Published February 4, 2008

by Pastor Eric Gabourel (click here for audio, click here for the powerpoint)

Since it is the peace and justice conference, I want to talk this morning about why we’re together as a peace and justice fellowship. I want to discuss the very foundation of what brought us together and bound us as one as Pentecostals and Charismatics for peace and justice. I want to delve into the ideology and the writings of the early Pentecostal leaders and take a look at their views of Scripture and war. The title of my message this morning is Loyalty and Perseverance: The Bible is just as it is and we Should Follow it Close!

You might ask, “Why that title?” Why not “The early Pentecostal theology for peace”? I tell you why…when we look at the next slide [available at www.pcpf.org]. I want you to notice the date of this article from the Church of God Evangel. It was published on October 21, 1916 and today’s date is October 21, 2007. I felt so led to use this article because it was published this very day 91 years ago. It’s an article from our denominational journal, the Church of God Evangel in 1916 by A.J. Tomlinson, who was the first general overseer of the Church of God. Let me pause here for a moment…what was in the air in the United States during 1916?  War.  World War I to be exact. So war is in the air and we have Pentecostals not only in the Church of God but in most other denominations as well who begin to address the war because they’re pacifists and stand for peace.

 It reads like this:

There is surely nothing more beautiful than real loyalty to Christ. It is counted patriotic for one to be loyal to his country. It is surely more than patriotism for one to be loyal to our Lord and King.

One may love his country and be obedient to its laws, and love it so well that he will die on the battlefield in its defense, and still be disloyal to God. And on the other hand one may be loyal to Christ and be disloyal to his country, because the laws of the country often conflict with the laws of Christ. Acts 4:19, Acts 5:29.

Notice that he referenced Acts 4:19 and 5:29 after addressing the dichotomy of the laws of ones country and the laws of Christ. These passages exhort believers to obey God rather then men. In perspective Tomlinson stood for the separation of church and state, it is still in our bylaws today, though we have strayed away from its meaning and principle. But we stand for the separation of the church and the state. When the laws of the state come in conflict with the laws of God we are biblically mandated to disobey unjust laws in committing civil disobedience as Henry David Therou has said or Holy Obedience as my Pentecostal brothers and sisters would say. Then he begins to expound in this article about Daniel and the three Hebrew children. Let’s take a brief look at their lives. Daniel was a prophet in Babylonian captivity and he was told not to pray. There was a decree passed only to pray to the god of Nebuchadnezzar and as we know well Daniel defied it.

He then expounds on the three Hebrew children. What were their names? (Shadrech Medshach, and Abendigo) or Shadrach Meshach, and to bed we go if your felling a little tired. These three Hebrew bothers were ordered to bow down to worship foreign gods, but thy committed Holy Obedience instead. You see God is with those who commit Holy Obedience; because when they were placed into the furnace of fire for defying the status quo the angel of God appeared and protected them because God is with those who commit Holy Obedience. God love those who commit Holy Obedience! In the same vein, when you and I obey the gospel fully we automatically become unintentional insurrectionist. Because simply by standing for the gospel we stand for revolution. Not a Bolsheviks revolution, but for the Kingdom of God. We must be able to draw these distinctions we must see the Gospel as public truth and applicable to all areas of life.

Now I want to take a look at some of the ways the early Pentecostals viewed their pacifist witness. When some academics elaborate on the early Pentecostal pacifistic witness they will say that it was driven by their eschatological views which stated that Jesus was coming back tomorrow so don’t get involved in the war effort. I would like to debunk that myth this morning because that is a lie! That’s not the only reason they objected! Let’s take C.H. Mason the founder of the Church of God in Christ as our first example, who was put in jail because he spoke out against the war. Listen to what he said and taught:

We believe the shedding of human blood or taking of human life to be contrary to the teaching of our Lord and Savior, and as a body are adverse to war in all its various forms. – C. H. Mason

So it wasn’t just their eschatology that drove them, it was their reading of the teachings of Jesus Christ that drove them. For surely Jesus teaches us to be Peacemakers! Not only that, He teaches us to love our enemies. Now let me extrapolate on my postcolonial ideology of what that means. Because there has been a theology that has been presented to us for so long that states that this is only applicable to individual circumstances and making Jesus seem like an unpractical idealist. But He is way more then that, He is the author and giver of life. We must look at the context in which Jesus was saying this.

