Working With The Israeli Air Force

I was a Weapons Controller in the Air Force. One time I got to control Israeli fighters. They came to Hill AFB Utah around 2002 or so. They had Israeli controllers with them and we swapped for some of the missions. US versus IDF. VERY cool. I was so pumped. It was gonna be so cool. “I’m gonna control Israeli fighters!”

NOBODY was as thrilled as I was. People looked at me like I was nuts.
We were going to do a 2V4 Opposed SAT. (Two Israeli F16s defend a ground target in the Utah Target Test Range “The UTTR” and four US F16s ingress from the north to do a surface attack on what the Israelis are defending. Real air to surface bombs. GBU-12’s mostly. Nothing in the center of Utah but salt flats for the most part. No real air to air missiles or guns.)
In this particular type of mission the Israelis were playing “red”. (Bad guys.) Two guys in each of the IDF F16’s.

Now… Red air normally gets restrictions put on them to act as a training aid. This is normal for any red air. They’re given “hand cuffs” we call them. They can’t react defensive until a certain range, they can’t have radar guided missiles, heat seeker only. Stuff like that. So, in this case, the Israelis weren’t allowed to “unleash the fury” and go Joshua on these US Blue air guys.

In other missions during their visit they did but I wasn’t on any of those. They did them with their Israeli controllers. Oh, well.
So I get into the briefing. The flight lead is briefing us all up the plans and the different threat presentations the Blue air Instructor pilot wants to see. (It’s all about the training for guys in the Blue side flight. It might be for training the number two guy in the Blue side for his four ship flight lead up grade (FLUG) or maybe an eval. Plus training for target practice in the range. They have junked trucks and fake buildings out there. The whole point is not just to dog fight but work with the radar, call the “picture”, lock the weapons… on the right guy, and go in for a ground attack with accuracy.

So, me and the Israelis are all talking about how to help out. VERY cool. I felt like asking them for their autographs.
We break up and they step to their jets and I go to the range squadron and get a scope and set up my radios and load in the bullseye. I have their comm card with all the frequencies and I call FAA and get their squawks from their flight plans.

I’m next to the flightline so I hear them take off. They should be out to the range in ten minutes. I’m ready. They get handed off to me by the range controller. We do a comm check. We’re hearing each other loud and clear and they proceed to their marshal point. Blue air enters the airspace and go to their marshal point. Everybody’s ready, the Blue air flight lead calls “Fight’s On”.
Okay, Fight’s On means the war has started. I start calling the picture. “Warrior copies fight’s on. Single group, bullseye 265/30 miles pushing south, Hostile.” ...pause... “Hostile group heavy, four contacts, line abreast, twenty thousand.”

This is how it’s done in the Air Force, Navy and Marines. Wherever fighters are involved. It’s all standard with US and NATO and Israel works the same way.
There are “phases” to this:

Initial: I’m doing the majority of the talking on the frequency. My radar can see 250 miles. The F16’s have an unclassified range of around 30 miles. Outside that range they’re listening to me as I tell them what the bad guys are doing.
Target: Target phase the fights are starting to see the bad guys on their radar. I start shutting up. Here the flight lead starts deciding what he’s going to do.
Sorted: The flight lead is now in charge of the picture. I shut up. He’s got it. Rookie controllers keep talking. The pros know when it’s time to let the fight lead do his job. He assigns which one of his flight is going to go after which bad guy. When you’re assigned a guy to go after you are “sorted”. If I see a guy going after the wrong guy he was sorted to, I can be a hero by pointing out his correct guy.
Post attack: That phase is after the bad guys have exploded. I might give a call to say if any more bad guys are around. If there aren’t any I say the picture is “clean”.

This part is where the fighters normally go hit the targets in the range and the Red air aggressors “kill remove” to set up for another presentation.
So… We have called Fight’s On. I’m sprewing the bogey dope. The Israeli flight lead is saying, “Copy.”

That’s all he ever keeps saying. Just… Copy.

We’re closing in, 30 miles, 20 miles… I’m not hearing a darn thing. Is he sorted yet? Has he got the engagement? Where are we at? I don’t know. All’s he keeps saying back is, “Copy”.

