Combat Victory and the Production of Battle Courage

DW3A

Apostasy

The Length of Hair

Nature itself says it's a shame for a man to walk around in effeminate-style looking hair. This is a divine principle. So anytime somebody goes around and tells you that Jesus had long hair, you know he's off his rocker, and he is disoriented to the Word of God, because Jesus had hair shorter than the women of his day. I actually have taught Sunday school classes right here in this majestic city of Irving where I've had people tell me about how things used to be in Bible times, and I'd say, "Now where did you get that idea?" They would say, "Well I saw pictures of it." One lady described to me in detail what the barn looked like that Jesus was born in, and she got it all from a picture that she saw, and I had to actually explain to her that somebody just imagined that and put that together. So these pictures you see of the Lord looking like a girl are just some disoriented artist who doesn't know what he's drawing about.

Apostasy is upon us. It's shown in that hairstyle. It's shown in the communal living. It's shown in the dope heads and the homosexuality and the other assorted groups of degenerates that are a result of the fact that we are in an apostate age. I hope you have it clear by now that your mind has two facets to it. It has a conscience side and it has a perception side, and what you think is determined by the values and standards in your conscience. And the values and standards in your conscience are determined by what you know of Bible doctrine and God's point of view. If you do not have His point of view, you will have the most fouled-up set of thoughts and lines of thinking imaginable, and you will come out exactly where our society is coming out today.

We have traitors in this nation that are bound in the guise of people who are sincere and who seemingly have noble motivations, while the communists keep closing in on us for the kill. I am getting increasingly tired of intellectual students who are making the mistake of dealing with communism on the dictionary interpretation of what communism is, which sounds like a very nice idea, and on the basis of people sharing things, and things being fair and everybody being free and love being the keynote of the day. That's very attractive and very desirable, but that isn't what communism is. Communism is what it has historically been. It is the brutal bestial satanic system which is out to replace Christianity and to bring the world under a one controlling domination so that the Word of God cannot be propagated to you or anybody else.

Communism

Tom Dooley said, "The tortured, the sick, and the horribly maimed were fleeing from the communists of North Vietnam hoping to reach the doubtful security of Saigon. Before they came, more than 300,000 others had already passed through the camp. The number would exceed the half-million mark before the tragedy ended. As the weeks passed, I found myself increasingly puzzled, not only by the growing number, but by the character of communist atrocities. They seemed almost to have a religious significance. I was accustomed by now to patching up emasculated men, and women whose breasts had been mutilated, and even little children without fingers or hands. But more and more, I was learning that these punishments were linked in the refugees' belief in God. We pieced together the story, one of the many incidents related.

"The young man was a school teacher. The communists had caught him leading his class in the Lord's Prayer. They made him repeat it for them line-by-line and made a mockery of the words. When the lesson was ended, they led the class into the schoolyard and taught the pupils a different kind of lessons. Two Viet Minh guards, which is what the Viet Cong used to be called, held a child by the arms and another grasped his head. Then the leader rammed a chopstick deep into each ear, splitting the canal and shattering the inner ear. When all seven children had been 'treated,' the guards turned to the teacher. They drew forth his tongue with a pincer and sawed it off with a bayonet. Somehow, five of the children had managed to remove the chopsticks from their heads. They looked like zombies. Thick puss was running from the ears. The young teacher: I was able to draw together the edges of his tongue stump and patch it up. The eight survived--one young man who never again would pray aloud, and seven children who would hear the Word of God only in their hearts."

If you are so disoriented in your thinking to think that the communist is not our enemy; that warfare does not have a place in the practice of this nation and in the will of God; and, that communism is some ideal to be interpreted by the meaning of the word, then you may yet live to regret the day when what has happened all around the world may become your personal experience. You will learn, when it's too late to escape, what it really is to have the cancer of communism that Jane Fonda wishes all of us would fall to our knees and earnestly pray to Heaven would descend upon us.

It is the American soldier who has won battles on the battlefields of the world that preserved our freedom. Yet, the military is under abuse, and ROTC is ridiculed and driven out of the major status schools of the nation as being an elevation of the spirit of the times. Yet, we look all over our city and all around us, and we've got churches putting up new buildings. We've got churches putting in more pews to have more people to sit there to listen to cute little lectures. However, we don't have too many churches who are teaching Bible doctrine. We even have churches who teach the Bible, but they don't teach Bible doctrine. What hope is there for even the Christian to get himself squared away in his conscience so his thinking is right?

The Principles of Warfare

1. War will always exist in human history.
   
   
2. Just war is from God. Any war which is to preserve your national identity is a just warfare. It is against the will of God for nations to be under international control. It is the will of God, as He has divided people into nations, to exist and operate as nations.
   
