LRA: Lord Reveals Apostasy

I think we've entered a chilling new phase of diplomacy and war...

Obama Sends 100 U.S. Military Advisors To Uganda

The Obama administration announced plans on Friday to send about 100 U.S. combat forces to Uganda to act as military advisers to Ugandan and African Union forces fighting the Lords' Resistance Army (LRA). The U.S. forces will lend assistance to other central African nations trying to apprehend the LRA's top commanders and bring them to justice, and to bring about an end the group's two-decade campaign of atrocities and destabilization of the region, the administration said.

President Obama announced the decision in an official notification letter to Congress Friday. In the letter, Obama said that he had sent the initial team of armed U.S. combat troops to Uganda on Oct. 12. He explained that the rest of the roughly 100 military advisers would be deployed over the next month to Uganda--as well as to the neighboring countries of South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Central African Republic.

He also said that while U.S. troops would be authorized to use force for self defense they are not operating under an explicit combat mission.

"For more than two decades, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has murdered, raped, and kidnapped tens of thousands of men, women, and children in central Africa," Obama said in the letter. "In furtherance of the Congress's stated policy, I have authorized a small number of combat-equipped U.S. forces to deploy to central Africa to provide assistance to regional forces that are working toward the removal of [LRA commander] Joseph Kony from the battlefield."

"On October 12, the initial team of U.S. military personnel with appropriate combat equipment deployed to Uganda," the letter explained. "During the next month, additional forces will deploy, including a second combat-equipped team and associated headquarters, communications, and logistics personnel. The total number of U.S. military personnel deploying for this mission is approximately 100."

The deployed American forces "will act as advisors to partner forces that have the goal of removing from the battlefield Joseph Kony and other senior leadership of the LRA," Obama wrote, adding that their role will be to "provide information, advice, and assistance" to troops from partner nations in the region. Some U.S. troops may "deploy into Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo," Obama also said, if those governments agree.

The Lords' Resistance Army has been accused of killings and committing widespread atrocities against civilians, and the abduction of an estimated 3,000 children, in its two decades of warfare against the Ugandan government.

Its top commander, Joseph Kony, 50, "styles himself as a prophet and spirit medium and practices a blend of mysticism and apocalyptic Protestant Christianity," the Washington Post's William Branigin wrote Friday. "He formed his Lord's Resistance Army from the remnants of the Holy Spirit Movement, an armed group led by his aunt that fought the Ugandan government in the late 1980s."

Kony and four deputies are the subjects of arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court in the Hague in 2005.

So, President Barack Obama has decided to back an international US military effort that seeks to neutralize the crazy, evil, sadistic 'Christians'. The world applauds.

Do you see where I'm going with this? Yes, I realize that the 'Lord's Resistance Army' is anything but 'Christian' given the atrocities they've committed since they were founded in the 1980s. But that's not the point, much less why this news should concern us.

Remember all the previous times we've talked about 'mass conditioning' in conjunction with the 'politics of semantics' in this world? Well, what this headline does through Neuro-Linguistic Programming is subtly embed in people's minds this idea that they have to go to war with the Lord and His people, doesn't it?

If you think that's a stretch, then please prayerfully consider how 'gay marriage' could be spun as 'love', or how murder could be successfully framed and sold as a 'choice', and how sin of any kind could be packaged as 'fun' because it's the very same principle at work.

I mean, you'll never hear the US President (supposedly a self-proclaimed Christian) point out to the press that one of the things that disturbs him most is this LRA group's hijacking of his faith and His God to give Christians worldwide a bad image since no Christian would ever condone the types of things that the LRA has done over the years.

No, that kind of heartfelt response is reserved for the so-called 'Religion of Peace' only, or the place where the President's true heart and motivations seem to lie.

I was shocked when this news first broke the other day and Rush Limbaugh kept insinuating during his national broadcast that Obama was going to war with Christians. I even waited several minutes and segments to see if it was a tongue-in-cheek kind of statement, but he trotted it out there as if it were fact.

Folks, we need to quickly come to grips with the fact that the LRA is essentially a Christian version of Al-Qaeda or Al-Shebab.

That being said, this is why I personally believe the LRA should stand for the 'Lord Reveals Apostasy' because one of the good things to come from this news that's grabbed international headlines is that it gives committed Christians like us the prime opportunity to point out how these so-called 'Christians' are actually apostates instead; it's a linchpin to discussing the true fundamentals of Christianity and to preaching the Gospel to a lost and non-believing secular world.

We already know the truth, but let's make sure we emphasize it...

Is The LRA Christian?

The many critics of Christianity like to assume that the LRA or ‘Lord’s Resistance Army’ are a ‘christian terrorist’ organization. Here are a collection of quotes from interviews with links as evidence that the LRA and its current and previous leadership are not part of the Christian church but a theocratic cult/militant group that were once supplied by Sudanese Jihadists.

So, if Kony is blending witchcraft, spiritualism and other religious elements he’s serving Jesus right? WRONG!

