ephesians 6:12 again: "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood.'' This makes it adequately clear that our enemies is a spirit enemy, not one of flesh.2. - Saved people are no longer prisoners of evil and therefore MUST resist it and fight against it
How do we fight this evil spirit. Through the flesh (Titus 2:11, 12) - "For the grace of God (unmerited favor of God) that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men (inclusive), teaching us that denying ungodliness, and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the PRESENT," ("nun" [3568], a primary participle meaning "NOW"). We are to live godly lives right now, in this world in our fleshly body. and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a casta way. This does not mean that Paul svas afraid of losing his salvation. but that he did not want to become ''worthless'' in the fight. That is the meaning of the word CASTAWAY. (Gk. "adokimos'' f96]).
You mav be somewhat skeptical and ask "Do you mean to imply that all sin and human failure is caused by evil spirits in the lives of people?'' Let's see what the Bible has to say about this. Always let the Bible, the WRITTEN WORD, answer your questions.
In both the Old and New Testaments, can be found many, prophesies concerning the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and His 1,000 year reign on this earth. This is often referred to as ''the millennium, which is a Greek word meaning a "thousand". (See Revelation 20:6).
In Isaiah 2:4, for instance. We read that during this wonderful period, there will be no war. This will be the first time in some 6,000 years of man's written history, when the world has been free of war. In Isaiah 11:6, we read further that the "carnivorous. meat eating wolf, will lie down with the kid (baby goat), which is one of its major foods and that the calf and the young lion, who now feeds on it, will lie down together, and a little child shall lead them. The whole world will be at peace. even the wild animals and poisonous reptiles Isaiah 11:8 tells us that children will he able to play with poisonous snakes and scorpions and will not be harmed.
There will be unsaved men and women in this world during this period. They will be ruled over by Christ and His redeemed OVERCOMERS, the glorified saints. (See Revelation 2:26). That word "glorified" means "changed", I Corinthians 5:51,52 says that in the moment of Christ's return, "We (speaking of those born from above) shall all be CHANGED (glorified), in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. The dead in Christ shall be raised INCORRUPTIBLE (new bodies which will never be sick again or wear out), and we (the Christians still alive when He returns) shall be changed. For this corruptible (body) must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.'' (We do not have "immortality" at the present time, although some teach this.)
While all the pain and agony of life will be gone, physical life will continue just as before. Commerce will go on, world business will continue. But there will be some big differences.
You might ask: ''How can the world continue's it bout all the evils it had before?''
I believe the answer is found in Revelation 20:2: And he (the angel who holds the key to the bottomless pit). shall lay hold on the DRAGON ("drakon" [1404], a fabulous serpent who was supposed to be able to fascinate." A term consistently used in the New Testament representative of Satan), that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and BOUND ("deo" (1210], "to put into bonds") him for a thousand years."
I believe here is your answer to a world without sin or war. The source of sin, the "tempter", the "false accuser," will be held in bondage during that time and all evil will disappear.
To further substantiate this, look at Revelation 20:3, which tells what happens when Satan is loosed from his bonds at the end of the Millennium. He goes right back to his never ending task of deceiving the nations. Once again, man will rebel against God and all the old bad things, including war and sickness will return. This makes it plain to me, that Satan is the source of evil in our world today.
We who know the Lord, are at war with this Evil Empire. It is a covert (secret, undercover war). but a war nevertheless. Because it is undercover and out of sight from our physical eyes, many times people have a tendency to deny this war is going on. This is one of the reasons we must fight it one day at a time. This is what Jesus meant when He said: "Take no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." (Matthew 6:34)
The spiritual warfare designed by the enemy has as its main goal the destruction of the Christian light. This is how it works. When an individual has become a "true Christian", through the spiritual process given in Acts 2:38, 39 and has repented and been baptized for the remission of sins, at this moment a light goes on in that life, which will shine in a "sin darkened" world. This is the light which leads prisoners of that world to Jesus Christ, the LIBERATOR. Because of this, this Christian light is a threat to the spiritual jailer, who according to 2 Corinthians 4:4 is Satan. "In whom the god of this world (cosmos) hath blinded the MINDS of them which believe not." Why? Continue: "Lest the LIGHT of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."
When that light shines as it ought, the spiritual prisoners see an opportunity for liberty through Jesus Christ. As Jesus Himself said in John 10:9, 10, "I am come that they (the spiritual prisoners) might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." That word ABUNDANTLY is a wonderful word. In the Greek it is (4053), "perisseuo" which literally means: "super-abundance; in excess of; cause to superabound; enough and to spare." I believe this is what Paul was speaking about when he said: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard; neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him," (I Corinthians 2:9).
