For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

-2 Corinthians 10:3-6, ESV

Most Christians are familiar with how the Church is referred to in Scripture as a body and temple but overlook the fact that Scripture also likens the Church to an army.  This is not surprising when we consider that the American Church often commits idolatry by downplaying the kingly and terrifying traits of Jesus Christ while overemphasizing—and misunderstanding—His gentleness, love, kindness, and grace.  When they do acknowledge this army analogy, they limit it to spiritual warfare and personal holiness.  Yet God’s people have always been characterized by war, so this analogy has implications far beyond personal holiness and spiritual warfare.

God’s People Always an Army

War always has been central to God’s plan.  The Cultural Mandate is about being fruitful and multiplying for the purpose of subduing and exercising dominion over the earth—which after the Fall requires warfare.  Adam failedwhen he refused to wage war against the serpent and therefore became subdued by him.  While war likely existed before the Flood, its first mention in Scripture is Abraham rescuing Lot (Genesis 14).  This establishes the pattern of God’s people arming themselves for war, taking the fight to the enemy, rescuing the righteous, obliterating the wicked, and taking plunder.  In Exodus, God brought His people out of Egypt with much plunder and victory. In Leviticus, God set His people apart as holy, establishing the manner in which He was to be worshipped and defined what it meant for His people to live holy lives. 

In Numbers, He made His holy people into His army and sent them to war.  This begins with a census of all the men of fighting age (Numbers 1), excluding the Levites since they had responsibilities regarding worship.  Then, God directed how His army was to be organized—the Tabernacle in the center, the Levites surrounding it, and the twelve tribes as armies surrounding them (Numbers 2).  Since the army would be touching dead bodies, God then gives laws regarding purification from such defilement then warns of the insider threat through a test for adultery that is quite similar to the penalty for the golden calf incident (Numbers 5).  This should have reminded the Israelites that their vigilance for war must also include a zealous protection of holiness in their own camp.  The heads of the tribes, as commanders of their armies, then offered gifts to God (Numbers 7), and the Levites were prepared for the service of God on behalf of the army (Numbers 8) before the army celebrated the Passover (Numbers 9) just as they would right before the conquest of Canaan (Joshua 5). 

The army then set out to march (Numbers 10), but the troops complained about the hardships of deployment, resulting in God’s judgment on them (Numbers 11).  Moses’s own siblings then opposed him, so God declared his support for Moses while also establishing the righteousness of interracial marriage (Numbers 12).  Any military campaign requires reconnaissance, so the army sent spies to Canaan, but other than Joshua and Caleb they lost faith in God and therefore gave a terrifying report of their enemy’s strength (Numbers 13).  That led the army to rebel against Moses, so God declared that the entire generation—all the previously-counted fighting men—would die in the wilderness except for Joshua and Caleb (Numbers 14).  The insubordination continued with Korah’s rebellion (Numbers 16) and more grumbling which God answered by affirming Aaron’s priesthood (Numbers 17).  In another rebellion, even Moses disobeyed God, so he was prevented from entering the Promised Land (Numbers 20).  The army then obliterated some Canaanites who had attacked them, but the people again grumbled, resulting in a plague of poisonous serpents.  God always brings salvation to His people amidst judgment, so He had Moses create a bronze serpent for the people to look to and be saved.  The conquest truly began with the annihilation of the Amorites (Numbers 21).  This struck fear into nearby Moab, so their king summoned Midianite sorcerer Balaam to curse Israel, but God turned his cursing into blessing (Numbers 22-24). 

Armies can be destroyed from within and many mighty warriors has been defeated by sexual temptation, so Balaam incited women to infiltrate the camp and draw Israel away from God to idolatry.  Even as the guilty were being killed, a prominent Israelite brazenly brought a Midianite woman into his tent.  Appalled by this, Aaron’s grandson Phinehas took a spear and skewered them both, drawing praise from God (Numbers 25).  Attention then turns to the upcoming conquest, with a census of the new generation’s army (Numbers 26), inheritance laws, and Moses’s successor (Numbers 27).  Then God commanded vengeance against Midian, so Israel killed the Midianite men but not having learned their lesson they spared the women—the same women who had previously infiltrated the camp (Numbers 31)!  The tribes of Rueben, Gad, and Manasseh then settled in the conquered land east of the Jordan under the condition that they marched with the rest of the army until all of the Promised Land was conquered (Numbers 32).  Numbers is clearly about God’s people as an army marching to war. 

Deuteronomy is the final preparation of God’s army for war, reminding the new generation the stipulations, blessings, and curses of the covenant that set this army apart as holy.  In addition to commands to completely annihilate the Canaanites in the near-term conquest, God gave laws about how His army was to wage war in the future: they should boldly go to battle trusting in God, enslave the enemy if they sued for peace or destroy them if they didn’t, avoid unnecessary destruction of the environment, and treat captives with dignity (Deuteronomy 20-21).  As they spiraled into sin, they lost sight of God’s vision for His army until Israel was annihilated and Judah was exiled.  After the exile, the Jews focused solely on survival as vassals of the Persians, Greeks, and Romans.