Now when I begin to talk about Jesus and war, you will find that there are many Christians who are pro-war. Many Christians and it’s sad! I like to pose a question to them. If you had a foreign nation come into your country and invade it what would you do? First we must see that the United States of America has 737 military bases on the planet in other people’s countries. What would you do if they put one in your country? Their response is that they own guns and they would take up arms and fight them. But was that Jesus’ response? Jesus lived in an occupied land that was occupied by a foreign power. Who was that power? (Rome). So that when he said love your enemies he was talking about people in our families, people in our communities, people that we work with, and he was also talking about the people that oppressed them. Those who where crucifying them. He did not subtract them from the equation. That’s not in my Bible at least. It might be in yours. You might have that ole colonialist Bible. My Bible does not inform me that way. It tells me that He loved everyone including His Roman enemies. I want to extrapolate on this by looking at Jesus most beautiful statement found in Luke 6:27-28:

Luke 6:27 "But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”

Now I want to look at an instance when Jesus loved His Roman enemies. The ones that came to arrest Him, brutalize Him, and murder Him. Let’s look at this passage in Luke 22:35

Luke 22:35 Then Jesus asked them, "When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?"

            "Nothing," they answered.

LK 22:36 He said to them, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.

Now I have so many brothers that will use this passage to say that Jesus advocated war. But it doesn’t end there we have to finish the passage. He goes on the say...

37 It is written: `And he was numbered with the transgressors’; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment."

            LK 22:38 The disciples said, "See, Lord, here are two swords."

"That is enough," he replied.

Now I want us to take a look at this passage. We find that He asked them if they had swords not to defend themselves but as a symbol of the impending crisis that will ensue. And I want you to have a sword because the scripture must be fulfilled which states that I must be numbered among the transgressors. So that only transgressors are the ones that bear arms. And they said that they only had two. Now I want you to imagine that if there was a mob of about 30 people that was to walk through the front door of the church and we only had 2 swords. Do you think two swords are going to defend 12 people against a mob? Of course not. They have swords, shields, clubs, and whips. Their about to beat you down my brother. Your going to get beat down you can have as many swords as you would like. But now watch this…the passage doesn’t end there. Let’s look at what happens when Peter uses one of those swords. 

Luke 22:49 When Jesus' followers saw what was going to happen, they said, "Lord, should we strike with our swords?" 50 And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear.

So now Peter gets bold enough to use the sword. He cuts the dudes ear off.

LK 22:51 But Jesus answered, "No more of this!" And he touched the man's ear and healed him.

Surely Jesus wasn’t telling His disciples to get swords to kill, because when he took the sword to do that Jesus took the guys ear and puts it back on loving his enemy that was about to kill him. He goes further in the Matthews account

MT 26:52 "Put your sword back in its place," Jesus said to him, "for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.

And all who lives by arms will die by arms! You can’t proliferate nuclear weapons and expect to live in peace. It’s just not going to happen. Because you’re a threat to nations when you have them. And it doesn’t even end there He goes further in Johns account and says:

John 18:36 Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."

So you and I need to recognize according to 1^st peter that we are a holy nation. The people of collectively, the elect are citizens of the Kingdom of God. Not only citizens but ambassadors of Jesus Christ our king and we must represent him well

A second perspective of early Pentecostal pacifism was birthed out of their view was that saw them selves as the rebirth of the New Testament church. Let me give you an academic term. They were Restorationist. Can everybody say that? They saw the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the latter day rain, as a rebirthing of the early church and they saw themselves as the New Testament church. Many of them called themselves the Bible church. That’s why A. J. Tomlinson adapted the name the Church of God. He said that we were the Church of God of the Bible we’re living it out now, it is here! A lot of times we look at the early Pentecostal leaders and think of them as ignorant. A bunch of back wood hillbillies. But when you do your reading you find out that these guys were versed in church history. R.G. Spurling the founder of the Church of God wrote a little book entitled the Missing Link which he argued was love. Therein he expressed a thorough knowledge of church history.

When many of them read the history they saw that the early Christians did not engage in war. Did you know that? For the first three centuries of the church Christian participation in the military was forbidden. It was viewed as a sin. Not until Constantine, supposedly converted to Christianity, he certainly wasn’t a follower of Jesus Christ. When he passed the Edict of Milan in 313 AD he wanted them to participate because their going to grow in power so we might as well put them in power and controls the church and that’s exactly what happened.

