The way people talk and respond to life changes when they realize they are living during wartime. During World War II our parents and grandparents enlisted in military service, planted victory gardens, worked in factories producing armament, and lived under the adage of “loose lips sink ships.”
Whenever the Church either misreads the reality of spiritual warfare or denies its existence altogether, a weak and casual faith emerges putting individuals, families, and entire cultures under the threat of the approaching heels of oppression. Some say our faith should not extend into the civic realm leaving the spheres of culture to the invaders. This denial works until a child returns home from school confused about their personhood or a procedure is done to a child without a parent’s consent. Any enemy would hope their desired target would deny the existence of an invading army until it is too late. The last couple of sentences you just read is called fear-mongering by some who still hope it all works out without confrontation and conflict. Fairy tales are not written only for children.
Casual and flippant conversations are taking place among some believers who choose to see no conflict and diss those who actually see a battle taking place. The dissing takes place because to recognize the conflict is to invalidate their spiritual insight.
Paul wrote, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). For those engaging in a cultural battle, it is critical to remember the battle is first fought in the spiritual realm and those results will eventually spill over into the Earth where the fruit of battle awaits. Wisdom will always follow the manifestation of earthly evil into the spiritual realm where it can be identified, challenged, and disempowered. That must be our first and primary battlefield. Once that conflict is settled we are then called to administrate that victory in our world.
Real life, the spiritual kind of life with real consequences both now and for all eternity does not look like the cover of the flesh-forward magazines in the rack at the checkout stand of a supermarket, nor does it resemble some heady out-of-touch interpretation of faith and reality produced by an academic in a university or seminary. Real life is an ongoing conflict. It is gritty, active, and at times, painful. A faith that does not extend into this reality is a faith that has lost its bearings.
There comes a time, especially in warfare, when to save lives we must administer death. The bible is filled with idiomatic expressions of warriors, who administer both life and death. We have entered a time where the demands of simple justice cry out for capital punishment for those who have been destroying us both figuratively and literally. We have too readily rolled over to see both Jesus Christ and our Constitution attacked daily by our own government, our elected representatives, and major institutions of our culture. It is time to call for death in the form of capital punishment, for those who have been such traitors to our nation, our people. How long will we allow traitors to destroy our freedoms and our very lives. Demand simple justice. No more compromise with those who are destroying us. It is long past time to quit being mealy-mouthed Christians and buy the temporal swords that Jesus recommended to defend ourselves.