God’s Army
Tract #1 of the “Godly Warfare” series
written by Roddy Kenneth Street, Jr.
Copyright 2005 by Roddy Kenneth Street, Jr. All publication rights and mass-reproduction rights are reserved to the author, but internet users are given permission to duplicate this digital file and distribute it without alteration to friends, relatives, neighbors, co-workers, and acquaintances. Distribution is encouraged, and the file may even be printed out on paper for paper copies, but the text must remain unaltered and the total number of printed copies for each individual tract should not exceed 10,000 unless you have gotten permission in writing from Roddy Kenneth Street, Jr. or a surviving member of his family. You may contact Ken Street (RKSJ) by e-mail using the web-mail addresses that follow: etracts@yahoo.com, or earthtrek1@hotmail.com, or eztraveller@netscape.net. Many more free teaching tracts by Roddy Kenneth Street, Jr. will be found at the internet sites WorldwideChristianTracts.net, OnlineChristianTracts.org, and Christian-Tracts.net. This note must be retained on all duplicate copies that you may make.
“To be or not to be...?” That's a question that Hamlet once struggled with in a play by Shakespeare. Hamlet wasn’t sure he wanted to stay alive in such an awful world, and he thought maybe he would just make his own exit. What the character didn’t quite realize is that he really could not escape his life by dying, since God had already given him— and everyone else on Earth— the gift of immortality. As a human being, Hamlet would already possess a spirit of eternal life, a life-force that would persist through all eternity. His continued existence would be already assured, just because he was a human being, and it would last for all time. But he wanted some way to escape the Darkness of his world.
Today, in this modern world of volunteer armies, there are many real persons who wrestle with another question. They grapple with the question “To join or not to join.” They wonder if participation in the military of their nation might be wrong and immoral, and thus find it rather hard to make a firm decision in the matter. They usually feel that participation in any war should be entirely optional.
Those persons are usually unaware of the fact that there has been a Spiritual War going on in all the millennia of Earth. It is the War Between the Children of Light and the Children of Darkness. This warfare has never yet ceased, not even for one year, and it has never yet allowed a truce of any kind. Every adult on Earth is forced to participate on one side or the other. Why is this so? Because everyone on Earth has been forcibly conscripted (drafted at birth) into the army of God’s Adversary.... and this has become a massive population on the Earth. The only way to escape that condition is by switching sides: You can voluntarily change your loyalties and come over to God’s team.
God’s Army is an All-Volunteer Army, while that of Satan is an Enslaved Army— a vast legion that was kidnaped soon after birth or in the teenage years. The Devil’s Army is composed of the grossly misled and the deceived; most of them came to him in late childhood (or in their early youth) without much awareness of what they were doing. Nevertheless, they are fighting on the wrong side, fighting on the team of the Enemy of God, and so they must share the fate of God’s Adversary.
Unless, that is, they choose to switch their allegiances, and become loyal to the Almighty God Who is the Creator of our Universe. The soldiers of Satan can only escape the clutches of the Devil by rejecting the Army of Darkness... and choosing instead to become a part of the Army of Light. Then God the Father will welcome them with open arms!
You've often heard it said that Jesus Christ can give you "Eternal Life." They should have told you, more correctly, that Jesus can give you "Eternal Life in Heaven" or "Eternal Life with God." The truth is, God has already designed every human being on Earth as an immortal, giving every human being an "eternal life"— a life-force that survives bodily death. Every human being on Earth, even the unsaved, will experience a Life After Death... a life that continues after the occurrence of bodily death. The Big Question is this: Where are you going to stay when you reach that new world of further existence... that eternal lifetime which is ahead of you? Will you spend it with Father God in Heaven, or will you spend it with Satan— whom Jesus calls the Prince of this Earth— and with many demons, in a nightmarish Hell that continues for all of eternity?
There is a war raging on our Earth, and in all the Universe, between the armies of God and the armies of Satan. Every adult on Earth has been enlisted by one side or the other, so everyone participates— whether they wish it or don’t.
The Lord God Almighty is looking for a few good men (and women) to help Him in His battle against the forces of Darkness. If you repent of your evil ways and turn back to the Light (Jesus Christ, the Light of the World), He can use your service in the Great War which is currently underway on Earth. He needs more soldiers, and He need more recruits who have a courageous spirit like that of Joshua and Caleb!
God’s Remnant is a legion of soldiers that survives all this supernatural warfare, and this group of humans will comprise a Special Forces team that is the apple of God's eye. These soldiers get an exalted position with God and are individually chosen by Him-- they are carefully picked out of the crowd by the Righteous King Himself. These troops compose an elite corps that is destined for a special position in God’s Developmental Program for His Universe. This overcoming remnant will be victorious over our current world (which will one day be called Old Earth), and they are the ones whom God will use to re-populate the planet of His New Earth.
The more massive population on our current Earth is that formed by the Armies of Darkness, who mostly adhere to the Majority Opinion. These guys serve the Prince of Darkness, whom Jesus declared to be “the prince of this world”— whether they realize that fact or not!
But that team is headed for ultimate destruction, since they will share the same fate as Satan and his demons! They will first march over all the Earth causing a lot of damage, but ultimately they will suffer an eternal torment when they are consigned to Hell, a place of Outer Darkness where there will be only mental pain, weeping, and despair!