Then I start hearing the Blue Air controller start passing kill calls. Kill my number two guy. Then kill my number one guy.

The Israeli flight lead just goes, “Copy kill.” And removes off to the north to let the Blue air go hit the range.
I was like dumbfounded. What in the world was that? I had no idea if I helped in that or hurt. I mean, yes. I said the Red air is hand cuffed but that doesn’t mean “helpless”. One of the training objectives of Red air is to, “Punish Blue mistakes.” That means that if the student or the flight lead in Blue air is being stupid and you got him in your weapons engagement zone (WEZ)… By all means, shoot the dummy down. My job is to be of some help there, y’know.
So, Blue air bombs the baby milk factory and egresses out. We’re getting ready for the next set up. I get the idea that I can listen in on their inter-flight freq. I have their comm card so I dial it in to my VHF radio. (Control is on UHF. Inter-flight between the flight in on a VHF freq.)
We call fights on and I’m calling the picture again and listening to the inter-flight. Guess what?

They’re talking between themselves in Hebrew!

Now, like I said. The job of the experienced major league controller is this beautiful ballet of knowing what the pilot is doing and seeing and gracefully passing off the authority of the battle to him as he gets the better situational awareness.

But what phase are we in with this engagement in Hebrew!?
I was upset. I was depressed. I got to play on the court with the IDF and I had no idea if they were laughing at me in Hebrew about “That annoying American on the radio who won’t shut up.”

We finished. Everyone RTBed. And then we all got back to the squadron for the de-brief.
We all sat in the room. They played back the HUD tapes and reconstructed the whole mission on a dry erase board.
Then the Blue air flight lead cleared us off to de-brief amongst ourselves while they graded their air to surface targeting.
Me and the Israeli’s got into a separate room and I said, “So… Did I help? Did I hurt? How did I do?”
The flight lead goes, “Oh, you do good.”

Pause.

I said, “Really? I didn’t talk too much? Was I telling you what you needed to know?”
He goes, “Oh, yeah. Sure.” And then he goes to talking to the other guys something in Hebrew.

“Cause, y’know… I was afraid I might’ve been over doing it there. I really didn’t know if you were sorted or locked or going to maneuver…”

One of the other guys in the flight says something in Hebrew to the flight lead and he says, “No. You do good job. No complains."

It was… Anti climactic.
Either way, we all stood up to leave the briefing room and we were walking down the hall and, as I said, these guys were like rock stars to me. I was still in the mood to flirt with them. I mentioned how I’d love to see Israel. They just kinda nodded, “Uh huh.”

I asked how they were liking America and then they all mentioned how they were eager to finish up their visit because they planned to pack out of billeting and get on the road to the four hour drive to Las Vegas. “Woohoo… Las Begas!”It just reminded me that though the dry bones are standing, they don’t have “The Breath” in them yet, (Ezekiel 37:3-14).

And that’s my story of how I got to work with the Israeli Defense Force.

The End.

Christian's In The Military

Can a Christian serve in the military?
I did for twenty three years.

Did I kill anybody?
No, but in Iraq I controlled fighter aircraft that did. I don’t see any way out of admitting my role.
But the true question is “Have I sinned serving in the military?”
Was I or anyone else serving in the military outside the will of God and living in open sin when serving in the military?

The Bible says…

Romans 13:3-5
3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. 4 For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. 5 Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake.

God has ordained governments as caretakers of the people.
We are all sinful people and so it is often necessary for the lawful government to enforce laws with punishment.

1 Peter 2:13-17
13 Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, 14 or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good.

The state has the God given right to use deadly force in law enforcement and in protection of itself and its people. That’s just how things are. Sinful, violent people will just do whatever they want if there are no restraints.

So, that being a Biblical principle, the question must then be, “Is the Christian allowed to be an instrument of the state for that goal?”

It really depends on what the state is grounded on and what the law says in light of what God has said.
If the law of men is in conflict with the law of then we are not obliged to obey....

