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I suppose you would have to have been living in severe isolation to have not heard about Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army and their oppressive regime in Central Africa. He is responsible for the enslavement of thousands of children as soldiers and sex slaves. Coincidentally, my daily reading from William Gurnall’s writings, though the writing is 350 years old, was incredibly relevant to the situation in Africa. But first, consider these verses:

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28)

Jesus did warn about enemies, about wolves who would prowl and endanger the flock of God. But the nature of these wolves was not to oppress people in a temporal way, but they instead lead souls off to hell with flattering words and false doctrine. As it says in the book of Proverbs, “An enemy multiplies kisses.” (Proverbs 27:6) Israel was looking for someone to release them from their earthly oppressor, Rome, but Jesus came to redeem them from the power of Sin, Death and the Devil.

Jesus’ servant Paul saved his anger for false teachers who led the church astray by departing from the pure gospel. See the book of Galatians where Paul wishes the false teachers would go and castrate themselves! (Galatians 5:12)

I am not saying that we ought not to be outraged at the acts of Joseph Kony. His actions are undeniably evil. But maybe this is also a good time to ask whether our pulse quickens to even half the pace as we consider those deceived and enslaved by the Enemy of our souls and led off to eternal destruction. Here is what William Gurnall has to say:

Because a dismal night of spiritual poverty and blindness is stretched over whole nations, they are under a continual massacre from the bloody butcher of hell! And that soul fiend makes easy conquest of people in darkness. He lays his knife to their throats and meets with no resistance because he finds them fast asleep in their ignorance — destitute of the only light which can reveal the way of escape from the destroyer. Saints who have tasted the sweetness of gospel grace tremble at the pitiful condition of the ungodly — and may God forgive us for not weeping even more for them. We do not live so far from these people that we should not pity them, pray for them, and sincerely desire their salvation. And do not be deceived — failure to do these things smears us with the guilt of their blood, which is shed continually by the murderer of mankind.

“Because a dismal night of spiritual poverty and blindness is stretched over whole nations, they are under a continual massacre from the bloody butcher of hell!”

While you cannot give these unlearned people a portion of your own salvation, remember that they are starving to death because they have never feasted on the Bread of Life. Some have even taken up the false hope that heathens can find Christ by knowing the sun, moon, and stars, by seeing the greatness of creation. Those with his view may seem to be kinder to the heathen, but I fear it will be shown in the end that they are the more cruel for not rather working and praying for the light of gospel preaching to arise in power in the nations.

When military personnel judge the defense of a camp to be adequate, reinforcements and aid often begin to arrive more slowly. And for this reason I wish Satan had not deceived so many in this same fashion. If such a wonderful lesson could be learned from the stars, we should by now have heard of some thus taught. Of course a star did lead the wise men to Christ, but a heavenly preacher opened that text to them; otherwise they would never have understood what they saw.

— William Gurnall, selection from The Christian in Complete Armour — “Seventh Consideration: The Christian’s Spiritual Shoe”