Put on the Whole Armor of God
November, 1972 American Opinion
Tom Anderson
Thomas Jefferson Anderson succeeded General Curtis LeMay as the nominee of the American Party for Vice President of the United States. Mr. Anderson has long been America's foremost farm publisher, having built fourteen magazines with circulation in the millions, and his column is nationally syndicated to a vast audience. Tom Anderson is one of the nation's most sought-after public speakers.
One evening a famous actor was asked to entertain at a large dinner party. A ripple of excitement ran through the crowd of prominent guests as he rose to speak. The actor chose to recite the Twenty-third Psalm, which he did eloquently. He finished the dramatic recitation in a thunder of applause, and the audience gave him a standing ovation. The next speaker was an elderly white-haired man, bowed and worn by long years of patient labor as a Christian missionary. "I too would like to recite the Shepherd's Psalm," he said quietly. Then, turning his face upward a little, and closing his eyes, he began... And, when he was through, there was not a sound. No word. No applause. And there was not a dry eye in the room. Afterward, a man said to the great actor, "I don't understand, you both spoke the same words.. Your presentation was perfect in every way. Yet, when he spoke in his halting, imperfect manner, people were moved too deeply for words. What made the difference?" "The answer is simple," the actor replied, "I know the Twenty-third Psalm; I know it well. But he knows the Shepherd.”
Many of us say we know the Shepherd; but few of us act like it. There is much concern on the American Right these days about a relatively new phenomenon called "religious neutralism." After awakening lukewarm Christians and half-hearted patriots to the Satanic collectivism that threatens our country. Conservative organizations have lost hundreds of these people to a fundamentalist revivalism that discourages their remaining active in the fight to keep America free. Once an American is fully awakened to the depth and depravity of what I shall call "The Conspiracy" to control the world, he sometimes begins to think, "We are making little or no headway against it. We are lost!" After all, he rationalizes, "Today's America is not worth saving, because America is no longer a Christian nation." Since "our country is irretrievably lost and a takeover is near," he reasons, "the best thing for each man to do is to concentrate exclusively on his own salvation and on the souls of his loved ones."
The Comrades have long proclaimed that "religion is the opiate of the people." Indeed, a tired, discouraged, disconsolate Conservative who turns to "religion" as an excuse for quitting the fight to save our country is hunting for an opiate. And opiates don't save anybody! I, too, would rather devote myself exclusively to leading people to Jesus Christ. But it is not Christian to abandon our nation and to leave the patriotic remnant to fight our battles for us. It is ironic that the patriotic John Birch Society, named for a Christian missionary, has perhaps "lost" more members because of religious neutralism than for any other one reason. The Society, though not exclusive to Christians, was the main factor in bringing many of those same people to Christ. Once thoroughly "educated" to the dangers that threaten our country, and thoroughly discouraged, they finally turned to Christ as the answer. Christ is the answer. But Jesus never admonished us to cop out, resorting only to prayer in times of danger. He said, "Occupy until I come." St. Augustine put it very well: "I shall work as if everything depended on me; I shall pray as if everything depended on God."
The Bible teaches that Christ is the Lord over both the nation and the individual. Thus, a true Christian cannot forsake either! Where in the Bible does the Lord allow any Christian to surrender his responsibility to defend freedom, family, and country? Christ said: "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's," thus establishing the spiritual kingdom under God and the earthly kingdom under law. He not only recognized nationalism, but directed Christians to participate in the earthly government. Still, if communism [internationalism] were merely a political system, we Christians should not be overly exercised about it. Mere politics should be an incidental business to the Church and to born-again Christians.
Certainly "politics" as such, Left or Right, has no place in the pulpit. The church belongs in the world, but the world does not belong in the church. I go to church to hear Christ preached, not the words of politicians. But communism/[internationalism] has almost nothing to do with politics; it is a diabolical conspiracy, an evil religion, and the deadliest enemy Christianity has ever faced. A Communist/[Internationalist] must be an atheist. More than that, he must hate Christianity and Christians.
The Communist/[Internationalist] god is the government - the dictatorship of the proletariat. The communist/[internationalist] promise for the future is not eternal life with the Savior, but eternal dictatorship over all the world - a world of people "perfected" by Marxism. In such a world the authority of Caesar would be omnipresent, and your only escape would be death.
