THE ARMY OF GOD

                                                                 The Army of God 

You know I heard this term batted around the “Church” today the Army of God and often wonder what does that mean? It seems we take a military flare to evangelism from songs like “Onward Christian Soldiers,” “Stay on the Firing Line,” and others. And hear of this great end-time revival promised by the preachers and teachers of today, how the ranks of God’s Army will swell and we shall overrun the enemy, well, that is not what the Bible says. The Bible I read talks about a “falling away.” Paul in 2 Thessalonians shares, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;” (2 Thessalonians 2:3) By this verse it sounds like there is going to be great deception on every hand and many Christians will fall away from the faith, then they will be deceived. This does not sound like the making of a great Army of God to sweep the earth. At this point in my article I must ask this question: What happened to the Army of God? There is something wrong with the Army of God or what the New Testament calls the Body of Christ today. Now I will NOT call it the “church” because we, you and I, are the church not some building or given denominational name. But, something is terribly wrong. What is it? The answer is not hard to discover. In fact, it is as clear as a bell. The Body of Christ has lost it's focus. It has forsaken the basic Truths of Christianity. Or, to be even more direct about it, the Body of Christ has left it's first Love, Jesus Christ, and has become centered in other things. What are some of these other things? Well, for one thing, the church has become focused on itself as an organization. This has been going on for two-thousand years. Another thing we, who make up the church, get focused on is the serving we do FOR Christ, rather than on Christ Himself. And thirdly, many of us simply settle for a religion centered around Christ, instead of a relationship in Him. God did not intend things to be this way. The early church was not like that. And, if we look back at this early church, we may discover the true intention of God for His Body, and an example for us today. Over two thousand years ago, a group of disciples, exhausted and frightened, huddled together in an upper room, waiting for what they were told would be “the promise of the Father.” What was this “promise of the Father?” And what impact would it have on their lives? The last three and one-half years had seen these disciples experience possibly every emotion on the spectrum. They had, at first, curiously followed a man named Jesus of Nazareth. Later, He would specifically call them to be His apostles and disciples. What an adventure they were in for! These disciples had seen Jesus perform miracles beyond anything they could have imagined. And His preaching! It was such a radical departure from anything they had ever heard before. They did not fully understand many of the things He had spoken to them. But, rather than be a cause for apprehension, this was a source of hope. For they had come to understand the most important thing of all: Jesus was God who became man. The Son of God. The Word of Life. And He had chosen them to be His messengers. In the last seven weeks, these disciples had seen Jesus crucified, buried, and raised from the dead. He had spent forty days opening the scriptures to them. And after seemingly only a few days they had seen Him taken bodily up into the heavens. Even before the crucifixion they had recognized that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” (Matthew. 16:18) But, only now was it beginning to dawn on them what all of that meant. Only now were they beginning to see that their Messiah had come to redeem the entire world. So, they waited. They waited for this “promise of the Father,” which, said Jesus, you have heard of Me. “For John truly baptized with water; but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.” (Acts 1:4-5) There is nothing recorded in the Gospels or the Book of Acts to indicate that Jesus explained to these disciples any more than that. There is no indication that they knew what to expect, or how to act. They were simply told to stay in Jerusalem and to wait. To wait for this “promise of the Father.” Now, it is so easy to fall into the mistake of placing ourselves in that upper room with the disciples with our frame of reference for Christianity, thinking that it was their frame of reference. But doing so is nonsense for we must remember that these disciples had no frame of reference for Christianity. To this point, there WAS no Christianity. On the day before Pentecost, there were no churches. Only synagogues. There were no ministries. No one was preaching Christ. In fact, the Bible, as we know it, did not yet exist. The New Testament was not yet written. The Old Testament was available, but mostly in those synagogues. With few exceptions, scripture was communicated orally. Rarely were copies carried around by the common man. When they were, usually what was carried was some portion of the Old Testament, rather than the entire work. So, if we place ourselves in the upper room, we must first erase everything we know about Christianity. We must pretend we have never been to church. We must