PRÉCIS ON THE IRONCLAD PROMISE: THOSE WHO HONOR HASHEM & YESHUA SHALL BE FEARLESS IN THE FACE OF BATTLE

SCRIPTURE. “Fear not [there is nothing to fear], for I am with you; do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen and harden you to difficulties, yes, I will help you; yes, I will hold you up and retain you with My [victorious] right hand of rightness and justice.” – ISAIAH 41:10, AMPC

KEY TERM: “STRENGTHEN.” ‘Amets’ [אִמַּצְתִּ֙יךָ֙]: “‘To be alert physically and mentally in [steady] courage;’ to be confirmed, steadfastly minded, established, fortified [for struggle]; hardened in order to prevail; characterized by obstinacy and speed; supported and proved strong; intrepidity, pluck; boldness, daring, bravery, fearlessness, fortitude; valor, tenacity, gallantry.”

QUOTATION I. “‘Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of Every Virtue at the Testing Point,’ which means at the point of Highest Reality.” ― C.S. LEWIS, The Screwtape Letters, 1942; edited

QUOTATION II. ““If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every proportion of the Truth of God except precisely that little point which the World and the Devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. ‘Where the Battle Rages!’ There the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point!” – Attributed to MARTIN LUTHER, c. 1530 AD; edited

COMMENTARY. “‘They that were incensed against Thee shall be confounded.’ — Both because their hopes and designs shall be utterly disappointed, and because the mischief which they contrived against Thee shall fall on themselves. ‘They shall be as nothing.’ — Shall come to nothing, or perish. ‘Thou shalt not find them.’ — They shall be so totally consumed, that although thou search for them, thou shalt not be able to find them anywhere in the world. ‘The powerful monarchies that have been incensed against the [True] Church, and have contended with her, have been put to shame, and brought to nothing’ … ‘I the Lord will hold thy hand.’ — Or, ‘will strengthen’ it, as מחזיק signifies, I will assist and enable thee to vanquish all thine enemies!” – JOSEPH BENSON, Notes on the Holy Bible, 5 vols., 1811-1818; edited

DK’S TAKE. As I go to the Text recently, I see the Scriptures examining and exalting the ‘God is a Man of War Narrative’ (cf. Exodus 15:3; Psalm 18:34; Jeremiah 20:11; Matthew 11:12; Hebrews 12:29). WHY? Because we are entering the Last Days Battle with Antichrist, and we cannot engage it without the full Presence of God and His Angel Armies, that’s why, beloved (Psalm 91:11-12).

Only a fool would go up against Satan in his own strength!

My running argument for which I have marshaled mountains of evidence numerous times is that the American Church is largely nothing less or more than a ‘Ship of Religious Fools.’ Or what C.S. LEWIS described them as in the Abolition of Man (1943)

I quote it here in full as a Thunderclap from the Throne that He is about to severely Judge them if they do not Recant and Return. It is taken from the C.S. Lewis Institute in an essay titled, “Reflections: Men Without Chests” (Aug. 1, 2012; edited).

PASTORS WITHOUT CHESTS.  “In this classic work, Lewis was prophetic in pointing out that Relativism—‘The idea that there are No Absolute Truths’ —would lead to the Decay of Morality and a Lack of Virtue within Society. Without a belief in and the Teaching of Universal Moral Laws, we fail to educate the heart and are left with intelligent men who behave like animals or as Lewis puts it, ‘Men without Chests.’

Read the passage slowly to follow Lewis’s scintillating Apologetic.

“It still remains true that no justification of Virtue will enable a man to be virtuous. Without the aid of trained emotions, the intellect is powerless against the animal organism. I had sooner play cards against a man who was quite skeptical about ethics but bred to believe that ‘a gentleman does not cheat,’ than against an irreproachable moral philosopher who had been brought up among sharpers. In battle it is not Syllogisms (logical arguments) that will keep the reluctant nerves and muscles to their post in the third hour of the bombardment.

The crudest sentimentalism … about a flag or a country or a regiment will be of more use. We were told it all long ago by Plato. As the King governs by his executive, so Reason in man must rule the mere appetites by means of the ‘Spirited Element.’ The head rules the belly through ‘The Chest’ — the seat, as Alanus tells us, of Magnanimity, of emotions organized by trained habit into stable Sentiments. ‘The Chest-Magnanimity-Sentiment – these are the indispensable liaison officers between cerebral man and visceral man.

It may even be said that it is by this Middle element that Man is man: For by his intellect he is mere spirit and by his appetite mere animal. The operation of The Green Book (a book promoting Relativism) and its kind is to produce what may be called ‘Men without Chests’ … A persevering devotion to Truth, a nice sense of intellectual honour, cannot be long maintained without the aid of a Sentiment… ‘It is not excess of thought but defect of fertile and generous emotion that marks them out. Their heads are no bigger than the ordinary: it is the atrophy of the chest beneath that makes them seem so.’

And all the time—such is the Tragi-Comedy of our situation—we continue to clamour for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. You can hardly open a periodical without coming across the statement that what our Civilization needs is more ‘drive,’ or ‘dynamism,’ or ‘self-sacrifice,’ or ‘creativity’.

‘In a sort of ghastly simplicity, we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour, and are shocked to find Traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the Geldings be fruitful.’”

CLOSE. The Apostle Paul writes: “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:5, ESV). If followers of Christ live as ‘Men with Chests’ — strong hearts filled with God’s Truth—the World will take notice.

And I daresay add: If they will not “Act like men!” (1 Corinthians 16:13) as Christ-Followers with Chests, the World will take notice all the more – ‘To our Historic Shame!  Rather, these Men of Cloth in our Pulpits should ‘Learn to Fight like Women!’  (See the Graphic).

As it is also true that there appear to be ‘vastly more Female Warriors than Male,’ beloved. They are the ones Manning the Barricades in Fierce Resistance to the Darkness of Trump’s ‘Christian’ Nationalism, recently on abominable display at New York’s Madison Square Garden on October 27, 2024.

All of this to the further Humiliation of the American Pulpits today. Only a few minutes left before Midnight Descends on us all. Better get to it, Pastor. Stat!