THE PARABLE OF THE FALLEN SOLDIER
During World War II a young man from Kansas who had graduated from high school two months earlier joined the Marines. The young man’s name was Calvin. I will call him Cal for short. Cal had recently read about the Normandy invasion on D-Day, and his heart leaped inside his chest when he heard about the allied victory against the German Forces in Northern France. He had read many books about “the glory of war” and his heart was filled with “patriotic pride.” Cal’s heart’s greatest desire was to become a Marine. Cal had watched many war movies at the movie theater in the small Kansas town where he grew up. In the war movies he saw soldiers in their colorful uniforms fighting against their enemies. Many soldiers in the movies were carrying beautiful red, white, and blue flags, as well as many other banners that were blowing in the wind as they marched to the tune of “Yankee Doodle Dandy” onto battlefields during depictions of the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. Cal would intently watch the movie screen as wave after wave of brave men would go into battle to fight against their enemies. During intermission one day Cal watched a newsreel about the Normandy invasion and decided to join the Marines. Cal watched the newsreel showing American Army troops as they disembarked and hit the beaches at Normandy dressed in their khaki uniforms carrying their “government issued” M-1 Garand rifles. The American soldiers had been through military training in Boot Camp, and had learned the “Art of Warfare.” They were taught how to fight and kill their enemies and they understood they might die on the beach while engaging the enemy forces they had been sent to destroy. After joining the Marines Cal was sent to Camp Lejeune in Jackson, North Carolina where he would train for battle and learn the basic principles of warfare. Cal would become a “disciplined soldier” in the greatest military force on earth—the United States Marines. In Boot Camp at Camp Legeune Cal was transformed into a “man of war.” He worked and trained hard to become one of the “best of the best” soldiers in his unit. Cal was strong. He was intelligent and brave. Cal could not wait to hit the beach somewhere in the “Pacific Theater” of the war where the Marines were fighting against the Japanese who had carried out a surprise attack on American Forces stationed at Pearl Harbor three years earlier. Cal had daydreams of killing many Japanese soldiers and becoming a “hero” among his comrades. He had trained and studied hard at Camp Legeune and was as tough as any Marine in his unit. The day finally came when Cal and his unit were ready to be “shipped out” to fight in the Pacific Theater of the War. The Marines were loaded onto transport ships and headed toward the Islands of Japan. A few weeks later the ships carrying the Marines dropped anchor off the coast of Iwo Jima. Iwo Jima is a small volcanic island in the Japanese archipelago. Resting in his bunk on the troop transport Cal was plagued with many mixed emotions. He was excited about finally having the opportunity to serve his country and face his enemies in mortal combat. Cal also wondered what “real war” would be like. He pondered the thought of being killed or wounded. On the long journey across the Pacific Ocean Cal had many thoughts about the coming battles that were ahead of him. The ship Cal was sailing on would not only carry him to war, but to his destiny as a Marine. The Marines sat on the troop ships at their destination near the shores of Iwo Jima preparing to disembark and head for the beach. Finally, it was time for the Marines to go into battle on the small but ominous looking island. In the landing craft Cal had many thoughts about what would transpire once they hit the beach on Iwo Jima. His thoughts went back to basic training at Camp Legeune. He wondered if there was more he could have learned that would help him survive the coming battle. After all, there are many surprises in battle, and no one is promised they will survive the hazards of battle. Many negative thoughts and emotions plagued Cal’s mind. What would happen on the beach? Would he be brave? Would he be killed? Would he survive? Would he live long enough to kill any of the enemy he was about to face? Would he help save the lives of his fellow “brothers in arms?” How many of his friends would die beside him today? His destiny waited just a few meters in front of him on the beach at Iwo Jima. Finally the landing craft came close to the shore and the gate of the landing craft was lowered. Cal, along with the other Marines in the landing craft jumped into the clear blue shallow water and ran swiftly onto the beach. Cal had never before seen a Japanese soldier in person. He had seen videos of his enemies on the newsreels at the movie theater in his hometown in Kansas and in basic training classes at Camp Legeune. U. S. warships and planes had bombed the island for three days to soften Japanese defenses and kill as many of the enemy they could before the Marines were sent in to take the island from the Japanese. Unfortunately for the Marines, the Japanese were hiding underground in caves and bunkers during the three day bombardment, and there were few Japanese casualties. Cal hit the beach running as fast as he could. He did not see there were many Japanese soldiers hiding in the bushes in the hills and ridges above them. Cal took two steps on the dark ash-like sand on the beach and he heard the crack of machine gun fire. He immediately felt an excruciatingly painful sensation in his chest. Bullets from a Japanese heavy machine gun were ripping his body to shreds. Cal was dead before his body hit the ground. He never had a chance to fire his gun at the enemy. His blood seeped into the black ash-like sand on the beach beneath him. Cal never had a chance to see the enemy he was sent to fight and kill. He had trained to be the best of the best. But now he was dead without seeing his enemy or firing a shot at him. Cal never saw a Japanese soldier. He never had the chance to use any of the training he acquired at Camp Legeune. There were many good Marines that died that day on the beach at Iwo Jima without firing a shot or seeing an enemy soldier. Did they die in vain? Did their lives and their deaths mean anything? Were they sacrificed so others might live in freedom in a country that was not experiencing or seeking war? A country that was ruthlessly and calculatingly attacked by an enemy that desired to destroy their lives and take their freedoms away from them? When Cal joined the Marines his life no longer belonged to him, but to the nation and the people he swore to protect. There have been many casualties on battlefields throughout the centuries. There will always be evil men trying to kill others and/or take their freedoms from them and bind them with chains of oppression. Cal was trained to fight and kill his enemy, but never even got to see them because his enemy had a strategic advantage over him. Cal’s enemy had plans of their own to defeat him and the other Marines that hit the beach at Iwo Jima that fateful day. Iwo Jima was a hard fought battle that lasted five weeks. The Marines finally defeated the Japanese who suffered an astounding number of casualties during the battle. The U. S. Military had misjudged the Japanese and were surprised at the strategy the Japanese used to defend the island of Iwo Jima. The Marines suffered many more casualties than they would have if they had known what the Japanese strategy was. Iwo Jima was of no strategic value to the war effort in the Pacific, although it became one of the bloodiest campaigns of the Pacific War. The many men who died and/or were wounded there could have been used in other areas of the Pacific. However, the brave men who fought and died on Iwo Jima did not die in vain. The battle did help the war effort and helped to stop the aggression of the deadly Japanese war machine.