imagine that we have never read a word of the New Testament. We must forget how a Christian is supposed to act, and how a Christian is supposed to talk. We must push away every religious tradition we have learned, and we must forget every religious bias we have acquired. Our entire vocabulary regarding the things of God must be altered. Now, of course, the adjustment we must pass through to be in that upper room involves more than just the things we must erase. There are likewise many things we must add. First of all, we must replace everything we have learned “about Christ” with something better: A personal experience with Jesus Christ Himself. After all these disciples knew Him as a human being. They had walked and talked with Him. So instead of only believing that Jesus died and was raised, we must imagine what it must have been like to have witnessed these facts first-hand. The disciples in that upper room had seen their lives shattered, their deeply rooted religious traditions overthrown, and their Master crucified. And then they had seen it all somehow made right through the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. Now they were waiting for “the promise of the Father.” Here is the question: If we could start all over again, and erase the last two-thousand years of Christian history and experience, and get back into that upper room, waiting for “the promise of the Father,” if we could do that, would the result of our Pentecost be something we would recognize as the Christianity of today? Or has the Christianity of today, indeed, the Christianity of the last two-thousand years, strayed so far off course, that it barely resembles what God began that first Pentecost? Would the disciples recognize today’s Body of Christ as being the offspring of the church of their day? Written by David Stahl

HOME GROUP MEETING 18 FEB 25

Home Group Meeting: 18 February 25 Judging vs. Discernment A. We live in a day and age where RIGHT and WRONG no longer have any meaning – or at least the goal is to try to make them have no meaning. Instead of absolute Truth, we are being told that there is only relative Truth, that is, Truth is whatever you think it is – or Truth is what you believe. In some peoples mind, the answer is that you really cannot know the Truth – even some professing Christians say this. In effect, what we are seeing is a world that more and more intends to do what is right in it’s own eyes. B. As a logical outcome of this nonsense, people are being told that they should, "not judge." If I say that Robert Schuller is a heretic, some are offended, because we are not supposed to judge. But read the NT. Did Paul name names? It is certainly possible to become a person whose has appointed himself the judge of everyone else, and to set oneself up as the superior person – there are many, "discernment ministries," out there doing that. But according to the Bible, we are not only to preach the Truth, but we MUST also preach what the Truth IS NOT. Read the epistles. Everyone of them was written to combat error. One way or another they all come back to that. In the end, you really cannot preach the Truth unless you expose the error. Your message won’t be clear otherwise, and because many are looking for affirmation of their error, they will otherwise try to make what you say agree with them. C. People like Robert Schuller, Joel Osteen, and many others on TV today, are leading millions astray. They have already rejected all counsel and appeal. I know this because they themselves have bragged about doing so – and ridiculed their critics. It is far beyond that point. Thus, in accordance with Matthew 18, and other teachings of the Bible, they ought to be named before all. I am not naïve enough to think it will do any good. But that was never a criteria given by Christ for doing it. We are to name them in order to separate light from darkness, and in order to protect the Body of Christ. D. But nevertheless, there are thousands of Christian people who will say that this is, "judging." Yet they themselves, if they gave it any thought, would see the folly of such a claim. For example, let’s suppose someone does object when I say that someone’s conduct or teaching is right or wrong. Suppose they say that this is, "judging." I submit that such a charge is, itself, hypocritical. Why? Because they are saying it is wrong to say something is wrong – and by doing so they are saying something is wrong! So THEY are now judging ME. They are violating the very principle they demand – that we never judge anything! The point is, once you condemn someone for judging, you are judging. It ought to be obvious that there is something flawed in the kind of reasoning that eliminates all moral reasoning from our thinking. It just doesn’t work, but creates a moral and logic circle that cannot be resolved. E. The fact is, once you eliminate morality from our thinking, you eliminate all sanity. Once you eliminate the possibility of Truth from our thinking and reasoning, you create a moral vacuum. In fact, it really isn’t possible to eliminate morality, Truth, or right and wrong from a person’s thinking. The reason you can’t eliminate those things is that we are MORAL CREATURES. We have a built in moral nature – even if it has been twisted