What does it take to be a Christian Warrior?

After listening to this testimony by a former Islamic Jihadist here...

https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=53114&forum=35&5

...I'm struck by how the radical Islamists live for nothing else but the advance of Islam. And how we, on the contrary, think that we can pursue status, stuff and vanity while they are waging a war against us from all sides. Living like the world around us means losing that war.

Watching this video makes me want to scream when I contemplate how our culture has been manipulated to make us dumber, softer and weaker so we can be conquered. Look at people! Their minds are filled with distractions, filth and useless pursuit of pleasure and it's come right into the churches. How ready are we to fight and sacrifice? To give our time and effort for the Kingdom of God? ALL of our time and effort! This is the last hour, we must wake up and quit playing games.

I want to ask two questions that I feel are worthy of discussion. Please watch the video on the linked post above to understand why these questions are asked and why it is important that we answer them:

1. What does a Christian Warrior look like?

2. What does it take to make us into such warriors?

If you prefer, use the term Soldiers or Servants of Christ

Hi SolaVeritas,
I think a Christian warrior isn't what men and women are calling warriors today. The phrase is getting heard a lot these days. And it's men who are declaring other men and friends of theirs to be warriors. I don't think God likes this nonsense.

It doesn't sit right that so many of the so called warriors do not have a message of Repentance. If you don't have a message of repentance I don't think you can be known as a warrior I believe. I think Gods warriors are putting to death their personal sins and walking in loving obedience.

... and are being heard by God because of this walk of self sacrifice and obedience.

In the spiritual wilderness when God seems miles away and temptation comes like an arrow, it is the warriors who have disciplined themselves to still do right.

SolaVeritas

The Salvation Army’s expansion in the 1870s and 1880s brought it to the attention of a wider audience, not all of which was appreciative. A number of pamphlets appeared criticising the movement, including Social Diseases and Worse Remedies by the biologist Thomas Henry Huxley. He attacked The Salvation Army’s ‘religious fanaticism’ and the autocracy of the General but the pamphlet’s main criticism was of Booth’s ‘In Darkest England’ scheme. Huxley was only the most prominent of a number of secular detractors, many of whom (including some leading newspapers) accused William Booth of financial impropriety in the management of various social work funds. Criticism also came from the Anglican Church, whose senior clergy had deep reservations about the Salvation Army’s forms of worship, which one bishop dismissed as having ‘ludicrous stage properties.’ Bishops also made accusations of sexual immorality at Salvation Army meetings but these were proved to be groundless.

In the 1870s popular opposition to The Salvation Army began to coalesce around small, locally organized groups. Some of these called themselves ‘skeleton armies’ and their attacks on Salvationists, such as singing obscene versions of Salvation Army songs, throwing rotten food or daubing meetings halls with tar, often formed part of a tradition of ritualised protest that was designed to humiliate rather than to physically injure. Violence was often directed at instruments and flags.

During the 1880s a number of local authorities came to regard open-air meetings as obstructions of public space. Especially in the resort towns of the English south coast, where publicans and hoteliers felt that The Salvation Army’s open-air meetings and brass bands would damage the tourist trade. Salvation Army Officers were instructed not to pay fines and many were imprisoned. Between 1886 and 1888 more than 20 Salvationists in Torquay received short prison sentences for breaching a law prohibiting processions on Sundays with musical instruments. Similarly, in the summer of 1889 more than 90 Salvationists were imprisoned for refusing to pay fines for obstructing the market square in the Hampshire village of Whitchurch. When more than 1,000 Salvationists attended a ‘great demonstration for liberty’ in the village, the organisers were charged with unlawful assembly.

However, these legal challenges to The Salvation Army went hand-in-hand with more serious outbreaks of violence. Local authorities and magistrates tacitly sanctioned or even openly supported violence against Salvationists. Riots occurred at Exeter, Worthing and Hastings, where Captain Susannah Beaty later died from injuries she received. The most vituperative opposition of this kind came at Eastbourne in Sussex. Following the opening of a Corps in 1890, the local authorities received complaints that The Salvation Army’s meetings would be injurious to ‘the comfort of visitors.’ Salvationists began to be repeatedly charged with public order offences. When large groups arrived in Eastbourne to support the imprisoned Salvationists, they were attacked by large mobs or were themselves prosecuted. Violence against Salvationists became common and the authorities refused to prosecute the Salvation Army’s antagonists. The vehemence of the local authorities’ persecution led Parliament to intervene in 1892 to give a legal basis to their open-air meetings.

Opposition was also met in other countries. Many new territories were initially hostile to Salvationist missionaries; Swiss authorities suspended The Salvation Army in 1883 and William Booth’s daughter, Kate, was briefly imprisoned. Violence was not uncommon and a number of Salvationists were martyred, including Louis Jeanmonod who was murdered guarding a Salvation Army meeting in Paris on 4 February 1886. The Salvation Army was banned outright by anti-religious Marxist regimes in China (1952) and Russia (1923). Although the Salvation Army was invited back into Russia in 1991 following the collapse of the USSR.

Quote: What does a Christian Warrior look like?