Acts 5:28-30
28 saying, “Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man’s blood on us!”
29 But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men.”

Matthew 22:20-22
20 And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?”
21 They said to Him, “Caesar’s.”
And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

What belongs to Caesar, (the state)?
Obedience, service of protection.

Mark 12:17
And Jesus answered and said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at Him.

We do owe a certain obligation to society. Our taxes to help pay for civil works for example. Roads, street lights, sewer systems, water treatment.

But also... Fire protection, emergency medical attention, police protection, and, in a fallen, sinful world... Military protection.
We would rather it not be this way but we don’t live in Disneyland. Sin makes wicked people push their way to the top of governments and then they try to bully other nations around them.

That’s a fact.

The state has the God given right to defend itself from attacks like that.

Romans 13:4
For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.

Can the Christian join in that fight? Even if he or she might have to kill somebody.
I say the Bible teaches that, when in the office of performing duty for the lawful government, the Christian can bear, “...not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.”
The Christian may be the soldier in the war and the policeman on the street with a pistol on his side.
The scripture nowhere commands against being a soldier.
For example, some soldiers came to John the Baptist...

Luke 3:14
Likewise the soldiers asked him, saying, “And what shall we do?”
So he said to them, “Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages.”

Where’s the part where John says, “Yeah. I’ll tell you what you need to do. Get... out... of... the... army.”
He doesn’t say that.
He just basically tells them to be law abiding soldiers.
Here’s another meeting of a man of God and a soldier...

Luke 7
2 And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear to him, was sick and ready to die. 3 So when he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to Him, pleading with Him to come and heal his servant. 4 And when they came to Jesus, they begged Him earnestly, saying that the one for whom He should do this was deserving, 5 “for he loves our nation, and has built us a synagogue.”

No where is there condemnation for being a soldier. Instead we see praise for integrity.
Wouldn’t this have been an outstanding time to pitch that part of the Christian walk?
“Oh, and if you’re going to serve Christ, you can’t do it in the military.”

Nobody in the Bible is ever told that.

Now, I know not everyone agrees.
The response I normally get from those who disagree is this...

Matthew 5:38-40
38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.

They take that to mean all Christians are commanded to be pacifists.

I just repeat what I said. When in the office of performing duty for the lawful government, the Christian can bear, “...not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.”
He may use deadly force in performing the duties of law enforcement and military.

BUT... The Bible is just as clear about how the Christian acts when on his or her own...

Luke 6:28-30
28 bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. 29 To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. 30 Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back.

There is a difference, and you know it’s true, between when the Christian is acting on their own as a servant of Christ and when they are serving in the office of the God ordained secular state.

And “turning the other cheek” is not just being a punching bag.
Oh, no. It goes far deeper than that...

Philippians 2:2-4
3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

The point of turning the other cheek is not because God wants us to be pacifists.
The point of turning the other cheek is because God deplores arrogant people. People out for nothing but “their rights”.

Philippians 2:7-9
7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

Jesus Christ had and will have the authority and power to rip into this sinful world with extreme wrath and violence.
He is not a pacifist. He is humble. There’s a difference.
It is wrong to use “turn the other cheek” to apply to every case, every time, no matter what.

The state may use force to punish the wicked and protect society.
The Christian may serve in the various means needed to keep a sinful society obedient.

Women As Pastors 2

To continue from last week.

I'm not talking about women being subhuman or useless or inferior.
I'm talking about a way God wants His Church to be run.

1 Corinthians 14
34 The women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law also says.
35 If they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper for a woman to speak in church.

Why? Why were they to keep silent? Well, read the whole chapter. He's talking about tongues. He's talking about interpreting. He's talking about prophecy.

He's talking about who is leading the church service.

And the context is that he's telling them to keep it from being a food fight! Everyone yelling and being out of order.

He's talking about the women "subjecting" themselves so there can be an orderly church service. If they have a question about doctrine or the Bible then that husband of hers is supposed to be a "Priest" is his home and train his family.

There is a hierarchy going on here. A "chain of command".
Is this so hard for us to understand?

