Throughout the ages it was the warrior who was the protector of the lands. They stood for what was right, just and good.
In my research I find it very interesting that the warrior’s life resembles much of what we as bible believing Christians are called to do.
I find that it is also a complete opposite of these wolves in sheep’s clothing who teach /promotes “Churchianity”.
A hundred years from now, when people look back to this period of church history in the U.S, how will it be viewed?
Will it be viewed in the positive or will it be viewed in the negative?
Effective or non-effective?
When people look back will it be viewed as some sort of “dark ages”? Or will people see our real biblical impact?
Consider where we are now in our time and age. Here we sit in the modern churches of America and we have to admit that the golden age of the church is truly gone.
In yesteryears students were encouraged to become ministers & shepherds.
Today 95% of those entering see it as a “job” where they are to build a “business” with the outcome of as many rear ends in seats handing over the almighty dollar.
There was a time when the church had a role in helping and shaping society. Today it is just lumped together with a whole range of other “special interest” groups.
Today we have hirelings instead of pastors. These hirelings use the ways of the world to entice people through the doors. So when you use the ways of the world, who are those who will be attending so called “church”?
The world.
More and more true bible believing Christians are leaving churches. I run across more people today who have no church than those who do have a church.
Also, let me define what I consider a church.
A true church is one that uses expository teaching, meaning taking the bible verse by verse and delving into the wisdom of God’s Word, not use some fancy little booklet or pre-written sermon one downloads from the internet.
A church is one that still sings from the hymnals singing songs of praise and causing one to meditate upon the Lord. Not some rock concert with smoke and fireworks where the music and beat is so loud it makes your ears pop.
The church is the true bride of Christ who awaits His coming. In every “Churchianity” building there is still some remnant of the body of Christ, His church.
But this remnant is growing smaller and smaller. They are striking out on their own, seeking home fellowships or meetings for lunch or coffee so they can unite with others who are true bible believing Christians.
We are the wondering servant-warriors walking the path of righteousness.
Somewhere Along The Line The Church Lost its Backbone
Like it or not, the church changed from being the church to “Churchianity”
One of the main contributors is a compromise with modernism.
We needed to be “relevant” to the new days and age we were living in. We needed to bring the church out of the ancient times and modernize it for today’s more hip and cool Christian.
It is when this conversion took place that we lost our backbone and went from being a church that stood in the gap to an assembly of spineless “Churchianity” people that we have today.
I strongly believe that over the years what took place is those with a backbone were basically forced out or voluntarily left the “Churchianity” assembly.
We Are Now The Lonely Man
Recently I came across a wonderful article by A.W.Tozer titled – The Saint Must Walk Alone. When I read this, it reminded me a lot of the path which many of us today walk.
Tozer said the following in the artice…
The truly spiritual man is indeed something of an oddity. He lives not for himself but to promote the interests of another. He seeks to persuade people to give all to his Lord and asks no portion or share for himself. He delights not to be honored but to see his Savior glorified in the eyes of men. His joy is to see his Lord promoted and himself neglected. He finds few who care to talk about that which is the supreme object of his interest, so he is often silent and preoccupied in the midst of noisy religious shoptalk. For this he earns the reputation of being dull and overserious, so he is avoided and the gulf between him and society widens. He searches for friends upon whose garments he can detect the smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces, and finding few or none, he, like Mary of old, keeps these things in his heart.
It is this very loneliness that throws him back upon God. “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.” His inability to find human companionship drives him to seek in God what he can find nowhere else. He learns in inner solitude what he could not have learned in the crowd – that Christ is All in All.
When I read this, it reminds me of our calling being a Servant – Warrior. We walk a lonely path. When we meet with other likeminded warriors it “charges our batteries up” or we drink in the fellowship like a camel drinking from the oasis in the middle of the desert. In both of these cases we as the servant-warrior can then continue on in our Christian walk. Sometimes our batteries last a long time, sometimes they drain quickly, depending on what we as servant-warriors are facing, the battles we are fighting and the struggles we are having.
In the days of old a knight was expected to have not only the strength and skills to face combat but was also expected to temper this aggressive side with the chivalrous side to his nature.