Romans 8:14 tells us that ''As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God," "For the Son of man (Jesus) is come to seek and save that which was lost." (Here He was not speaking about being lost spiritually, but of the condition of Israel. as she was "appolumi" "put away" from God for punishment. When a person is saved, they are free from the power of the jailer.)
Spiritual warfare is always carried out on a ''one on one'' basis since the activity of evil is never accidental or at random. Evil is designed to fit each individual case, which is what makes me a believer in a "personal devil," just as I believe in a "personal savior." This evil is always designed to destroy the witness of the Christian, to extinguish his LIGHT. When this witness is destroyed, there is no light to guide that individual and the enemy has won another victory. Thus, for the Christian, your enemy PERSONAL. This adversary dose not become your "personal enemy" until you accept the Lordship of Jesus Christ and that moment, you become a threat to evil and will be treated as an enemy.
Each individual who becomes a theat to the enemy is searched out by that enemy. Their weaknesses are catalogued and a tempter is assigned to break that person down. The Ruling Council of the Evil Empire. are the "principaliutur and powers," of Ephesian 6:12.
The first phase of this warfare is to destroy your witness for Jesus Christ This is done by a dailv manipulation of circumstances around the Christian, so that they arc confronted by temptations. which are specifically aimed at their weaknesses. At this point, the tempter steps in and ruins your witness for Jesus Christ. This is why it is so important go into battle with the whole armor of God." (Eph - 6:11) that you may be able to stand again against the wiles (strategy) of the enemy.
This moment or personal weakness led one of the great men of Bible history into adultery, the destruction of a family, murder, lies and a sword in his own home that bugged him until the end of his life. He could have won by merely turning his head. But he lost the battle, when he flesh to take over. James 4:7 tells us "Submit yourself therefore to God: resist the devil, and he will flee." Now whether you regard the devil as a real person or not, or merely an influence, the Bible says he is there and he will destroy you if you give him the slightest chance.
King David gulped down the bait at the first bite, the evil spirit set the hook and another life became captive of the enemy.
Because David refused to discipline himself, he had a son who raped his own sister. Another son killed this brother for this act, yet another tried to kill his father. All these turmoil in his life because he would not turn his head away from temptation.
The Bible says that David woke up from taking nap and walked on the roof of his house and from there he saw a woman taking a bath on another roof. Now I guess it is natural for a man to look at a beautiful woman, especially when he sees her in this condition. But David's looking turned into longing, when he saw that she was very beautiful. And David lusted after her. Jesus said that "he already committed adultery with her in his heart at that time," (Matthew 5:28). He looked, he desired, and he acted on this desire and had an affair with her while she was still married, and was so enamored with her that he had her husband murdered, so that he could have her. All this could have been avoided if David had turned his head.
Guard your light, Christian young people. for it is the most precious thing you have.
So when someone asks "Who fights in this battle?" the answer is: "All who have been born from above." You will usually find that the Christians who refuse to become involved in this "battle to the finish" are those who have never had a real "heart to heart" encounter with Jesus Christ. In other words, they are Christians in name only. They may have their name on some church roster, but they are not really members of God's Kingdom. I sometimes call them Alka Seltzer Christians. You all know how Alka Seltzer works when you place it in a glass of water. It fizzes for a few seconds and in order to get any good from it, you must drink it while it fizzes. There are many Christians like that. They bear the name all right, and they come to church most every Sunday and "fizz for an hour," but for the rest of the week you would never recognize them as Christians. They run with the same old crowd, they laugh at the same dirty jokes they go to the same un-Christian places. They are Christian in name only.
Some of you may say that you don't believe in evil spirits. I would suggest you read 2 Corinthians 12:7 where the Apostle Paul says: ''Lest I should be exalted (boastful) above measure through the abundance of the revelations (because of what God has showed him). there was given me a thorn in the flesh (Listen very carefully now) the messenger of Satan, to buffet me, lest I should be exalted."
Paul was saying in effect that Satan had sent a demon to slap Paul in the face every time he got puffed up and that God allowed this to keep him humble.
How do we go about to fight this war.''
In 1984, I taught a two hour class in guerrilla warfare at the ARYAN NATIONS CONGRESS, Hayden Lake, Idaho. Opponents of mine, especially those in the Jewish Anti-Defamation League and their flunkies in the "prostituted press" said that this class was for the purpose of overthrowing the United States Government. This was so far off the mark that it was absurd, but many people believed it.
This class was taught so that Christians would know how to fight against a superior, physical enemy, in case our country was ever invaded from without or within.
