Sound the battle cry, See! the foe is nigh!
Raise the standard high, For the Lord
Gird your armor on, Stand firm everyone;
Rest your cause upon His holy word.
Raise the standard high, For the Lord
Gird your armor on, Stand firm everyone;
Rest your cause upon His holy word.
My fellow Americans, please consider the following post with earnest meditations as to how it could apply to our situation in America today, 2013. The Lord Jesus Christ was grieved with Europe in the 1930's, thus he sent innumerable calamities and plagues upon it – none greater than World War II – which history attests to be true. The grievous judgments that befell that land of yesteryear evinced the wrath of a Holy God against it, much like the numerous tides of destruction that overflowed Israel of old and Egypt in the days of Moses. Many such like events can be found and explained in the recorded history of the Bible, God's revealed and preserved truth for the ages. These truths I hold to be self-evident to all Bible-believing, history-understanding, and generally learned Christians; i.e., that God has and does deliberately judge sinful nations for the sake of their sin, and not another (See, Lev. 26; Deut. 28, 32; Isa. 10:5-6; Amos 4; Mi. 6:9); not some arbitrary “chance event” or coincidental surprise development. If these things are so, and “Jesus Christ [is] the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Heb. 13:8), what ought we to think about our beloved America today? Is it not ripe for such like destruction to suddenly befall it, if ever a nation was? Are we better than Europe of yesteryear, and Israel of old? I don't think so. How long before the deluge of destruction that spoiled these nations and every sinful generation of former days comes upon us?
In light of these questions, may I ask the reader to consider: could the Lord be pleased with the murder of 50 million innocent babies under the guise of “choice”, or the ever-abounding multitude of false converts calling themselves by his name, who are yet overrun by impenitent hypocrisy in the American pews? What about the sea of unbelievers in this country, on their way to hell (according to Scripture), yet un-wept for and unwarned! Could a Just God still be Holy and overlook these things without visiting us for our sins? I don't think so, except we repent. All of these disasters are aggravated by the fact that the great majority of God's professing people, I fear, don't even really care and aren't doing anything about it in heartfelt prayer! Readers, is it not overwhelmingly evident that God Almighty is grieved because of these things and thus the storm clouds of adversity are hovering over our heads? I think it is. The founding fathers of America believed it to be thus in their day:
“Our Fathers believed God was offended by sin. They themselves were deeply troubled both by the existence of personal sin in their own lives and by the presence of unconfessed corporate sins in the churches and nation. They regarded natural calamities as manifestations of the displeasure of God Almighty against sin and allowed such events as earthquakes, fires, volcanoes, epidemics, floods and droughts to prompt them to special seeking of God’s face in fasting, prayer, and corporate repentance. They also sought the Lord in Solemn Assemblies in connection with wars, murders, rapes, etc., believing such outbursts of wickedness to be directly related to the general decline of moral and spiritual life in the churches.” Richard Owen Roberts (The Solemn Assembly)
When will the Christians in this nation wake up and smell the roses - when will they repent? Many probably will not, but I pray for a remnant to come through. I am convinced that all reasonable and biblically literate Christians would agree with the observations I have heretofore made; however, in light of this, how should we pray?
“O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.” (Habakkuk 3:2)
“God came to Noah and said, 'Noah, judgment is coming. I am going to destroy all those people with a flood.’ All on earth Noah had to go by was God's word. And the most solemn thing I face and the most crushing burden any human being can bear is the burden of living in a generation that doesn’t believe a word of the Bible. God knows what a burden it is to live every day of your life among your neighbors and your relatives and your church members and folks you work for, and you believe that every step men take is one step nearer the awful consuming judgment of God; and you try to talk to them and they don’t believe a word of it. How in the name of God can I confess Christ in a generation that doesn’t believe God; in a generation that if you talk to them about the judgment of God, they don’t know what on God’s earth you are talking about? There’s old Bill. He’s headed straight for the judgment. There’s my son or my daughter, they are headed for the judgment, but they don’t believe it and I do. Now, brother, that’s a burden! It’s foolish to claim to be a Christian unless you devote your life to just two things: (1) the proclamation from the Holy Scriptures of the holy character of God, and His righteous demands and commands. (2). Then pointing men and women who will listen to the only place of escape, which is in Christ. Now that is what Noah did; HE RAN SCARED, he believed something, he believed that God was going to bring judgment on men and women. He couldn’t see it, but he truly believed it.” (Rolfe Barnard expounding on Hebrews 11:7, Running Scared)