Ever been in the military?. Most of us were enlisted. Are we "inferior" for being enlisted?
Perhaps some officers think so but all of us know that objectively that's just not true.
We're just in a "different" order of things. We cannot be the Commander or the Air Force Cheif Of Staff but we're not useless or inferior or subhuman.

We know about "subordination" and we "subject" ourselves under those appointed over us.
We have a Chain Of Command in the military.
We have a Chain Of Command in our homes...

1 Peter 3
1 In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives,
2 as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior.
3 Your adornment must not be merely external braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses;
4 but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God.
5 For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands;
6 just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear.
7 You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.

And we have a Chain Of Command in Christ’s church...

1 Timothy 3
1 It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, ("episkope" -- Bishop, Pastor), it is a fine work he desires to do.
2 An overseer...("episkope" -- Bishop, Pastor), then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
3 not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money.
4 He must be one who manages his own household well, ( and I refer you to 1 Pet 3:7 and Eph 5:25-33 to know how to do that)... keeping his children under control with all dignity
5 (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?),

And, I ask, how can he manage his own household at all unless he's a man?!?
As dictated by 1 Peter 3 and Ephesians 5:22-33.

1 Timothy 3
6 and not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil.
7 And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
8 Deacons likewise must be men of dignity, not double-tongued, or addicted to much wine or fond of sordid gain,
9 but holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.
10 These men must also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons if they are beyond reproach.
11 Women must likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things.
12 Deacons must be husbands of only one wife, and good managers of their children and their own households.
13 For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a high standing and great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.
14 I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long;
15 but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.

So... A "pastor"... An "overseer"... The person up there running the service when the body of Christ assembles to worship and learn...

must be above reproach
temperate
prudent
respectable
hospitable
able to teach,

And a man..."the husband of one wife"

It's clear to me that a woman may serve, be a deacon, and if she is not in "authority" over men, even teach but she may not fill the office of Overseer, Bishop, the "Pastor" of the church body. That office is exclusively for a man to do.

A woman coming in to fill the office of Overseer, Bishop, the "Pastor", is unscriptural and wrong.

I've been told, "Well, in 1 Timothy 2:12 that's just Paul saying that he didn't allow it. Maybe some body else does."

Paul was an Apostle. Moved by the Holy Spirit. Writing to Timothy at Ephesus to teach him how to run a church. And what apostles taught and dictated had clout.

Ephesians 2:20
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

Acts 2:42
They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

And Paul was one of them...

Romans 1:1
Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,

So when Paul writes to Timothy dictating mandates from the Holy Spirit to His church we're to take them seriously and obediently

Between you and me, what I personally think Gods point is with all this is not, "You women need to learn your place. Shut up and get in that kitchen!"

But rather, "You men need to learn your place. Shut up and grow up and start leading this family, this house, this church."

Isaiah 3:12
O My people! Their oppressors are children, And women rule over them. O My people! Those who guide you lead you astray And confuse the direction of your paths.

Lemme tell you. You don't run it, she will. She won't be entirely to blame if she does.
Your family, your house, your church.
There are some things that we have to accept as God’s rules and live with it.
He has His reasons and we need to trust Him.

But I’ll close on this note.

This is a rule for this world.
There will be no exclusive roles for men and women in eternity...

Galatians 3:28
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

Men as head over their wives in their family and their church is a picture that we will see for real one day.

1 Corinthians 13:9-11
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

When the Bride is living at home with her Husband the picture will no longer be needed.

Be patient ladies.
You’re being told to be a portrait not a punching bag.

Some day our Prince will come.

Women As Pastors

First off, let me say, I have nothing against women in ministry.
I find many women in the Bible who ministered for God....

Exodus 15:20
Miriam the prophetess, Aaron's sister, took the timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dancing.

Judges 4:4
Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time.

2 Kings 22:14
So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter); and they spoke to her.

Micah 6:4
Indeed, I brought you up from the land of Egypt And ransomed you from the house of slavery, And I sent before you Moses, Aaron and Miriam.

Titus 2:3-4
3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, 4 so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children,

And hey, I've also seen false prophetesses...