When a Christian puts on his or her daily armor, it is for the purpose of being able to withstand any attack that Satan may throw at us. He is a wily enemy, with many schemes, tricks and devices. They are so clever that unless we have the power and wisdom of God at our command, we will live exposed, defeated lives. Many Christians, who have the power of God available to them, do not use it, because they have allowed sin in their lives, to corrode the contact points between them and the power source, which is the Holy Spirit.
In preparation for this battle, which is going to be to the death, our God has prepared specific armor for His people. When worn, this will provide perfect protection from all the "darts of the evil one." (Ephesians 6:11) But ALL THIS ARMOR MUST BE WORN TO GIVE US PERFECT PROTECTION. Leave off even one piece, and this is where the enemy will attack.
This armor is listed, piece by piece in Ephesians 6:14-18.
No. 1 - TRUTH.To the worldly man or woman, this armor may seem superficial, but it gives perfect protection to the believer who wears it.No. 2 - RIGHTEOUSNESS.
No. 3 - THE GOSPEL OF PEACE.
No. 4 - THE SHIELD OF FAITH.
No. 5 - THE HELMET OF SALVATION.
No. 6 - THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT (which is the WORD of God. It is the LIVING WORD, in written form. Think of it. When you read the WORD, you actually hold in your hands the WORD HIMSELF.)
No. 7 - Prayer and supplication.
It becomes increasingly clear that one must go into battle completely protected. You must wear it all! I guess that Number 5 would be the first piece that was required, since you must have salvation before you can get any of the other pieces. To have salvation, you must have at least part of Number 4, the Shield of Faith since we are told in Ephesians 2:8: "For by GRACE are ye saved through FAITH; and that not of yourselves; it is a gift of God."
So we see that the SHIELD OF FAITH is extremely important. Faith comes in four parts:
1. - There is Intellectual FAITH which is the part you use when you search for SALVATION. A good example of this can be found in James 2:19 - "Thou believest that there is a God: thou doest well: the devils (evil spirits) also believe, and tremble.''The church rolls of America, even in the IDENTITY churches. are filled with people who claim to be Christian, but they have never had the ''born again" experience that Jesus told Nicodemus was necessary to get into the Kingdom. (See John 3:3) A great percentage of the so-called Christian population do not even understand what it means by being "born again," or more accurately being "born from above."But unfortunately, one can have INTELLECTUAL FAITH without having SAVING FAITH. A man can know how to be saved but never take the necessary steps to accomplish it.
2. - Part two of FAITH is shown in Romans 10:9, 10 - "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the HEART (the intellect) man believeth unto righteousness and with the MOUTH confession is made unto SALVATION."
3. - The Third Type of FAITH is "temporary faith." An example is found in Luke 8:6, where Jesus, speaking on the Parable of the Sower, told about the seed which had fallen on the rocky ground and as soon as it sprouted it died from lack of moisture. He went on - to explain this in vs. 13 - "They (the seed) on the rock are they, which when they hear, receive with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in the time of temptation fall away." Have you ever seen people like that? When I was a Fundamentalist evangelist I saw many of this type. They would get all worked up by the evangelists preaching and would come forward to the altar to be saved and would have some sort of an experience that would set them shouting and praising God. But it wasn't real. It was just emotion and when they got down to the every day experience of living the Christian life, they fell at the first temptation that crossed their path and a year later you would have never known that they had once made a profession of faith.
4. - Then there is probably the saddest of all types of FAITH. It is what the Apostle James calls DEAD FAITH (James 2:17): "Even so FAITH, if it hath not works, is DEAD, being alone." These people often claim to be saved, but they show none of the "fruits of the Spirit," (Galatians 5:22, 23).
To trace the beginning of this MOST IMPORTANT decision on the part of a Christian, we need to go back to Jesus' conversation with a very religious Israelite named Nicodemus, as found in John 3:1-13. ''There was a man of the Pharisees (in other words. he was a political leader of the JUDAITES) named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews (JUDEANS) the same came to Jesus by night (for fear of the Jews) and said to Him. Rabbi (teacher), we know that thou are a teacher come from God: For no man can do these things that thou doest, except God be with Him. (Nicodemus recognized the authenticity of Christ's ministry by his concrete witness) Jesus answered and said unto him, verily (truly), verily I say unto thee, except a man be born again (from above), he cannot see the Kingdom of God.''