   
3. Peace is secured through the annihilation and decisive defeat of the enemy.
   
   
4. Refusal to go to war is sometimes a sin. Now the Old Testament is for us today a source book of guidelines of life principles. God in the past had picked specific wars for His people Israel. Those specific reasons and areas of warfare do not, as such, apply to us. But I am hearing people say, "How can we take what the Old Testament says and use that in guiding us in reference to warfare? We don't live under the Old Testament. We're not under the law. This is a thing that doesn't apply to us." You're wrong. What has to do with Judaism as a legal way of life for the Jew of the Old Testament in that dispensation indeed does not apply to us. However, the Old Testament is filled with divine guidelines for the way God thinks and acts, and it is filled with divine principles which are eternally true and apply in all ages.

   For example, 1 Corinthians 10:11 says, "Now all these things (recorded in the Old Testament) happened unto them for examples. And they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come. (We in this church age are to learn from this which has come before us.) Wherefore let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall." It is necessary to know these life principles if you're going to stand. Romans 15:4 says, "For whatever things were written in earlier times were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." So we are reaching back into the Old Testament and we are dealing not with those elements that are peculiarly unique to the cause of Judaism as a way of life, but to those factors which are principles by which God operates in every age. The principles of warfare that we have been looking at are part of that which is applicable in God's practice throughout the dispensations.

5. War is for Adults

Now the males who do go into combat are to be adults. Here by God's direction, an adult was anyone who was 20 years old and up. Of these, only those able to go forth to war in Israel were to be taken. You took those who were mentally and physically qualified. Some 20-year-old males and up are not mentally or physically qualified for combat. Yet, there have been times when nations, in desperate crises, would use teenagers.

Some of you may remember the newsreel that came out at the end of World War II. It showed kind of sad pictures as Hitler would go down the line. And here were a group of teenage boys lined up, 14- or 15-year-old kids with rosy cheeks. He would go by patting them on the cheek. And there they were standing in their over-sized uniforms trying to hold their rifles, and the Third Reich which was to last a thousand years was on its death throes, and the last that they had to pour into the breach was teenagers. They had already defeated themselves by an unjust war, having made their deal with communist Stalin to divide Poland between themselves. They had already defeated themselves by their treatment of the Jews. God said, "Anybody that abuses the Jew, I will destroy you. And any nation that blesses the Jew, I'll bless you." So the Third Reich was doomed, and when they started putting teenagers as soldiers, they were even violating a biblical principle of warfare.

Temporary Exemptions

What was he to do? Well, he was "To be free at home for one year and he shall cheer up his wife whom he has taken." He was to have a honeymoon for a year. He was to cheer up his wife, and this was a command. He was commanded to cheer up his wife for a year. The word "cheer up" here means to bring her happiness in soul and in body. Now this is not too bad a custom even when there isn't a war on. We haven't been able to work this out in our custom, but it wouldn't be too bad an idea to kind of work out your business so you can have a honeymoon for a year, and spend a year cheering up your wife. You might get so far ahead, she may never need too much entertainment after that for the rest of your life. But, it would be a pretty good start. There is wisdom behind this. The real reasoning behind this is that a solid marriage has to have some ground to start with.

This is why I think it's inadvisable, just as an aside, when some young people get married, and right away they start having children. It is the course of wisdom, on the basis of this same principle, to give yourself two or three or four years where it's just the two of you having a ball before there's somebody else in the family bawling along with you. There's a great deal to merit that, and you ought to consider that when you get married--to delay having those youngsters until you've had a few years just together. It's a kind of a period that's different. It's never the same once you have children in there.

Now this is vital for the establishing of a strong marriage relationship. War is for adults, twenty years old and up--for able-bodied men. It is not for women. And there are certain exceptions that may exist other than these, but this one is mentioned here.

6. Battle Courage and Moral Strength

Deuteronomy 20:1-8

However, you will not have that unless you have an orientation in your conscience as a result of the Word of God. You will be nothing but a panic stricken chicken under combat conditions unless there is some moral strength in your thinking propensity. Fear is a mental attitude sin. 2 Timothy 1:7 says that God has not called us to fear, but to a sound mind. The basis of battle courage is the realization that God is with us, and that He is capable. He's the one who brought Israel out of Egypt, and therefore He is capable of bringing them through the battle. A just war has God's blessing on it even if the enemy is superior, and there will be victory in spite of his superiority.

So He, first of all, tells them, "You will face the enemy and the realization that you are entering this battle under God's direction and under God's approval. Therefore, victory is ensured. You will not fear. What natural intimidation is upon you because of the hazards you will face, will be brought under control. You will have battle courage.