Nehemiah 6:14
Remember, O my God, Tobiah and Sanballat according to these works of theirs, and also Noadiah the prophetess and the rest of the prophets who were trying to frighten me.

Revelation 2:20
"But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.

So women are not unheard of ministering in the Bible and, more often than not, doing it in accordance with the will of God.

The passage most on my mind is...

1 Timothy 2:11 - 15
11 A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness.
12 But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.
13 For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve.
14 And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.
15 But women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint.

Now... I see guidance in the scriptures about orderly conduct of how God wants His institutions managed.

The first one He instituted was the family...

Genesis 2:21-24
21 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.
22 The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.
23 The man said, "" This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.''
24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

Christ’s body honors the institution of the family and obeys Gods commands on its management.
The institution of the family takes an extremely short step into relating with the institution of the church.

Ephesians 5
22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.
24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,
26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.
28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself;
29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church,
30 because we are members of His body.
31 FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.
32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.
33 Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.

The relationship from how Christ is the head of church as the husband is the head of family as who is in change of the church body itself. The management of all these institutions of God all interchange and link in the relationship. They snap together like Leggos.

It's got nothing to do with who's smarter or more spiritual it's got to do with who is commissioned to fill the office.

It's got to do with whose in charge and in a fallen world sin corrupts what God has ordained...

Genesis 3:16
To the woman He said, ""I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.''

"Desire" = teshuwqah in Hebrew. Is the original sense of stretching out after.

Half that word comes from "shuwq"

Shuwq
1.to be abundant (meaning probable)
a.(Polel) to give abundance to
b.(Hiphil) to overflow

We see this word again in the next chapter God talking to Cain...

Genesis 4
6 Then the LORD said to Cain, "" Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?
7 "If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.''

He's saying, "the sin wants to dominate you, overflow you, take you over."

He means the same in chapter three.

"You will want to dominate your husband. To overpower. To overflow."

This was the result of a fallen sin nature. The woman was a "helper" for the Man. (Gen. 2:18) Not his master.

Again, please don't think I'm saying women should walk behind us five paces or sit on the back of the bus or be demeaned as animals or worse.
I can still find places in the New Testament where women minister in the church.

Romans 16:1
I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea;

"Servant" = diako an attendant, a waiter - deacon, minister, servant.

This is saying Phoebe was a deacon in the church. A clear indication that women can be deacons and partake in the ministry of the church. (Note: Some churches give great clout to the office of Deacon. Authority over a man, 1 Tim 2:12, should be kept in mind when considering the duties.)

To be continued...

End Times At The Movies

2 Corinthians 11:1
Oh, that you would bear with me in a little folly—and indeed you do bear with me.

*****************************************

I can remember when I first saw the Christian film “A Thief In The Night”.
It was in a church basement. They played it on a reel to reel projector and had to stop the whole film when one reel would end and they could put on the new one.
“A Thief In The Night” was a very popular film in its day and still is. Three sequels came out of it.

With the convenience now days of DVD’s it has actually been a bit lucrative, (But not by much.), to make and distribute more of these “End Times” films in a genre all their own.

No one has really taken more advantage of this market that brothers Peter and Paul Lalonde at Cloud Ten Pictures.
Cloud Ten Pictures and others like Matthew Crouch at TBN have produced a massive amount of titles with “post- rapture” drama and tribulation heat and action as the back drop.

The Titles
Left Behind: The Movie
Left Behind: Tribulation Force
Left Behind: World At War
Apocalypse
Apocalypse II: Revelation
Apocalypse III: Tribulation
Apocalypse IV: Judgment
Apocalypse V: Redemption
The Omega Code
Megiddo: The Omega Code 2
Years of the Beast
SIX: The Mark Unleashed
The Moment After
The Moment After 2: The Awakening
Early Warning
Gone

It’s quite allot. And that’s not all of them.
Perhaps you might feel intimidated looking at a long list of titles like that.
Perhaps you’re saying to yourself, “I like a good end times tribulation movie as much as the next guy but I just don’t have the time to watch all that and keep a job and family life.”

