By: Gen. Jim – 7/21/25
What happens if you go A.W.O.L. in the U.S. Military? [A.W.O.L. means, Absent Without Official Leave]. Not so good! The penalty varies from country to country. Back in the day when I was a soldier in the U.S.M. (first, Nat’l Guard, then Army), during the beginning of the Vietnam conflict, the dreaded Draft was in operation. Very few who joined (as I did at 17) went A.W.O.L.; the draftees had a high rate among them – they did not “join up”, they were “put in”, hence, lots of rebellion. The 60’s Rebellion was beginning to form when I joined (my parents signing for me, being only 17). The music & drugs helped the “Hell NO! We Won’t GO!” rebellion. I’m not saying that that war was worth fighting in, as I soon found out. But I grew up with guns & a desire to fight for something. And that something was “Keep America free from Communism.”
Well, folks, here we are in 2025 & we are fighting Communism in the streets, in politics, in religion…! America is now good friends with Vietnam – never mind the 58,000 dead on our side, several million on their side.
You see, one does not have to be on the frontlines in order to fight. One can be part of a team – large or small – without using a weapon. It’s the mindset.
I just saw a headline on the internet reading: “Complete Army Collapse… 20,000 Russian Soldiers Go A.W.O.L…” This is referring to the Russia/Ukrainian conflict: “Putin’s army is unraveling as tens of thousands of Russian soldiers abandon the battlefield. Harsh prison sentences…”
So, going A.W.O.L. is common in the military.
Now Hear This
Paul wrote to Timothy: “… wage the good warfare, having faith, & a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck.” – 1 Tim. 1:18,19. Basically what Paul is saying is that rejection of the warfare & faith in the warfare, makes one unworthy, unfit in God’s sight. I like the way the Berkeley Version reads: “… so that you may with their aid put up a splendid fight.” (note: the “aid” refers to the prophecies). The Williams N.T. Trans. reads: “… that you may, aided by them, continue to fight the good fight.” The RSV reads: “… that inspired by them you may wage the good warfare.” The TCNT reads: “… Fight the good fight in the spirit of those predictions.”
The Evils of Communism
The Evils of Islam
In today’s setting, these two enemies have been taught against in order to get the soldiers et al. to know WHY they are evil! (see all my articles on Communism & Islam posted). Just as Communism/Islam (militant Islam) teach their soldiers the evils of capitalism/Christianity in order to instill a HATRED for the West (mainly), hence, killing their enemies is a High Honor. (look up my articles on these 2 antichrist ideologies.).
Actually A.W.O.L. is not as high these days as it was in my day – 1962-68. But the recruitment today is down because of the previous wars in the Middle East et al. Another factor is the WOKE/D.E.I. B.S. that has infected the U.S. Military, especially the trans B.S. A disgrace! Back in my day, “section 8” was on the books – if one was a homo he got BOOTED OUT… and fast. There were no frontline combat female soldiers to deal with. Today the military has everything – gays, lesbians, trans etc., hence, the U.S. military is not up to “fighting force”. Who wants a biological male with a dress on, boobs, lipstick – ad nauseam – commanding you around? Yet the military is INFECTED with these sexual creatures. And, with so many females in the ranks, rape is high. You get my point?
Absent
Turning to the Greek I want to present a few texts where a noun, a verb, & a preposition is used.
Apousia/άπουσία, lit., “a being away (noun) from.” Phil 2:12 has this Gk. word: “Therefore… as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence…” If we were to put this into a military setting, we would see that “obedience” is the key word. The soldier or soldiers would remain obedient when the commander was absent (not A.W.O.L.) = loyalty!
Obey vs. A.W.O.L.
One that is loyal to their officer, their country, will be obedient. This was a problem in the Vietnam days. Reports of NCOs killing COs was common. Just toss a grenade in his tent – BOOM! Just shoot him – bang! Many officers were murdered. No one was safe.