This very learned man could not understand how a grown man could be born a second time. He was confused, just as a lot of Israelite Christians are today. Nicodemus was impressed with Christ's miracles and His preaching and honestly wanted to know who Jesus was. But he was confused when Jesus used a word which included the three-fold process of procreation - conception, development and delivery. Nicodemus, thinking, On a physical level, thought Jesus meant he had to have a physical rebirth and as an intelligent man, he knew this was impossible. So he was confused. Jesus went on to explain to this man how this was a spiritual rebirth.
At this point, you might ask: "What is faith?" and I would answer you with the Biblical definition given in Hebrews 11:1 - "Now FAITH is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
Then you might ask: "Where does this FAITH come from?" and again I would go to the Bible for my answer in Romans 10:17 - "FAITH cometh by hearing; hearing by the word of God."
Then you might ask: "How can I obtain this saving FAITH?" and again the scripture answers you in Romans 12:3 - "For I (Paul) say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think: but to think, soberly, as God dealt to every man the measure of FAITH." Then Jude 3 - "... earnestly contend for the FAITH which was once delivered unto the saints.''
From these FAITH scriptures we can see that faith is spiritual. It is not physical in any sense. It is not something you can touch, or see, but the evidence of it can be seen in the physical realm, by the way the Christian acts.
INTELLECTUAL FAITH, is part of SAVING FAITH. In fact, it is the fountain of it. This FAITH gives the individual the ability to know in their mind, that there is a God, who is superior to all and over all. But this knowledge in itself does not save a person. This is the kind of faith many people have who consider themselves to be Christians.
But as we read further in James 2:14-26, it becomes quite obvious that for INTELLECTUAL FAITH to become SAVING FAITH, we must act on it. We must first BELIEVE, and then CONFESS.
When we read Christ's Parable of the Sower in Luke 8:11-15, we find that INTELLECTUAL FAITH accounts for about 25% of those who hear the Gospel message: another 25% have TEMPORARY FAITH:
ANOTHER 25% have DEAD FAITH, and only about one in four who meet Christ "face to face" ever become real Christians.
This final 25% is further divided by one third who produce "thirty fold"; 1/3rd who produce 60 fold, and the other 1/3rd who produce 100 fold. These Christians, by lagging behind in their FAITH, can suffer loss, (see I Corinthians 3:15).
When the time of battle comes, and Christians are tested under fire, only a few survive to become the OVERCOMERS who will "rule and reign with Him" in His Millennial Kingdom (Rev. 2:26).
Now let's go back and take a closer look at the Christian's armor. We have noted that it comes in seven distinct parts. Six of these are defensive, only one is offensive. This is the Word of God, the SWORD OF THE SPIRIT.
Since this is the only weapon we have, it behooves us to know all we can about it. We have no offensive power within ourselves, without God we are helpless. This is a lesson a lot of our Identity Christians should learn in a hurry.
How do we use His Word. our SWORD? By having the FAITH of a little child.
We can use the example of a little boy, who in the midst of a terrific storm which is rocking the house on its foundations, comes to his father in fear and says: "Daddy, are we going to die?" And his father says: ''No, son, God will take care of us." To which the little boy replies: "Okay, in that case I'm going to bed." This is the sort of child-like faith we must have in God and His Word. He said it; He promised it; so we believe it. It is as simple as that. When He says in Romans 8:28, that "We KNOW' that ALL. THINGS work together for good to them that love God; to them WHICH ARE CALLED according to His purpose," we know that all things will WORK TOGETHER FOR OUR GOOD, even when we can't understand them.
But the WORD only becomes a weapon for them who believe it. A very intelligent man I once knew and deeply respected, turned away from Christ a few years ago and now attacks Christianity with blasphemous venom, calling God "that old Spook in the sky," and speaking about our Bible as a "muddle of Yiddish fairy stories." To this man, the Bible is of absolutely no use, since he fits the words of Paul in Romans 1:22 - "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." Later on in 2 Timothy 3:7, he stated that these intellectuals were "ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."
While men claim that the Bible is full of errors, it has been proven to be historically and scientifically correct.
For many years, the Christian Church had a controversy with the evolutionists who stated that the world was much older than the 7,000 plus years, the religionists recognize. This came about because the church refused to believe what God clearly points out in His Book, that when God created "male and female" in Genesis 1:26 and gave them dominion over all things, this was a completely different account from Genesis 2:5, where we are told that after God rested from His labors of creating the world, "... there was not a man to till the ground.'' Then in verse 7, we see where God formed AU-DAUM (a white man, for this is what the word means), from the dust of the earth and "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life," and (this) man became a living soul." Notice that God did not form "male and female" at this time, as He did in the Genesis 1 creation. Eve came later, formed from Adam. This ADAM being was different from the "HUMANS" who were created in Chapter 1, and they may have been hundreds of thousands of years older than the ADAMITES.