One of our dear brothers from the early Pentecostal movement, Aurther Sydney Booth Clibborn, wrote a book entitled Blood Against Blood. This was an early treatise of Pentecostal pacifism published in 1914. That’s how old this book I hold is. I want to read an insert. He wrote two chapters on pacifism in the early church. Listen to this:

General Sherman: ‘War is hell. . . .’ George Fox, when offered a captaincy: ‘I cannot fight, for the spirit of war is slain within me.’ Sydney Smith: ‘God is forgotten in war: every principle of Christianity is trampled upon.’ Tertullian: ‘Our religion teaches us that it is better to be killed than to kill.’ John Wesley: ‘Shall Christians assist the Prince of Hell, who was a murderer from the beginning, by telling the world of the benefit or need of war?’

Arthur Sydney Booth-Clibborn, “What is War?” The Weekly Evangel, 21 April 1917, 2.

I would also like to quote Tertullian because it relates to our earlier text in stating that:

            – Tertullian, de Idololatria 19

The early Pentecostals where driven by more then just their eschatology. They were driven by the teaching of Jesus and the early church which was against militarism and war. But there was another reason they were against war and I like this reason a lot. It reminds me of our brother Dr. Dario Lopez. It sounds like he could have written what we are about to read himself.

Thirdly, they were against war because of their concern for the poor and oppressed. Herein is the prophetic witness of early Pentecostal pacifism. Who’s heard of the Azuza Street Revival? It took place in 1906 in Los Angeles. It was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and power. William J. Seymour was the head of the Revival who was an African American brother. Frank Bartleman wrote something very powerful about what happened there. He said that the color lines were washed away by the blood of the Lamb. There was ethnic unity among them. There was no difference between white and black. The papers began to attack the movement and call it an integrationist movement. Listen to what else Frank Bartlemen said:

The poor people must spill their blood to save the rulers fortunes…. The servant class must be emancipated. The lords must turn their great ‘preserves’ into potato patches to feed the starving thousands of the common people….[Soldiers are] blinded by sin, blinded by ignorance, blinded and controlled by their leaders.

Frank Bartleman, “The European War,” The Weekly Evangel, 10 July 1915, 3.

There is a lot to unpack from that reading. You and I in applying it must be faithful to the nonviolent teachings as the church. We must stop abusing that G word which is grace. We like to come to church and pray and live like something else when we walk out the door. That’s where church really takes place. The Kingdom of God is not manifest in how many members a church has. It is manifested by the way your live. The grace of God according to Dietrich Bonhoffeer is not cheap it is not confession without repentance. The Grace of God is that He has given you Christ so that you could follow Him. The grace of God is to act, live, and proclaim the gospel in a holistic manner. To be concerned about people’s souls, where that soul is headed, but also about peoples emotional well being, mental well being, peoples physical well being. We believe in divine healing as Pentecostals! But we must also be concerned about peoples socio-economic well being. And that’s the one that’s always left out. Why? Because it cost too much, its going to cost the church too much, its going to cost me too much, I might lose my job, it might cost me my position in the church, and I might get kicked out of the church. All of that will not be sufficient of an answer when you stand before Jesus Christ! Never!

God doesn’t want ignorant people following Him. Jesus said count the cost. Sit down and evaluate this thing. For he tells us to take up our crosses and follow Him. But sit down and think about it first. Some times we beg people to follow Jesus, but that wasn’t Jesus’ mechanism. He said before you consider this sit down and think, because my way is the way of the cross. My way is the way of suffering, is the way of rejection, of sacrifice, my way is the way of death. That’s what He calls us to in implementing the Kingdom of God. In doing so you and I have this tremendous responsibility in our prophetic witness to criticize the state. We can not bless every thing the state does. How many people know Jesus is not a Republican to start with? How many people know that God has not chosen America to be the arm that He uses to fulfill prophecy in the last days? God has chosen the church! And he has given His church the keys to the Kingdom of God so that what we bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven and the gates of hell shall not prevail against us. Frank Bartleman writes in another place:

This war is not a holy war (WWI).  It is the result of pride, greed, jealousy, hatred, hypocrisy, etc. 

The whole thing is a game of chess, with the nations as the players.  Kings and leaders, capitalists, are the chess men.

They play their nations as the stake.  Rulers offer their private purse, bankers and financiers of the world for gain, munition manufacturers and provision merchants, all work together in this game.  Flesh and blood of the common people,

soldiers, are either forced or hired to do the fighting.  The souls of men are the material used up in the scrabble.  Rev. 18:13.

Frank Bartleman, "What Will the Harvest Be?" Weekly Evangel, August 7, 1915, p. 1.

