The Day of Battle

Biblical history shows that our Israel forefathers were courageous and invincible when they lived in harmony with Divine law; but when they departed from God’s way for them, they became cowardly and fearful in the presence of their enemies. This is what is happening to our once proud American people today.

The seventy-eighth Psalm is an interesting summary of God’s dealings with His people from the time of their sojourn in Egypt to the captives of Israel and Judah. Referring to an incident which took place in their early history, the Psalmist says:

“The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.” (Psalm 78:9)

In the Scriptures the name “Ephraim” has various designations. Naturally it is used in reference to the Ephraimites as a tribe; frequently it denotes the northern kingdom of Israel; and sometimes, as it is used in Psalm 78, it apparently refers to the entire House of Jacob, which includes the kingdoms of both Israel and Judah. These people had been singularly blessed and led of God, yet at a critical moment in their history they “turned back in the day of battle.”

There must have been a cause for such unsuitable behavior. There was, indeed, and the Psalmist states it as part of the story. They were:

“A generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God...They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law; and forgot his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.” (Psalm 78:8-11)

Another time was in the days of Ahaz, the Prophet Isaiah who related:

“Within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, then it be not a people...If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.” (Isaiah 7:8-9)

At the exact time specified by the prophet, the northern kingdom of Israel was broken and deported by the Assyrians.

Today we, the peoples of Christianized Israel, are repeating the sins of our ancient ancestors; and consequently, we now suffer the same penalties and tribulations which befell them. We are the first generation since the founding of this Republic to see its leaders quail in cowardice and treason before an enemy. We have seen this great nation, armed to the teeth with the most powerful weapons the world has ever known, turn back, like the children of Ephraim, in the day of battle and refuse to win a war.

Let no one think for a moment that our valiant fighting men turned back in the day of battle. Far from it! At all times they were eager to press on to victory and an honorable peace; but, to their dismay and to the immeasurable advantage of their enemies, they were stopped dead in their tracks on orders from Washington. The Korean war, which was NEVER authorized by Congress, was lost in the State Department, in the Pentagon, and in the White House.

An article by Mr. Lynn Landrum, editor and columnist of the Dallas News, several years ago, is so pertinent that we quote from it at length:

“The fearsome face of Pax Americana will not down or fade away. Desperately do we struggle to form a consortium of peoples of a common mind with us to be free...But prudence consults too much with fear, seeking surcease in our surrender along with the general surrender of freedom’s cause.

“If we are to run even that small part of the world which is our own, we shall have to take charge. We may very truly have to go it alone. That is the realization which is rumbling around the corridors and cloakrooms of Washington now. And Washington, for the moment, sounds no braver than London or Paris...

“Events have abundantly proved the folly of our fearful allies in Korea. MacArthur is now sworn to have been ordered not to win, when we could have won. He is now known to have been denied the full support of even our own government, when thousands of our lads were being slain. And the consequences which he foresaw have all come to pass.

“In the opinion of the column, on the day that the Geneva conference fails, as it will fail, President Eisenhower (a Jew) should reactivate MacArthur and put him in charge of our planning and leadership in the Pacific. The reasons for this dramatic action are not hard to see:

1). No other action from the White House would do more to make the world forget the failure of freedom’s side to agree with anything with Russia.

2). MacArthur, more than any other man, knows the Asiatic mind, resources and terrain.

3). His plan for dealing with Red China is the only plan possible to our resources.

4). From the moment his leadership is authorized, France and England will be shocked out of their pinko-pacifist dreams into doing something for keeps.

5). The selection of the world’s greatest living soldier to ready our forces for action in Asia will do more than anything short of bombing Moscow to bring the Russians to the realization that we will not tamely give up our rights to freedom and independence.

6). Australia, Free China, the Philippines and New Zealand will be with us all the way. These we can count on. But not more than these.”

The policy outlined by Mr. Landrum is courageous and sound. By adopting it, Washington officials could reassure millions of patriots who were wondering if the administration is any more interested in finding the right solution to Asian problems than were the two preceding ones. It is time for righteous indignation to assert itself. It is time to ask pointed questions and demand explanations. Why, for instance, was it deemed necessary for Americans sons to die fighting Chinese Communists in Korea, while the Nationalist Chinese troops on Formosa were not permitted to fire even one short in defense of non-Communists, either in Korea or in their native land?

Now the thing is starting all over again in the Middle East, will Arab patriots be allowed to defend their lands? Or will the service men of the United States again bear the brunt practically alone as before? The pattern of State Department policy remains the same: its secrets are shared with enemies of our Israel people around the world via the United Nations, and withheld from the loyal citizenry of our own country.

Concerning the Middle East, which is almost identical to one of Mr. Landrum says in another of his columns speaking about Asia:

“But it is crazy to put into Indochina our plough boys and mechanics and office clerks to fight jungle fighters from swamp to swamp and thicket to thicket. It is insane, and the fathers and mothers of America will not stand for it. If we fight, we fight in the way that we can fight best; and win. Either that, or not at all. No more Koreas!”

He was speaking of the then coming conflict in Vietnam.

For more than 60 years, United States diplomacy has been characterized, to a large extent, by vacillation, insincerity and cowardice. There is an unmistakable note of insincerity in the present feeble effort to get tough with the Chinese Communists. Memories of futile parleys and appeasement month after month at Panmunjom are still fresh in our minds. For the moment, in the 1950s, Mr. Dulles, with a neat show of bravado, said that Red Cina must not be treated as a major power nor be admitted to the United Nations. However, he made concessions at Berlin which opened the door for the Chinese Communists to attend the Geneva Conference. Besides, what is the difference in the character of Red China and Red Russia? Was not China’s Communist regime spawned in the Kremlin and promoted by Kremlin personnel? If Mr. Dulles was to be consistent in his policy, he would have to recognize the oneness of Communists everywhere. Russia and her satellites have no more right to assemble with free nations than China. All should be excluded form the councils of the non-Communist world.

