This article has a startling title. But it should be startling. There is, and has for centuries been, a particularly strange cult all over the world which glorifies dead soldiers. This cult was to be found all over the world before the Roman Empire, and it continues today. There was formerly a part of this world which some people called "the Christian world", and the cult of the dead soldier was dominant then and there. And today, when the very concept of "the Christian nation" is slowly fading and is limited to just a very few nations of this world, the cult of the dead soldier is just as strong as it ever was.

I wonder how many readers know, or have already guessed, what the cult of the dead soldier is. Probably quite a few by now. But let's lay it out, for careful inspection. In keeping with hypertext patterns, we have items 1, 2, 3,4, and Conclusion.

1. According to the cult of the dead soldier, a patch of ground is made holy, or hallowed, if soldiers kill each other on it. It does not matter to them what the causes were; all that they say matters, is that soldiers killed each other on a patch of ground in obedience to orders.

The Lord has said differently. 

It is good to love our enemies and our neighbors and to do good for them: and it is evil to do otherwise. A tomb -- a gravesite, or a multiple gravesite -- is considered a place of filth, and not hallowed, at all. 

It is not possible for a man to make something holy; only God can make something holy, because the only one who is truly good, is God.

There are many of the cult of the dead soldier who apparently know Christ, despite this other love they have. I suggest that many of these are people to whom God has not yet chosen to reveal their situation. 

2. Many claim that the sacrifice by a dead soldier of himself, is similar in kind to the sacrifice by the Lord Jesus of Himself, and deserves analogous respect.

This formula is, in fact, one of the strangest theories of all.

When the Lord sacrificed Himself for us, He was doing no evil to anyone at all, and He was sacrificing Himself for the eternal lives of those who were killing Him.

But a dead soldier has done very little self-sacrifice.

In the first place, the dead soldier promised and swore to work very hard to not do self-sacrifice. Self-sacrifice is not the purpose of the dead soldier: it is the last resort, the thing he or she did because all else in his or her assignment failed.

Secondly, the dead soldier was doing self-sacrifice not for the purpose of doing good to someone: the dead soldier did his or her self-sacrifice, for the purpose of a grave offense against someone else: for the purpose of killing them.

And third, the dead soldier with the quasi-christian cross painted on his or her F-18 fighter, was not helping anyone enter eternal life. Rather, he or she was simply trying to help extend by just a bit the lives in this world of a few friends.

3. A credit to dead soldiers, for the food and shelter and freedom that other people have.

But God has stated things very differently. He has said that if men and women credit other men and women, or their warfare, for food and clothing and shelter and freedom, He will be very unhappy indeed, and deliver much punishment. He has said that we all must credit Him alone for food and shelter and clothing and freedom.

And lastly:

4. A claim that all soldiers who have served -- dead or not -- are justified. This is because, so they say, nations have the privilege of justifying people in their offenses and defenses.

But this is also not true. There is only one justification available to men and women, and it is through love, submission, obedience, and service to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other justification: none of the nations of this world are justified, in other words, are good. There is only one who is good, and that is God.

There are many poor souls tortured with guilt by the cult of the dead soldier. There are also many more who are led away from Christ by the works and the teachings of the cult of the dead soldier.

When men and women learn the freedoms God is willing to give us, we are freed from tremendous loads placed upon our shoulders.  The Father in Heaven is eager to rescue us from the clutches of those who are trying to convince us to kill others for the sake of control over favorite patches of dirt.  

The truth shall set us free.

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