Book Recommendation

I want to recommend a book. It’s called A Warrior Culture, and the author is Donny Prater. It’s about the militant attitude Christians should be taking toward Satan’s kingdom. When I say “militant,” I am referring to supernatural warfare. I mean things like prayer and Bible study, not forming a militia to shoot up federal buildings. Let’s not put me on a no-fly list, okay?

Not that I ever go anywhere. To affect me, you would need a “no sit” list.

If I had to sum up the book quickly, I would say it’s about the need for Christian men to get off the couch, go to services, form groups, and stop forcing their wives and daughters and mothers and sisters to do all the work at their local churches. If heaven is anything like the church, there will be three women there for every man. Imagine how miserable it will be. The TV channels will all be about decorating and sewing. The food will be salad. There will be no gun ranges. You won’t be allowed to put your feet on anything. Come on. Are we going to stand for that?

How did the church get so feminine and fruity? Look at the Bible and tell me that makes sense. The Apostles carried swords–on orders from Jesus–and Peter whacked a guy’s ear off. David put a rock through a man’s skull, into his brain, and sliced his head off. Then he carried it home. All of this was God’s idea. Elijah had 450 defenseless idolaters held down and slaughtered like pigs. The temple in Jerusalem could be described accurately as a combination barbecue joint and slaughterhouse; the blood ran like water, all the time. Prophecy says it will run again, so let’s not make up a false vegan New Testament ethic that has no scriptural basis.

Christianity and Judaism were never intended to be built on feminine models. Authority has always been a masculine concept, and God is at his most masculine when he exercises his authority. This ought to be clear to any conservative. Leftism is a perversion which feminizes government, and look at the misery it causes. A leftist nation is like a family where the husband has abandoned his responsibilities and forced his wife to lead.

Evangelist John Gray put it well. He said, “I don’t HAVE a feminine side.” He said God removed man’s feminine side when he opened Adam up and used his flesh to create Eve. We have the ridiculous idea that sensitivity, compassion, and caring are feminine traits. That’s just not true. Women seem to be designed to nurture and comfort and support, and they do those things better than men do, but that doesn’t mean every type of love or unselfishness is feminine.

We have been taught that Jesus was an emaciated little guy who should have had “Push me in the Mud” tattooed on his forehead. A person who would have made a fine wedding planner or hairdresser. Mind you, we are talking about the guy who sent an angel to kill 185,000 Assyrians in one night. This is an all-powerful being who, according to prophecy, will personally massacre so many of his enemies that his robe will be drenched in their blood. That’s one tough florist.

As Donny Prater points out, Jesus was a carpenter, and he worked without power tools. Think about that. A typical table saw runs at 3600 RPM and has something like two hundred carbide teeth on the blade. My saw has a 5-horsepower motor. Imagine trying to do that saw’s work without electricity. Imagine cutting mortises and tenons by hand. Imagine shaping furniture legs and planing boards. Six days a week. We’re talking about a fit, muscular man who worked with razor-sharp tools. Jesus was not a wimp, and he does not expect us to be wimps.

We need to meet regularly and acknowledge God together. We need to admit we can’t do it all on our own. We need to summon our determination and grit and start doing supernatural warfare together. This is what I took away from the book.

When I read about the lukewarm men’s ministries Donny Prater had been part of, I realized how blessed I am. Every Saturday, I meet with a bunch of men. We have breakfast together, but that’s not the point of the gatherings. We open and close with prayer. Our leader presents scriptures and other materials (like A Warrior Culture) for us to discuss. We give our testimonies. We encourage each other. We do exactly what we should be doing.

The book has stories about men who get together, make small talk, stuff themselves, and leave. Prater talks about the difficulties he experienced, putting a real men’s ministry together. Thanks to God and the faithful leaders at my church, I’m not dealing with that.

I also belong to the Armorbearers. We support the pastor from behind the scenes, and we keep the church safe. Some of us carry arms. We just got our first female member, but the organization is primarily male. It’s fantastic.

Every church should have men who work together the way we do. And we’re not the only ones. We have lots of male volunteers in other areas, and there are other prayer groups. The women are way ahead of us, but I think my church is doing better than most.

We have to remember that Christianity is a war. Very literally. It’s the only real war there is, and it’s the oldest and largest war. There are beings we can’t see, attacking us day and night. And we are not independent. Each of us has others depending on him. We need to think about things like that when we’re tempted to slack or give in to sin. The dumb things we do hurt others. You can’t sin against yourself or against God without harming someone else.

Check the book out. You can find it on Amazon. It’s short; you can knock it off in a couple of days. It will help you remember what you were intended to be.