The Characteristics of God’s Army

From this, we can deduce the characteristics of God’s army.  First, all of God’s people are part of His army.  The tribes—including all of their men, women, and children—were called armies and camped as such.  Second, this army is inherently expeditionary—they were meant to move and conquer rather than defend.  Third, this army subdues the enemy without compromise: enemies who would not submit and become slaves of righteousness were to be killed.  This highlights that there can be no compromise between the righteousness God commands of His people and the wickedness of the world.  This brings up a fourth point: there is no neutrality.  God’s army is either advancing His Kingdom or losing ground because those who would not submit to God’s righteousness are His enemies.  Fifth, defeat often comes from insider threats.  Satan prefers to use deceit and temptation to stir up division and lure God’s soldiers away from their purpose and into idolatry because a distracted and divided army cannot win.  Sixth, the army’s different treatment of enemy men and women displays their inherent difference in spiritual influence.  As goes the man so goes the family, and as goes the family so goes the nation.  Finally, the presence of God amidst this army and assumed perpetuity and victory of their campaign mean that they are intended to take over the world for God. 

The Army in the New Covenant

By the time Jesus began His earthly ministry, the Jews were the opposite of the army God intended.  Rather than subduing hostile nations, they had been subdued.  Whereas God’s army was to be expeditionary, they were purely defensive to maintain the status quo.  The Romans too had a defensive posture, as their primary objective was to keep peace and stability.  Therefore, if Jesus would have promoted peace and stability, He would have fit right in.  The fact that the Jews so vehemently opposed Him and the Romans went along with them suggests that He was much more confrontational—and dare I say militant—than the modern American church would dare to acknowledge.   Jesus constantly provoked the religious leaders, often using his teaching and miracles to directly oppose the traditions they so forcefully defended.  He explicitly stated that He did not come to bring peace but a sword that would even divide families (Matthew 10:34-39).  When He praised Peter’s confession by saying He would build His church on that rock (Matthew 16:18), He openly challenged Satan by choosing to do it in the shadow of Mount Hermon, a historic hotbed of demonic activity.  His constant references to the kingdom of heaven make clear that Jesus was establishing a new kingdom that was vastly different than that of the Jews—which He identified as the kingdom of Satan (John 8:44).  And He was establishing this kingdom by force: “But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters” (Matthew 12:28-30).  Jesus had overpowered Satan and was now plundering his house,  Because the Jewish leaders rejected Jesus and therefore sided with Satan, in 70 AD, Jesus plundered their house by the hands of the Romans.  Instead of joining His army for its global conquest, they chose to bunker down and defend their traditions.  As a result, the Temple in which they trusted no longer exits, replaced by a mosque.  They failed to carry out the conquest, so Jesus in His infinite authority enlisted a new army with the Great Commission—essentially reiterating the Cultural Mandate (Matthew 28:18-20).  Jesus came in part to restore His army to its proper mission. 

That army is the Church, which the early church understood.  We see hints of that in the tone of Peter’s Pentecost sermon (Acts 2), Peter and John saying they must obey God not the Jewish leaders (Acts 5:29), and Stephen’s fiery rebuke (Acts 7).  Paul referred to other missionaries as his fellow soldiers (Philippians 2:25, Philemon 2), exhorted Timothy to fight the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12), and said he had fought that fight (2 Timothy 4:7).  He also talked of the armor of God (Ephesians 6:10ff) and used soldier analogies (1 Corinthians 9:7, 2 Timothy 2:4).  It should be unsurprising then that he tells Timothy to “wage the good warfare” (1 Timothy 1:18). 

Fighting the Good Fight

Our modern, individualistic context leads us to assume that Paul is only talking about individual spiritual warfare, but the scope of our battle is much broader.  After telling Timothy to wage the good warfare, Paul says this: “holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme” (1 Timothy 1:19-20).  These men were causing division and spreading false doctrine, so the good warfare includes conflict with such enemies of God: “For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ” (Philippians 3:18).  But Paul also says this: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).  Taken together, this means that we face both physical and spiritual enemies, so whenever someone opposes the Gospel—from churchgoers stirring up division to women murdering their babies while screaming “my body, my choice”—we must always remember that there are spiritual enemies involved as well.  Apart from the Gospel, all are slaves of sin (John 8:34), so they have no choice but to do the devil’s work.  While they are willing participants in Satan’s rebellion against God, they are the pawns.  We should pray and strive that they will surrender to Christ and become slaves of righteousness instead (Romans 6:15-22).  The New Testament is also filled with warnings against allowing false doctrines to infiltrate the Church, so we must be vigilant against the insider threat.  In other words, God calls us to do the exact same thing He called His army in the Old Testament to do.  Israel was to use physical weapons to subdue physical enemies while defending themselves against idolatry.  We have different weapons:

