A Call To The Remnant

Does the American people worship the armed forces? If that were true, then this would
make the armed forces an idol. Consider what an idol is ……………

“It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and
imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give. A
counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it,
 your life would feel hardly worth living. An idol has such a controlling position in your heart
that you can spend most of your passion and energy, your emotional and financial
resources, on it without a second thought. It can be family and children, or career and
making money, or achievement and critical acclaim, or saving “face” and social standing.
It can be a romantic relationship, peer approval, competence and skill, secure and
comfortable circumstances, your beauty or your brains, a great political or social cause,
your morality and virtue, or even success in the Christian ministry. When your meaning in
life is to fix someone else’s life, we may call it “codependency” but it is really idolatry. An
idol is whatever you look at and say, in your heart of hearts, “If I have that, then I’ll feel my
life has meaning, then I’ll know I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure.” (Taken
from Tim Keller’s Counterfeit Gods)

Can it be said that America spends an outrageous amount of money on the military? How
does our spending on the armed forces compare to other countries now and historically?
Here are some facts to consider. America represents about 5% of the population of the
world. Yet, we spend 43% of all monies spent by all the countries of the world combined
,on military spending. Annually, we spend around 720 billion dollars. China is next with
380 billion. India spends 92 billion. Russia spends 82 billion. We spend more than our
seven nearest rivals combined.

You may be tempted to think that this would be a typical percentage in real terms if we
compared America with other empires or superpowers in history. You would be wrong.
Let us look at one of the greatest empires known to man, Great Britain. In 1910, at the
height of the British empire, and just four short years before the outbreak of the first
world war, the Brits had a “60% policy.” The navy was the measure of one’s strengths in
those days, and there was no more powerful navy that the British navy. Britannia certainly
ruled the waves. Now the strongest ships they had in those days were the dreadnoughts.
And so, according to the 60% theory, if Germany had ten dreadnoughts, then Britain must
have sixteen. This would be considered a policy of overwhelming force, to have 60%
more than your nearest rivals.

Today we do not have dreadnoughts of course, the modern measure of strength on the
high seas are aircraft carriers. Today, Russia has 1. France has 1. Britain has 1. China,
until recently had none. They did purchase an old one from the Ukraine, a conventional
one, and so now they have 1. America has 11 aircraft carriers.
There are eight countries with nuclear weapons. America, Russia, Britain, France, China,
India, Pakistan and North Korea. It is commonly assumed that Israel has nuclear weapons
but they officially deny this.

Russia has 2400 strategic nuclear warheads. China has 240. France has 300. Britain has
160. India has 100. Pakistan has 70-90. North Korea has 12. America has 5113. America
has more strategic nuclear warheads than all the other nuclear countries combined.In the
next ten years, America will spend 8 trillion dollars on ” defence.” In the years since 9/11
our military spending has increased by 81%.

So, would you say that we are an insecure nation? In fact, given the numbers, are we not
the most insecure nation that the world has ever experienced? What price, what amount
of spending, how many boats, how many bombs will it take? In an age where we are
continually told that we are on the verge of financial ruin, can anything justify this kind of
spending? When it was recently suggested that military spending be cut by 430 billion
over the next ten years, some pundits suggested that this would ” gut,’ the military. Really?
430 billion out of 8 trillion? What kind of insecurity must there be among the people for
that to be suggested and for it to be believed?

If a country was truly Christian, would that not lead to that country being the most secure
nation the world has ever known? And yet as we can see, we are the most insecure
country that the world has ever known. Where will all this insecurity lead us?
 And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify
himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and
shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be
done. Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard
any god: for he shall magnify himself above all. But in his estate shall he honour the God
of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver,
and with precious stones, and pleasant things.(Dan 11:36-38)

In the King James, the ” God of forces,’ is referred to as the “Fortress God.” Will
America, with all of its insecurity and love of the armed forces, fall foul to some future
leader who will worship the God of forces? Hitler, in 1932, was installed by the
establishment as a hedge against the Communists. They knew he was half crazy, but
they thought they could control him. The establishment was terrified of losing all that
they had to the Communists, so in order to avoid one horror, they installed another.
What compromises will America make when they are faced with a situation that seems
to be out of their control, when they are truly threatened? Will they install a man who
worships the armed forces?

The time is coming , and soon I believe, that this great nation will hand over the reigns
of the most powerful arsenal ever assembled to a ” strong man.” This amassing of
weapons of power is not by accident. Most Americans would have little knowledge of
the details that I printed above. The idolators are set, now all we need is the man who
will truly represent the kingdom of darkness. A man who will not recognize the God of
his fathers. We often worry about Pakistan’s weapons falling into the wrong hands, and
rightly so. We worry about Iran getting a nuclear weapon, and rightly so. Yet the mind
boggles, if , at some time in the future, given the right set of circumstances, the forces
amassed in America falls into the wrong hands. ” Oh Frank, what madness to suggest
that America could ever vote in a strong man and then give away their freedoms
willingly.” Perhaps, perhaps. The anti-christ is coming. He will come out of a revived
Roman empire. Will that be the EU? Will it be America? God alone knows.