“As you have always obeyed…”
Obedience is the one form of self-surrender… self-giving up some of its own will. True, self may be forced, which lacks the true spirit of service. True patriotic spirit obeys in the presence or in the absence of those in command.
All of Paul’s letters center around his 2-fold working of the will of man: obedience & disobedience. These days a psychological analysis has to be performed in order to see if a Christian will or will not obey. Excuses are made as to WHY a Bible command can’t be obeyed. Grace has been replaced with disgrace.
Do we love God/Jesus or do we love ourselves? It has been said, we must always be loved before we are moved to love.
Did not God love us while we were yet sinners? Does not the Bible say, “In this the love of God was manifest toward us, that God has sent His Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us…” –1 Jn. 4:9,10; “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” – Rom. 5:8
Apeimi (verb) /ἄπειμι, “to be absent (apo, from, eimi, to be), is found in 1 Cor. 5:3; 2 Cor. 10:1,11; 13:2,10; Phil. 1:27; Col. 2:5.
Phil. 1:27 is like Phil. 2:12: “only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come & see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs that you standfast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.” That is esprit de corps!
“Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.” –Phil. 1:27. This has come to be applied to all moral conduct. In the ancient world a person’s duty was hardly conceivable apart from the tribe/nation to which he/she belonged. This was especially so in a place like Philippi, where the civic consciousness was highly developed. Later inPaul’s letter he employs the noun to which this verb corresponds: “Our citizenship is in heaven,” 3:20, i.e., heavenly community.
Paul uses the word “absent”, not in the negative sense (A.W.O.L.) but that he was doing the gospel work elsewhere at the time but never MISSING in ACTION or duty.
Ekdēmeō (verb) /ἐκδημέω, lit., “to be away from people” (ek, from, or out of, dēmos, people), hence came to mean either (a) to go abroad, depart; the Apostle uses it to speak of departing from the body as the earthly abode of the spirit (2 Cor. 5:8); or (b) to be away; in the same passage, of being here in the body & absent from the Lord (v.6), or being absent from the body & present with the Lord (v.8).
(Preposition) Ater/ἄτερ, means “without” (Lk. 22:35); in v.6, “in the absence (of the multitude).”
So, we’ve looked at the “A” in A.W.O.L. Now let’s go to the “L”, “leave” (which “left” can also be used), meaning in the sense of leaving, abandoning, or forsaking.
Get ready! There are 12 Gk. words we’ll look at and several others under the 12.
(1) Aphiēmi:
(In the sense of leaving, abandoning, forsaking). This first one has 3 chief meanings:
1) to let go;
2) permit;
3) neglect/forsake.
Aphiēmi is trans. by the verb “to leave”. (note: not all these apply to A.W.O.L. in the sense of desertion from your “post of duty” (P.O.D.), be it military service or otherwise. But the principle applies. There are dozens of texts one can read. But in the sense of leaving, abandoning, & forsaking, we could go to Mt. 26:56 where it says, “Then all the disciples forsook Him (Jesus) & fled,” which takes us to the verbs Kataleipō, Enkataleipō, Aphiēmi, Apotussō, & the noun Apostasia. All these fall under “Forsake” (which I’ll do a word study next).
(2) Aniēmi
This word is translated, “I will (never) leave (thee)” in Heb. 13:5. This must be understood in the context of Christ will never “leave” us “if” we stay true to Him.
(3) Kataleipō
It means “to leave, forsake.”
(4) Apoleipō
Means “to leave behind, abandoning a principality, a person.”
(5) Enkataleipo
Means “leave behind” also, “to abandon, forsake.” Q. can a Christian leave Christ, forsake Him & His will for them?
(6) Hupoleipō
Means “leave remaining” (a survivor).
(7) Perileipō
Means “to leave over”, i.e. “that are left”, “that remain”.
(8) Pauō
Means “had left”, “cease”.
