Allies
9/16/14
Having friends alongside you during battle is usually a
good feeling. And the more allies a soldier, squad, division or army
has make things a little bit easier in addressing. But what happens
when your allies turn on you and begin to fight against you? How
does one respond to this act especially if you’re once most ardent ally is now
your staunchest enemy? We have witnessed this occur many times in
war history and there is one setting that some of us tend to forget about as
well, and that is our Lord’s enemy who is after our lives and his seriousness
when it comes to taking from God what He created.
There are many wars throughout history that as the
fighting rages on some of the allegiances and support disappear or just flat
leave the command on one side and immediately join forces for the enemy. It
is a fascinating setting when this happens and for some it is downright
treason. I understand some of these switches because of how the tide
of that particular war is turning but in the end when an ally turns against a
once friendly face, the threat to the original side is heightened tremendously.
One of these types of settings hits close to home for our
country. In the mid 1850s everything seemed quite content with how
things were coming along with the Republic. Yes there were a few
quirks and qualms ongoing but for the most part the main focus was upon the
expansion to the west and all of the Indian battles that had been occurring. Over
a few more years a few instances arose where certain parts of the country began
to feel left out and abandoned due to how they felt about some
issues. While these issues had been small in the beginning they increased
exponentially over the months until a boiling point was reached.
War broke out between the south and the north and in the
beginning it was thought that this event would be fun to watch and that it
would be over very quickly. Both ideas and concepts were blown
completely out of the water and the country set in for a prolonged war. It
is not the subject of the war that I am going to be dealing with in this
article but the way that things transpired before the war and how one nation
became divided, and how this division caused much more hate and anger than the
war itself. Please remember that in no way am I demeaning the causes of
the war, they are just not the topics of this article.
Before the war occurred there was of course some kind of
animosity between brethren. There was no mention of total absolution
of problems within the States during this time period. In fact more
and more rifts were becoming evident as days and weeks passed but somehow
things still remained intact. There was no single incident that
broke the camels back but a series of problems that transpired that led to the
breaking apart of the Union. It was at this time that people began
to take sides and to informally line up and face each other on the battlefield
of words and beliefs. Many knew that if things did not calm down
soon, real fighting would break out and the very survival of the Union could be
at stake.
This concept was given to me while I was reading one of
the chapters in the book by Wilson Rockwell “The Utes: A Forgotten
People”. It was talking about how there were some problems that
arose between the Ute tribes and the settlers in the San Luis Valley in present
day Colorado. The Secretary of War at that time was Jefferson Davis
and he had ordered some troops to move in and to control the situation. Now,
up until me reading this book, I did not know that Secretary Davis had anything
to do with the Indian Wars out west even though I did know that he served the
Union in this capacity.
The Secretary of War would be like the position of Secretary
of Defense today. It was a very high level position and one that
basically controlled all of the military operations and oversights of this
entity. It was a cabinet position and had many powerful duties
within the Union. A countless amount of information passed through
Secretary Davis’s eyes every week without concern of any of that information
ever being used against that office or the Union itself. But over
time things would change and the attitudes towards the Union Davis began to
disagree with, and serious doubts crept into the higher ups heads. The
doubts of the leaders, on both sides of the issues, were now in focus and set
the questions into play and unless something was done to prevent a separation,
a total division would soon appear.
Placing a person into this type of position takes a
certain amount of confidence and trust because you are putting the country’s
entire defenses into one person’s hands. Any false move upon this
person and the defenses of the country are nonfunctional and in turn the entire
safety of the country is compromised. In fact, the person who
occupies this position can be considered just as important as the President of
the country because so much rides on their decisions. If for
whatever reason this person decides to cross the lines and to betray the
country, no other higher form of treason could be mentioned or
determined. This is exactly what occurred when we talk about Jefferson
Davis for it was not too much longer that he left the Union and went to serve
as the 1stPresident of the Confederacy.
What a huge blow to the gut this must have been to
Lincoln and to the entire Union. Not only for the governmental side
of things but for the overall population of the country as well. Remember
the entire country was not over 300 million like it is today so the bonds
between families was much tighter than today. A gross injustice had
been allowed to happen and this must have been troublesome to the Union for now
the one man who knew most about the military was in charge of an enemy who just
fired shots at your defenses.
The second example I am going to use occurred during
World War II and it deals with the ally to Germany, Italy. Italy was
one of the original Axis members and one that Hitler believed would never
betray the Nazi causes. Mussolini was a devout follower of Hitler
and believed solely in his plans for world domination. The Italian
forces were considerably weaker than the German Army, but never-the-less fought
as hard as they could when the time came.