through sin. Morality is woven into the fabric of what we are as human beings. F. If you examine yourself, you will see that this is true. You make moral or value judgments continually. You do that even if your judgment is nothing more than about how you feel, what you like, or whether it is a nice day outside. How much more we do this in relationships! The moment we don’t like someone – even if we don’t say or think it, maybe we just feel it – we are making a judgment OF THEM according to how they affect US. You cannot escape this. It is how you function – right or wrong. G. You and I are continually making choices as to what to say, what to think, and how to act. We may not make those choices with a moral yardstick next to them, or even give them much thought. But most everything we think, say, or do is based on our inward sense, or upon our inward desire, to do right and wrong. H. Human beings were created with a moral fabric – and this functions whether we care about God or not. In that case, it will not function according to the Truth, but it will function. People may try to deny absolute Truth or right and wrong, but they know better. They WILL react the moment someone does wrong TO THEM! They DO make moral judgments all the time. And as I mentioned earlier, even if I deny the existence of right and wrong, I am making a moral judgment in doing that – I am saying that it is RIGHT to say that there is no such thing as right and wrong. This is self-contradictory and hypocritical, and frankly, it is so obviously so, that God holds us responsible for proclaiming such a lie. I.The fact is, there is NO escape from right and wrong. And the reason is not only because we are made moral in nature, but more so because we are created totally accountable to God. Accountability to God is a knowledge that is built into us. The fact that many neglect it, deny it, and push it away to the destruction of their conscience, doesn’t change anything. In fact, the necessity of DEALING WITH IT BY PUSHING IT AWAY proves that morality is IN US. J. You and I have never been given the right to decide Truth. You and I have never been given the right to determine for ourselves right and wrong. In fact, you and I have been told that we are forbidden to do those things. Rather, we have been told that we are accountable to God, and if we want to live, we need to turn to Him.

THE CRITICAL NEED FOR SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT (HGM 28 JAN 25)

Home Group Meeting: 28 January 2025 The Critical Need for Spiritual Discernment “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged: and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why behold the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but consider not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of your eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of your own eye; and then shall thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.” (Matthew 7:1-5) A. Spiritual discernment is the result of knowing Jesus Christ. If you know the Truth Himself, you are going to, well, know the Truth that pertains to Him – you are going to know what is of Him. This is, of course, a progressive revelation into which we have come. B. We really must understand that discernment is the result of knowing Christ. Too often we make discernment a THING or a GIFT – and think of it as something we are able to do as a thing unto itself. No. For a Christian, EVERYTHING is connected to life in Christ, and NOTHING operates independent of our relationship with Him – nothing that is of God, that is. Thus, discernment does not operate independent of Christ, but rather, is a product of our relationship with Him, and knowledge OF Him. C. This tells us how to know error. Error is not simply bad theology, although there is plenty of that out there. Rather, error is a misrepresentation of Christ Himself. One way or another it is that. Thus, I cannot know error unless I know the Truth. D. I do realize that it is possible for discernment to operate purely on a theological or intellectual level. People DO have brains, and even an atheist can spot hypocrisy and some error. But the discernment of the Holy Spirit is much more than simply being able to compare notes and come to conclusions. The discernment by the Holy Spirit means that I am able to sense whether something belongs to Christ or does not. It is all based on HIM – whether it fits into HIM. F. Unless we know Christ, and therefore have HIM as our basis of discernment, we are going to use something else. Usually, we will use our understanding, how we feel about something, or whether something appeals to us. Sometimes Christians just don’t think. They simply resign and let others think for them. G. If there is one thing the church needs today it is the discernment that comes from knowing the Person of Jesus Christ. The fact that there seems to be so little discernment out there today is simply evidence that many, including leaders, DO NOT know Him. H. The consequences are everywhere. The growing trend in churches today is the compromise of Truth for the sake of unity. Churches compromise to keep members and get them. This compromise is not merely seen in WRONG things being preached. It is seen in RIGHT things being