Hell is a place where the enemies of God will be trapped forever with their leader (Satan) and endless remorse. It’s rather like a Lunatic Asylum that will imprison all the enemies of God.
You may wonder why a Loving God (a God of Light) would allow such a thing as Hell to exist. Well, it’s like this:
God created all human and angelic beings in His Universe with the innate gift of Eternal Life, and they get to keep forever that Endless Spirit which resides within their outward forms. They stay alive for all time, infinitely... no matter how much they sin, no matter how evil or insane they may become. So God has to put the Evil One and all his followers SOMEWHERE, when He recreates the Universe and produces the New Earth as a World of Light.
The Darkness which Satan, his demons, and his followers have so long promoted... then becomes the Prison that will trap them for all of Eternity.
So choose this day whom you will serve...! If God the Father is your God, then choose to follow Him...! If you continue to follow the Prince of Darkness, then you must share his ultimate destiny...!
....
Father God wants YOU to join Salvation’s Army! Become one of the Best... be smart and join the winning team! It’s the only way to come out on top in the end!
(The alternative is to stay on the losing side... and then you’ll end up at the bottom of a Pit of Fire, with a nasty guy named Satan and an ugly bunch of demons. Woe, woe... and whoa now! Hey, that’s a fate that shouldn’t appeal to anyone with an ounce of good sense...)
Let us reiterate...
Father God wants YOU to join Salvation’s Army! Become one of the Best... be smart and join the winning team! It’s the only way to come out on top in the end!
Yeah, that’s right— we’re the World’s Finest, the Good Guys who are “the salt of the Earth.” Admittedly, we fight for truth, for what’s right, and for justice... just like those “square” police officers that a lot of people try to avoid!
So why do we end up thinking that we’re “better” than all the rest? What makes us so special— what sets us apart from all the other evil sinners in the world?
Only the fact that we’ve accepted salvation through Christ, and have thus gotten forgiveness from our sins... and the fact that we’ve turned to Jesus Christ as a source of Light.
...
You can share the Light of Jesus Christ, can reflect His Holy Light in a Cruel World, and thus become a point of illumination in the darkness of this world.
God’s Light can become a Lamp unto your feet and a Light unto your path, if you choose to accept rescue and salvation that is available in Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God Almighty.
You can even live to see the Light of God flowing through you and reaching out to other people in our world...!
It’s time your mind was illuminated by Jesus Christ, the Holy One Who is the Light of the World!
....
God Almighty, the Holy and Righteous Leader of the Armies of Light, is looking for a few good followers. You can join His army by placing Jesus Christ, Who in the Trinity of God created our Universe, upon a throne at the center of your heart! He deserves that position and that kind of respect. He was first God The Son, but when born in human flesh He became the only sinless and righteous person who ever lived. Yet He sacrificed Himself on a cross for your sake, taking all guilt and sins upon Himself, in order that you and I— that all people— that whoever wishes for salvation might be rescued from the due punishment of sins.
If you will do this, you will gain a new contentment and peace as you accept God's organizational plan for the Universe . . . because you'll be letting God be the Ruler of All Things in this world . . . and in your own life.
All it really takes is a simple but sincere little prayer— one that you should make up in your own words. The prayer for deliverance and for God's leadership should come from your own heart!
Some important elements that you might include are:
1) your desire to turn away from the wrongness or evil of your
past life, and your remorse over the sins of your previous life,
2) your desire for God's forgiveness and mercy through the act
of sacrifice of His Only Begotten Son (Jesus Christ),
3) your desire to know God's leadership in your life,
4) your desire to learn more of God's truth through Bible study,
5) your desire to find fellowship with genuine believers.
Jesus said of the people of God that "The kingdom of heaven is like a net that God has cast into the sea, and it gathers of every kind: When it is full, it will be pulled up on the shore, where they will sit down to sort the catch, and they will collect the good fish in baskets, but the bad things will be thrown away. This is the way it will be at the end of the world: The angels shall come forth, and they will separate the unrighteous persons from among those justified by God . . ."
Excerpt from the Book of Matthew, who was a constant
companion of Jesus and his devoted disciple [13:47-50].
Jesus spoke of the people of God as being like a seed that is growing secretly, saying, “As for the kingdom of God, it is as if a person should cast seed into the ground; and then he sleeps, and he rises up night and day to see that the seed is springing forth and always growing up, although he knows not exactly how. The Earth is bringing forth fruit from itself; first the blade, then the ears of corn, and after that the fullness of the ears of corn. And when all the fruit of the Earth has come forth, immediately God will use the sickle to reap the fields, because the harvest-time has come."
Excerpt from the book of Mark [4:26-29].
It's also important for all of us to remember this:
1) WE SPEAK TO GOD by our prayers.
2) GOD SPEAKS TO US by the words of Holy Scripture.
So we must try to read His words and His Book
just as often as we possibly can!!
God wants to bless you for all your long efforts to understand this very confusing and difficult Universe in which we live— so let Him reward your search with the grace of His forgiveness and enlightenment!
THIS GUIDE WAS WRITTEN FOR YOU BY. . .
Ken Street, a baptized follower of the Way.
first draft was written on
December 30, 2002 &
January 1, 2003
Collinsville, Virginia
USA