Of all the false teaching that is out there nowadays, perhaps none is more dangerous than the idea of Joel’s Army; the belief that God is raising up a group of hardcore believers to purge the Church of all who resist their doctrines, and then to conquer the world for Christ (by force). My friends jokingly refer to this as “Islamic Christianity”. Given the danger posed by this teaching, I set out to find a few ways to prove it false. Come, let us reason together…
Dominionist Teaching Clearly Defies New Testament Principles
Jesus left no doubt in His teaching that His Kingdom was not to be won by force. When Peter fought to prevent Jesus’ arrest, he was rebuked sharply, and Jesus even healed Peter’s victim (John 18). Jesus later told Pilate in John 18:36, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.” The whole counsel of the Gospels shows this parity of thought; the Jews ultimate rejection of Christ as Messiah came because they thought Messiah would be a military leader that would overthrow the Romans. In John 6, the people tried to make Jesus king by force. Why? Because they thought He was there to restore their sovereignty to them! Dominionists like to quote Jesus’ saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force”, as a call to arms. While this is a rather enigmatic passage, it would seem to me a more responsible conjecture that Jesus is referring to the Jews who tried to force him to set up the Kingdom Now. After all, one of the indicators of the Beast is, “He will speak against the Most High and oppress his saints and try to change the set times and the laws” (Daniel 7:25a).
The Early Church Demonstrated Total Pacifism
The testimony of the early church also serves to show the pattern learned and passed down by the original disciples. The writings of men like Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Origen and others tell us some very interesting things about church doctrine over the first 200 years of the Church*:
- Christians were expected to abstain from military service, since they considered killing in combat just as murderous as killing for profit. When it is considered that men in the military are paid for their work, this is no real leap of logic: they are paid killers.
- Christians would not report anyone for a capital offense, since they considered doing so complicit with murder. Even though they weren’t the executioner, they felt that getting someone arrested when they knew it would result in their death was tantamount to executing them themselves
- Christians were taught to stay away from the arenas, because it was unbecoming Christians to watch someone be killed, even if they were a convicted criminal
This is a far cry from the Christianity we have inherited, which is more supportive of military action and the death penalty than is secular culture. Aside from all of these, let us briefly consider mere common sense: If God wanted Christians to conquer the world by force, why wouldn’t He have had the Church do so at any point in the last 2000 years? Christianity became the official state religion of Rome in the 300’s. How easy would it have been for the Roman armies, already in control of half the known world, to complete their conquest with God on their side? Yet we see just the opposite; this time period marked the beginning of the fall of Rome.
Joel 2 interpreted by Ezekiel
Dominionists believe that the great army in Joel 2 is an army of Christians sent to conquer the world. To support this, they quote verse 11: “The LORD thunders at the head of his army; his forces are beyond number, and mighty are those who obey his command.” I suppose they reason that, since God is at the head of the army, it must be an army of Christians. Such thinking, however, neglects the fact that in the Old Testament, God used “secular” cultures to judge Israel (Babylon, e.g.). However, let us leave conjecture and move to firm exegesis. We’ll start by using a side-by-side comparison of Joel 2 and Ezekiel 38.
In Joel 2, we learn:
1. A Large and mighty army, such as never was of old…(vs. 2)
2. They have the appearance of horses, gallop like cavalry (vs. 4)
3. Before them the earth shakes (vs. 10)
4. The day of the Lord is great and dreadful; who can endure it? (vs.11)
5. Referred to as the Northern Army (vs. 20)
6. God will deliver Israel from this army (vs. 20)
Compare to Ezekiel:
1. A great horde…and the many nations with you (38:4-7); a great horde, a mighty army (38:15); You and all your troops…advancing like a storm, like a cloud covering the land (38:9)
2. Your horses, your horsemen fully armed (38:4); all of them riding horses (38:15)
3. At that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. (38:19)
4. All the people on the face of the earth will tremble at my presence (38:20)
5. You will come from your place in the far north (38:15)
6. God will deliver Israel from this army (38:21-39:6)
Now add to all these the fact that God says in Ezekiel that these are the things He spoke of through other prophets in “former days”, and it takes little more than common sense to conclude that the 2 passages are referring to the same event.
The Point?
If we can conclude that Joel and Ezekiel are referring to the same event, then we can combine the 2 prophecies to get a more complete picture (I’d encourage all to read both chapters at length). For example, Joel 2 leaves room for conjecture as to who this army is and what their motives are. This ambiguity leaves room for Dominionists to teach that it is an army of righteous people chosen to judge carnal saints. However, Ezekiel goes into far more detail. From his prophecy, it is clear that this army was chosen, not because they are righteous, but so that God can ultimately judge them instead of Israel when Israel turns back to Him.
Conclusion
So while we can debate the geographic location of this army, or whether or not this prophecy has been fulfilled, one thing we can be certain of: this is not about an army of believers conquering the world for Christ. And unless the Dominionists are okay with ultimately being the ones who are destroyed, as both passages clearly show, I’m not sure I’d want it to be so if I were them!
* All information on early church doctrine collected from Will the Real Heretics Please Stand Up? By David W. Bercot. I’m no early church scholar, so I’m quoting someone who quoted someone. Take that for what it’s worth.