In light of these questions, may I ask the reader to consider: could the Lord be pleased with the murder of 50 million innocent babies under the guise of “choice”, or the ever-abounding multitude of false converts calling themselves by his name, who are yet overrun by impenitent hypocrisy in the American pews? What about the sea of unbelievers in this country, on their way to hell (according to Scripture), yet un-wept for and unwarned! Could a Just God still be Holy and overlook these things without visiting us for our sins? I don't think so, except we repent. All of these disasters are aggravated by the fact that the great majority of God's professing people, I fear, don't even really care and aren't doing anything about it in heartfelt prayer! Readers, is it not overwhelmingly evident that God Almighty is grieved because of these things and thus the storm clouds of adversity are hovering over our heads? I think it is. The founding fathers of America believed it to be thus in their day:
“Our Fathers believed God was offended by sin. They themselves were deeply troubled both by the existence of personal sin in their own lives and by the presence of unconfessed corporate sins in the churches and nation. They regarded natural calamities as manifestations of the displeasure of God Almighty against sin and allowed such events as earthquakes, fires, volcanoes, epidemics, floods and droughts to prompt them to special seeking of God’s face in fasting, prayer, and corporate repentance. They also sought the Lord in Solemn Assemblies in connection with wars, murders, rapes, etc., believing such outbursts of wickedness to be directly related to the general decline of moral and spiritual life in the churches.” Richard Owen Roberts (The Solemn Assembly)
When will the Christians in this nation wake up and smell the roses - when will they repent? Many probably will not, but I pray for a remnant to come through. I am convinced that all reasonable and biblically literate Christians would agree with the observations I have heretofore made; however, in light of this, how should we pray?
“O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.” (Habakkuk 3:2)
Here are the words of Evangelist Rolfe Barnard who feared God and his judgment upon the souls of unrepentant men and women;
“God came to Noah and said, 'Noah, judgment is coming. I am going to destroy all those people with a flood.’ All on earth Noah had to go by was God's word. And the most solemn thing I face and the most crushing burden any human being can bear is the burden of living in a generation that doesn’t believe a word of the Bible. God knows what a burden it is to live every day of your life among your neighbors and your relatives and your church members and folks you work for, and you believe that every step men take is one step nearer the awful consuming judgment of God; and you try to talk to them and they don’t believe a word of it. How in the name of God can I confess Christ in a generation that doesn’t believe God; in a generation that if you talk to them about the judgment of God, they don’t know what on God’s earth you are talking about? There’s old Bill. He’s headed straight for the judgment. There’s my son or my daughter, they are headed for the judgment, but they don’t believe it and I do. Now, brother, that’s a burden! It’s foolish to claim to be a Christian unless you devote your life to just two things: (1) the proclamation from the Holy Scriptures of the holy character of God, and His righteous demands and commands. (2). Then pointing men and women who will listen to the only place of escape, which is in Christ. Now that is what Noah did; HE RAN SCARED, he believed something, he believed that God was going to bring judgment on men and women. He couldn’t see it, but he truly believed it.” (Rolfe Barnard expounding on Hebrews 11:7, Running Scared)
Fall of Warsaw, Poland in WWII
Europe in the 1930's:
“It is September 3, 1939. Thousands of us hear over the radio those solemn words of Mr. Chamberlain, 'ENGLAND IS AT WAR WITH GERMANY.' Our hearts have been moved—moved to new activity, new heroism, new sacrifice. Our vision is broader. The continent of Europe is brought to our doorstep. We are only a part of the great, throbbing whole. A headline in the press relating to any problem in Europe will hold for us in future fresh magnetic attraction.” - Eva Stuart Watt
These were the introductory words of Eva Stuart Watt in a biographical/historical book about the late James A. Stewart and his missionary endeavors throughout war-bound Europe in the 1930's. James Stewart was a young man that God used to sound forth in the power of the Spirit of God the call of the Gospel on that continent directly preceding Mr. Chamberlain's announcement of Woe, cited above. Europe, in that day, was a land that looked much like our own in present. The book where this quotation comes from is titled “Dynamite in Europe” and details the Revivals of Religion throughout many Eastern European nations between 1933 and the official commencement of WWII in England,1939. The Lord graciously remembered mercy on the cusp of heart-melting and fear-raising wrath, like as Habakkuk prayed in the prayer I quoted above. The fires of biblical revival spread abroad in the utmost power during those days, until suddenly, the door was shut, the bombs came, and blood ran in the streets. The Anti-christian Nazi war machine went on the march, and these Eastern European nations have been in relative spiritual darkness ever since.
O! Surely such is the need of this hour in America and the need of this day, as God's judgment upon our nation hangs imminently over all of our heads and the sound of war is not far away! Where in this desperate hour are the Christian men and women who will be willing instruments in God's hand, like James Stewart of old, to go forth to war and sound the trumpet of alarm to sinners before sudden destruction falls upon them all?
