On September 16, 1940, as a result of the Burke-Wadsworth Act , the United States imposed the first peacetime draft in its history. Men aged 21 to 36 were required to register and it was estimated that 20 million were eligible. 50% were rejected for health reasons or illiteracy. By the end of World War II, the age requirement had stretched to 37. 34 million had registered and 10 million had served. Although a Conscientious Objector status was created, 5000-6000 were imprisoned for failing to register or serve.
God’s kingdom has no need of a Selective Service System because everyone is “drafted” at their new birth. You cannot be a citizen in His kingdom without being a soldier as well. We are required to fight every day of our lives, in every arena imaginable. In the home, at the office, at school, in traffic or crowded malls, even in the solitude of our own rooms Satan can find a way to pick a fight. Sometimes it’s an open battle against a false doctrine. Other times it’s a quiet struggle against temptation. No matter what kind of battle he wages, God expects us to equip ourselves for it and to fight with all our strength.
We cannot beg off duty because of spiritual flat feet. We won’t be rejected due to spiritual illiteracy. If we have not worked to make ourselves strong and studied to gain the knowledge and encouragement we need to win, we will become an easy mark in the war, and we will have only ourselves to blame.
And if we refuse to register and serve? The enemy is out there whether we choose to fight or not. We will simply become the first of many casualties.
Yet for the Christian who serves willingly, who arms himself with the invincible armor of God, the war has already been won. We are simply fighting the last skirmishes, the clean-up operations, which will finally, and utterly, destroy the enemy and grant us eternal peace.
Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ. No soldier on service entangles himself in the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier, 2 Tim 2:3,4.
Dene Ward
God’s kingdom has no need of a Selective Service System because everyone is “drafted” at their new birth. You cannot be a citizen in His kingdom without being a soldier as well. We are required to fight every day of our lives, in every arena imaginable. In the home, at the office, at school, in traffic or crowded malls, even in the solitude of our own rooms Satan can find a way to pick a fight. Sometimes it’s an open battle against a false doctrine. Other times it’s a quiet struggle against temptation. No matter what kind of battle he wages, God expects us to equip ourselves for it and to fight with all our strength.
We cannot beg off duty because of spiritual flat feet. We won’t be rejected due to spiritual illiteracy. If we have not worked to make ourselves strong and studied to gain the knowledge and encouragement we need to win, we will become an easy mark in the war, and we will have only ourselves to blame.
And if we refuse to register and serve? The enemy is out there whether we choose to fight or not. We will simply become the first of many casualties.
Yet for the Christian who serves willingly, who arms himself with the invincible armor of God, the war has already been won. We are simply fighting the last skirmishes, the clean-up operations, which will finally, and utterly, destroy the enemy and grant us eternal peace.
Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ. No soldier on service entangles himself in the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier, 2 Tim 2:3,4.
Dene Ward
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