The Sacred War
A teacher friend who was very knowledgeable of history chided me once for believing the Great Flood in the Bible actually occurred. Many places around the world have such mythology about a global flood, he said, that devastated the earth, accounts which coordinate with local folk tales.
A bit later, I took a graduate English class with a Christian professor and asked him what to do with such a question.
His answer? Well, of course, many cultures have similar stories of a Great Flood because they verify the truth of the Bible’s account. Such similarities, especially in the ancient Near East, are common; they documented real events. Many biblical scholars who study ancient texts—Babylonian, Egyptian, Assyrian—report that much of what we believed to be mythological may not have been, but rather was common knowledge anchored in truth and a mutual observation of those who lived at that time.
When Genesis refers to “the mighty men of old” that recur throughout cultures and history—is it so difficult to believe there is truth to the stories that recur in so many cultures? Those gods fought on celestial plains-an archetype repeatedly found in ancient Near East cultures—in battles, parts of which are seen and much unseen. Can these battles be part of the struggles humanity faces, day to day? *************** A linear look at Western civilization, the history of Christianity and the Holy Bible reveals an ongoing battle to practice God’s Word, even through persecution and against dark forces. Yahweh is a God of Order, bringing order out of the chaos of free will, creativity and the behavior of beings He created who fight Him.
Historically the fight establishing God’s spiritual principles is countered time after time like a ping pong game, just as we were warned in Genesis 3:15. Here is the game. ***************
As the Roman Empire faltered, the struggle to establish Christianity rose; about 382 AD, St. Jerome translated the Old and New Testaments into Latin from Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic.
Still the Bible was not easily available to the common man, many of whom could not read, much less in Latin, so the Bible was accessible only to the elite. It was translated in the 1380s—in numerous hand written copies —by John Wycliffe. And then the Bible was published by Gutenberg in the 1450s. It was still difficult for the commoner to obtain a copy of the Bible; this control was broken at great cost by Christian rebels, many of whom met gruesome deaths.
In 1555, 100 years after the first Gutenberg printing, the dedication of those who loved the Scriptures was expressed most eloquently by Hugh Latimer, a man persecuted for the “heresy” of promoting the principles of Christianity. As he and Nicholas Ridley were driven to be burned at the stake, Latimer said these immortal words:
“Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light a candle by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.”
Sixty years later in 1611, the King James Version of the Bible opened widespread access. *************** The creation of the United States with the Puritan ideal of Jesus’s “city on a hill shining as a bright light” changed history forever. The early Puritans established colleges such as Harvard and Yale as seminaries for ministerial training (now barely recognizable). Also in the 15th- 18th centuries, the burning of “witches” was common in Europe; that practice arrived in this country with the Salem Witch trials of 1692-93. The Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th century brought shifting political beliefs, including John Locke’s 1689 Two Treatises of Government and the contention that man’s rights do not come from government but rather through rights granted by God, if not Nature’s god. This led to the American Revolution. Around the same time, philosophers moved toward creating a distant god such Deism, which purported that God, though He created the universe, does not intervene in the affairs of man. Atheism became acceptable, as did pantheism and scientism. The 19th century brought Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, a “scientific” attempt to move people away from belief in a loving Creator whose Hand was evident in everyday lives toward an indeterminate beginning of humans. On they pushed.
Chaos Theory was in place, it was declared, in a universe that was governed by those who know more than a God who loves mankind more than they can possibly imagine. *************** As we watch humanity endeavor to lean into a relationship with the God Who loves them, that struggle is always countered by the enemy. If spiritual progress is made in one area, it is offset by cruelty and societal disruptions, if not war.
The pattern is clear; once you see it, you cannot unsee it. The 20th century brought war after war and, of course, the nuclear bomb. After WW2, the United States —the city on a hill—imported numerous Nazi scientists through an intelligence program called Operation Paperclip. Compare today’s brutalist architecture—favored by Marxists—with the classic beauty of Victorian or Gothic architecture. Or look at artwork. The Sistine Chapel’s depiction of God reaching down to Adam. Mona Lisa’s mysterious smile. DaVinci’s Last Supper. Today’s artwork which sells for many dollars can be a crucifix in a jar of urine. A word painted on a canvas. A blank page. ******************** This cosmic battle becomes clearer year after year, heating up with the advent of advanced technology, genetic tinkering, sophisticated warfare and the gloom of false piety and delusion. *************** Ancient Near East tradition often included a Divine Warrior to fight those forces of darkness. In Christianity, that Divine Warrior appears numerous times in the Old Testament.
In Exodus when the Divine Warrior frees the Israelites... in Joshua... in Nahum... in the Psalms... in Isaiah…. The Divine Warrior, OUR Divine Warrior- gives humans choice, often defending humanity in its darkest hours.
It was His choice to appear as a tiny vulnerable baby, willing to give His life for those flawed humans He loves.
Connecting with the Divine Warrior through prayer gives those whom He defends full armor to fight our own battles: ~the belt of truth
~the breastplate of righteousness ~feet shod with the gospel of peace ~a shield of faith
~a helmet of salvation ~a sword —of the spirit —HIS WORD *************** Not one religion other than Christianity…..not one offers the freedom of accepting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ reaching down to humanity only to be crucified and then resurrected, witnessed by hundreds. Not one emphasizes the spiritual growth that comes through peace and relationship with God’s word rather than rigid instructions on how to live. The imagery of the Divine Warrior runs throughout cultural histories but only one Divine Warrior offered His own life and continues to commune with His loved ones through His word.
This is not just imagery: it is truth. He has given us choice, a battle anticipated in Genesis 3:15 when God declared that the war between the powers of darkness will always result in conflicts—of wars, of personal struggles, of strange genetic alterations. God allows enmity between the forces of darkness and His children because He is creative, just and infinite. Though dark forces may bite the heel of the Son of the woman, He will fatally crush the head of the beings that oppose Him. ***************** Another tradition in Jewish history says that when David severed the head of Goliath—the giant of Gath—he took that head as a trophy to Jerusalem. The head was buried, it is said, in Golgotha, the place “of the skull” upon which Jesus was crucified as sacrifice to His Father’s requirement of justice. Thus the prophecy of the heel of Christ born of a woman figuratively crushing the head of evil is fulfilled.
**************** Is it so hard to believe that He appears in astonishing cosmic battles of far greater consequence than we who stand on this spinning globe can imagine?
Is it so hard to believe that God Himself fights for us as our Divine Warrior?
Or that much of what we fight as humans is rooted in spiritual warfare?
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“And for those carrying the loads, with their one hand they did the work, and with the other hand they held their sword.”
Nehemiah 4:17, Wycliffe Bible Translation
