The Lost Spirit

10 July 2011

Dear Phyllis,

CT Studd's favorite saying was, “When the captains come to call, may my body be nearest the wall.” Oh, the spirit of that man! Oh, the passion of that man! Oh, the intensity that he devoted his life fighting for the cause of Christ! The loss of that spirit is perhaps the greatest tragedy of present day Christianity.

If there is anything to learn from reading the figures of the number of Israelites that came out of Egypt in the book of Numbers, it was that the census was taken entirely of those who were “Able to go forth to war” (Num. 1:20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 45). Obviously, there were a lot more Israelites than just those. (It is also significant that women were not included in the ranks of the military.) But when God numbered His people, the only ones that counted were those who were “able to go forth to war”. If this doesn't say something to us, I don’t know what does. God was raising up an army. Of course women, children, and elderly were part of His people, but the only ones who really counted were those who were capable of fighting.

We have lost the significance of this today. From the first moment in the Garden, when the serpent raised his ugly head and hijacked humanity, God has been at war with that serpent winning back His lost humanity. We like to emphasize, “for God so loved the world”; but the flip side of that is: “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested; that He might destroy the works of the devil.” (1 Jn. 3:8), and “For as much then as the children are partakes of flesh and blood, He also Himself took part of the same: that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death; that is the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” (Heb. 2:14, 15). One of the greatest books I ever read was John Bunyan's, The Holy War. The thesis of that was that Prince Emanuel went forth to reclaim the lost kingdom of Mansoul for His Father, King Shaddai. I was seated while reading that book, but when I came to the chapter when Prince Emanuel breached the wall and took the city of Mansoul I had to stand. I couldn't read that chapter sitting down.

Incontestably, there is a fierce war going on today . Jesus is the Captain of the host of the Lord (Josh. 5:14). Joshua didn't know that until he met “the Man with the sword drawn in His hand” that night sanding by Jericho (Josh. 5:13). Jesus had the drawn sword in His hand that night, and in the last scene we see in Revelation is when He gets on His white horse and goes forth with a sharp Sword with the armies of heaven following Him (Rev. 19:11-15). Would to God that Christians would be infused with this vision today.

In mocking the timidity of Christians in England, CT Studd, in Africa, wrote his famous Chocolate Soldiers. In like manner, Amy Carmichael, in India, wrote her famous Daisy Chains, describing the desperate need of dying souls while the Christian world is busily engaged in making daisy chains. Fifty years ago I didn't know one Christian who wasn't familiar with CT Studd's Chocolate Soldiers or Amy Carmichael's Daisy Chains. but today even those classics have been covered by dust. I know extremely few Christian who have ever heard of them.

Mission conferences, which were popular fifty years ago, have been replaced by poorly attended strategy sessions on how to evangelize with modern electronics. But where is the spirit of the warrior? Where are the heroes who are laying down their lives at tremendous cost to take on the devil for souls and win? It was Studd's passion that when he went down he wanted to be in the hottest part of the battle, leading the charge; and he wanted his body to be found nearest the wall. Today our basic concern is that when we pass from this life into the next, we want to be sitting in a Lazy Boy chair surrounded by loving family and friends, as we blissfully step into heaven. This is our great ideal. No! No! We don't want to be like Henry Martyn whose bones lye in an unmarked grave in the desert somewhere in Persia, or like Jim Elliot or Nate Saint who were speared to death in a river in Ecuador. That is not what mission is today. We don't want to join any mission that doesn't have full insurance coverage, and an attractive retirement plan. I want to vomit when I see mission boards holding this up as an attraction for new candidates. We don't want to go to any place that is more than a few hours plane flight away from home or be deprived from Skype so the kids can talk with Grandpa and Grandma every night. And no missionary wants to be consigned to the hardship of living some place without air conditioning. Am I wrong?

Perhaps the most positive feature of then 2nd WW was spirit of total national mobilization. The entire nation rose up as one man to engage with ferocity in the war effort. Men lied about their age so they could get in the army and go to the front lines. Men vied to be in the front rank as the Higgins boats discharged wave after wave of soldiers storming ashore in the invasion on the Pacific islands. The situation was no less intense on the home front. As young men went to war overseas, parents at home were totally engaged in anyway that they could to assist the war effort. As husbands went to war, wives at home left their house work to fill the ranks of workers in war factories. We saw the day of Rosie the Riveter where, for the first time, women were running rivet guns in factories to make airplanes for the husbands to fly against the enemy. Even in school play grounds the main scene of children playing was fighting the enemy. It was war! It was universal! Everyone was totally engaged in a single cause – WIN THE WAR!

Japan was even more intense. Suicide Kamikaze airplanes were the most famous, but they were only one phase of a national commitment to fight to the death. Banzai charges in the islands were typical Japanese tactics. Hundreds of thousands of young men were totally committed to suicide missions for the cause of the emperor.