I’ve got good news for you.
I’m a bit of a connoisseur as it were of end times movies. A fellow who smells the cork and cleans the pallet before tasting again of the next tribulation nightmare film.
I have not only seen all these movies, I personally own around eighty percent of the titles you see listed there and I can help you out.

You see, the producers of all these movies have not felt burdened to stray far from a tried and true “formula” when it comes to the story lines of all these films.
I shall break it down for you. If you read this through I can assure you that you will come away with a good working knowledge of all the movies listed above.

I have listed the titles. The “formula” will always call for key words to be incorporated. “Tribulation”, “Apocalypse”, “Revelation”, “Count Down”, “Beast”, etc .
Just to name a few.

The formula then requires certain core characters …

The Hero:
The hero is always a former:
-Counter-terrorism expert (Apocalypse V: Revelation)
- FBI agent (The Moment After)
- Airline pilot (Left Behind: The Movie)
- Lawyer for a large company (Gone)
- College professor (Years of the Beast)
- Award winning journalist (Left Behind: The Movie, Apocalypse, Early Warning)
- Police detective (Apocalypse IV: Tribulation, SIX: The Mark Unleashed)
- The President Of The United States (Left Behind: World At War)
- The Vice President Of The United States (Megiddo: The Omega Code 2 )

Before the Rapture The Hero was married or had close Christian relatives. They are all gone now and he has deep emotional tension. If he is a person in authority like law enforcement or the executive branch of the government, he will come to a point where he will have to choose a side in the persecution of Christians.
You know he will but it will take the vast majority of the movie before he accepts Christ and becomes a Christian himself.

He’s not alone. The Hero has with him a cadre of elite people who make up an invaluable team.

The Computer Hacker: A living legend to the computer hacking community and bane to the corporate world before the Rapture he/she is now saved and more clever than any PhD computer whiz Satan has. Usually he gets the funny lines. He lives.
The Female Hero: Her little boy Toby or Tyler or Timmy or little girl Brittany or Chelsea or Tiffany was Raptured along with her husband or mother who lived with her and read her son/daughter Bible stories. She carries a teddy bear or a doll or at least a picture.
Her and The Hero never come close to inappropriate intimacy but they do hug when crying and will hold hands while running from explosions. She probably lives. If she dies the scene will show her laying amidst the rubble of the collapsed building and close up of her face, (Eye make-up looking good. Bruise on her cheek and/or forehead.), as her eyes widen and she addresses Toby or Tyler or Timmy or Brittany or Chelsea or Tiffany who she apparently sees off camera. Some new actress will be cast in the sequel with the exact same background story.
The Big Tough Guy: Before the Rapture he was a former bouncer or mercenary or professional boxer or gang member or decorated soldier but now he fights the antichrist with a machine gun and grenades and yet, strangely enough, kills no one. His mother told him the gospel all his life but he wouldn’t listen and since she is now gone in the Rapture he , “Figured it was time to stop runnin’.” He is uncomfortable putting it into words.
He is also a helicopter pilot and an explosives expert with a fifth degree black belt in… Fill in the blank.
He also drives the van.
He might live or give his life by shielding The Female Hero. Before he dies he'll get a good spiritually edifying paragraph of lines.
Former Preacher: He was watered down before the Rapture but not no more. He guides our team of elite with Biblical information pertinent to where we are in the bowls and trumpets time line. He lives.
Wise Old Person: Usually a strong willed African American woman in their seventies who got left behind after the Rapture for reasons that are not explained because she seems very spiritually mature in this movie. She gets to defiantly chew out the one world police or the demon possessed agent or the antichrist himself to his face. She dies.
The Sell Out: Somebody in the team betrays them. If a character is introduced early on that doesn’t seem to have one of the above profiles to fill, put your money on them to be the traitor. They will probably turn out to be the Judas.
BUT… There have been instances where the traitor turned out to be The Computer Hacker, (Apocalypse II: Revelation). He dies.