Historically, every king, kingdom, city and nation mentioned in the Bible has also been recorded in history. Science is just now beginning to understand the many wonders which were foretold in the Bible.
So we can be certain, in spite of claims made by my one-time friend, that the Word of God, the Living, written word, is true and supercedes all human knowledge.
Since the SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, is the only weapon we have, we should not only know all we can about it, but we must become adept in its use. Just like in using a real sword. This means practicing with it, until it becomes a part of us, an extension of our lives. A person who has never wielded a sword in combat, will have little success against an experienced foe, and believe you me, our foemen are experienced. No matter how superb your blade may be, it will be of little use, unless you know how to handle it. It can be made of the finest Damascus steel. with beautiful gold engraving and a jewel set in the hilt, but it will mean no more to a soldier than a butcher knife, until you learn how to handle it in battle.
When the Christian soldier goes into combat without his weapon or his armor, the enemy can depend at this point, that the "lusts of the flesh" will prod the physical takeover of the soldier, as the fleshly elements predominates. The Christian is not compelled to surrender at this point. They have the ability to say "no" to the temptation. This was adequately proven to me a few years ago when I was lecturing at Ohio State University. Columbus, Ohio on the "abortion issue." During the Question and Answer period, a beautiful coed asked: ''If we can't have contraceptives and abortion, how will we control the population explosion?" (To any educated person, we know that this "population explosion'' in the United States is a farce.) When I answered "Have vou ever heard about something called "self-control"? You would have thought from the audience reaction that I had slapped her in the face. Here were several hundred young Americans, just entering adulthood. who did not know that they had the ability to choose between "Good" and "bad." They had been brainwashed by; their professors into believing that what a person is. is determined by his environment and all you need to change a bad person to a good one, is to change his environment. Yet this same girl, who was so concerned for her rights to have an abortion, was heading up a committee at the University to protect baby seals in Greenland. Can't you see the utter hypocrisy of this and the utter fiendishness of the enemy in the way he operates?
In I Corinthians 10:13, we are told: ''God who is faithful, will not suffer (allow) you to be tempted above (more) than ye are able; but will with the temptation make a way of escape that ye may be able to bear it."
You may say: "Why the temptation in the first place, if God controls it?'' To which I would have to say: ''To make you a stronger Christian." A person who remains on baby food all their life and who never gets out of the crib. will become a mental and physical imbecile. It takes strong meat and strenuous exercise. to make a strong Individual..
There are many times when a Christian will refuse the first temptation and this is the best time for you to win. If you miss out on this first opportunity to say "no" to evil, the chances of your being victorious are slim indeed!
The price we pay, when we allow evil to manipulate our lives is always high. This evil force cannot cause us to sin, it can only maneuver us into a position where our own free will takes over and we sin by choice. No man has ever sinned because he was forced into it. The old cliche: "The devil made me do it, will not stand up before that Righteous Judge on Judgment Day."
Guard your witness, my Israelite friend, for it is not only important for you, but for the entire Kingdom. So when the question comes up: "Who fights?" The answer is: "All those who have been born from above."
Remember, that since we have no other weapon to fight with, we must master the WORD. We have no power in ourselves, and oh how necessary it is for some of our IDENTITY brethren to realize this truth. There is no power in our works, no power in our minds aside from the Spirit of God. One may have access to the latest array of modern weapons, but they will be found useless unless we depend on God and seek His will in the battle before plunging full speed into the conflict.
In the spiritual realm, where our bitterest battles will be fought, we have no weapons whatsoever aside from His WORD.
So we MUST use His WORD with authority. We are told in Mark 16:17 that ''All these signs (given in vs. 17, 18) shall follow those that believe. The authority to use the WORD is given to the Christian soldier. Can a person be a Christian and not a believer? It doesn't seem possible, but it is apparently so, for Jesus said "Because of your unbelief..." ye could not do this thing. He went on to explain to His disciples that if they had the "faith of a mustard seed. ye shall say to these mountains, remove hence to yonder place: and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you.'' Did this mean that the disciples literally had the power to remove mountains. I think not! I do not believe that Jesus was speaking about a pile of rocks and trees. He was speaking about what He had told them when He sent them out: with His kingdom message and told them in Luke 9:1 that they would be given power to cure people and cast out evil spirits. Until the incident in Matthew 17:14-21, this power had worked for them and then suddenly they cam up against an evil spirit who would not obey and they were in a "tizzy." Jesus told them that their power worked only so long as they did not doubt. Once doubt comes into your mind, once you are no longer sure of the promises given by your Commander-in-Chief, you have lost the battle. In fact, you are whipped before the first blow is struck.