(9) Eaō
Means also “to leave”
(10) Hupolimpanō
Means “leaving”
(11) Perisseuō
Means “to be or remain over”
(12) Ekballō
Used in the sense of “rejecting”.
[note: you need to consult a Gk. Dict. for better understanding. Just too many Scriptures to cite in these 12 Gk. words].
My Point
My point in this is for us to examine ourselves to see if we be in the faith (2 Cor. 13:5). Let me quote the whole Scripture:
“Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith.” Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you are disqualified” (see my articles on “once in the faith always in the faith”?). America prides itself (rather once did) on being a “Christian Nation”. But are we really? or are we a A.W.O.L. Nation?
That word, “examine” – Gk., peirazō, means “to test, prove”. How do we prove that we are true Christians? First: (the obvious) stay in His service, body, soul, & spirit. Keep the faith. Too many have forsaken the true way & have gone into the false way, being “religious” but not “righteous” (like the Pharisees et al. in Jesus’ day).
How many of us are brave enough to either examine ourselves or permit the Holy Spirit to do it? Will we investigate to see if our lives match up with the Gospel life? or will we just “ACT” like a Christian to be seen & heard of by others?”
Anakrisis = investigation for gathering evidence for the info. of the judges (or for THE JUDGE, GOD!);
Anakrinō = search or enquiry, discern;
Anetazō = to search/enquire carefully;
Dokimazō = to test, approve, prove;
Peirazō = examine, try.
Has America gone A.W.O.L.? Is the Church loyal or disloyal to its Commander? Are “Christians” (so-called) doing Gospel word or spending too much time in gossip? Has the Church remained energetic or grown lethargic? The Scriptures say that “the Word of God is LIVING & POWERFUL, & sharper than any two-edged sword…” Heb. 12:14. This ought to show us if we or anyone is truly in the faith. If so, the believer will be ALIVE & POWERFUL in the things of God. But multitudes are DEAD, POWERLESS= Stinking rotting corpse! One can be “active” in the religious sense, but DEAD in spirit, i.e. doing “dead works”. How many work hard for their denomination/organization, yet do so little in Spirit; works of the flesh vs works of the Spirit. The sharp sword of the Lord/Spirit will cut! The fire of the Holy Spirit will burn… burn the HELL out of us!
How many have forsaken the right way (Spirit-Life) & gone into the wrong way – the way of “religious flesh” (see Gal. 5:16-26). We either walk in the Spirit (vs.16) or we do the works of the flesh (vs.19).
Part 2
Acts 2:3 describes “tongues of fire” that came upon those new believers on the day of Pentecost… it “sat upon each of them.” John describes two kinds of fire in his ministry at “the wilderness of Judea” (Mt. 3:1). Verse 10 John tells his listeners that “the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down & thrown into the fire.” He was aluding to Gehenna: “Fire” in Jewish apocalypses often describes the final judgment (see Philo, On Dreams II, 61-64). John carries the “fire” theme on to vs.11: “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He that cometh after me… He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost (HS), & with FIRE.” Then John tells the Jews that the H.S. “will BURN UP the chaff with unquenchable FIRE,” vs.12. The operation of the H.S. was to/is to REFINE, not DESTROY.
My Point
My point is do we have the BURNING FIRE of the Holy Sprit in our lives? We may have been baptized in water but we also need to be FIRE baptized! How many have never experienced this FIRE! While we have experienced salvation, we NEED the H.S. First to continue His work in us, purging the old nature (see my articles on the Holy Ghost/Spirit) The Bible speaks of the Unquenchable fire of Gehenna & the Unquenchable burning of love for Christ. The H.S. desires to BURN the HELL out of us so we will have the BURNING LOVE of Christ. How many “Christians” have a burning love for the world while they have a smoldering love for Christ?
With this said, let us consider this: do we really love Jesus? How many have “left” the faith because they “loved” the world? While America is full of churches – large & small how many that attend church put Christ first?