O! Surely such is the need of this hour in America and the need of this day, as God's judgment upon our nation hangs imminently over all of our heads and the sound of war is not far away! Where in this desperate hour are the Christian men and women who will be willing instruments in God's hand, like James Stewart of old, to go forth to war and sound the trumpet of alarm to sinners before sudden destruction falls upon them all?
Below I will share some of the life and calling of God's unlikely chosen instrument in the 1930's, JAMES A. STEWART:
“Thinking of his life, I can still see him as a lad of 14 years. I would meet him on Langside Road in Glasgow (Scotland) near his home. One day he said to me – and his heart was in his words – 'Tinna, a man has said: THE WORLD HAS YET TO SEE WHAT GOD CAN DO THROUGH A MAN WHO IS WHOLLY YIELDED TO HIM. I WANT TO BE THAT MAN.’” (James Stewart, Missionary)
The above quotation was of a friend to the late James A. Stewart named Tinna. She is referring to the fiery young Scot's heartfelt words in the year of his conversion at fourteen years old. It was in the late 1920's. Stewart would go on to leave his native Scotland four years later at the still youthful age of eighteen in 1933. I shared some of the fruit of his venture above. He was called in the following way: one night in Northern Scotland, the Spirit of God did, after a whole night of mighty strivings, call James Stewart to go to the cold Eastern European city of Riga, Latvia. He knew not the language, nor had any missionary organization or church supporting him at that time, but by simple faith surrendered to the leadership of Jesus Christ his King. This servant of the Most High was then forced to stand against his family and friends, some of them true Christians, in following through with this misunderstood mission of the living God - to whom he would give an account. He chose rather to suffer such reproach than to deny the revealed will of his Maker. Bless the Lord. Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, said it well:
“Mark you, you will best prove your love to your relatives by being decided for the right, since you will be the more likely to win their souls. Love them too much to indulge the wrong in them; love them so truly that you hate in them that [which] would injure you and ruin them. You must be prepared to suffer from those who are bound to you by the dearest ties …We cannot yield in the point of sin, our determination is invincible: come hate or come love, we must follow Christ.”
Where is your wholehearted zeal to do the will of King Jesus Christ no matter the cost like James Stewart and all the mighty men of old? Do you believe you will make it to God's heaven without it? I fear that halfhearted Christians will wake up on the wrong side of eternity to their everlasting shame. There will be no shortcomers in God's everlasting Kingdom, where only overcomers dwell (Rev. 3:5, 11:12, 21:7). May the Lord grant some fire on the altar of remnant Christians in this all-but-lifeless generation of compromising Christendom before it is too late.
“The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” (Isaiah 33:14)
“The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools.” (Proverbs 3:35)
“Mark you, you will best prove your love to your relatives by being decided for the right, since you will be the more likely to win their souls. Love them too much to indulge the wrong in them; love them so truly that you hate in them that [which] would injure you and ruin them. You must be prepared to suffer from those who are bound to you by the dearest ties …We cannot yield in the point of sin, our determination is invincible: come hate or come love, we must follow Christ.”
Where is your wholehearted zeal to do the will of King Jesus Christ no matter the cost like James Stewart and all the mighty men of old? Do you believe you will make it to God's heaven without it? I fear that halfhearted Christians will wake up on the wrong side of eternity to their everlasting shame. There will be no shortcomers in God's everlasting Kingdom, where only overcomers dwell (Rev. 3:5, 11:12, 21:7). May the Lord grant some fire on the altar of remnant Christians in this all-but-lifeless generation of compromising Christendom before it is too late.
“The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” (Isaiah 33:14)
“The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools.” (Proverbs 3:35)
The Call to Fight for the Cause of Jesus Christ
David slays Goliath, enemy of the Living God of Israel
Finally, the following excerpt is from the Eva Stuart Watt's book I mentioned above, “Dynamite in Europe.” This dear Saint is pleading with Christians to FIGHT! I hope that you, dear readers, have enough of discernment to apply this passage and post to our own lukewarm day and age. I hope you have enough spiritual perception to hear the Spirit of God plead thereby bidding you to obey the King, Jesus Christ. Without further ado, may the true Christian reader hear the call of God to David of old to “bestir thyself!”
“Think of the possibilities of one life—of your life—as endless as the circles on a pond from the falling of a stone, widening out to the brink of eternity. God is saying to some of us, maybe for the last time, “Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?” Have we not vowed again and again that sacred vow that we would fight for Him? Yet today finds us with our broken promises sitting tight to the arm-chair, the card-table, the banking account, the sports club, the fine job, the easy life, the friendship of the world and the frivolities of time--worst of all crowning it with the blasted hypocrisy of feigned worship in church, or of counterfeit service without blood, earning rightly heaven’s condemnation: “This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.”