Since we have authority from our Master to use the SWORD OF THE SPIRIT WHICH IS THE WORD OF GOD, we need to know what God's Word is. John 1:14 tells us: "And the WORD was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as of the only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."
While Jesus was on earth, He was the WORD OF GOD IN THE FLESH. the WORD MADE INCARNATE. When He departed, He left us His WORD in the BIBLE. Think about this, the next time you pick up that old Book. You are holding in your hands, the very essence of the Son Himself. I guess that is why I am so careful what I do with my Bible. I refuse to pile papers on it on my desk, or allow it to lie on a coffee table, covered with magazines. But as important as this may be, think about how much more important it is, with what we do with the WORD spiritually.
I'm afraid many of our Israelite Christians are like the young mother who was being visited by her pastor. Wanting to impress him. she said to her four year old daughter; "Susie. go and get the big book mommie loves so well," and Susie comes back with the Sears Roebuck catalogue. I'm afraid that the catalogue and the TV Guide have more use in most homes that the WORD OF GOD. Maybe that's one of our problems.
We should remember that the PRINTED WORD, properly used, will have the same effect the LIVING WORD had.
In 2 Timothy 3:16, the young preacher Timothy is told that "ALL Scripture is given by inspiration of God. and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness..." Therefore the Bible, if properly used, becomes the SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, our offensive weapon.
But the Bible can be a weapon only to those who believe it. To my intellectual acquaintance who believes that it is only a "bunch of Yiddish fairy tales," it means next 10 nothing. He can see no virtue in it; he can see none of its glory. No matter how deep truth it contains, he cannot, or will not see it, because he refuses to believe.
He is sort of like a blind man who goes to an eye doctor and says: "Doc, for God's sake, help me to see." and the doctor tells him: "Open your eyes, you fool! of course you can't see while they are closed."
To the individual who demands concrete proof, there are thousands of proofs. Written by at least 40 different men, in 66 books, over a span of some 1600 years, there are no contradictions in spite of those who say they have found 20,000 errors in the King James Version. Mathematical odds prove that this book cannot be the work of the physical man.
Beyond mathematics, history and science prove the Bible to be correct. As I mentioned earlier, every king and kingdom mentioned in the Bible can be found in historical records and as more and more truths are being unearthed through archeological findings, they all confirm the authenticity of this perfect writing.
A few years ago, a Southern Baptist theologian wrote a book titled THE GENESIS STORY, in which he stated that the first ten chapters of Genesis were nothing but Hebrew fairy tales. He said, for instance, that the miracle of the Red Sea crossing, never took place. But in the Egyptology room of the great museum in Cairo, you can see the evidence that the Pharaoh who ruled in Egypt in 1491, B.C., was lost in the battle of the Red Sea, as he pursued our Israel forefathers into its waters.
It is interesting to note that modern computers, when fed the proper information, say that the first five books of the Bible were written by Moses, thus confounding the scholars who say the computers can never be wrong, but refuse to believe them in this instance Here we can see the evidence of the evil one, no matter what you may want to call him. 2 Corinthians 4:4 tells us: "In whom the god of this world (Satan) hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest (so that) the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine unto them." this is another strategy of the enemy in this "undercover war", the use of "misinformation." An old Arkansas hillbilly had the right idea when he said: "It ain't so much from not knowin' that causes the trouble, as it is from knowin' so much that ain't so." Blinded minds! Brainwashed hearts!
One method the computers used was to give the machine a key word such as A-D-A-M and command it to find where these letters are defined in the rest of the Bible. Strange, isn't it, that even cold metal and plastic can recognize God's Word. while intelligent flesh and blood refuses to acknowledge it? Do you suppose this is what Jesus meant "hen He told the Jewish leaders, who wanted Him to rebuke His disciples for calling Him the Son of David: ''I tell you that if these should hold their peace. even the stones would immediately cry out."
It has beer proven by mathematicians, that verse by verse. Chapter by chapter, book by book, the Bible was written with mathematical precision in a manner which to far above the ability of human beings to duplicate No other writing of man has ever come close to duplicating this. Based on scientific proofs we know that:
1.- No human could have written the Bible through his own wisdom; andThese are some of the reasons why we, as Christian soldiers, can use this SWORD OF THE WORD, knowing that it will never fail us.2. - The mathematical design of the Bible is far beyond human comprehension.