I want to expound on this insert and bring it into the context of today because the very same thing is happening here today in 21^st century America by our government. This may or may not be astonishing to you, but listen to this. This is relevant information. It was updated today. The war in Iraq cost…can you even read that number? The war in Iraq has cost $461,785,566,708 thus far.

So where are the priorities of our government? Where are they? There not invested in people. There invested in spreading free market fundamentalism rather then freeing people from the yoke of oppression. That’s where we’re at. Now there is a department of the U.S. government called HUD. It is the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. As your pastor I know that no one is intentionally on the streets. No one makes the option to live in the street. It’s not your intentions. There is a systemic problem that we’re not willing to look at…especially not the church. You know why? Because we are in bed with the government and we don’t want to bit the hand that feeds us. And when the church is in bed with the government it becomes a whore. As Frank Bartleman has said elsewhere, “The war church is a harlot church.”

Now listen to this in 1978 HUD’s budget was over $ 83 billion. This pretty big chunk of change going to affordable housing. In 1983 HUD’s budget was only $18 billion dollars. In 1983 general public emergency shelters began opening nation wide. Because the government divested in peoples lives they ended up on the street in mass numbers in the 1980’s. since this was a problem the Republican party and Ronald Reagan said let’s put a band-aid on the problem and in 1987 congress passed the Stewart B. McKinney Act providing $880 million dollars in homeless assistance funding. Did you hear what I said? It went from $83 billion in building houses to $880 million dollars in homeless assistance. Not in building housing. I’m just saying the same thing Frank Bartleman said. That is the tradition that we come from. And you see, in order for the Pentecostal movement to go forward we’ve got to look back.

Since 1987, annual McKinney homeless assistance has never been more than $1.4 billion. Now I’m about to frighten you! The current federal budget proposes to spend $2.6 billion dollars on a single submarine! That is twice the money that is going into homeless assistance. Not affordable housing. Now watch this…when someone receives money from the government that has means do they have to go out into the street to sweep? When you receive money…I use to receive government assistance, I know what I’m talking about. When you receive G.A. you’ll find yourself right out there sweeping those streets. Now why don’t the rich and the middle class have to go out there and sweep the streets when they receive money from the government? Their not out there! At one time those jobs were good city jobs that paid well. Now those jobs that were used to empower people are used to enslave people. It’s not going to stop until you and I address it. It cost something. Again, Jesus doesn’t want ignorant people to follow Him. He tells us to count the cost.

What was the cross? It wasn’t a Jewish mechanism. It was the Roman Empires form of capital punishment. What Jesus says is that in order to follow me you must take up the states death penalty upon yourself! Because to follow Him entails sacrifice! Jesus spoke truth to power. Don’t get it wrong. Jesus told the leaders of His day you do well in paying tithes, but what about justice and the love of God? What about the poor? He rebuked them. There was something in Jesus day called Carbon. It was a practice in ancient Palestine where the leaders told citizens to pay money to help refurbish the temple. In doing so men were neglecting taking care of their mothers! Jesus didn’t stand for that. No! He condemned it! When the king, Herod, sent a message that he was going to crucify him, Jesus responded by saying, “You go tell that fox I’ll get to Jerusalem on my time.” I have my own kingdom to establish. That’s what He told the George Bush of His day.

The crucifixion was for the atonement for the sins of the world. But it wasn’t like Jesus was mystically picked out of a crowd and crucified. He was crucified because He proclaimed a kingdom that was opposed to the Roman Empire. That’s what got Him nailed to the cross and you and I are called to proclaim the same kingdom. Salvation to the human soul and we should be happy to receive persecution for proclaiming salvation in Christ. But we should also be happy to receive persecution for proclaiming justice as Jesus did. As the apostle did in James chapter 5. James condemned the rich because they refused to pay their workers a just wage. When you and I are silent that’s when injustices are allowed to flourish. When good people do nothing, evil prevails. When we look into the world to day and ask why is god allowing this? God is not doing those things. God is not allowing the genocide in Darfar. That’s happening because you and I are silent, because God has called us! We are the body of Christ! We are to proclaim the full gospel of Jesus Christ!

Now I have a lot more to say! I can preach all day! Don’t sit in that window over there because you might fall out!  I want to comment on some of the work of Charles Fox Parham. Many consider him to be the so called godfather of the Pentecostal movement. Listen to what he had to say on the matter:

The past order of civilization was upheld by the power of nationalism, which in turn was upheld by the spirit of patriotism, which divided the peoples of the world by geographical boundaries, over which each fought the other until they turned the world into a shamble.  The ruling power of this old order has always been the rich, who exploited the masses for profit or drove them en masse to war, to perpetuate their misrule.

