Lyrics
Onward, Christian
soldiers!
Marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus
Going on
before.
Christ, the royal Master,
Leads against the foe;
Forward into
battle,
See his banners go!
Onward, Christian soldiers!
Marching as to
war,
With the cross of Jesus
Going on before.
At the sign of
triumph
Satan's host doth flee;
On, then, Christian soldiers,
On to
victory.
Hell's foundations quiver
At the shout of praise;
Brothers,
lift your voices,
Loud your anthems raise.
Onward, Christian
soldiers!
Marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus
Going on
before.
Like a mighty army
Moves the Church
of God;
Brothers, we are treading
Where the Saints have trod.
We are
not divided;
All one body we:
One in hope and doctrine,
One in
charity.
Onward, Christian soldiers!
Marching as to war,
With the cross
of Jesus
Going on before.
Onward, then, ye
people;
Join our happy throng.
Blend with ours your voices
In the
triumph song:
Glory, laud, and honor
Unto Christ, the King.
This
through countless ages
Men and angels sing.
Onward, Christian
soldiers!
Marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus
Going on
before.
Even as a child in the Presbyterian Church, I never
liked singing Onward Christian Soldiers. It brought to my child mind white
robed zealots slashing and burning their way through the countryside giving the
heathen two choices...join or die. As I got older I realized that in
some parts of the world and in some ages that is exactly what the choices
zealous Christians gave the heathen. The heathen have their own rendition
of Onward Islamic Soldiers I am sure.
When I came into the WCG, of course, there were
many other hymns that I had never heard of. Most "written" or adapted from
the Old Testament by Dwight Armstrong. They also seemed to have a rather
gruesome theme of slash and burn or were based on the Psalms. Some,
like "Praise Ye the Lordo.." made you run out of breath just trying to
keep up. We climbed and leapt through windows and who can forget "Death
shall them seize and the tomb ALIVE they shall go down...Smiiiile
Brethren!" If you weren't depressed before church, you were
after.
But at my first church service ever at age 14,
there was good old Onward Christian Soldiers. I sang the words,
"with the cross of Jesus..." at the end before I realized the words had been
changed to "with the word of Jesus.." That should have been my first hint
of decades to come!
But it was that 3rd stanza that over the years in
the WCG and certainly now came symbolize the absolute insanity of the Church as
it presented itself in reality and ultimately.
Like a mighty army
Moves the Church of
God;
Brothers, we are treading
Where the Saints have trod.
We are not
divided;
All one body we:
One in hope and doctrine,
One in
charity.
Onward, Christian soldiers!
Marching as to war,
With the cross
of Jesus
Going on before.
The church , WCG and all that followed, were never a mighty
army. There was usually one who wanted the soldiers to promote them and
send them, but there was no army. The Church of God hardly moved from what
I could tell and it often moved backwards, retreated, had to get back on the
track or wake up. What kind of army was that? I guess we trod
where the saints trod but that would mean they didn't have much success either
and had to put up with one dumb ass scandal, commands from on high and snow
flakes from heaven and HQ when they needed more ammo which was
money.
"We are not divided, all one body weeeee. One
in hope and doctrine, One in charity." Really? Did I miss something
over the years? This was never true and singing about it was not going to
make it so. Any COG that sings these words to this day needs to simply
drop it from the hymnal. I bet 90% of the congregation, when they get to
this part, are thinking.."Ummm...nice idea but when is this going to
happen?"
Personally, I believe that no group of many people
can "all speak the same thing." If they all are doing this then
there are a lot of brains checked at a lot of doors before entering. When
a Dave Pack, Ron Weinland or Gerald Flurry says this, what they really mean is
"we must all speak the same things I speak." It has precious little
to do with what is true or appropriate. It has everything to do with
compliance and staying in your seat. If the God of the OT had no problem
slaughtering little children, and he didn't, was the now Jesus of the NT who
wanted little children to come unto him, there is some real schizophrenia going
on here. That speaking the same thing has changed a lot over the
millennia. If you really thought Jesus was the reincarnation of YHVH
or EL of the OT, being called over to see him would be risky. Kind of like
having a conversation with Pennywise the Clown.
At any rate, stanza three has no place in a
COG hymnal and the church has no business singing it. It indicts and
incites but does not inspire. I don't want and never did want to belong to
a mighty army shoving and pushing its ideas and demands on others as Weinland,
Pack and Flurry do. (If you understand intercalation you will understand
what you just read.)
The Apostle Pack's latest screed on himself and his
25 reasons why he is right is simply ridiculous, as are the previous 20
something screeds about himself, and the reasons aren't reasons at all.
Neither Haggai or any other place in the Bible ever heard of
Dave Pack and it is some sort of delusion to see yourself spoken of in
scripture. He just makes bull shit up and it seems right to
him.
He so badly wants to be in charge and to be special. He
is not. He is building his opinions, speculations,
musings, misunderstandings, misstatements and misinterpretations on
sand. People are being and are going to continue to be hurt by this ego
centric ministry, which only ministers to itself.
And.... we know how that sand thing works
out...
contact Dennis at dennisdiehl@aol.com