I personally knew one dear lady who felt personally responsible for Japan's defeat at the end of the war. To atone for her prayerlessness and lack of personal sacrifice, she decided the only thing she could do was to go to Tokyo to commit suicide. She got on the Imperial palace grounds and took a massive dose of sleeping pills, to apologize to the emperor. Miraculously, in her sleep, she vomited up her sleeping pills, and awoke with the horrible thought that she was so bad even the gods wouldn’t have her. It was some time later that she learned of another God who would not only accepted her – but had sent His Son for her salvation. Dear sister Inoue was one of the most dedicated Bible women in Mino Mission.

It was worldwide. Everybody in the world was in the fray. Anyone holding back was termed a traitor.

But that spirit is gone today. During the Korean War, Truman established a no-win policy. For the first time in history a war was fought with a goal not to win, but to fight to a stalemate. In the Vietnam War, Defence Secretary, Robert McNamara was careful to maintain a delicate balance of power to avoid the US having a decisive victory. The news media and 6:00 o'clock evening news regularly reported how bad the American soldiers were, so that returning GIs were greeted with curses and spit. Today war is an issue of political posturing. Politicians are primarially concerned to see which way the wind is blowing If the political poles are hawkish they are hawks. If public sentiment goes the other way they are doves. Ronald Regan was the rare exception who made decision on the basis of right and wrong rather than political expediency.

It is doubtful that America will ever again be energized with a fighting spirit. As Christians we might somewhat dismiss that except the same passive, self-serving, spirit has permeated the church as well. The Salvation Army cry of blood and thunder in the days of William Booth has been silenced. Churches, mission boards, and missionary candidates have lost the vision of going to war for Jesus. Onward Christian Soldiers has now become an entertaining melody in the nursery for CT Studd's Chocolate soldiers. It is only in our minds and fantasy that wars are being waged with powers of darkness.

Recently, I reread the story of JO Fraser, Behind the Ranges. It was very enlightening. He saw the battle for the Kingdom of God waged on two fronts. There were the spear-head front line warriors going into remote areas with the Gospel. But he saw an equally important force on the home front putting up a heavy barrage of prayer. He felt the front line soldiers would be as powerless without a solid backing of intercessory prayer at home as the WW II soldiers taking on the enemy without the home front Rosie the Riveter working in war factories making guns and planes for their husbands to shoot and fly. Had it not been for total mobilization, America never could have defeated Hitler and Japan. This lack of total mobilization and fighting spirit maybe one explanation for the stalemated we find ourselves in, in many places in missions today. Certainly Japan is in a dead stall. We are seeing some progress here in Thailand, but nothing like Fraser saw 80 years ago in Lisuland.

Oh, for an intense burden of prayer! Without that nothing will happen. I go to a Tuesday night prayer meeting. If God ever had problems with insomnia, the level of prayer at that meeting certainly is enough to make Him drowsy. When I was living in Siberia, the Russian lady of the house, where I was staying, frantically grabbed me one day, and dragged me to the living room. The husband of a close friend of hers had gotten drunk and killed a man. He was arrested, and her life appeared to be going up in smoke. You talk about prayer. Those women cried and prayed hysterically. They were like women trapped in a burning house screaming for help. It wasn't, “Now, Lord, we ask You to please help Natasha's husband.” She was desperate! Why shouldn't we have the same spirit of desperation in pleading with God for souls today?? If we got a little more serious, perhaps God might get a little more serious.

The issue of the sovereignty of God and responsibility of man is an unsolvable academic one. It seems to be, that, just as God has left the cultivation of a corn field up to the farmer, He has placed the responsibility of the propagation of the Gospel up to man. The extreme Calvinistic brethren in Scottland warned John G. Paton, “If God wants to evangelize the heathen in the South Pacific, He doesn't need your help to do it”. Paton went anyway and saw multitudes of savages saved. Since the moment Jesus commissioned the apostles to go forth and preach the Gospel, the Kingdom of God has moved exclusively on the feet of Christians. Where missionaries have gone, the Gospel has moved forward. Where no one has gone, the devil has reigned unchallenged.

What is the answer? I am not so naive as to believe that grunting flesh can produce Spirit. If God does not move in our heart, there will be no movement. But is it possible that He is waiting for us to ask Him to baptize us anew with fire? And if anything should be a cause for alarm, is it not the lethargic condition in which we have fallen? Oh, for the spirit of Studd! Oh, for men pushing forward to be in the hottest part of the fight. When I go down I don't want it to be in a bed or Lazy Boy chair. It is highly unlikely that my body will be nearest the wall, but I sure don't want it to be in Sarasota playing shuffle board. Lord save me from that.

bill