Any "Christian" who can accommodate and accept communism/[internationalism] is simply not a Christian. This is a conflict to the death, between absolutes. ... Christianity and communism/[internationalism] are enemies and cannot coexist. If you are loyal to one, you are a traitor to the other. Jesus said: "He that is not with me is against me." (Matthew 12:30). We cannot be with Jesus and fail to suppress His most bitter enemy! We must have and obey the absolutes that are the Laws of God. And when those absolutes are attacked by conspirators seeking to use the state to establish an atheistic dictatorship, we must choose between God and mammon. Peter told us that when Caesar demands of us that commitment which belongs to God alone, then we ought to obey God rather than man. ... The fact is that both the Old and New Testaments are full of admonishments for us to hate evil. Christ and his Apostles hated evil and refused to compromise with it. We must do the same. Jehu the prophet, chastised Jehoshaphat, asking: "Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? therefore is wrath upon thee from the Lord."--(II Chronicles 19:2).
Yet, the foreign policy of this nation for the past thirty years, if we can be said to have had one, has been to help our communist/[internationalist] enemies who hate the Lord. John said of those who rejected Christ and helped his enemies: "For he that biddeth him God-speed, is partaker of his evil deeds." --(II John II). He was talking about men like Richard Nixon. The purpose of government, according to the Bible, is "for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well."--(Peter 2:14).
But communism/[internationalism] rewards evil and punishes good. What kind of government was Paul talking about when he said in Romans 13:1-4: "For there is no power but of God... For rulers are not a terror to good works, but the evil"? Obviously, he wasn't talking about a communist/[internationalist] government! For Paul continued, saying of the good ruler that "he is the ministry of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil."
So the Bible does not tell Christians not to oppose evil government, nor even to be neutral toward evil government, but to oppose all evil. The Bible advocates government punishment of evil-doers, including the death penalty. But it is talking about good rulers, with constituted, limited authority, not criminal conspirators who murder wholesale and enslave globally. Personal freedom, family, and nationalism are all divine institutions, ordained by God. Before proceeding further, let me define some terms. By "Christian" I do not mean a non-Jew, do-gooding, nice fellow who goes to church and sings the hymns. Going to church won't anymore make you a Christian than going to the Lions Club will make you a lion.
A Christian is somebody who accepts Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Saviour.
Certainly I do not use the term religion as a synonym for Christianity. Religions are the enemy of Christianity. "Religion" is an attempt by elitists to organize worship. Buddhism is a religion. Communism, for many, is a religion. Mere "religion" is based on works; Christianity is based on faith in Jesus Christ. To a Christian there are two types of Kingdoms: the earthly kingdom, or state, and the spiritual kingdom of God. The Lord our God sent His son Jesus Christ to establish an earthly spiritual kingdom. This spiritual kingdom is not composed of do-gooders, church goers, good-guys, anti-communists [Internationalists], or patriots, but of those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.
"He that believeth in the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."--(John 3:36). Jesus said, "no man cometh to the Father, but by me."--(John 14:6). And we read in Galations 3:26: "For ye...the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." We learn from the book of Genesis that man's freedom was bestowed by God at the time He created man. In Genesis 1:26; 2:16-17, we read that God made man a free, self-conscious, self-determinate individual after His own image.
Communism [internationalism], denying "God, necessarily denies the divine right of man to be free. One World "brotherhood" is a project of the Devil, not of God, for God has prescribed nationalism. (Deuteronomy 32:8, see also Amos 3:3). In fact, God divided the people into nations to keep them from being destroyed.--(Genesis 9 & 10). Internationalism is Satan's program, not God's--(Isaiah 14:12). In Genesis 11:19, we read how internationalism brought on wickedness and rejection of God. And for thousands of years it has been used by Satan to do so again and again. God decried internationalism at the Tower of Babel, scattering the human race and creating the different languages to hinder their communication.
In Acts 17:26-27, we read that God even established political boundaries in order to encourage peoples to seek the Lord. So, when we defend he sovereignty of our nation, we are doing God's will. But unless more people get involved, Christian and non-Christian, the next generation of Americans will experience what Walt Rostow called "an end to nationhood" - which means an end to American liberty. The Communists [Internationalists] might not have to attack us from without, since they are winning within. The chief threat to our nationhood is still not fallout but sellout. Treason is the reason. And the born-again Christian who sees the sellout but is unwilling to work against it, as well as pray against it, lacks understanding of Christian doctrine. As the Apostle James wrote: "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."--(James 4:17).
