Militant Evangelism! (2 page)

On close examination one will find that the "right hand" of the Body of Christ is withered. The hand, which is supposed to be moved with and by compassion,
is not pulling sinners from the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh
(Jude 22-23). The Church is hidden in and from the world. It has no unified voice or purpose. I am convinced that God is saying to His Body, "Arise, stand forth in the midst and stretch forth your hand." When this takes place, all of those who are truly part of the Body, will arise in urgent, militant, bold, zealous evangelism, and we will begin to see that glorious, spotless, victorious Church, Jesus is coming back for. This is the type of church we see portrayed in the Book of Acts—a far cry from the comfortable church of today.

We have become like a frog in a bowl of water. The water has slowly been frozen, and the frog, not able to detect the drop in temperature, has remained in the water until it is trapped in ice. The evangelical Church has become trapped in the ice-cold grip of traditionalism. It involves itself in everything but the purpose for which it was established—to reach out to the lost with the Gospel of salvation. "God's chosen frozen," may not be doctrinally sound.

Fight
The
Good Fight Of Faith

When Paul wrote to Timothy, he wrote in military terms—"Fight the good fight of faith", "Endure hardness as a good soldier," etc. He wanted to remind Timothy that we are involved in a battle, a conflict. We are a friend of God and therefore an enemy of the world. It is time for the trumpet to give a "certain sound" that the Church might prepare itself for battle. The Lord said to Israel, "And if you go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresses you, then you shall blow an alarm with the trumpets; and you shall be remembered before the Lord your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies" (Numbers 10:9). We need to sound the alarm to remind the Church of the battle in which it is caught up in. Either we fight with the weapons God has made available, or we wither and die.

I love the structure of the Salvation Army, with its barracks, soldiers, uniforms, generals, etc. General Booth formed that army of fiery believers so that they should never forget that they were involved in spiritual conflict. Satan has not declared peace on the Church, yet the Church acts as such. Men of God such as C.H. Spurgeon never lost sight of the spirit of militancy. In reference to inspired preaching he said, "Surely there is no weapon
so
powerful as that which is taken from the
armory
of inspiration." There will be no peace on this earth until the Prince of Peace comes in power and great glory at the sound of the last trumpet, blown by the very cavalry of Calvary. Then, peace will only come when God judges the rebels of Adam.

Like A Mighty Tortoise

There was once a song that became popular in the Church that had the words, "God's got an army marching through the land, deliverance is their song, and healing in their hand, everlasting joy and gladness in their heart, and in this army I've got a part." What a song of victory! How the enemy must hate it, when the army of the Lord can sing words like that with conviction. But for the Church to sing those words at the present time would be nothing but a farce, an absurd
pretense
. Over the years, I have been trying to find out how much of the Body of Christ is actually involved in personal witnessing, and have come up with (by the showing of hands), the sad statistic of less than 10
percent
. I have asked, "How many of you can say before God that you have witnessed verbally to more than 12 people over the past 12 months? That is, at least every 30 days or so somebody has heard the Gospel of salvation from your lips?"
Bearing in mind that speaking to one person every 30 days isn't exactly "on fire for God".
I have found that only 8-12
percent
will raise their hands. Where is the zeal? Jesus said, "But you shall receive
power
when the Holy Spirit comes on you;
and you shall be my witnesses
in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8, italics added). The Holy Spirit wasn't given without purpose in mind. He was given that we might have power for the purpose of being witnesses of Christ. So many profess to possess the power, yet where is the evidence? If the light doesn't shine, either the power isn't flowing or the switch isn't on. It would seem that the fear of battle has left many a soldier cringing in the barracks. They are afraid to let their light shine before men, because they know that men hate the light. Yet, it is a natural principle that when light shines, darkness flees. Darkness cannot overcome the light. "Gross darkness" only covers this earth because the Church has not obeyed the admonition to "
arise
and shine."

In Australia some years ago, a traditional church dropped "Onward Christian Soldiers" from their song index because it made reference to war. This is typical of the poor, blind unregenerate who meet in a building they call a "church." The peace and animal rights movements have given the established church a reason to exit. Their spiritual inaction can be understood because they are spiritually dead. The world may mink mere is peace between man and God, but the Bible makes it clear that unregenerate man is an "enemy of God" in his mind through wicked works, that "whoever is a friend of the world is an enemy of God" (see Colossians 1:21, Romans 5:10, Romans 8:7 and James 4:4). Yet, many within the Church have lost sight of this great truth, something evident by their passive lifestyle. We have become like the Dead Sea. It is dead because it has water flowing into it, but no outlet. The water has become so
salty,
a human being can't sink into it. Nothing lives in it, no one can penetrate it ... it seems that God made it as a type of the contemporary Church.