There are many casualties on the natural battlefields of life. There are many casualties daily on the spiritual battlefields of life as well. Many die without ever seeing the enemy or understanding that they are fighting an enemy that is trying to destroy them. Many in churches today do not know how to fight spiritual battles because they are not taught and trained how to “defeat” the enemies that are daily taking them captive at their will.
There are many non-combatants in churches today who do not even know there is an enemy “hiding in the bushes” waiting to attack them. Even if they did know there were devils infiltrating their homes and other areas of their lives, they would not know what to do if they could see them approaching with their weapons “locked and loaded.”
If many Christians could see their spiritual enemies they would retreat in fear. Fear has surrounded, captured, and now occupies the hearts and minds of many Christians on the Battlefield of Life. Many prospective “warriors” sit in pews every Sunday listening to false teachers and pastors telling them how good they are and how fortunate they are to be alive. They hear the false rhetoric of “greasy grace” and how God wants to make them rich. They never hear one “word” about how they can defeat the Army of Darkness that is trying to destroy them.
Sunday after Sunday parishioners eat a meal in the Church Fellowship Hall not understanding that the meal they just received in the Sanctuary was poisoned with the fruit that grows on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. False prophets and teachers sermonize and demonize the gospel by watering it down with “carnally toxic pollutants” that oppose the pure “water of the word.”
Until and unless the teachers who are vomiting “cunningly factitious fables” change their “battle tactics,” their congregations will continue to be bound and controlled by the enemy in their midst. Like the young Marine from Kansas, the people in their congregations will become casualties on the Battlefield of Life, never getting to see or fire a shot at the enemy.
Several years ago I met an ex-Marine who fought at the Battle of Guadalcanal during World War II. Guadalcanal was also an island in the Pacific Theater of World War II. Guadalcanal was a six months campaign that turned out to be an overwhelming victory for the U S. Marines on the island. The ex- Marine told me at one point during the battle they ran short on much needed supplies. He said there were plenty of supplies on ships anchored just off the coast of Guadalcanal, but General Douglas MacArthur, the General in charge of all American Forces in the Pacific would not release them.
General MacArthur thought the supplies on the ships might be needed later on in the war against the Japanese during future battles in the Pacific. Unlike the Marines that would later fight at the Battle of Iwo Jima, the first Marines on Guadalcanal were raw recruits. They had not yet been through basic training at Camp Leguene before they were deployed because they were needed as soon as possible to thwart the Japanese push toward Australia in the Pacific. Many of the Marines on Guadalcanal had to learn the basics of warfare on the battlefield. On top of that they had to fight the enemy being short of valuable supplies including at times food and ammunition.
Many Church leaders send their “congregational warriors” onto the Battlefield of Life with little or no training in spiritual warfare. They do not always supply them with the much needed “spiritual food and ammunition” they need to successfully fight and be victorious over their “spiritual enemies.” Many Church leaders today do not know how to fight “spiritual battles” themselves. They were not trained in the “art” of spiritual warfare. They cannot teach others principles they do not know or understand themselves.
As Church leaders it is our responsibility to teach and train those God has placed in our care everything we can about the Devil and his strategies. Jesus taught His disciples many things about the Devil, and He gave them power over all the works of the Devil. The Apostle Paul understood the significance and importance of teaching principles of spiritual warfare to the Church and wrote about them in his epistles.
Withholding “spiritual food” and weapons that can enable God’s people to obtain victory over their spiritual enemies is an abomination. Church leaders that labor to produce congregations that are powerless and faithless labor in vain.
Many well-meaning godly Christians are wounded, and fall by the wayside because they lack knowledge and understanding regarding the enemy that comes to steal, kill, and destroy. They are devoured by the enemy because they lack spiritual growth and understanding regarding the weapons of our warfare. Unless and until many Church leaders understand the importance of the “whole armor of God,” their congregations will surely suffer and die prematurely. They will never detect the enemy hiding in the bushes waiting to destroy them or take a shot at them with the weapons of their warfare.