Then the chaplain is to speak. Deuteronomy 20:2: "And it shall be, when you come near to the battle, this is the eve of the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak unto the people." He is to speak to them God's Word. He is to encourage them by reminding them of God's thinking on the subject of the battle that they are about to enter. In Deuteronomy 20:3, his message to them is, "Hear, O Israel, you approach this day unto battle against your enemies. Let not your heart's faint. Fear not. And do not tremble; neither be terrified because of them. Let not your hearts faint." You are not to fear the enemy. You are not to be terrified over meeting him. You are not to tremble. And the word "terrified" carries the connotation of being a coward at meeting the enemy. This is in your heart. "Let not your hearts faint." This refers to conscience. There's that word again that identifies the conscience part of your thinking. Here is where you have to keep aligned to God's viewpoint so that you can guide your understanding.

Now God joins his people in battle. Deuteronomy 20:4: "For the Lord your God is He who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies." To what end? To victory. To save you. God is going to fight for you, not so that you can win this battle, just enough to keep the war alive, so the enemy can come back and fight again another day. That's the kind of battles we have been fighting since Korea. When the courage of the United States slipped away in the Korean conflict, the courage that had victory within our grasp, and when we refused to cross the Yalu River once the Chinese invaded North Korea, this nation began the downward trend that it has continued ever since.

It has even been worse in Vietnam. If you've been keeping in touch with the newspaper, you know that all of Cambodia, except the capital, is now under some degree of communist domination. Won't that be nice when the United States has moved out of South Vietnam, as its intention is to do? Then where all this effort? Then where all this investment? Then where all these lives? Yet, this is a just war. This is a bestial enemy seeking to destroy a people's national entity and their right to free choice. Victory would have been in our hands had we pursued it. It would have been in our hands over all of China. It would have been in our hands long since in North Korea.

I heard a commentator the other day say, "Maybe it's time that the United States of America, at least, if it will not win itself, takes the leash off of South Vietnam and lets the South Vietnamese invade North Vietnam as some of the generals are eager to do. We won't even let them win. We're afraid the Communists will get mad at us. God will go to battle with you. He will bring you to victory. So a believer who goes to battle is to go there realizing that he does this as a service to God. When somebody calls you a killer or when somebody calls you a murderer because you perform your duty, your nation has a right to send troops into battle, and you have no rights other than to obey that directive.

Then the officers speak in Deuteronomy 20:5. The chaplain has finished his word. The officers stand back and they speak to the people saying, "What man is there who has built a house?" Now he's speaking to troops which are fully trained on the eve of battle. But there is one problem that yet exists. With God on our side, we still are to be prepared for the battle. There's an element of preparation that is now to be performed on the eve of battle. The officer proceeds to remove from the ranks all of the men who are potential liabilities in battle. All of the training is designed to this end. This is where a great deal of the misery comes from which is dealt out to people who go into the service--all of the misery that a fellow in boot camp in the Marine Corps experiences over the little things that he's not allowed to do. It's all designed for a purpose, to find the personality who will be a liability in combat. It's important to know whom you can trust.

In the officer candidate school of the Marine Corps, there comes a day near the end of your training when you have a "Rate Your Buddy" day. Here's a class of 250 men who will sit down, and they know each other now. They have gone through simulated combat experiences in training. They sit down and they look over that whole class, and then you list the men from that class that you would want on a combat mission. You can get hurt badly at this point, because you can list some of them that you don't want. There are some people that never make it at that point. If you get three or four people who say, "I'd like to have you on a combat mission," that's considered a very very high score. The whole purpose is one more effort on the part of the Marine Corps to weed out the liabilities in combat. That's exactly in keeping with the Word of God. That's exactly what this passage is doing. Here are the men that they're trying to reach--those who have a mental attitude which will not permit them total preoccupation with the battle. A soldier who was not able to concentrate on killing the enemy is a hazard to himself, and is a hazard to the combat team.

James 1:8 says that a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Now that's what the officer is looking for. No entanglements are to be permitted other than that which is devoted to seeking the approval of your commanding officer as a result of your performance in combat. 2 Timothy 2:4 says, "No man that goes to war entangles himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier."

So the officers are looking at the troops, trained, on the eve of battle, and they want to make one more effort to pull out everybody from the ranks that's a double-minded soldier; one who is not preoccupied with the battle before him; one who will not be stable in the combat; or, one who will not be devoted to seeking to win approval of his leaders. It is better to close up the ranks, and to remove those who cannot be fully preoccupied with the single purpose of the battle before them.