(That is not the purpose of government. We have to recognize the state. We have to work to be the conscience of the state so that it stays within the boundaries of what God created it to be.)

The principle teachers of patriotism maintaining nationalism were the churches, who have lost their spiritual power and been forsaken of God.

(Today when we look into the world and into America, we find a church that lost its spiritual power. It’s dead because it’s narrow in its proclamation of truth. The NAE would rather opt to rub backs with the president then be critical of the president. You and I are not called to be in bed with them, but to speak truth to them. Are you going to be an Amaziah or an Amos? A Ciaphas or a Jesus? Are you going to walk about in your religious piety without the public witness of the Kingdom of God? Are you going to bless everything that the state does or are you going to take transformative initiatives to make a change?) Parham goes on to say:

Thus, on the side of the old order in the coming struggle, will be arrayed the governments, the rich, and the churches, and whatever forces they can drive or patriotically inspire to fight for them.  On the other hand the new order that rises out of the sea of humanity knows no national boundaries (It knows neither Canadian, American, or Mexican; It knows neither Israeli or Palestinian; Iranian or Syrian), believing in the universal brotherhood of mankind and the establishment of the teachings of Jesus Christ as a foundation for all laws, whether political or social.

            Charles F. Parham, Everlasting Gospel, pp. 27-28.

It sounds like the brother is being critical of the state to me. It sounds like the brother had read the teachings of Jesus Christ and galvanized that this was the way to go.

I’m going to end now. I want to talk a little about our denomination the Church of God (Cleveland, TN). We were a peace church until 1945. That’s why I proclaim the whole gospel. That’s why it’s important, because our church at one time was a peace church. We refused to go to war, we spoke out against war. We preached the gospel; you might be saying Pastor Eric you sound like a sociologist or a liberal. If you come to this church you know I preach salvation in Christ alone, but I preach a whole gospel. I hope you hear this coming from this pulpit. I don’t preach on this subject matter every Sunday.

It tickles me that when I bring up the early Pentecostal witness to other Pentecostals they bring up a man named Alvin York. Has anyone heard of Alvin York? Alivin York was from Tennessee. He was a Christian brother who became very popular because of the choice he made. There was a movie made about him entitled Seargent York. He was a pacifist who was drafted. His pastor told him to get out of going the right way. He told him to go register as a contentious objector because of his religious convictions. He does and he ends up in the office of the admiral and the admiral sits him down and told him to take a copy of the history of the United States of America. I want you to read about the glories of your country and what it’s done. York goes home and reads the book and is convinced that war is the right path in resolving conflict. Maintaining his Christianity in doing so, people praise him.

There is another unsung hero that I would like to take for my own. He was a witness during the same period. His name was Dave Allen. I like him so much because he was a member of my church the Church of God. The draft was instated and this brother said that he wasn’t even going to register, because Jesus teaches me otherwise. I don’t even want to give them the opportunity to send me. Now the Church of God didn’t tell him to go about it this way, they told him to register as a contentious objector. Tomlinson in one of his articles that he didn’t know how far they needed to go in our pacifistic witness, but I don’t want to be the one who draws the line. So he gave them room to express themselves. The Church of God had pamphlets that they passed out to their members teaching them how they could stay out of the war. I want to read an insert from the evangel regarding Dave Allen in Alabama after the police came to his house because of his refusal:

Sister Allen said that he kept his hands above his head all the time trying to ward off the blows and protect his head. His hands, head and neck were beaten almost to a pulp. The Dr. who held the inquest said he would hardly have recovered from the blows if they had not shot him.

Brother Allen was is the second draft and was called for in October. Knowing that his Bible church opposed war, he felt that he could not kill and had been hiding out. He carried his Bible with him everywhere he went.

While we do not endorse the way he proceeded to evade war, yet we feel that from his view point he might be classed among the martyrs.

(That’s exactly what he was. He was a martyr for preaching the gospel and living it out.)We extend unto his wife and parents our heart felt sympathy. God’s grace will be sufficient. Keep pressing on, the battle will soon be over.

I am looking for the time to come when many will have to seal our testimony with our blood.

            J.B. Ellis, “The Murder of Brother Dave Allen,” Evangel, 27 Apr. 1918, p.4.