The Warrior Code was a moral system which went beyond rules of combat and introduced the concept of Chivalrous conduct. The code introduced qualities such as bravery, courtesy, honor, and gallantry toward women.
The Knights Code of Chivalry
The Knights Code of Chivalry was described in the “Song of Roland” and is describes the following traits …
- To fear God and maintain His Church
- To serve the liege lord in valour and faith
- To protect the weak and defenceless
- To give succour to widows and orphans
- To refrain from the wanton giving of offence
- To live by honour and for glory
- To despise pecuniary reward
- To fight for the welfare of all
- To obey those placed in authority
- To guard the honour of fellow knights
- To eschew unfairness, meanness and deceit
- To keep faith
- At all times to speak the truth
- To persevere to the end in any enterprise begun
- To respect the honour of women
- Never to refuse a challenge from an equal
- Never to turn the back upon a foe
Knights Code of Chivalry described by the Duke of Burgandy
The chivalric virtues of the Knights Code of Chivalry were described in the 14th Century by the Duke of Burgandy. The words he chose to use to describe the virtues that should be exhibited in the Knights Code of Chivalry were as follows:
- Faith
- Charity
- Justice
- Sagacity
- Prudence
- Temperance
- Resolution
- Truth
- Liberality
- Diligence
- Hope
- Valour
The Samurai Had The “Bushido Code”
Not only did the knights of Europe maintain a warrior code, the japanies samurai held to what was called “The Bushido Code” which translates to ”The Way of The Samurai.” This code consisted of Eight Virtues:
I. Rectitude or Justice
Bushido refers not only to martial rectitude, but to personal rectitude: Rectitude or Justice, is the strongest virtue of Bushido. A well-known samurai defines it this way: ‘Rectitude is one’s power to decide upon a course of conduct in accordance with reason, without wavering; to die when to die is right, to strike when to strike is right.’ Another speaks of it in the following terms: ‘Rectitude is the bone that gives firmness and stature. Without bones the head cannot rest on top of the spine, nor hands move nor feet stand. So without Rectitude neither talent nor learning can make the human frame into a samurai.’
II. Courage
Bushido distinguishes between bravery and courage: Courage is worthy of being counted among virtues only if it’s exercised in the cause of Righteousness and Rectitude. Musashi a great Samurai said “Perceiving what is right and doing it not reveals a lack of Courage.”
I am reminded of the following…
James 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
In short, ‘Courage is doing what is right.’
III. Benevolence or Mercy
A man invested with the power to command and the power to kill was expected to demonstrate equally extraordinary powers of benevolence and mercy: Love, patients, affection for others, sympathy and pity, are traits of Benevolence, the highest attribute of the human soul. It is said that the highest requirement of a ruler of men is Benevolence.
IV. Politeness
For a true servant-warrior, courtesy is rooted in benevolence: Courtesy and good manners have been noticed by every foreign tourist as distinctive to the Japanese traits. But Politeness should be the expression of a benevolent regard for the feelings of others; it’s a poor virtue if it’s motivated only by a fear of offending good taste. In its highest form Politeness approaches love.
V. Honesty and Sincerity
True samurai, according to author Nitobe, disdained money, believing that “men must grudge money, for riches hinder wisdom.” Thus children of high-ranking samurai were raised to believe that talking about money showed poor taste, and that ignorance of the value of different coins showed good breeding: Bushido encouraged thrift, not for economical reasons so much as for the exercise of abstinence. Luxury was thought the greatest menace to manhood, and severe simplicity was required of the warrior class … the counting machine and abacus were abhorred.
VI. Honor
Though Bushido deals with the profession of soldiering, it is equally concerned with non-martial behavior: The sense of Honor, a vivid consciousness of personal dignity and worth, characterized the samurai. He was born and bred to value the duties and privileges of his profession. Fear of disgrace hung like a sword over the head of every samurai … To take offense at slight provocation was ridiculed as ‘short-tempered.’ As the popular adage put it: ‘True patience means bearing the unbearable.’
VII. Loyalty
Economic reality has dealt a blow to organizational loyalty around the world. Nonetheless, true men remain loyal to those to whom they are indebted: Loyalty to a superior was the most distinctive virtue of the feudal era. Personal fidelity exists among all sorts of men: a gang of pickpockets swears allegiance to its leader. But only in the code of chivalrous Honor does Loyalty assume paramount importance.