The Italians knew that if they could not stick with a
larger force and one that could immediately supply them with resources that
they would be left out in the cold for they had not modernized their military
as they should have. They knew that they would be in the same
predicament as Poland was if they had bucked Germany for the Allied
cause. After the Allies landed on Sicily the Italians knew that it
was only a matter of time before they would be knocking on Rome’s doors and
demanding the keys to the eternal city. Nerves began to show
throughout the country and uprisings against the government popped up every
day. As the victories subsided and defeats mounted more civilians
began to break ranks with German sympathy and ask for help to rid them from
their horrid mistake.
The situation became so bad that Mussolini actually had
to flee the country after he was imprisoned by his own people. Of
course Hitler did his best to secure the release of his top friend but both
knew that Italy had changed their mind concerning which side they wanted to
fight on and some things had to change according to Hitler. The
German army became brutal towards the Italian army and did not leave out the
civilians during their retreat. Horrible testimonies are still
present today of the atrocities that the Germans did to both military and
civilians of Italy. A once proud and loyal ally had now switched to
the other side of the war and was now fighting against the so called friend.
Whether Hitler ever admitted to this pain of betrayal I
do not know but one has to agree that while the leader of Italy still
considered himself to be an ally of Hitler, the people had other ideas for
their lives. This came to pass when the people captured Mussolini
and his mistress trying to escape Italy and hung them in a public place as
punishment for their crimes. Italy went on to help the Allies defeat
Germany in Europe and to become a major player in the post WWII world.
If we look at our history we will find that many nations
have encountered similar situations, and one can say that when a human is
involved in a government the possibility of a treasonous act is on the
table. Humans also like to believe, or try to hide the fact, that
they are the only ones who have performed this act of treason, no matter if it
succeeded or not. But in truth the concept of this treasonous
behavior goes further back than our history to a time which we cannot
understand but its lasting effects are still with us today. I am
talking about Lucifer and his treasonous act that totally betrayed God, his own
Creator.
Basically the same setting was in place between God and
Lucifer for God had placed Lucifer in charge of many things when he was in
Heaven. Lucifer was a created being, spirit in nature and had the
perfect life until he decided to challenge God and His authority. It
is easy for us to understand this process when another human tries this act but
when it is placed upon an eternal setting, the stakes are even higher. God
must have been totally hurt by the actions of Lucifer yet God allowed him to
try his best and prove to God that he was better than Him.
As with any attempted or successful coup, separation or
total division, it must have took guts in order to stand your ground and do
what you set out to accomplish. Jefferson Davis tried this and ended
up failing, the Italians did this together and it cost them many innocent lives
after the deed was done and in this example it cost Lucifer everything, even
his original name.
Now, the same game is being transcribed in our lives and
we are failing miserably at recognizing what is at stake. There is a
reason that God created us in the specific manner in which He did, there is a
unique purpose that you have and it will do nothing less than push back the
darkness of our enemy if this purpose is realized. Our enemy, the
one who blew it himself, is trying to get you to perform the same act as he did
so long ago, because it is the anger and the hatred of God that drives him to
completing his deeds upon us.
Place this setting into our hearts and study it for a
while. Read about how the actions of the Confederacy, the Italians,
or any other group that has attempted to overthrow a government hurt not only
themselves but the people of that country or nation as well. If we choose
to believe the god of this world then we will be committing the same treasonous
act towards our Creator and this is the exact choice Satan wishes us to
take. God shall never force Himself upon us so He strictly leaves it
up to the inner gifts that He created in our lives to guide our choice. Our
enemy ripped open his opportunities and he can never go back but while he is
still free to roam this planet his desire is to take as many people down with
him as possible.
We as humans currently have the choice to accept or to
reject God. However, this choice that we have represents the same
ones that the Italian people and Jefferson Davis had yet the implications and
results of this choice are far greater than what they had to decide. It
is a common idea that we should wait to make this choice at some time later in
our lives, but as we all know I could die before I write my next word. If
the anger, disagreement and hatred were strong enough to allow Jefferson Davis
to throw away everything that he had in order to follow a failed belief, then
what more would have to happen for us to believe that God’s enemy will not try
and convince us to do the same?
What value do we have to God if our enemy is focused upon
our lives only? To what extent would God go to in order for us to
understand His benefits and blessings that He originally has for us? And
to what lengths would our enemy go to in order that we completely miss out on
everything that God has for us? The choice is easy but so much rides
on your choice. Jefferson Davis could have not chosen to leave his
post and begin the Confederacy; you know he thought about that choice for a
while. We all have made choices that we regret but as of now we have
an opportunity to change that course. There will come a time that
the opportunities to make this eternal choice will be over and the eternal
division between man and God shall commence.
There is One who understands your needs and that cares
for you like no other could and it is His heart that beats for you. Humans
do not like to be forced into doing something, that is part of our creation and
that is the sole reason as to why God shall never force Himself upon our
lives. It is our choice to stick to our Creator or to follow the
selfish desires of our flesh. True freedom awaits our choice, but in
order for us to understand this freedom; we must choose true freedom first.
DLB
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