So now we have our team of “Christian Commando’s” ready to take on the forces of darkness.
Usually, the bad guys are formed up into an orderly, para-military, unit.
When they have a name is it almost never anything we would recognize as an official organization today.
A new name is usually created.
Typically these are words to the effect…

- O.N.E. (One Nation Earth)
- U.N.I.T.E
- Community Police Force (CPF)

You can see that the formula is quite given to acronyms.
They are equipped with tanks and armored vehicles that have their name stenciled on the side. (All that has to be washed off when they finish principle shooting.)

And in all the movies there is the epitome of evil villains, the antichrist himself.
Here is a man that is said to be ruling the entire planet but most of his attention is fixated on seven characters breaking into the basement at night in an un-named city in the United States.
He is only very rarely outright called “the antichrist” in the film.
The formula requires a name. These include…

- Nicolae Carpathia
- Brother Christopher
- Franco Macalousso
- Stone Alexander
- Damien Thorn
-“Our Beloved Leader”

To name a few.
All the ingredients are now collected, sliced and ready for the pot.
“The broth” itself is the plot and “The Plot” is the part driven most by the formula.
It rarely deviates far…

The Plot
Boss Hogg has a way to get rich but it’s illegal so he figures a way to frame it on the Duke Boys so they get thrown in jail but cousin Daisy distracts Deputy Cletus and Uncle Jesse goes around and busts them out and then there’s a huge car chase through the back woods that ends with Sherriff Rosco P. Coltrane losing his squad car in the creek or a bale of hay or a chicken coop and the Duke boys make it to the bank or the county assessor’s office or the visiting governor just ahead of Boss Hogg and a dripping wet, or feathered, Sherriff Rosco to show the paper that has the proof…

Wait.
No, that’s every plot of every episode of “The Dukes Of Hazard”.

Hang on… Gimme just a second…
In the end times movies the plot is usually…

The Plot
The antichrist is about to give a world wide speech on TV or has a device that will make everybody watching get a subliminal message to worship him.
Our Hero and the team hear about this and ponder the evil implications of what the result will be. (Perhaps also Wise Old Person and Former Preacher are held in a jail cell too.)
But our Computer Hacker hero knows of a way to hack into the program, no details ever given, you just assume he’s working some kinda computer magic and re-directing the flow of “trons” and over riding the… flux capacitor with… uh… photons on the inter-web there.
Look, the hacker’s got it all figured out.
He’s got a virus or an over ride but he can only up load it by a floppy disk or thumb drive directly into the system in the antichrist’s quadrupled, mega-impenetrable, high security head quarters building with is located, oddly enough, not in Rome or Jerusalem, but in the same city our hero’s live in.
This is where the van comes in.
They all go to the back loading dock and break open the cipher key pad and cross some wires and get in through the basement.

After this it’s free hand. Some of the group get captured, maybe killed, if the hacker turns out to double cross them there might be a second hacker in the cast, the “Wise Old Person” gets a speech, an alarm get tripped, there’s some shooting.
“The Big Tough Guy” is covering them. Anybody that was in a jail cell before is busted out.

Somewhere in here a “miracle” happens.

- Special effects fly around the bad guys, (SWAT team guys from U.N.I.T.E or O.N.E.), who have guns pointed at our heroes. The bad guys drop dead or scream and blow away or explode.)
- Wise Old Person along with a group of Christians gets thrown into a huge furnace that happens to be in the building. They don’t burn up. The bad guys on the outside do.
-All the bad guys get blinded.

“The Hero” and “The Female Hero” and “The Hacker” make it to…

- The main frame computer or
- The broadcast tower, or
- Power junction, or
- The bridge, or
- The control room

… and then they…

- Upload the virus
- Kill the power
- Take over the satellite
- Out boost the broadcast power of the antichrist
- Stop the launch (Right when the clock says, “007”. No… That’s James Bond.)

The result? The result will always be that on big screen TV’s on the roof tops instead of seeing the antichrist giving his speech everyone on the planet will see…

- Jack Van Impe
- T.D. Jakes
- John Hagee
- Anybody that gave at least $500,000 for the production of the film.

… preaching a summary of the gospel in 180 seconds.

