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Don and Wendy Francisco
The word, "army" occurs 3 times in the New Testament and never in reference to the Body of Christ, only in reference to an ACTUAL army. We are not an army, we are a body. This may seem like a minor point, but...it isn't.
There are several very good reasons why we need to decide NOT to adopt the popular but unscriptural idea that Christians comprise an army.... besides the fact that it isn't scriptural.
Reason one:
An army is ordered as a hierarchy, a body is not. In an army, there are commanders and subcommanders and subsubcommanders, etc. In a body, the brain sends messages directly to each part via the nervous system. Your elbow does not tell your hand what to do. God speaks personally with each member and that is where true order comes from. It isn't a stiff external order, but deep, beautiful peace, coordination, and harmony. When your brain tells your hand to lift up, your entire body automatically lifts and supports your hand.
Reason two:
Armies are assembled for a purpose which usually involves forcing, killing, and the imposition of it's will. A literal army is sometimes needed on earth. But in God's kingdom, we don't want to force anybody to our will because love is never rude. It is impossible to threaten or manipulate a person to God because an authentic decision cannot be made under those circumstances.
Reason three:
You are individually important to God. He does not want to use you, but to work His wonderful works through you according to your faith. In an army the personhood of each individual soldier is not as important as the goal of the army. In the Body, God's Kingdom is glorified by whole, developed, unique, fulfilled people who all function in their individual gifts, callings, and talents.
Reason four: Our war has been won.
Seeing a religious army approaching is going to send the world running in the opposite direction, and for good reason. There is no shortcut to the expansion of God's Kingdom. It is done one heart at a time, from person to person. If you don't have a shine to your heart, enlisting in a sign-waving army won't help. What the Body needs are all the individual members to realize who they are in Christ and to love both other believers, and those who do not yet know God.