VIII. Character and Self-Control
Bushido teaches that men should behave according to an absolute moral standard, one that transcends logic. What’s right is right, and what’s wrong is wrong. The difference between good and bad and between right and wrong are givens, not arguments subject to discussion or justification, and a man should know the difference. Finally, it is a man’s obligation to teach his children moral standards through the model of his own behavior: The first objective of samurai education was to build up Character. The subtler faculties of prudence, intelligence, and dialectics were less important. Intellectual superiority was esteemed, but a samurai was essentially a man of action.
The Wandering Warrior / The Ronin
When God moved Tracye and I to Costa Rica we became churchless. We were fortunate that we had a good church to attend. We know for a fact that they were few are far between.
This is one of the reasons why I have been conducting this study, for our own personal growth here.
Like many of our readers, we remain the Wandering Warrior / Ronin.
The term Wandering Warrior is pretty self-explanatory, but “Ronin” is probably a new word for many of you.
A Ronin was a samurai that was not in service to a local Shogun, Governor or Land Barron.
Recently I have come in contact with a modern day samurai here in Costa Rica, his name is Luis Gustavo Ramirez and is a born again Christian.
He recently wrote a great piece on the Ronin
According to history, a ronin (浪人) was a masterless samurai during the feudal period of Japan, between 1185 and 1868. Its meaning was “wave man” – a wanderer like a wave at sea. A samurai might have lost favor with his master and because he lost the favor, he then becomes a ronin.
The easiest way it had to end up being a ronin samurai was through birth. The child was also a ronin, provided they do not renounce their status. Often the ronin by birth proved themselves by swearing allegiance to a clan, thus becoming a true and authentic samurai. While this happens from time to time, it was something rare, reserved for the most talented, as few daimyo were willing to set a precedent allowing a ronin to enter his clan. Most ronin were often sent on certain missions with the promise of admission, and then wold be denied based on some technicality. (Wp)
One of the most famous ronin Miyamoto Musashi was the most famous swordsman in Japan.
Perhaps we feel that the world is not worth a dime, maybe we are rejected for being different. We do not to come from a special lineage as the world because we do not have a title or simply because the road was wrong. We are what the world says we are, WE ARE WHAT GOD SAYS WE ARE: a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people, to proclaim the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light. A freedom we are called, if the world rejects us because God has something greater in blessing, so, although it is not easy, it’s better to give up worldly things not to miss the blessing of God. Jesus came to His own and His own received him not, but those who received Him were given the right to become children of God.
So why worry if we do not occupy a privileged place in the world like a true samurai, God has better things for us here and in the house of Heaven.
So we remain the Ronin, the wandering warrior.
Why There is A Need For The Warrior Code
As we are finding out, we are servant-warriors on a solitary path. There are times where we are able to meet with other likeminded servant-warriors and have wonderful fellowship. But in today’s world there is nothing left for us in the building called “Churchianity.”
This is why we need the warrior code. So that when times arise, we are able to fall back upon a code of conduct so that when people look at us, they can see that we are servant warriors for Christ and it is the King of Kind with whom we serve.
We do not follow the wolves in sheep’s clothing who promote “Churchianity.”
We follow Christ and our motto is — “NO KING BUT KING JESUS!”
It is that warrior code that keeps us balanced and on an even keel. We are able to stay on that path of righteousness and not stray. And if there is a time where we do stray, it is the warrior code that helps us get back to the proper way of the Lord and not stray for to long.
Like the Ronin and wandering warrior we live a life where we have to be self-sufficient because we don’t have the solid church that we may have once been part of. Today all the “Churchianity” church has to offer is a lot of sugar coated psychobabble which if you consume it to long, it slowly poisons you.
So for the sake of our own Christian preservation, we walk that servant-warrior path.
It is the warrior code that we find in God’s Word that guides us as.
Our Lord and Savior continues to direct our path and we grow more and more in the role of the servant-warrior. Always learning more, training and practising more and doing all that we can.
The following verse surmises this…
Ephesians 6:13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
We are the servant-warrior and it is God’s Word that is our Warrior Code. We must cleave onto this because that evil day is here and we must do all so that we can stand.
By Ray Gano
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