We need to ask our brother Christians who spend all of their time praying and preaching, "wouldn't you prefer to keep on doing it wherever you desire, instead of underground only? Can't you witness to more people in a free America than in a slave-labor camp? Wouldn't you prefer the life of a free-professing Christian to that of a priest in prison? Wouldn't you rather live a long life preaching Christ than to be the most prayerful Christian shot in the back of the neck and dumped into a mass grave?" Another lame excuse offered by some professing Christians goes like this: "It's all ordained, so why fight it?"
That one reminds me of the Presbyterian preacher in pioneer days who was asked by a parishioner: "If you believe everything is pre-ordained and pre-destined, and that when our time has come, it's come, and there's nothing we can do about it, why do you carry a rifle with you when you go to church every Sunday?" "Because," replied the preacher, "I might meet an Indian whose time has come."
If everything in your own life was already ordained, why would you work for a living? If everything is ordained, why try? Each of us was ordained by God with certain talents. I believe that each of us, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, free and unfree, has divine obligation: To do the best we can, where we are, with what we've got; to use our God-given talents in the highest degree possible; to make ourselves, our family, our country, our world a better place, in Christ's name. God does not expect great accomplishments from us. He just wants us to use the talents He gave us. You will remember that Jesus took away the one "talent" of the man who did nothing and gave it to the man who had ten talents.--(Matthew 25:28). He did not believe in forced equality; but He did believe in doing the best you can.
Some ill-informed, head-in-sand evangelicals say: "just preach the Gospel" openly. The Bible tells us to "do that which is good."-- (Romans 13:3). That means to defend our country, in war and piece; to participate. Preaching is not enough! Christians have ever to make the choice.
Two thousand years ago, Christians were given the choice of worshipping their Roman Emperor or Jesus Christ, their King. They took Christ and the lions took them. And so did the torture chambers, and the crucifixions. And the Romans were civilized in comparison with the Communists. Thousands of Christians in Communist dungeons have been forced to watch or listen as their wives and children were tortured. In America, a public schoolteacher who teaches Christianity will lose her job; in communist China she will lose her mind, rotting in a jail, or have her tongue pulled out. So what chance has Christianity: It has every chance. It will be victorious. The cause of Jesus will conquer the atheism of the Russians, the Red Chinese, and all their vassals. The Communists might very well destroy America, but they won't destroy Christianity. Two thousand years ago, the more the Roman tyrants persecuted the Christians, the more Christians there were, until the emperor Constantine himself presumably became a Christian. Jesus said even the gates of Hell shall not prevail against His church--(Matthew 16:18). But they will prevail against America if Christians don't get up off their knees and pray fighting.
The Communists [Internationalists] know that their main enemy is not the Pentagon, but Christianity. Since a revolution wiping out Christians can't be accomplished yet, their best approach is to water-down Christianity until the next generation of lukewarm "Christians" figures it is not worth dying for. If it's not worth living for, how could it be worth dying for? If Jesus was just a "good guy"; if He was not virgin-born, not divine; if He did not rise from the dead to go and prepare a place for you - why should you fight and maybe die for Him? What's the best way for the conspirators to soften up Christians? By infiltrating the theological seminaries, the universities, and the church hierarchy - which they've done. The brainwashing has already progressed to the point that a high percentage of so-called "Christian" pastors and priests don't believe in the divinity of Christ. The "gospel" they preach is do-goodism equality, "peace," the social; gospel. Their idea is to make a Heaven on Earth by accumulating brownie points.
What these conspirators are rally doing is making many of our clergymen the servant of Hell on Earth. It's foolish and unavailing for us to debate whether to save souls first or to save the country first. We must do both first! The more souls we lead to Christ, the more dedicated patriots we'll have. And the more citizens that decide to become dedicated patriots, the more souls we'll lead to Christ. But we Christians must work at doing both! Since this is an extremely complex subject, "Let me make myself crystal clear," as our chief pharisee is wont to say (when he means something else). I do not subscribe to the viewpoint that all it takes to save America is to educate, and that an enlightened people will do the right thing. I believe that even an enlightened people, without God, will do the wrong thing. Well, did the prophet Jeremiah declare: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked."--(Jeremiah 17:9). But we must do more than just sit and pray for forgiveness of our sins. As Beaumont said: "Faith and works are like the light and heat of a candle; they cannot be separated."
Brownie points don't count in Heaven, and the sins of born-again Christians are already forgiven. That's the reason Christ died. So what should a born-again believer do? He should work harder than the Devil--not to get saved, but because he is saved. A living, saving faith produces works. "By their fruits ye shall know them."--(Matthew 7:20). And the fruit comes after the roots, after the pollination, after the flowering. Incidentally, there is an off-season for nearly every flower, except the blooming idiot--the atheist. "I would not give much for your religion," said Charles Spurgeon, "unless it can be seen. Lamps do not talk,, but they do shine."