Double-Minded

A second thing that could give you a double mind is in Deuteronomy 20:6: "What man is he that has planted a vineyard (he has gone into business), and he's not yet eaten of it (he hasn't turned over profit from his investments)? Let him also go and return unto his house, lest he die in battle and another man eat of it." This man is preoccupied with how the business is going to survive while he's off in combat, with the idea that maybe somebody else is going to foreclose on his investment, and receive the benefits of the groundwork which he has laid. Once his profits have come in, once the business is stabilized, he's able to concentrate on the battle. So the officers were to remove these men.

There was a third thing that could give you a double mind in Deuteronomy 20:7: "What man is there who has betrothed a wife and has not taken her? Let him go and return unto his house, lest he die in battle and another man take her. Here's a fellow who has just been engaged to be married, and before the wedding, he's called into the service. Now he's worried about dying in battle and another marrying his fiancée. He's a double-minded man. He's unstable because he's preoccupied with this girl rather than the enemy who is trying to do him in.

Now these are temporary legitimate exclusions from warfare. There may be others in our day of a nature of mental distractions. These men are serving under a sense of unfairness that somebody else may use my house; somebody else may profit from my business; or, somebody else may marry my girl. So this divided devotion makes them a liability in combat.

Cowardice

Japan, on several occasions, even beginning with Pearl Harbor, was denied great victory that could have been hers over this nation because the commanders were fainthearted. They were timid to pursue their advantage and to press the initiative which they had gained. The result was that the nation eventually went down to defeat. It is a very bad thing to have fainthearted and cowardly men in the ranks in combat.

Now after you've eliminated all of these categories, then you get down to the business: "And it shall be when the officers have finished speaking unto the people (and removing these categories) that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people." Then you organize, and what you have is a solid core of combat troops. Then the number of troops does not become the primary factor. You have a group of men who will fight with such devotion and with such intensity, that they will be equal to those who outnumber them many times, and even to those who out-gun them.

Battle Courage

Mental attitude sins cross all this out, and this is what's happening in the hippie world today. Sin has so engulfed the youth culture in vast segments that it has wiped out the conscience. There are no values, and there are no standards. When that happens, a very dangerous thing takes place. You become an animal in your conscience. And your actions are consequently governed by animal instincts and reactions. And when a nation gets enough people who have animal level thinking in the conscience, that nation goes down to defeat. So our nation has entered wars that it fears to win, and yet we are willing to sacrifice lives to prolong it. But we will not proceed to win it.

Communist Principles

1. Corrupt the young. Get them away from religion. Get them interested in sex. Make them superficial. Destroy their ruggedness.
   
   
2. Get control of all means of publicity, and thereby get people's minds off their government by focusing their attention on athletics, sexy books, plays, and other trivialities. No offense to the Dallas Cowboys.
   
   
3. Divide people into hostile groups by constantly harping on controversial matters of no importance.
   
   
4. Destroy the people's faith in their natural leaders by holding the ladder up to contempt, ridicule, and obloquy. I noticed a commentator, Allsup. The other day, he said that it is interesting to note the action of the liberals in our country today toward President Nixon, seeking to disentangle the nation from a no-win war. He said if any liberal, some rank liberal, was doing what President Nixon was doing toward the Vietnam War, his efforts would be greeted with huzzahs. But because a conservative politician does it, he is held up to ridicule and to contempt. He hasn't come right to the point yet where he is willing to give in to the Communists. So it's interesting that the liberal mind finds this a point of ridicule. This is exactly what point four says here: Destroy the people's faith in their natural leaders.
   
   
5. Always preach true democracy, but seize power as fast and as ruthlessly as possible.
   
   
6. By encouraging government extravagance, destroy its credit. Produce fear of inflation, rising prices, and discontent.
   
   
7. Foment strikes in vital industries, encourage civil disorders, and foster a lenient and soft attitude on the part of the government toward these disorders. This is subjectivity in law and order instead of objectively applying the law to those who violate it.
   
   
8. By spacious (that is, empty) argument, cause a breakdown of the old moral virtues: honesty; sobriety; continence; faith in the pledged word; and, ruggedness.
   
   
9. Cause the registration of all firearms on some pretext with a view of confiscation of them and leaving the population helpless.

War is for adults. It is not for women. There are certain exceptions. War demands battle courage and moral strength which is to be secured by a proper view of doctrine in the conscience and to guide the understanding and to guide the action. The Christian makes the very best soldier that there is. He is the indomitable. When he's oriented to the Word of God, he is the one, even if it means his life, who will not yield. He is the one that has brought the nation through again and again. When a majority of us become animals, there will no longer be any hope for the United States of America. We will no longer be the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1970

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