My Christian soldier friend. we have a weapon in our hands which exceeds any nuclear weapon in potency. That bomb employs atoms. Our weapon was written by the One who made these atoms. HALLELU'YAH!
The WORD OF GOD has been assaulted down through the ages. but like the anvil in the blacksmith shop. which may show a few dents from the hammer blows against it. is still structurally sound and has destroyed every hammer which has pounded on its surface.
It has been assaulted by the finest brains the world could put against it; these, often on their death beds, have had to admit they were wrong. It was assaulted by the German-Jewish Higher Critics of the Nineteenth Century, who have all had to go home with "egg on their faces." These have all died and gone on to their reward, forgotten for the most part, while the WRITTEN WORD OF OUR GOD is stronger today than ever before.
Today, the Bible critics from the mainline Protestant denominations arc trying to prove that many of the sayings of Jesus found in the five gospels, were never made by Him. They are trying to prove that he "'as just an ordinary man, with ordinary flesh and blood parents. Some say He was a homosexual, while others try and degrade Him by saying His mother was nothing but a Jewish prostitute. Now they are trying to remove the Gospel of John because of its denunciation of Judaism as a false religion. But all their efforts will be for nothing and they will be discarded and forgotten on the ''garbage heap of history," as the others who went before them.
While this is going on, the Old Ship of Zion sails through stormy seas, her sails at times tattered from the shots fired by the enemies, but still sailing strong. bearing at her masthead the flag which says: "By this sign, we CONQUER!"
The WORD has made special demands on His people, and the SWORD OF THE WORD can become a curse to the disobedient; to those who use it unworthily. In Deuteronomy 11:26. 27, our Israelite fore fathers were told; ''Behold, I (God) set before you this day a blessing and a curse. A blessing if you obey ... and a curse if ye will not obey..."
Sometimes we blame God for the unpleasant things which happen in our lives. We can't understand why cancer seem prevalent in some families, while others are bothered by heart disease. Often these came about through the curse working in our lives and those of our ancestors.
Some of vou may say: "But that curse way done away by Jesus' death on the Cross. He died to take away, that curse." And, yes. He did die to take away the curse of sin and death, when under the guidance of the Holy Spirit we will accept Him. But this does not make a Christian free of the curse. Why not? Because many Christians never have availed themselves of the GRACE God has made available to them. You can be a child of God and still have this curse working in your life. The iniquity, the transgression which doomed you to eternal death has been washed away, but the consequences of the sin remains
Let me give you an illustration: A man is cleaning his rifle preparatory to deer season. He carefully checks the magazine to make sure it is not loaded, but he forgets to check the chamber. While cleaning the gun, it discharges and kills his wife who is working across the room from him. A tragedy! The law investigates and finds out it was an accident. The husband goes free (he is found innocent), but that does not bring back his wife.
As Christian soldiers, we need to remember that Galatians 6:7 was written to Christian Israelites, about Christian Israelites, for Christian Israelites. It says: "Be not deceived; (fooled) God is not mocked (Gk -"mukterizo" 3456 - meaning: "ridiculed".): for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." This is known as the "law of harvest."
Many Christians have the CURSE operating in their lives because they refuse to follow the rules God laid down in the Bible for heathy living. An unhealthy soldier will be a poor soldier, for it needs every bit of strength we can muster for the battle. So one of Satan's major devices is to weaken the Christian soldier; to get us to believe that the health laws of the Bible were canceled by Christ on the Cross. But the CURSE STILL REMAINS AND OPERATES IN OUR LIVES UNTIL WE ARE WILLING TO BE FREE FROM IT. Jesus made this possible, just as He made salvation possible for ''he that believes."
In Mark 9:24 we read: "If thou canst believe, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE." Think about that! We know the enemy outnumbers us thousands to one. We know he has the wealth of the world in his hands while we are often destitute. He has control of the world's media, while we have to struggle along with our little Newsletters and pamphlets. But we also know these odds mean nothing, if we will only believe. A true soldier always works on this belief. Our cry should be: "Lord, help thou my unbelief!"
I'm not going to get into any kind of a discussion regarding the casting out of evil spirits, for we are discussing Christian warfare. But we are going to be next to useless as soldiers, if we allow evil to obsess us. This can be overcome by prayer, and yes, fasting.
