The Intentional Warrior

[dropcap3]M[/dropcap3]ost Christians would readily agree that evil is real and often has a human face. Men and nations display their lost estate in daily events broadcast and chronicled for all to see. A worldwide media brings global immediacy to the stories of man’s inhumanity to man and the cumulative visible results of those efforts. Christians know that there is no lasting solution apart from personal trust in Christ as one’s Savior and the return of our Great Lord and King to establish justice and rule in righteousness.

With this in mind, sensing the call of God and with great personal sacrifice, many have gone out into this world to serve the Lord and be a positive cause for Christ. The Christian community has a long and commendable record of ministry in this regard. Mission endeavors, health and social agencies, food banks, disaster relief, Bible translation, church planting, medical missions, care for the sick and elderly – the list is long, cataloging the varied ways in which God’s people have given their lives as intentional warriors for the temporal and eternal well-being of their fellow man.

On my mind and in our midst there is another group of intentional warriors. This group is often looked upon with suspicion or disapproval by the Christian community. They too have engaged the struggle against evil at great personal cost. They have placed themselves in jeopardy to defend their homeland and their loved ones. They continue to purchase, often with their own blood, the freedom that allows their brothers and sisters in Christ to do the work God has set before them. I am speaking of the Savior’s men and women that choose to serve their Lord in the military. Not everyone who chooses a military vocation understands the true issues before them. Not everyone in their country’s service exercises the discipline and strength of character that is necessary to live for Jesus in the harshest of environments. But the Christian warrior strives to be and must be the exception. He is God’s representative for righteousness on a temporal battlefield that is the product of men and ideas gone awry and subverted to the destructive purposes of the evil one. He is often the last resort short of Divine intervention to stem the tide of evil on the march.

Some ignore the events that surround them hoping they will go away or at least not touch them personally. Others sense the urgency of events but cannot turn from the individual calling which the Lord has placed before them. Still others are convinced that the proper posture is to wait upon the Lord and trust His deliverance. Each is called to his own responsibilities before the Lord. But there are a few who see themselves as those called by God to be physically instrumental in His restraint of evil in the world – even to take up arms to deter or stop the human face of evil.

History has taught us that there are times when threats are so sinister and malevolent that words and treaties are ineffective. There is a face of evil that will not hesitate to use might as its sole justification in the accomplishment of objectives. A potential adversary perceived as weak will bring lies and promises designed to gain the advantage. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn points to such a time when the inadequacy of words is realized. In his “Nobel Lecture in Literature,” delivered in 1970, he noted that “the timid civilized world has found nothing with which to oppose the onslaught of a sudden revival of barefaced barbarity other than concessions and smiles.” When other means have been exhausted the intentional warrior knows his time has come. Whether the ensuing battle is deemed just by those who come after is not the purpose of these comments. Each must decide for himself. God will ultimately call all who name His Son as Savior to account for their thoughts and actions.

[blockquote align=”left”]Christian warriors are the force of restraint in a sea of chaos.[/blockquote]Intentional warriors attend our University. They attend your church. Christians who left behind wives, families, and loved ones to do the work to which they had been called. They intentionally placed their lives and limbs in jeopardy that others may live free. They did this even for those who disagreed with their decision to serve – even for those who would call them evil for doing so. In the midst of battle, Christ’s testimony is tried in ways non-combatants cannot hope to understand. Christian warriors are the force of restraint in a sea of chaos. They are the means of order in the randomness of combat. Theirs is the cause of honor, duty, and faithfulness to their homeland, to their loved ones, and to their God. When evil flows around them and their countrymen waver from a righteous path, they are the ones who stand for the truth. When their comrades are broken in body and spirit, they are the spokesmen of God’s comfort in Christ. When a child is in harm’s way, when a civilian non-combatant is brutalized, when things are going badly and someone must step into the breach, they are the ones who come forward in the strength of their Lord. Life is raw at the point of the spear. Jesus is their only means of enduring.

They return home wounded and battered by the experience, struggling to regain a sense of normalcy. They seek to explain themselves until it becomes apparent few can understand. Slowly the Lord restores their hearts. Slowly He mends their dreams and relationships. Slowly they realize that they have seen the face of evil in ways few are called to experience and the Lord has seen them through and brought them home again. Their eyes are different than their classmates, than their fellow church members. They see more clearly than most. They have been brought through the fire and little is ever the same to them again.

This should not come as a shock to those who have not served. What is true of the intentional warrior should be true of every intentional servant of the Lord. Christ has called all of us to stand firm in the face of the enemy. To place ourselves in harm’s way for His glory and His righteousness. The harvest is indeed great, but the workers are few. If you do not yet understand the issues before you or the price that must be paid, ask a Christian combat veteran. Intentional warriors for Jesus’ sake have seen the face of evil, given themselves to the task, and trusted the Lord to bring them through in whatever manner honors Him most.

To my Christian brothers and sisters-in-arms – thank you and welcome home.

[framed_box]Ed Hardesty is the Director of PBU’s one-year Bible and Israel Program. He has taught Bible at PBU since 1991. After serving in the Vietnam War, Ed attended PBU in the 1970s, one of the intentional warriors of that era. He recently spoke in chapel on the topic of Just War Theory and its impact on history and personal choices. In addition to teaching at PBU, Ed serves as the pastor of Redeemer’s Fellowship in Shrewsbury, PA, and is completing his doctorate in Jewish Studies, majoring in Bible and Archaeology at The Baltimore Hebrew Institute at Towson University.

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