— 2001 —
BATTLE CRY SOUNDING is the international voice of Aggressive Christianity. God has used this voice for over 20 years to aggressively put forth the call for ACTIVE SERVICE in the LORD’S Royal Army. Have you heard the call? Have you answered the call?
Surely the forces of darkness are formidable in this hour, and they are gaining ground since the churches, for the most part, are hiding in their manmade “fox holes” filled with sin. However, as God sends forth the call, professed Christians all around the world are being propelled into a new zeal and a renewed faith. God’s call to BATTLE is one of an inevitable upward and onward force! Back in the 1950’s, the U.S. War Department issued a pamphlet that had the alluring title “What To Do If An Atomic Bomb Falls.” The pamphlet included ten points. The first one was “Keep calm!” Now that is a real masterpiece for you. “Keep calm!”–I suppose an average man could not have thought of that one. I guess it took a three-star general to convey such a revelation. Well, I assure you, if an atomic bomb falls near you, you will definitely keep calm–PERMANENTLY!! Instead of instructing people to “Keep calm!” we should consider that if enough people would pay heed to God, the bombs may not need to fall at all. The Christians hold the key to this locked up truth. If the so-called Christians would get disturbed enough about the evil times at hand and start obeying the Holy Spirit before wickedness completely engulfs this whole society, then God may stay the fullness of His impending wrath. If the so-called Christians refuse to obey the Holy Spirit, and the rampant sin continues–inside and outside the churches–then God will send further destruction upon this nation, and multitudes will be put to PERMANENT “rest” in Hellfire.
The Lord has been sounding The Battle Cry, but few heed the sound. Instead of rising up in Spirit to attack the enemies, the churches have RETREATED!! How sickening! We must not only win personal battles, but we must win souls for Christ. We MUST stand against the upsurge of fear which has become such a turbulent flood in our day. A soul that gives way to cowardice is often the enemies’ greatest victory.
Most Christians today have taken to the bleachers to become mere spectators. They no longer engage the enemy. The Christians have substituted true Spirit-led activity for the repetition of religious slogans. It’s absurd. At most churches nowadays, people’s conversations resemble what would be heard at a convention of drunken parrots. SLOGANS DON’T WIN WARS! “Christianity” today is all TALK and NO WALK.
Christian, what is the Gospel of Jesus Christ to you? Is it a toy? a game? an insurance policy? Or is it true power?
“For our gospel came not unto you in word only,
but also in POWER” (I Thessalonians 1:5).
To most Christians, the Gospel is not power but a diversion, a pleasant decoration of life, a PLAYTHING!
The tenth-century monks of Constantinople had become sterile, religious pedants in comparison to their forefathers. “They held in their lifeless hands the riches of their fathers, without inheriting the spirit which had created that sacred patrimony. They read; they praised; they compiled; but their languid souls seemed alike incapable of action and thought,” one writer comments. You see, their faith was an antique, not a LIVING POWER.
Karl Shapiro’s poem from the South Seas in the Second World War is a picture of the modern “Christians'” typical Sunday (or Saturday), the day they supposedly set apart for Jesus. Instead of thinking on the Lord Jesus and practicing the outstanding Christian commission, the “Christians” indulge themselves. Shapiro’s poem goes like this:
The bugle sounds the measured call to prayers…
I long for our disheveled Sunday’s home,
Breakfast, the comics, news of the latest crimes,
Talk without reference…
Sleep and the Philharmonic, and the ponderous Times.
“Disheveled” means “disarranged; rumpled; untidy appearance.” This certainly describes most “Christian” households of today. And it is also a great description of the professed Christians’ minds. The spirit of the age is a disdain for discipline and inner holiness.
The Christian faith in times past has placed men, women, and children onto the battlefields of this world–taking Jesus to all nations. For true Christianity is not theory but practice. In this season, as in all seasons, the militant character will always outwear the soft, easygoing character. Aggressive Christianity will drive fake religion to the pit as the power of truth wars on.
T.S. Eliot wrote, “The search for material remedies to cure our spiritual distresses can have one end–FAILURE.” God’s professed people have gone a whoring after the ways of the heathen, and it has diseased them and offered them no hope. No material remedies of any kind can save them.
The chief factor in our present crisis is not what the world will do, but what our God will do. Do you know what God is doing? Do you seek the only cure for your spiritual distresses? If you are interested in finding out more about repentance and spiritual warfare, you may write and request our FREE magazine entitled “Battle Cry Sounding.” Don’t delay. You are in the Battle whether you realize it or not. If you don’t realize it, you are already on the losing side; and to lose is to be damned for all eternity. Amen.