That is my hero; it’s not Alvin York who capitulated to the whims of the state. Dave Allen who underwent the same crisis took up his cross and followed Jesus. Now who was the author of the article that I just read from? (J.B. Ellis) I hold in my hands here a copy of his book Blazing the Gospel Trail. He was the Church of God state overseer of the state of Alabama during WWI. He has a chapter entitled war time experiences. He writes:

As the war continued, the government began to call for financial aid and I was urged to take out government bonds. I thought his would be aiding the war, so I refrained. They kept calling and giving opportunity for people to take them out. Finally I was told if I did not buy any I was laying myself liable to indictment, so I went to the meeting held for the purpose of taking out these bonds to learn what I could about them. A Methodist pastor was in charge. Everybody in the community took bonds that day but me. I said I did not want to aid combative engagement, so did not take any. I explained, “I do not want to do anything against the government, but feel I have a right to my religious convictions and believe the government will recognize that.” The Methodist minister arose, making some very hard statements against me, saying he believed a man could be killed while his sword was piercing the heart of a German and go as straight to heaven as would a sainted mother from her closet of prayer. He said that a man taking my position was a traitor to his country and lower down than a suck-egg hound. I made no reply.

You know what happened to our dear brother J.B. Ellis? He spent a little time in jail. He went there with joy and preached the gospel of Jesus Christ. You would never guess who he was in the cell with? You know who he preached to? Brothers from the I.W.W. the Industrial Workers of the World. He said look, though we may agree on some points, let me tell you of another prophet besides Eugene Debs. A prophet who’s greater then Debs. He is the Savior of all man kind. His name is Jesus Christ. It’s for His sake that I landed in here. So though we may be on the same page on a couple of things, let me show you the author of this justice that you seek. From jail he also sent a letter to A.J. Tomlinson expressing caution to him about what he published in the Evangel regarding the war. The FBI showed up to Tomlinson’s office and interrogated him and told him that if he continued writing against the war they were going to stop him from mailing it.

Finally, our statements of faith before 1928 stated that in article 29 that:

The Church of God stands for the whole Bible rightly divided. The New Testament is the only rule for government and discipline. Below is given some of the teachings that are [sic] made prominent:

29. Against members going to war—Ex. 20:13, 1 Chron. 28:3, Psalm 120:7, Math. 5:38-48, 6:14, 15; 26:50-56, Luke 22:49-52, John 18:10, 11, 36; Rom. 12:19.

Because of the pressure that the Church of God experienced the stance was changed to read like this in 1928:

29. Against members going to war in combatant service.                                                           Read Rom. 12:9; Matt. 5:38-48; Matt. 18:10, 11.

Finally in 1945 it was made to read as following:

29. “The Church of God believes that nations can and should settle their differences without going to war; however, in the event of war, if a member engages in combatant service, it will not affect his status with the Church. In case a member is called into military service that has conscientious objections to combatant service, the Church will support him in his constitutional rights.”

In order for the Pentecostal movement to go forward in the power of the early Pentecostal movement…when people prayed and God responded. I don’t know if you remember? I don’t know if you’ve read? I don’t know if you’ve heard what took place in the early Pentecostal movement? We heard a holistic gospel, and listen, souls were getting saved! More so then they are today. When you and I begin to remember the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. When you and I recognize that Jesus is coming back soon. He is coming back! He wants to come find a church that is doing more then preaching on a corner. He is coming back for a church that is preaching a holistic gospel. Many in that day will say, “Lord we have cast out demons in Your name.” Jesus will call them workers of iniquity because they proclaimed without living out the kingdom. In order for our movement to go forward you and I have a responsibility to reclaim and restore our nonviolent witness in the world today. This morning I hear God’s voice and He’s calling His church back unto its first century witness. Back unto its early Pentecostal witness. He wants to raise you up this morning. When God looks at you He sees somebody. You might have been beaten down, your name tread in the mud, but when God sees you He sees a soldier He wants to empower and place in His army. To preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, to see healings take place, but to also speak truth to power and to work for peace and justice. That is not alien to the gospel of Jesus Christ! We have made it alien because it is so uncomfortable to us. Because when we do we have to take up the cross. Today we have Christianity without a cross. We need to reinstate the cross back into Christianity. This morning we need to sit down and reevaluate where were at. We need to make an intelligent decision this morning if were going to take up the capital punishment of the state. To proclaim truth! To love the poor! Being in solidarity with them! We all have a Galilee! Jesus left His comfort zone and walked among the oppressed! He said the Kingdom of God belongs to you. That’s where it begins my brothers and sisters! If we are not in solidarity with the hurting, the bruised, the oppressed, we are not the church of Jesus Christ! Would you stand and pray with me this morning?