eliminated. Preachers like Joel Osteen openly brag about the fact that they never preach that we are sinners, must repent, or that there is a Cross that each of us have to meet. This, we are told by people like Osteen, is not necessary. We need a positive gospel, they say. And the fact that millions follow them in their error simply gives them all the more boldness to continue preaching it. I. would seem that today more than ever, whatever will get the people in the pew is what is accepted as Truth. Or people just don’t care about Truth at all. Either way, the trend of the last 10-15 years is one of, "anything goes in the name of love." People like Osteen, Rick Warren, and Bill Hybels – all of whom have ties to, or are echoing heretic Robert Schuller – concentrate on YOU, and on making YOU the center of God’s universe. And since we all care about ourselves, we eat this stuff up. And yet this kind of message is actually THE message of antichrist. J. Antichrist is basically Christ without the Cross. In other words, antichrist is man IN ADAM affirmed – religiously, just as he is, and without the need to meet the Cross. The modern gospel of self-esteem is the fullness of the gospel of Satan. That is not an extreme statement. It is the Truth – and it is HERE, right now, in the churches. It is one of the most subtle, yet damaging, deceptions ever perpetrated on the Body of Christ. Draw your own conclusions about what that means as to the times in which we live. All of this comes back to a lack of discernment, and the usual result: Trying to do for God, on the wrong basis, what only God can do on the right basis. God wants His church unified IN CHRIST, and in the Truth. Today we are trying to unify the church by compromising with both.

AMERICA ALMOST GOT IT RIGHT

The 2024 General Election between President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris was “truly” an historic event and at the same time a very painful eye opener to where America is spiritually. Yes, Donald Trump won the election going away in a landslide, but there were also many losers, maybe 104 million. According to the 2020 US census there are 331 million people in the United States. But, as the final weeks of the 2024 presidential election campaign unfolded, it appeared that the outcome of the close race between Trump and Harris will depend on which candidate does a more effective job of getting their supporters to the poll to vote. A new national survey by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, led by Dr. George Barna, indicated that voting enthusiasm in 2024 is significantly lower than in 2020, and that a massive number of Christians who regularly attend church services were not likely to vote in the November election. Sadly, this was the case in this election. Christian churchgoing voters have historically supported the more conservative major-party candidate in a presidential race and appear poised to do so again this election cycle, albeit with fewer of them casting a ballot than in the most recent presidential race. The research indicates that as many as 104 million people of faith (to include religions like Muslim, Hindu, etc.) will not be voting in the upcoming election on 5 November 24 and among those, 32 million self-identified Christians who regularly attend church will NOT cast their ballot. Now I am not sure why so many “Christians” walked away from their doing their reasonable service and duty before the LORD. Maybe they were vilified, called extremist by the Democratic Party, and then marginalized or maybe just apathic I do not know but, what do you expect when millions of so called “Christians” support (give their time, talents, and resources) to the Democratic Party that advocates for: abortion, sodomy, lesbianism, transgenderism, and so much more ungodly and just down-right lascivious social lifestyles. As we can see by the results of the 2024 election God rejected the Democratic Party and the 32 million folks that did not vote. The Bible is crystal clear to our duty and responsibility to be a part of a civil society. America is a representative Republic not a democracy. Not a majority rule of government, but we elect representatives according to our constitution to make up the government that will oversee the affairs of our country. In Romans, Paul shares with the Church in Rome their duties and obligations to exist in the Roman society. Paul writes, “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. 2Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. 3For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: 4For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. 5Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. 6For this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. 7Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour. (Romans 13:1-7) Also see 1 Peter 2:13-18, to what we must do to please God in society. In other words, it is our duty and responsibility to be involved not with the politics of the day, but it is our reasonable service, our duty, before God, to be salt and light, to speak about, pray about, to stand up, and be God’s voice in the moral and spiritual issues of OUR day. And if we do not then when have sinned. And, if we support ungodliness and debauchery like the Democratic Party then we have sinned and cannot, must not, call ourselves a “Christian” until we ask God to forgive us of our willful sin and then repent. I was amazed to find out the main groups that made up the coalition that supported candidate Harris were the: highly educated, folks making over $100,000 a year, and people who possess no faith. While Trump put together white men and woman, black men, Latinos in huge numbers, union workers, the military vote, truly a cross section of America. What a picture of the truth! Now here is the downside spiritually of the 32 million self-professed “Christians.” Sadly, God could not count on the “Church” in America to do His will on earth as it is done in heaven. God’s intention for the millions of Christians in America is not to be political, but spiritual. Not to get involved in the lower-level issues, but stand in the moral high ground with God and proclaim, “righteousness exalts a nation” to stand in the spiritual hedge for the nation that they find themselves in. But no, these 32 million so called “Christians” not only failed God, but also failed America and those Christians that did what God wanted them to do. My friend, America was not established by God to spread freedom and liberty around the world, oh no. Liberty and freedom are a by-product of the Gospel message. America was established to replace England, because of England’s waywardness to truth and righteousness and the rise of humanism in her churches, as the country on the world stage to share the wondrous message of the good news of the Gospel, but lately she has slipped from 1st to 13th place in sending missionaries to the world. Unless America gets back to doing what God wants for her, she will slip slowly away like England and God will raise up another country to replace her. God and His message will NOT be stopped. If God was going to do anything in this election (which He did) He knew He would have to work outside the “Church.” What an open indictment on the “Church” in America. And God did some amazing things in the election. Sadly the “Church” itself made itself non-relevant and obsolete by walking away from what God was doing. God saw He did not need the nominal, denominational “Church” to do His will for America. This my friend ought to shake you, if you are a Christan, to your knees. Now, I do not want to focus on the amazing return of Donald J. Trump, how God saved his life from assassination not once, but twice, kept him through 12 trumped up (no pun intended) legal cases and assorted political wranglings, not to mention the character assassination from his first four years when he was President, and so much more. But make no mistake, God has called Donald J. Trump, (not as a savior, but as the President of the United States of America) for such a time as this, to restore the United States of America back to her former place of service and so that God could once again be glorified. So that she once again can share this wondrous Gospel message around the world again and then freedom and liberty will ring from shore to shore and sea to sea. I am reminded of the words spoked by the French writer Alexis de Tocqueville, after visiting America in 1831, he said, “I sought for the greatness of the United States in her commodious harbors, her ample rivers, her fertile fields, and boundless forests—and it was not there. I sought for it in her rich mines, her vast world commerce, her public school system, and in her institutions of higher learning— and it was not there. I looked for it in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution—and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great!” You know with President Trump winning the election, in a landside, not only in the Electoral College, but also in the popular vote, he was handed a mandate by the people to govern the way he said he was going to govern during his campaign and I believe he will (God willing), as long as he is not assassinated (God forbid). My friend, there are some really crazy, sick people in this world. We need to keep President elect Donald Trump in our prayers. Karen always says, “if the heart is wrong then the head will be wrong.” But, not only was President Trump handed a mandate to govern the country, but you know what my friend, so was the ”Church” in America. Sadly, God knew He could not count on 32 million so called or self-proclaimed “Christians.” He knew they would not vote for the truth of the word of God and stand up for His righteousness in the land. So, what will He do in the future with the “Church” in America? Sadly, unless the “Church” in America wakes up, gets back to God, and shuns the ways and teachings of this world, God will have to set her aside and it will watch Him move on the earth as He moves in the heavenly. God always has a remnant of people who believe Him, who loves to serve Him, and He will use them to accomplish His will on earth. If you were one of these 32 million and there is air in your lungs, there is still time to turn to the LORD, if not then your future is the shelf, even though you probably will go and work your fingers to the bones at some denominational church, while your eternal home with God is in doubt. Thank God He gets to make the call. Written by David Stahl