How very real this warfare is. It means money and men. It means fighting. It means privations and separations: it means weariness and wounds. Every way sees the best of the nation’s strength laid on the altar, often the best of her manhood laid in the dust. The danger of our easy-going, present-day Christianity is that we outwardly revere those who have been valiant for Christ in the past, but shrink ourselves from entering the fight or receiving the scars they bore. Let us not forget our Saviour’s solemn words: “I came not to send peace, but a sword.” The enemy knows where the Spirit of Jesus is—that divine dynamite that will conquer the world—and he is out to combat his aggression by every subtle strategy and desperate onslaught. He knows also where the Spirit of Jesus is not: that he can afford to leave well alone.
But there is another tragedy in our broken ranks—Christians too busy knifing each other to knife the real enemy of souls; too occupied fighting for their creeds and confessions to leave them any time to fight for Christ. No! No! We are called to a conflict other than that!—into a conflict of righteousness against unrighteousness, good against evil, purity against impurity, Christ against Anti-christ, heaven against hell. The deadly clash of these opposing forces spells infinite cost. Ask those who held the lines before us. Ask John Huss: the flames around him will answer. Let the Moldavian monk tell us from his cloister . Ask Tudor Popescu, the Rumanian priest, or some of God’s saints in the German concentration camps. Ask the martyrs and the exiles of the past two thousand years. “Oh, yes!” they will tell you, “It costs!”
Are you willing to pay the price? I know of nothing else that could bring you to it but a sight of Calvary. When you have really seen Jesus, you will do anything for Him. When your eyes have met His from the cross, you will give Him ALL; and your soul will be impassioned for the lost. Time is short. He is coming soon. Our chance of fighting will be ended. What a handful of dust all the cost will seem one day, as from His own blessed hands we receive our decorations for faithful service! “Behold, I come quickly,” He says, “And My reward is with Me to give every man according as his work shall be.”
(Eva Stuart Watts, Dynamite in Europe; pp. 149-50)
“Think of the possibilities of one life—of your life—as endless as the circles on a pond from the falling of a stone, widening out to the brink of eternity. God is saying to some of us, maybe for the last time, “Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?” Have we not vowed again and again that sacred vow that we would fight for Him? Yet today finds us with our broken promises sitting tight to the arm-chair, the card-table, the banking account, the sports club, the fine job, the easy life, the friendship of the world and the frivolities of time--worst of all crowning it with the blasted hypocrisy of feigned worship in church, or of counterfeit service without blood, earning rightly heaven’s condemnation: “This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.”
How very real this warfare is. It means money and men. It means fighting. It means privations and separations: it means weariness and wounds. Every way sees the best of the nation’s strength laid on the altar, often the best of her manhood laid in the dust. The danger of our easy-going, present-day Christianity is that we outwardly revere those who have been valiant for Christ in the past, but shrink ourselves from entering the fight or receiving the scars they bore. Let us not forget our Saviour’s solemn words: “I came not to send peace, but a sword.” The enemy knows where the Spirit of Jesus is—that divine dynamite that will conquer the world—and he is out to combat his aggression by every subtle strategy and desperate onslaught. He knows also where the Spirit of Jesus is not: that he can afford to leave well alone.
But there is another tragedy in our broken ranks—Christians too busy knifing each other to knife the real enemy of souls; too occupied fighting for their creeds and confessions to leave them any time to fight for Christ. No! No! We are called to a conflict other than that!—into a conflict of righteousness against unrighteousness, good against evil, purity against impurity, Christ against Anti-christ, heaven against hell. The deadly clash of these opposing forces spells infinite cost. Ask those who held the lines before us. Ask John Huss: the flames around him will answer. Let the Moldavian monk tell us from his cloister . Ask Tudor Popescu, the Rumanian priest, or some of God’s saints in the German concentration camps. Ask the martyrs and the exiles of the past two thousand years. “Oh, yes!” they will tell you, “It costs!”
Are you willing to pay the price? I know of nothing else that could bring you to it but a sight of Calvary. When you have really seen Jesus, you will do anything for Him. When your eyes have met His from the cross, you will give Him ALL; and your soul will be impassioned for the lost. Time is short. He is coming soon. Our chance of fighting will be ended. What a handful of dust all the cost will seem one day, as from His own blessed hands we receive our decorations for faithful service! “Behold, I come quickly,” He says, “And My reward is with Me to give every man according as his work shall be.”
(Eva Stuart Watts, Dynamite in Europe; pp. 149-50)
