I understand biblical scripture regarding fighting evil and going to war with the villains of God’s pantheon. God says often in the Bible, through human interpreters, of course, but he expects people representing him on earth to fight for Heaven even when the odds look horrendous. God spends much of the Bible angry at his chosen people who doubt him, waver away from the task, and do not conquer on his behalf. As I say that, I think of the great prophet Elijah who fought in a dual the high priests of Baal, and at the end of the fight, goodness massacred the vile characters in a bloodbath. God was not disappointed. And, of course, we all know what happened to Jezebel. She was eaten by dogs, torn from limb to limb for her commitment to worshiping Baal and steering Ahab down the dark ways of idol worship. Remember the spies who were to take Israel into the promised land of Canaan but hesitated because they saw giants there and doubted that they could conquer such ominous villains? God punished Israel with another generation to wander in the desert wilderness until younger people would trust him and do as he said, to attack and destroy every breathing creature of the Baal cult worshiping pagan losers of Canaan, utterly and without forgiveness. God would protect them if they only did the task. I have been through enough in my life to know that even when it looks hopeless, when you do the right thing, God does have a way of rewarding you. I understand the lessons of King David, who had his faults. When he sent Bathsheba’s husband away to war so he could seduce her, God was not happy. His favorite king had killed a rival for his affections even though David had a whole wine list of other wives and concubines to sleep with. David had killed an innocent man to sleep with his wife. Yet God still blessed David because he had conquered evil on behalf of the kingdom of Heaven, so God gave David the benefit of doubt.
Yet I have often heard from various church leaders and other religious personalities who think they know better than God what should be happening in this current time, where evil is spreading rapidly, like weeds in a garden untended to, which is choking off goodness purposely. And they are hiding behind the name of Jesus and using peace and a poor understanding of scripture to justify a lack of action. They say on Sundays that the church should stay out of politics and not pick sides in the presidential election between Trump and Biden. And that the purpose of religious study is to concentrate on the life ever after. And not to engage and fight for what’s right. Our focus should be on the afterlife. That this life is corrupt and that we should not pursue material things, then to surrender ourselves to God and the gates of Heaven. When we all get to Heaven, if God wants to be mad at me for the things I have done to bad people, I’m cool with it. Because I don’t think God will be all that mad at me. I expect more than a participation trophy from God. What those Church leaders are essentially doing when talking about how to fight evil in our own time is surrendering before the fight even starts, and they are hiding behind Jesus as their justification, much the way the Israelites did under Moses when the spies returned to report on the giants who held the promised land, much to the frustration of God.
What people who are cowards do when they don’t want to act is hidden behind something they think people don’t understand, like scripture; even though many people attend church on Sunday and profess to love and worship God, they never read the Bible. In that case, your priest or pastor on Sunday becomes just as worthless as the average lawyer who does the same with our Constitutions and assumes that the people they are talking to haven’t read the text for themselves, leaving it to the corrupt to interpret the meaning. To mask their cowardness, they hide their lack of inaction behind scripture and say that God wants them to surrender to evil to forgive their enemies instead of defeating them in bloody violence to fight to make Earth as it is in Heaven. All this forgiving and forgetting stuff is for the birds. Evil in whatever form it presents itself must be punished. And yes, God will have your back if you fight for righteousness. God needs humans to do his work, and when they refuse to do it because they are timid and don’t trust that God will be there when required, it makes God furious. The Bible captures that frustration quite well and makes that religious document unique among others in the world. God wants evil conquered and punished, not forgiven. And to answer how I could know such a thing, I know from experience. The purpose of evil, as God made it, was to test humans and to draw from them the character necessary for Heaven. And to fight on behalf of Heavenly objectives as they relate to the universe. Did you think you were born to bow at a cross and make a few gestures with your hands across your chest just to prepare to die? No, God wants you to fight, and he is judging your character with every breath you take.
I have been talking about religion more lately because many people think these are the end of times, that evil is making its push for global domination at the expense of us all. And I keep hearing from these religious leaders who are scared that they need to follow in the ways of Jesus and allow themselves to be hung on a cross and killed as a sacrifice to the powers of evil. But that was never the point of the Bible; God wants people to fight for goodness and justice on his behalf. In politics, in our families, communities, everywhere. When we see evil, God expects all those granted with the gift of life to fight on his behalf. Because he is elsewhere doing what God does. We are here on earth, and it is our task, until we take our ambitions into space, to fight evil, just as we were to do so in the land of Canaan. And to fight against Baal and all his minions. When Elijah won his duel, they didn’t sit around and share a coffee with the priest of Baal and talk about co-existing with them. They killed the priests and slaughtered them ruthlessly. And justifiably. Fighting for God did not mean peaceful misunderstandings. And for those who lack courage in this life, nothing makes God more unhappy than power-puff patriots and wishy-washy losers who hide behind the Bible and Jesus, hoping that nobody has studied the scripture and knows what it says about evil and the need to fight it. In times like this, we should all take a page from the antics of the great Elijah and conduct our lives similarly.
Rich Hoffman
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