Some drop-out Conservatives are like the fellow in the little country church who was bitterly opposed to the pastor's suggestion that the church purchase a chandelier. "But why are you so against it?" the pastor asked him. "Well, first," said the man, "nobody can spell it, so how can we order it? Second, nobody can play it if we get it. And, third, what we really need is more light." More light and hard work!
Archimedes, the mathematical genius of ancient Syracuse, gave himself completely to his studies. When the Romans besieged his city, he was so engrossed in his studies that he was oblivious to the deadly struggle going on all about him. When the Romans breached the wall and entered the city, he took no note of it. When fighting broke out in his own street, he paid no attention. Even when a soldier broke into his house and ran him through with a sword, he never looked up from a mathematical problem that held his interest. He was a charter member of "the silent majority." But he was certainly enlightened. He was certainly educated. It will be unrewarding to be the best educated prisoner in the concentration camp. And being the best Christian ever tortured to death won't do a thing for your God, your family, or your country. It is not enough to "educate" yourself idly. Some of the "best educated" people are totally lacking in character.
Education, without morality, breeds only clever criminals. Will a highly educated person, lacking in character, stand up and be counted for what's right; for God, family, and country? No, he will not! He's probably either neutral or on the other side. So if Christians were not willing to go to bat for freedom, who will? Many of these educated yellow-bellies proclaim that there is no use fighting, because the ball game is over. That eases their conscience and makes them socially acceptable. They wouldn't get in the ball game if it were in the first quarter. They're not ignorant and innocent, but gutless and guilty. They sell their freedom inch by inch for temporary personal peace and profit. When freedom is at stake, silence is not golden; it's yellow. Which reminds me of a story about Mark Twain? The subject of Heaven and Hell was being heatedly debated at a dinner party by all except Twain. A lady bluntly asked him: "Why are you silent? I want your opinion." Twain gravely replied: "Madame, you must excuse me. I am silent because of the purest necessity. You see, I have friends in both places."
The average person is equally irritated by hearing Christianity attacked or by seeing it practiced. What irritates me is seeing Christians used to destroy their own faith and the faith of this once-Christian nation. All that is necessary to cause fifty million American Christians--real Christians--to be murdered by the Communist [Internationalists] is for Christian Americans to devote themselves exclusively to prayer and let the Communists [Internationalists] take our country! Conspirators even now blame the decline of the church on nationalism and claim that being "obsessed" with communism [internationalism] causes Christians to leave the church. That is a carefully created lie! The organized church has declined mainly because it has deserved to; and it has deserved to because it has not been doing its job...which is to preach the Good News of Christ. Christians have left the churches in droves to seek the Lord, who has been abandoned by their modernistic, apostate churches. A church and a preacher denying the virgin birth is not a Christian church, it is against Christ. Our Lord is either what He said He was, or He is history's greatest liar and faker. And how can one stand up and be counted for Christianity, without standing up and being counted against communism [internationalism]?
Modern Christians should emulate Moses: "Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, "Who is on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto Him."-- (Exodus 32:26). In the war between good and evil, neutralism is anti-Christian. A people which lack the morality to stand on their feet and say "NO" to communism [internationalism] will some day have to say "YES" on their knees. Communism [internationalism] is a Satanic, atheistic religion dedicated to destroying Christianity and freedom. No true Christian can be neutral about anti-Christian communism or its advocates or apologists. In one of his letters to the Corinthians Paul wrote: "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate." -- (IICor. 617). And, as Spurgeon put it: "All true men ought to be decided, for a dreadful conflict is going on at this present day, and a curse will fall on neutrals." Many "neutrals" don't want to know the truth. They worship the ground their head is buried in.
Cicero explained their plight about two thousand years ago, observing: "It's impossible to know the truth and not be held responsible." Jesus Christ said: "I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm and nether cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth."-- (Rev. 3:15-16). The great Dante wrote: "The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in a time of moral crisis, maintain neutrality." Has the world ever known a time of greater moral crisis than now? Americans are so tense, nervous, and guilt-ridden today, they have a hard time sleeping through sermons. Though, in the modernist churches, they might as well.