I think you have a very good example of Christian Warriors that faced strong opposition to the promotion of Christ. We see that the opposition they faced came in many different forms.

Literature: A number of pamphlets appeared criticising the movement.
Atheist: Secular detractors attack there religious fanaticism and autocracy of the movement.
Media: Newspapers attacked financial impropriety.
Religion: Criticism also came from the Anglican Church.
Local authorities: Tried to stop open-air meetings as obstructions of public space.

This challenge of the local authorities, was were they stood there ground when charged with public order offences (police involvement) refused to pay fines and were thrown in Jail some died from injuries. At which the General must have sent the army in (haha). It is said that a 1000 salvationist arrived in Eastbourne and they were attacked by mobs. These mobs were not prosecuted for there actions.

Parliament had to intervene, I am sure the general and salvation army were lobbying the government..

Quote: What does it take to make us into such warriors?

Vision - Lets me ask do the Islamist have a vision for you land, a complete takeover of Canadian and taking political power and absorbing them into a global Islamic caliphate.

Martin Luther - I have a dream is an excellent example of vision.

God understand the importance of vision - "Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it"

Do you see the effect the one who 'reads it' will run with it run with it... Habakkuk 2:2

The pastor of the church I used to go had a vision, in the vision he saw a church in Aberdeen with 10,000 people. This lead us to travel to Aberdeen 60miles away to plant a church I was involved in many outreaches to the city, a scandinavian group team came alongside to support.. On one of the outreaches I actually began to prophecy about the very vision on the streets of Aberdeen.

That church is dead and gone - but that vision remains in my heart but more than that I hope to use that church to take this nation which entails a huge move of God...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXnLICx-UwA

For me the vision came from when my Mum asked me to listen to a tape from this woman called Jean Darnell 1985 - The Vision - A Move of God sweeps the UK, goes to Europe and onto the world.

Where does it start Aberdeen - which will end up with a 10,000 people church..

If you don't have a message of repentance I don't think you can be known as a warrior I believe. I think Gods warriors are putting to death their personal sins and walking in loving obedience

This to me is the kind of warriors Christ is raising up for these last days, an army that marches on its knees. Who can love their enemies even as they are being hunted and persecuted and slaughtered all the day long

(Salvation Army beginnings)I think you have a very good example of Christian Warriors that faced strong opposition to the promotion of Christ

Very good examples, thank you for sharing!
One person that comes to mind as an example to me is the Apostle Paul:
-No longer following any personal ambitions
-Willing to suffer and die for the cause of Christ
-Working to support his mission rather than to build an earthly kingdom
-Focus on others, loving them deeply
-Proclaiming the Gospel, no matter what the cost

We would need to make ourselves available. Not by giving some hours but by surrendering everything. God might have to take away our possessions, comfort and leisure to make us into usable soldiers/warriors for the Kingdom. Are we willing?

"EVERY TRUE CHRISTIAN IS A SOLDIER””of Christ””a hero "par excellence!" Braver than the bravest””scorning the soft seductions of peace and her oft-repeated warnings against hardship, disease, danger, and death, whom he counts among his bosom friends.

THE OTHERWISE CHRISTIAN IS A CHOCOLATE CHRISTIAN! Dissolving in water and melting at the smell of fire. "Sweeties" they are! Bonbons, lollipops! Living their lives on a glass dish or in a cardboard box, each clad in his soft clothing, a little frilled white paper to preserve his dear little delicate constitution."
-C. T. Studd

All of this makes you think of the Gospel in the nations we are from. Well okay, that I am from here in England. The message seems to be to come to Jesus to get things from him without any mention of a full commitment through thick and thin, but when I got saved the message was to be a follower of Jesus and being committed to that ideal .... anything else apart from salvation was a special bonus.

Thinking about this last night I wondered if Sermon Index should take a stance on the Gospel message by putting the Gospel as a statement of belief on the web page. As the Gospel message is becoming more and more corrupted, and this at a frightening speed.

A Christian Warrior is someone who lives fully for GOD. He/she counts the cost everyday, then commits this day, every moment of this day to follow hard after JESUS. To take up their cross and submit to HIM. He/she is unwavering, there is no compromise, their hearts are given completely until the LORD. The Christian warrior sees prayer and the truth of the gospel as the weapons in their arsenal. They hold tight to the teachings of CHRIST and do not waiver. There is no place for self life in the Christian warrior's daily routine, they are prepared and ready to serve others as a faithful servant demonstrating the love of CHRIST to all they come in contact with. When faced with persecution they pray, and they endure because this life is counted as nothing. They know they are merely pilgrims on a journey passing through, training for their real life with JESUS for all eternity. When the skies grow gray and dark as night the Christian warrior knows where he/she can find strength, they go to a quiet place, they bow their heads and they cry out to JESUS knowing HE does not abandon, HE leaves none of HIS behind. The Christian warrior understands what it means to live for JESUS, that at some point they are going to be hated and perhaps even put to death, but they smile in the face of such things because buried deep in their hearts is the truth that our KING lives, that our LORD REIGNS and in HIM the battle is already won!!!

God bless
maryjane