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

-2 Corinthians 10:3-6, ESV

Instead of using physical strength to destroy physical strongholds, we are to use our spiritual weapons—the Word of God, prayer, our testimony, and spiritual gifts—to demolish the strongholds opposing the Gospel.  Those strongholds are not individuals but opinions that Satan and the world raise against God.  We do this by taking every thought captive to obey Christ.  Certainly this includes taking our own thoughts captive and forcing them to obey Christ, but from the context we see that as our own obedience to Christ increases we are called to take every thought captive that is raised against the Gospel, punishing the disobedience resulting from those thoughts in the church and then through the Gospel demolishing them in the world. 

God’s Army Today

Therefore, the attributes of God’s army are the same today as in the Old Testament even though our methods have changed.  First, every man, woman, and child who is part of the covenant people of God has been enlisted in God’s army and has a role to play.  Second, the Great Commission means we are to be expeditionary, striving to conquer the world with the Gospel.  Third, we must subdue every lofty opinion raised against Christ without compromise.  Fourth, since people are either slaves of sin or of righteousness, there can be no neutrality, so if we are not advancing the Word of God, we are losing ground to the worldly ideas raised against God.  Failure to recognize this and instead adopt a defensive posture has led to much of the failure of the American Church and subsequent societal degradation.  Fifth, we must be just as vigilant as Israel against insider threats of false doctrines, division, and distraction.  Sixth, it is still true that the man sets the course for the family and the church, so we must be zealous to restore male headship and spiritual leadership in families and churches.  Finally, Christ promised that the Church will succeed.  Therefore, we must maintain our war footing until the entire world is conquered by the Gospel and everyone bows the knee to Jesus Christ.  This has long been recognized, so the Church on earth has often been called the “church militant”: “The Church in the present dispensation is a militant Church, that is, she is called unto, and is actually engaged in, a holy warfare…duty bound to carry on an incessant warfare against the hostile world in every form in which it reveals itself, whether in the Church or outside of it, and against all the spiritual forces of darkness”.[1]

To apply this, Paul gives us the general principle: “No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him” (2 Timothy 2:4).  In other words, we must prioritize pleasing God in everything we do and avoid becoming entangled in worldly pursuits that do not contribute to building the Kingdom.  God’s soldiers prioritize their relationship with Him, neglecting none of the means of grace He provides, spending time daily in the Bible and in prayer, meditating on the truths of Scripture throughout the day, and setting aside all of Sunday to be strengthened and refreshed for the fight.  God’s soldiers submit to Scripture as the supreme authority over every aspect of life, hoping in God and His unstoppable plan rather than any political system.  God’s soldiers embrace the unique and vital roles they play as male and female.  The men reject abdication and instead take responsibility to be godly heads of households and leaders in their churches and communities, working diligently not only to provide for their families but to influence the world until every knee bows to Christ.  Husbands embrace their roles as head, protector, provider, and pastor, knowing that God will hold them responsible to lead their families in advancing His Kingdom.  Their wives embrace their roles as helper, crown, disciple, and especially their primary God-given profession of homemakingsince the biggest impact most Christians will have on the Kingdom is raising godly children.  God’s soldiers therefore do not abdicate that job to daycares and godless public schools but embrace their responsibility to train the next generation to fight for God and not Satan—remember, there is no neutrality in this war!  God’s soldiers recognize abortion, the alphabet abomination, gender ambiguity, and prioritization of career over family as a child-hating death cult that opposes the Kingdom.  They drive it out of their churches and speak against it in society.  God’s soldiers orient their lives to obey Scripture and advance the Kingdom, including praying for godly leaders and voting for candidates and platforms that will promote the health of the Church and expansion of the Kingdom.  Finally, God’s soldiers understand the multi-generational nature of this war and labor to set their children up to succeed in it, building wealth to leave them an inheritance rather than for selfish living in retirement.  As we grow in sanctification, the Holy Spirit will convict us of other things we must do as God’s soldiers, so we must always aim to please Him and not be distracted by the world. 

In the end, the Church is an army like the Israelites, so the Holy Spirit inspired the New Testament writers to use army terms.  As God’s soldiers, we must not only focus on our individual spiritual warfare but also labor in every way to advance the Kingdom of God on earth until one day in some future generation when every knee bows to Jesus Christ.  That is a cause worth fighting for, so Christian soldier, put on the armor of God, arm yourself with the Word of God, and fight to build that Kingdom!

NOTES:

[1] Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans: 1938: 565.