Benjamin Franklin recognized this truth when he said, "He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity, will revolutionize the world." In other words, if America were really a Christian nation, there would be no takeover. My point is put best, I think, in Ephesians 6:10-12, where the Bible commands: "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of he devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against he rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Clear as the Scripture is on this subject, there are still conservative drop-outs who are convinced as Christians that since these are "The Last Days" one might as well give up the fight, put on a white robe, and sit around waiting for the coming of the Lord. Maybe these are "The Last Days." Yet the Bible says: "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only."--(Matthew 24:36). It does not say that in The Last Days we are to fold our tents and quit.
Delmar Dennis, a major coordinator for the John Birch Society, tells of a fundamentalist preacher he recently recruited into The Society. Delmar says that preacher told him: "I'm joining The John Birch Society because I am certain that these are `The Last Days'--and when Christ comes, I want him to see me fighting on his side!" Some "Last-Days Christians" claim that they can't fight the Communists [Internationalists] because they must spend all their remaining time saving souls. But thousands of already saved souls are rotting away in communist/fascist dungeons and slave-labor camps. Dare we ignore and forget them? In First Corinthians 12:12, it says that every born-again Christian is a member of the Body of Christ, His Church. And as Paul adds in the twenty-sixth verse, if one member of the body suffers, the whole body suffers.
Christian martyr Richard Wurmbrand, a Lutheran minister who was imprisoned and tortured fourteen years by the Communists, says: "When I was beaten on the feet, my tongue cried. Why did my tongue cry? It was not beaten. It cried because the feet and the tongue are both a part of the same body. Christian martyrs and their families are part of the same body of Christ. Can you not feel the pain?" Thousands of Wurmbrands, Popovs, and Mindszentys are still being tortured. Why can't the neutrals feel the pain? I believe the goals and effectiveness of each would be strengthened if the pro-American, anti-communist [internationalist] organizations were Christian-oriented, though open to all people of good will, and if the back-slid patriots and others "neutralized by Christianity" would realize that "Occupy until I come" means just that. The word occupy means: Take or hold possession of; seize; to engage the attention or energies of; to fill up (an extent in space or time); to reside in as an owner or tenant.
So, let us occupy! Let us keep on keeping on--for God, family, and country, until He comes. And let us lead all the souls we can to Christ, while we are occupying in this land blessed above all others. It could be said that this debate is not so much over principle as over strategy: Should we first expose and defeat the political, economic, and intellectual Conspiracy (of which communism [internationalism] is a a part), or concentrate exclusively on leading people to Christ: Why should it be either/or? We can expose and defeat the total Conspiracy as a part of a long-range goal to return this country to the Christian principles on which it was founded.
Returning to God before exposing the Devil is like making a touchdown before crossing the goal line. You do them both on the same play. In 1790, a great Irish patriot, John Philpot Curran, said: "The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt."
Evidently Curran, like us John Birchers did not belief that liberty can be attained or retained merely by praying for it. If God originated freedom, then certainly we as Christians must always be ready and willing to fight for freedom. Our nation was founded more for religious reasons than for political reasons. Our forefathers were primarily Christians seeking freedom to worship. This nation was founded by Christians on Christian principals revealed in the Bible. Our Supreme Court has ruled this a Christian nation. The Mayflower Compact is a Christian document.
While the conservative, God, family, and country organizations have doubtless had thousands of members neutralized by "Christianity," for lack of a better term, there is another side to that coin: Thousands of people who belong to and work in these organizations do so because they are Christians. If I were not a Christian, I am not sure I would continue in this struggle. I've been in it ever since Fraudlin Deficit Russiavelt was in his first term. If we are going to still claim to be Americans, we should act like it. And if we claim to be Christians we should act like it. Back in 1775 our Christian forbears decided that if they were going to be Americans, they had to act like Americans. So they fought, bled and died to replace a non-American government with an American government; and we can thank God for that.
Now, as then, lovers of liberty must trust in God and in the protection of Divine Providence. More and more Americans are beginning to believe that only a miracle can save us. It would be well to remember that miracles come from God-and then only in answer to prayers that are heartfelt, repentant, and accompanied by enlightened "ACTION." I believe our founding fathers are watching us today. The whole world is watching us. We are what stands between the world and slavery. If the lamp of freedom is blown out in America, the world will be thrown into darkness.
If we have what it takes, morality and courage, we will destroy that diabolical conspiracy of hate that is communism [internationalism], and the evil Conspiracy behind it. We will win, because as Christian soldiers we are prepared to fight and work for what is right.
If God be for us, who can be against us? **
AMEN!!
Put on the Whole Armor of God