There are five major sins which can and will weaken the Christian soldier:
1. - The worship of false gods. (This will be anything we put first in our lives, before that of the true God. It may be family, possessions, social standing, etc.)The first two are great spiritual sins. The remaining three are physical sins against our bodies, which are the temple of the Holy Spirit, (I Corinthians 3:1617). "Know' ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" Notice carefully vs 17 - "If any man defile the temple of God (his body), him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." We have all known Christians who have died long before their time, because they insisted on drinking, or smoking, or doing things they knew were harmful to their body. The WORD says, "these shall God destroy." Don't get mad at me, I'm just telling you what the WORD says. If you still want to suck on your cigarettes, or have your before dinner drinks, or eat your pork chops, then be prepared to suffer the CURSE.2 - Denying there is a God (unbelief).
3 - Violating the Bible laws on diet.
4 - Violating the Bible laws on sexual matters such as adultery, homosexuality, miscegnation, etc.)
5 - Violating the Biblical laws on sanitation.
The sexual laws can be found in Leviticus 18 and 20. The dietary laws in Leviticus 3:17 and Deuteronomy 14:1-21. The sanitary laws are in Deuteronomy 23;9-14. All of these are ''personal laws," laid down by God for your personal protection.
Not only do we kill ourselves when we violate these laws, but often we subject our children to the CURSE TOO.
As Christian soldiers we must expect to face fiery trials. In I Peter 4:12, 13, he warns Christian soldiers: "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you/blo though some strange thing happened unto you. But rejoice, in-as-much as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings. That when His. glory is revealed. ye may be glad also with exceeding joy."
There are going to be many Israelites who will get into the Kingdom by the ''skin of their teeth.'' Paul said: ''saved. set so as by fire." (I Corinthians 3:15). These who base never done anything worthwhile for the Kingdom. will never receive the blessing of ruling and reigning with Him, which comes to those who are classified as OVERCOMERS. This is a military term, since you do not OVERCOME, sitting in a fox-hole. keeping yourself safe from the enemy. It takes front line activity to be an OVERCOMER. In Acts 5:41, we read where the earls Apostles were beaten and commanded not to tell the people about Jesus. It says they departed from their heating: '...rejoicing that they were counted worth' to suffer shame for His name. And daily in the temple (a public place), and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ." Revelation 2:26 tells us that "He that OVERCOMETH and keepeth my words (commandments) unto the end. to him will I (Jesus the King) give power over the nations.
Our modern church knows nothing about the fire which fell on the early church. I know that the charismatics talk about the heavenly fire, but what they have is not what fell at Pentecost. We know this by the fruits they have been bearing, as seen in the Jim and Tammy Bakker case. Some of our brethren who have felt the wrath of Jewish Communism know about fire, but many of our American Christians say: "I'm saved and that's all that matters. for Jesus will come back and Rapture me out of this mess before it gets that bad.'' Talk about spiritual "egotism." That's being so tightly wrapped in your shroud of self-righteousness, that it is very probable you won't get unzipped in time to go along with the Master when He does return.
One or the reasons we have such ''wishy-washy, self-righteous, marshmallow Christians'' in our churches today, is that they have never been 'tried by fire.''
Always when Christians begin to "lose their first love, their zeal for Christ," they lose their fear (respect) for God. To them he becomes some sort of grand-fatherly character with long grey hair and a beard, who sits on some heavenly cloud surveying the earth and saying in essence: "They sure are a bunch of little devils down there, but I love them so much, I'm going to make sure they all get into my kingdom." Not so!
When the fire fell on the early Christian church it moved them into combat action on the front lines. They took on the forces of hell itself; they even took on the mighty Roman Empire. Pray that the "fire of God's Holy Spirit" may fall on our Israel Heritage Movement and cleanse it and turn our people into Soldiers of the Cross. We do not want some phony emotionalism which causes our people to jump around like idiots and shout "Praise the Lord," while doing anything but praising Him with their lives, we want the cleansing fire of Pentecost to stir up our people and cause them to do Yahweh God's thing, rather than their own.
In the Seventh Letter to the Laodicean church (Revelation 3:14-22) we notice that the exhortation is to the individual rather than the church. Why? Because the church of today is beyond redemption. Satan was allowed to enter the Christian church and denominationalism was the result. But when the fire falls again - and I believe we are very close to that time - individuals will "come-out and come-together" in the true church. We are seeing this happen-more all the time. Praise God, as you see the world system, including the church system, as it tries to destroy ''true believers,'' for this is a sign that we are close to that day when the heavenly fire will fall again in a day which will outshine Pentecost.
So I come to you today, as one who laborers as an Ambassador in His Kingdom, pleading with you, especially you who are Israelites, to get your life in a right relationship with the Commander-in-Chief. This is the first thing necessary for you to be in a conquering army. Then with His help, with complete belief in His promises, we will have the victory He has promised us. Now is the time for you to get in on the winning side!
The End
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