Our hero’s get out of there amid the explosions and the flames and back to a quick get away in the van.
Cut away to the actor playing the antichrist, shot from over head, howling to the ceiling and shaking his fist, “I’ll get you Tribulation Commando Force Team 6!”

There it is.
Now you have seen every end times tribulation movie ever made.

Save yourself the time and effort.

*****************************************

Look, folks… I’m all for things that excite people into studying Biblical prophecy.
The Left Behind books have gotten thousands asking the right questions and I praise God for that.

Thousands I said. Perhaps hundreds of thousands. If you’re one of them, good on ya.
But I’m skeptical the millions that have seen these movies have the right heart.

The Left Behind books are novels but the Bible is God’s Word. The goal of any type of fiction based on Biblical passages would, I hope, be to get people to go to the source. (I’m not against Christian fiction.)

But there are people… Sorry… But huge cross sections of people are dull, un-discerning, lazy in study and gullible.
I don’t see that it helps to make two dozen movies using the same plot line that may, or may not be, the reality of the scriptural “Great Tribulation”.

(Why do I have so many then? Cause they were in a bin for $5. I collect movies based on the Bible. I had no idea they would turn out to be the same movie all over again! It’s given me sage advice to give.)

These movies make it sound like the Bible backs up the idea of a “Christian Commando” team that “stick it to the antichrist” like a “holy A-Team” and get back to the hide out just in time for prayers and slaps on the back.
“It doesn’t look so bad.”

The Bible teaches that the Tribulation will see half the people in the world dead, (Rev 6:8; 9:18).
All the fish in the sea will die, (Rev 16:3). A quarter of the earth burned (Rev 8:7).
Satan will be allowed to prevail over the saints, (Rev 13:7).
Most of the believers in Christ during the Tribulation will die.

There comes a time when it has stopped being about displaying God’s sovereignty in knowing the beginning from the end and just making money off a genre.

I have personally seen the types this prolific industry has produced.
People who think it might be kinda cool being in the Tribulation and shooting a gun and “sticking it to the antichrist”.
I have literally read in forums people writing that they want to be here to fight the antichrist and die a martyr.
I have personally met a guy who wanted to stay behind so he could be a pastor to saints in the Tribulation.

At their best these films can make the Tribulation look no worse than the Great Depression.
At worst they can make it look like a bad Sylvester Stallone movie.

If the Great Tribulation is not taken dead seriously it can make for a lackadaisical attitude toward urgency in evangelism.

Prophecy of the last days is a pearl.
It displays God as sovereign and in control of all human history, (Isaiah 46:9-10).
He has it all worked out, have faith in Him. He will win.
Displaying it over and over like an “Oceans 3:16” movie is borderline casting this pearl before swine.

Don’t get me wrong. I like a good Christian movie. I just think some people are bankrupt on imagination and can’t come up with any new ideas. They are a “One Trick Pony”.

On the other hand there are quality Christian movies out there.
“Time Changer” Starring Gavin MacLeod and directed by Rich Christiano.
(Pretty much anything directed by Rich Christiano.)
“The Imposter” Starring Kevin Max and Kerry Livgren. About a Christian rock singer whose life falls apart.
The TBS made movies about the Bible can be quite good. Some times. They all tend to stray from the Bible. (“The book was better.”)
But by and large most stay true to the doctrine.
The “Joseph” one was the best. The “Moses” one was the worst.
“Peter and Paul” Very good made for TV movie from back in the 70’s with Anthony Hopkins as Paul.
“Jesus Of Nazareth” made by NBC in the 70’s starring Robert Powell as Jesus.
I have all these on DVD. “The Passion Of The Christ”, “The Ten Commandments”, “The Bible: In The Beginning”, “The Greatest Story Ever Told”, “King Of Kings” (I even have the old silent Cecil B. Demille version.).
I have “The Story Of Ruth” and “One Night With The King” (It’s about Esther.)

I’m not against Christian movies. I’m just kinda queasy from the same story coming round and round again.
I like the story. I just liked it best the first time. When it was called “A Thief In The Night”.
It should’ve been left alone.