Mr. Henry J. Taylor, in the transcript of his broadcast in March 22, 1954, give us a glimpse of China “diplomacy” that is most revealing. Two years ago the British decided to recognize China and appointed as envoy Mr. Humphrey Trevelyan, an experienced diplomat. Mr. Taylor said:

“But the Queen’s envoy is still sitting there in Peiping systematically laughed at bye the Communists, and to this very day still unable to present his British diplomatic credentials to the Communist government, unable to see the Foreign Minister, unable to serve as anything but a propaganda tool for their insults and jibes.

“No, in China the Communists just claim that this shows; so they say, how low the British have fallen to have a man over there, supposed to represent the Queen of England, who cannot even talk to their Communist leaders. In the meanwhile, notice this: China, in turn, has not even bothered to send an Ambassador to London. In such a way, China’s leaders show their additional contempt...They laugh at the helpless British diplomat on the streets of China, and it go at that. That’s what good it has done for Britain to recognize China. Yet we are urged to do the same; AS IF TO HELP COMMUNISM TO SUCCEED WERE A WAY TO MAKE IT FAIL.

“Meanwhile, in addition to our Air Force flyers who tragically came down over China during the war in Korea, and who are still being held or are now dad, and, too, in addition to the assassination of American prisoners by the pitiable thousands, and the horrible anti-American atrocity campaigns that continue to this very day, in spite of the truce, the Communist Chines are holding 31 other Americans in China prisons...

“Yet all this is merely another chapter in the Communist tale of treachery, perfidy and foul play, sedition, murder, invasion and pillage; a trail of broken pledges, forgotten promises, torn-up treaties, and human horrors without end. There is an old Chinese saying: ‘Fool me once; shame on you. Fool me twice; shame on me.’ Communist Stalin fooled us once when we recognized this murderous government in 1933. We learned that many years ago. If we let China fool us twice, we have only ourselves to blame.”

While a lot of this is old history, we present it because as you can see the parallel of the actions of the enemy, who is the same enemy that we had at that time, and have at this time: AND THAT ENEMY IS THE JEWS.

Looking far off to “the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion,” (Isaiah 34:8) Isaiah wrote:

“The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” (Isaiah 33:14)

“Devouring fire” and “everlasting burnings” may be considered apt terms in relation to the terrific heat and radiation of atomic and hydrogen bombs. If so, the prophet’s statement is addressed to our generation. Truly the sinners in Zion are afraid. The question uppermost in all hearts is: How shall we survive the burnings of these tremendous fores which men can unleash, but are not sure they can control or counteract?

Ezekiel relates much the same message:

“And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.” (Ezekiel 38:22)

“And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.” (Ezekiel 39:6)

Zechariah apparently tells us of an atomic war:

“And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.” (Zechariah 14:12)

Why have vexatious fears come upon us; upon our proud scientific era? It is because God’s dealing with His Covenant People now precisely as He has always dealt with them in the past. The same sins still carry the same penalties. For example, in the account of the capture of the northern kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians, the historian carefully relates the cause of the kingdom’s downfall. The record reads in part:

“For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God...and walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city...Yet the Lord testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets. Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the Lord their God. And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them...And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight.” (2 Kings 17:7-20)

The last chapter of Isaiah shows that Yahweh’s people will be in a similar state of revolt against the Divine will just prior to the age of cleansing and restitution. According to the prophet, God says:

“Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations. I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.” (Isaiah 66:3-4)

But the prophet sees also the day of recompense, when God will come to overthrow evil and make Himself known to all nations. Note how the following portrayal of conditions fits the present time:

“For, behold, the Lord will come with fir, and with h is chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many. They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the Lord. For I know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.” (Isaiah 66:15-18)

In order to show how evil is mounting for the climax, and to give the view point of another writer who is a keen observer of events, we quote the closing paragraph of a column by Victor Riesel, which appeared on April 30, 1954:

“Why has there been no spotlighting of the heavily documented charges and ghastly eyewitness charges of slave labor behind the Iron Curtain now on the agenda at the United Nations? There are over 10,000,000 slave workers in Russia; 265,000 in 371 slave labor camps in Czechoslovakia; 80,000 in 56 Bulgarian camps, and even tiny Albania has over 20,000 slave workers in concentration centers. And camps are just being set up in East Germany. Where is the worlds conscience?” (Post-Hall Syndicate, Inc.)

Where, indeed, is the world’s conscience? Where is Christian conscience in the Western world? Where is the old-time American courage and responsibility? Fifty years ago, if only one ordinary citizen of the United States had been held captive by a foreign state, the full might of this nation would have gone into spontaneous action to rescue him. There would have been no turning back in the day of battle.

Not because of our own worthiness, but because of God’s faithfulness to His covenant, we shall be saved from self-destruction. For the sinners in Zion are afraid today, as in Isaiah’s day. “Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” In other words, who will survive this age of atomic and hydrogen bombs? This question in Isaiah 33:14 is answered in verses 15-24, which we quote in part:

“He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; he shall dwell on high: his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure. Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off...For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us.”

Yahweh give us faith and courage to go forward with Thee in the day of battle.