Again, Ms. Auma was a spirit medium and allowed herself to be spirit possessed. Yet, more evidence she and Kony are not Christian but African witches. How is being used by demonic spirits keeping God's Ten Commandments?

In one decade alone, over 8,000 children were kidnapped by the Lord’s Resistance Army. Most of these unfortunate children are now presumed dead, killed either in combat or in the murderous crossfire of warring sides. Tragically, these prisoners of war are transported, tied in columns by rope as slaves, to LRA camps.

When shooting breaks out, the conscripts often are unable to escape. If the kidnapped children survive the long journey to the LRA camps, they are forcefully indoctrinated into the LRA’s grand vision of an Acholi nation based on the Ten Commandments -- savage beatings are meted out to all nonbelievers. The child captives are taught the rebel leader’s belief in an apocalyptic arrival of “The Silent World.”

Joseph Kony believes there will be a time in history when all guns worldwide will fall silent and only those knowing how to use crude weapons, like stones, spears, and machetes, will prevail against their enemies. LRA members are obsessed with the idea of supernatural intervention and battlefield odds favoring the use of primitive weapons.

LRA military indoctrination consists of beatings, rapes, and the severing of limbs by machete -- all based on selected Biblical passages -- no doubt some of the harshest found in the pages of the Old Testament.

Joseph Kony subjects his child soldiers to an odd blend of Christianity, primarily the fundamentalist kind, mixed with African animistic beliefs which include the practice of witchcraft. Of course, the Biblical passages forbidding engagement in witchcraft are overlooked by Mr. Kony and his entire LRA command structure. Anyone who resists LRA indoctrination, or who attempts to escape, is executed -- often savagely beaten to death by those newly abducted into Kony’s Spirit Army.

Despite ideological differences, the LRA won support from the Islamic government in Khartoum in retaliation for Uganda’s support to the Sudanese rebel movement and its leader, John Garang. Khartoum in recent years used the LRA to breed an army drawn from Ugandan villages to attack rebel strongholds in south Sudan. Its abuses against civilians on both sides of the border include kidnappings, summary executions, torture, rape and sexual assault, forced labor, and mutilation. Mr. Kony lives mostly in Sudan, and some say he converted to Islam.

So, apparently, Joseph Kony and his former leader Alice Auma do not have any clue on true Biblical Christianity. They prefer to mix up a variety of beliefs and claim to be followers of Jesus.

Please spend just a few minutes to read the entire piece because I've only pulled a few selected excerpts for the sake of time, and, really, there's so much in that historical account of the LRA and it's leader's that undeniably demonstrates that it is entirely demonic and inspired by Satan as opposed to being Christian and inspired by God Himself.

By the way, I also think it's fascinating that there's one new film out of Hollywood that is getting rave reviews. It's being touted as a Christian movie, but some could argue that it's only 'Christian' so far as it deals with a protagonist who is a self-proclaimed 'born again Christian' played by Gerard Butler.

Even the studio released 'secular' and 'faith-based' versions of poster art for the film.

'Machine Gun Preacher' For Two Audiences

Coming to theaters next month, Machine Gun Preacher is a movie that will appeal to some Christians because of its subject matter. It will also turn off some Christians . . . because of its subject matter.

The movie, opening in limited release on September 23, is based on the true story of Sam Childers, a drug-dealing hell raiser as a teen and young man who began to turn his life around after finding Jesus. Today, he spends much of his time in Sudan and neighboring countries, allegedly fighting pockets of the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) with his own band of gun-toting rebels while sweeping up orphans who have been left behind -- and then putting them into orphanages that he has built in the area.

Some Christians will love the film for showing Childers' path from rebellion to redemption. Others may avoid it for the same reason; the first 15-20 minutes are as in-your-face and gritty as anything you'll see in an R-rated movie (which it is), with a sex scene, drug dealing (and taking), brutal violence, and foul language. Even after Childers -- played terrifically by Gerard Butler -- finds God, he's still got some rough edges, and his flaws stick with him through the rest of the movie. Sounds pretty realistic to me, and I appreciate the filmmakers' boldness in showing those character flaws. But it's also a bit much for the "safe-for-the-whole-family" folks who prefer their "Christian" movies to be G-rated fare.

Relativity Media, which is distributing the Marc Forster-directed film, realizes this, but knows it's also got a film on its hands that can have terrific crossover appeal -- for Christians because of the redemptive arc of the tale, and for secular audiences who appreciate character development woven into what is in many ways an action movie, with Childers as its real-life action hero.

In an attempt to reach both audiences, Relativity has released mainstream and faith-based versions of the movie poster. They also plan to release "exclusive" clips for the faith-based market in a week or so. Stay tuned.

Here are the two posters -- "secular" on the left, "faith-based" on the right. Both include the phrase, "Hope is the greatest weapon of all." In the latter, the cross motif is evident, but seems forced, especially as it cuts off Butler's forehead. But there seems to be a clear focus on the children -- the main motivation for Childers' work -- in the background.

Yes, it is a 'realistic' portrayal of the struggle we all still experience in our fallen fleshly bodies even as born again Christians. Yet, my concern is whether or not it further promotes this idea that Christians should be taking up arms to physically fight against brutal, tyrannical thugs.