But, the Dead Sea contains very valuable minerals, which are waiting to be harvested. It's my conviction that we should stop joking about saving the Church before we save the world, and start doing just that. It is a field which is white unto harvest.

Perhaps much of the Evangelical Church needs to drop "God's got an army" and certain other songs from their song index until we can sing them with conviction. Perhaps we should think of dropping "Onward Christian Soldiers," or replace it with something more appropriate:

Backward Christian soldiers, fleeing from the fight
With
the cross of Jesus nearly out of sight. Christ our rightful master, stands against the foe But forward into battle, we are loathe to go.

Like a mighty tortoise moves the Church of God Brothers we are treading where we've always trod. We are much divided, many bodies we
Having
many doctrines, not much charity.

Crowns and thorns may perish, kingdoms rise and wane, But the Church of Jesus hidden does remain. Gates
of Hell should never '
gainst
the Church prevail. We have Christ's own promise, but think that it will fail.

Sit here then ye people, join our useless throng Blend with ours your voices in a feeble song.
Blessings,
ease and comfort, ask from Christ the King With our modern thinking, we don't do a thing.

(Anon)

If you think I'm a little harsh on the Church, check this out. In 1992, over 3,000 churches from a mainline denomination
didn't report even one soul saved in that year,
while
Christianity Today,
an
evangelical
magazine found that
only 1%
of their readers had a zeal for the lost.

We need to ask ourselves:
Are we hot for God?
Could you say that you have witnessed to more than 12 people in the last 12 months? Do you have the testimony, "to live means opportunities for Christ?" Is there
a zeal
to witness burning in your bones? It doesn't matter how much we pray, tithe, fellowship ... Jesus said, "GO." Obedience is better than sacrifice. Sure, those things are essential, but if we are not witnessing we are not fulfilling our commission. We are
commissioned
officers. True Christianity is not a pleasure-cruiser on its way to Heaven, but a battle-ship stationed at the very gates of Hell!

SECTION ONE: PRE BATTLE

CHAPTER TWO: STANDARD INVENTORY

"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds" (2 Corinthians 10:4).

O
ne great key to success in an army is a unity of purpose, a merging into one mind. This is unusually achieved by
de-personalizing
the recruits —"You scruffy lot! In the next six weeks we are going to make you boys into men ... you'll wish you'd never been born!" etc. The curly golden locks of hair are callously cut from the head. The reason for
this,
is that when an army is on the front lines, the commander doesn't want his troops spending time on the vanities of life. He doesn't want his men wasting time in front of the mirror. What he wants is one body of men who will move any way he wants ... pronto!

God has made His own ways of getting new recruits into line (I think I prefer the army way). As a new Christian, I went into what is commonly called a "wilderness experience." It was the most dreadful, miserable, depressing experience of my life, but it was a necessary part of my training. God wants to shake the "world" out of new converts. They have enlisted in the army for active service, and the quicker they respond and are trained, the quicker they will find themselves promoted in rank, and to where the action is.

When the U.S. navy trains rescue pilots, they place so much psychological pressure on recruits that 50% drop out. They are pushed to the limits by being dropped out of helicopters into freezing water. In the water, a man simulates a drowning, and when his rescuer reaches him, he deliberately panics, grabbing the would-be rescuer and pulling him under. The trainee must take charge of the situation or be disqualified from the course. He must take control, not only of the circumstances, but also of his own fears.

God puts us through similar training. He saw the necessity to burn Jesus out in the desert—"though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things that He suffered" (Hebrews 5:8), so much more will you and I be tried and tested if we want to walk in the footsteps of the Savior! If we want to rescue humanity from the fires of Hell, we must take control, both of our own fears and of the demonic restraints placed in front of us.

The time has come when every able soldier is needed in the front line of battle. He who will not overcome will be overcome. We need to know what our weapons are, and we need to have expertise in their use, so that we might be effective in penetrating into enemy territory. Ephesians 6:10-18 lists some of our inventory:

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full
armor
of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full
armor
of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the gospel of peace as a firm footing. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints."