Occupied Territory

There is a dark power behind all death and disease. This dark power was created by God, but was created good, it just went wrong. The universe is at war. it is a civil war, a rebellion, and that we are living in a part of the universe occupied by the rebel.

Enemy-occupied territory - that is what the world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great guerilla war against the rebel. A campaign of sabotage, recruitment and insurgency. When you go to church you are listening-in to the secret radio from our allies - that is why the Rebel lord is so anxious to prevent us from going. He does it by playing on our conceit, laziness and intellectual snobbery. If you do not join the guerilla fighters consciously, but neither do you resist the rebel lord consciously, then you accept his rule unconsciously and therefore are (for all intents and purposes) collaborators. Collaborators are effectively the enemy also, even if they don't realize and protest "we didn't know" they will see the face of the rebel lord, whether they'll like it when they do is another question.

How can you pretend peace when the war is all around. The collaborators will as, &"why is God landing in disguise in this enemy-occupied world and starting this guerilla war? He must not be strong enough to face the devil head on."

Christians believe that the King will land in force, we don't know when, but we can hazard a guess as to why - He wants us (even the collaborators) to join his side freely. No one will think much of the man who waits for the King to march through the capital and THEN announced he was on our side. God will invade. The troops are already preparing their weapons for the invasion, the planes are packed with para-troopers, the ships with sailors and soon they will start to make their way to the occupied territories. D-Day is at hand and the rebel lords forces will be waiting for the King in the north when the king lands in the south - for not even the rebel lord, with all his whiles and cunning, knows when the time is.

When the invasion occurs, the world is at an end - not only for the rebel king, but for everyone. When the author walks on stage the play is over. God is going to invade all right, but what is the good of saying you are on His side, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else- something that never entered your head to conceive- comes crashing in; something so beautiful to the guerillas but awfullto the collaborators that none will have any choice left?

For this time it will be God without disguise, without the human veneer that veiled him the first time he came, it will strike such irresistible love from some and absolute horror from others. It will be too late then to choose sides. There is no point in saying "I choose to lie down" when it has become impossible to stand up. It would be like a rock "choosing" to obey the pull of gravity - there will be no choice.

Then will be not the time of choosing, it will be the time we discover the side we are really on, whether we realised it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last for ever. We must take it or leave it.

&"Death is the believers creed realized, for the unbeliever, it is a discovery great but to late."