Is it just me, or do we seem to keep having this same discussion lately? There's this incessant push-and-pull between two distinct camps of Christianity. One side says you fight back physically no matter what by relying on yourself and others. The other side says you never fight back physically, but wage war spiritually by relying on God.

The tagline for the flick is "Hope is the greatest weapon of all", but the movie doesn't really support such a belief. Shouldn't a Christian film promote the Biblical truth that hope -- no, prayer -- is the greatest weapon of all? Of course it should. But I guess you couldn't really sell many movie tickets with a message and a story like that even if it were true.

Look, I'm sorry. I hate to sound so jaded here, but there seems to be a general growing sentiment these days that says we should 'fight for our rights' and use 'any means necessary' to get what we want.

I realize that things became a little murkier when we start talking self-defense, but that's only due to the fact that our fallen depraved nature cries out for vengeance and out natural human response is to fight back and hurt those responsible for hurting us first. I hope I don't have to tell you that such a view is not Biblical.

Maybe I've been affected by Richard Wurmbrand's testimony more than I thought I was. Regardless, we all better settle the issue of how we would respond if thrust into the types of situations as the ones depicted on the silver screen.

I'm not saying that Christians should be doormats, but they shouldn't be gun-toting killers either. Like it or not, we are ambassadors for Christ, and our mission should be to bring Him glory, honor, and praise in all we say and do in this life.

To be fair, one reader of the above article had this rebuttal...

Mark - the movie is about rescuing kids in SUDAN not Somalia. Actually since they have voted for their independence earlier this year lets make that officially South Sudan. Please correct you review. Thanks.

Lets have a moment of silence for those poor Christians who might be "disgusted" by this story. I guess they still have their "Christian TV, movies & music to escape back into away from the world. Reminds me of Tony Campolo's old 3 point sermon involving bovine scatology.

How would you go about making a "safe-for-the-whole-family" film for those folks who prefer their "Christian" movies to be G-rated fare - that involves fighting the sheer evil of the Joseph Kony & the LRA? You simply can't. This is the best attempt I have heard of to simply show a little of the story of our brothers & sisters in that part of the world who have endured so much, both from the Sudan govt itself & from militias like the LRA.

We are their family & you either stick up for them or you walk away & do nothing because it disturbs your "sense of peace." Get over it christian America. Wake up & open your eyes, arms & wallets to the real world. Grow a spine & take a stand - from child exploitation to sex trafficking to the horrendous evil of the LRA.

One day we will stand & give an account. We were given so much & have done so little. Lets change that.

Fair enough. At the end of the day, we'll all have to give an account to the Lord for what we do or don't do in the unique situations we're placed in. Plus, we know that this truth still applies...

Matthew 26:52-53 (KJV) Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?

That's what Jesus said. Isn't Christ supposed to be our model?

All that being said, I want to share the type of story we should be hearing to counter this pervasive 'All-Christians-Are-Evil' meme as the Body of Christ continues to be marginalized by news reports like this one about the LRA. Check this out...

Destroying High Places
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 2, by Os Hillman
10-05-2011

"Now it came to pass the same night that the LORD said to him, 'Take your father's young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside it; and build an altar to the LORD your God on top of this rock in the proper arrangement, and take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down'" (Judges 6:25-26).

I first met Bishop Julius Oyet in Argentina in November 2005. Bishop Oyet believes God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that he can ask or think, because of the power that works within us. For seventeen years the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) destroyed millions of innocent lives, wrecked the economy, and left thousands of homesteads burned and destroyed through a man named Joseph Kony in northern Uganda.

Just as God led Gideon to tear down demonic altars, God led Julius to do the same in his nation. These altars were deemed to be the source of strongholds over the nation for the rebels. Julius proclaimed in a public meeting, "You cannot fight spiritual strongholds with bullets!" he proclaimed. A number of events transpired that led Julius to meet the president of his nation which allowed him to share what he believed God was saying about the war.

On Saturday, March 1, 2003, Julius led an "Operation Gideon" team of twenty-two persons to the first of several sites to conduct onsite prayer vigils with pastors and leaders and the army to tear down sacred altars they believed had spiritual powers for the rebel army. These actions required the protection of the nation's army to go into these dangerous areas. His story is documented in a video entitled, The Unconventional War.

As a result of these actions, a great turning point in the war took place with many rebel leaders surrendering and giving their lives to Jesus Christ. The impact of his actions has resulted in the Lord giving Julius great favour in his nation and God is doing a great work in central and northern Uganda.

Has God called you to tear down some sacred altars?

Today God Is First (TGIF) devotional message, Copyright by Os Hillman, Marketplace Leaders.

Imagine that! A Christian fighting the same battle that our nation and the 'Machine Gun Preacher' is fighting, but doing so with the spiritual weapons of warfare instead.

See what I mean about why I feel contemporary Christians need to prayerfully consider these kinds of stories lately and why we need to ask God to reveal to us those actions and beliefs of ours that are not as Biblical as we think they are?

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