I’ve been critized over & over for spending too much time on the negative & not enough on the positive. It is because the Church has a A.W.O.L. problem. Oh, one may remain on Church rosters but their minds & hearts are in the world.
Love (noun/verb)
(1) (v.) Agapaō & the corresponding noun, agapē, present the characteristic word of Christianity, & since the Spirit of revelation has used it to express ideas previously unknown, enquiry into its use is needed.
Agapē & agapaō are used in the N.T. to describe the attitude of God toward His Son (Jn. 17:26), the human race in general (Jn. 3:16; Rom. 5:8), & to such as believe on the Lord Jesus (Jn. 14:21). Jn. 13:34 conveys God’s will to His children: “A new commandment I give to you, that you LOVE one another; as I have LOVED you, that you also LOVE one another.”
You may have missed this: The setting is the Feast of the Passover where Jesus is communing with His disciples. It is here that Jesus states, “one of you will betray Me,” Jn. 13:21. Verse 27 says that Satan entered Judas! Jesus told Judas, “What you do, do quickly.” Verse 31 tells us, “So, when he (Judas) had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of man is glorified, & God is glorified to Him.’”
Notice what happens AFTER the betrayer (Judas) left the Feast: Jesus gives a new commandment “… love one another.” This new commandment was not given in the presence of Judas! Does this imply that Jesus’ disciples – the loyal ones -were not to love the betrayer? Ponder this. Are we to love all those who betray Christ – why didn’t Jesus give His new commandment while Judas was sitting with Jesus & the other disciples?
There is so much written about both agapē (the love of God) & phileō (the love of men). Only God has agapē love.
In respect of agapaō as used of God, it expresses the deep & constant love & interest of a perfect Being towards entirely unworthy objects, producing/fostering a reverential love in them towards those who are partakers of the same, & a desire to help others to seek the Giver.
While we are told to love one another, we’re never told to love our or their sin/sins.
Today’s WOKE Churches demand of us to love their twisted & perverted version of Christianity. They demand us to forsake time-tested Bible teachings & living & agree/condone their unbiblical ways.
Phileō (Gk., love) is to be distinguished from agapaō in this that phileō represents tender affection (see Jn. 3:35; 5:20; 14:21; 16;27; The distinction between the 2 verbs – agapaō & phileō remains, & they are never used indiscriminately in the same text. Phileō is never used in a command to men to love God; it is, however, used as a warning in 1 Cor. 16:22: “If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed!” WHAT??? ACCURSED??? Is this a mistranslation? What if we say, “If you do not walk in the Spirit, but walk in the flesh, you will go to HELL!” We get branded as cruel & unloving. This is called “HATE Speech” by the liberal/sinning Church. I can’t count the times I’ve been critized for such HARSH & UNLOVING speech-telling sinning “Christians” that hibitual sinning will land one in eternal HELL FIRE!
What if a Christian actually goes A.W.O.L.? Are we to zip-the-lip & say nothing? Better read what Jesus had to say about HELL FIRE (see my articles). He did not mince words. He was not under the “nice bondage” when it came to telling the truth. Should we be?
Anathema/ACCURSED
These 2 words are found in the KJV & the RSV. Paul’s last words in his letter to the Ekklesia at Corinth – one last word of condemnation: “… If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema/Accursed.” “Well,” you say, “that was Paul, not Jesus.” Well, for the record, Jesus did say this:
“… Depart from Me you CURSED, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil & his angels.” (Mt. 25:41) “Cursed”, “accursed”, both meaning excommunicated, cursed. “Harsh language like that,” our critics say, “is beyond the pale.” Derision is our own words. If one dares to say such things today, get ready to DIE! But their camp can blaspheme God & His people day in & day out without any consequence. Shows you just how BACKSLID America has become.
Paul brings up the word “accursed” in 1 Cor. 12:3 – calling Jesus accused! (see also Rom. 9:3 & Gal. 1:8). The KJV leaves the word “Anathema” untranslated. We ask, why? Some scholars believe this was a Aramaic phrase which Paul himself included untranslated in his Gk. letter. But the KJV was perpetuating the old misunderstanding that Anatheama Maranath was an oath formula. Maranatha has been translated in 3 different ways. Early Church father John Chrysostom took it to refer to the Incarnation, “The Lord has come”.
Love vs Curse
I’ll get back to “love” in a minute. But let me write a bit more on Anathema (ἀνάθεμα), transliterated from the Greek, is frequently used in the Gk. O.T. (Sept.), where it translates the Hebrew Cherem, a thing devoted to God, whether for His service, as the sacrifices (Lev. 27:28, anathēma, a votive offering/gift, or for its destruction, as an idol, Deut. 7:26, or a city, Joshua 6:17. Later it acquired the more general meaning of the disfavor of Jehovah, Zech. 14:11. This is the meaning in the N.T. It is used of the sentence pronounced, Acts 23:14 (lit., “cursed themselves with a curse”; it is also used of the objection which the curse is laid, “accursed”; in the following, the R.V. keeps to the word “anathema” in Rom. 9:3; 1 Cor. 16:22. In Gal. 1:8,9, the Apostle Paul declares in the strongest manner that the Gospel he preached was the one & only way of salvation. (see other Gk. words that describe cursing, cursed et al.):
1) Ara; 2) Katara; 5) Katanathematizō; 6) Kataraomai; 7)Kakologeō; 8) Epikataratos; 9) Eparatos.
Why Did Jesus Curse?
“And Peter, remembering, said to Him (Jesus), ‘Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You CURSED (kataraomai) has withered away.’” – Mk. 11:2; see also Mt. 21:18-20. This story has raised many questions. Apart from the issue of nature miracles, why did Jesus curse the fig tree, particularly, as Mark 11:13 says, “it was not the season for figs”? I don’t know. What I do know it that the men of old told such stories to bring lessons home to their hearers. We do know that the rabbis believed that any curse might be effective, esp. that of a sage/righteous man (see Aboth 2:10 etc.), and this fig tree would illustrate such a point. One scholar believes that the most natural supposition, however, is that this is a dramitized form of Jesus’ parable in Lk. 13:6-9. God comes seeking from Israel (fig tree) the fruits of repentance; the nation has but one more year, & if it does not repent, it will be destroyed! In Mark’s story a day intervenes between the CURSING & the WITHERING of the leaves, this, we believe suggests that some time elapses after the prophecy is spoken before it is fulfilled.
Another scholar suggests that Jesus saw the fig tree diseased, & said so, does no justice to the undeniable curse in vs.19. It also overlooks the fact that men then believed that a sage/righteous man’s curse had power (as I already cited Aboth 2:10).
If we believe that the tree represented the nation (A.W.O.L. Nation) of Israel, the truth is, He cursed it as a demonstration of what was to come: the actual CURSE came in the form of the Roman Empire destroying the land of Israel! That A.W.O.L. Nation did not repent, hence, it received God’s CURSE!
A tree, standing alone where all men/nations could see it, having promise of fruit but no fruit – a fitting symbol of Jewry in Christs’ time.
[for more on “fruit” see Mt. 3:10; 7:17; 12:33; 13:8,23,26; look up this word, see all the texts related to no fruit, bad fruit, & good fruit. God expects His people to be fruitful: see fruitful & fruits as well].
What Do You Think?
Do you think America is blessed or cursed? Aside from Trump’s MAGA, is America in right standing with God, seeing that this nation has been the Christian Light House of the world. Despite the political infightings, are we right in God’s sight?
Do you think the Church is in right standing with God at this time in history? If the judgment of God was to come in its fulness, would America be spared? Let me be more specific – would you or I be on His right side? The “Divide”, the “Split”, is growing. We’re going to be on one side or the other.