“The 13 Firemen” is a tract I wrote that ultimately gave me the idea for the ministry called the End Times Vol. Fire Co.  or ETVFC.

I believe God gave me a lot of truth in it, and you can read it on this website on the home page.  The summary is 13 firemen arrive at the scene of a burning building and each one had the wrong priorities and excuses we tend to all see in the church today.  The end result was everyone burned to death.

Firemen #2 and 3 argued over which was worse, the smoke or the flames.  When they could not decide who was right, they split up to each start their own fire company.

The idea is that today in the church we like to argue over everything.  Some argue over who is preaching, others argue who should be in the nursery.  Some complain over who gets to lead songs, over who gets to bring a meal to so-and-so.   We fight over who gets to keep their event when a bridal shower was scheduled but someone already sent out invites to the triplets baby shower on the same day.   We fight each other, talk about each other, complain about each other, and by the time we are done, we forget there is a fire to put out.  Or we get too disgruntled to care.

And the lost get too disillusioned to want what we have.

I don’t know all the answers.  I think the churches today are infiltrated by false converts and that explains a lot of the problem.  The bible says there are wheat and tares mixed in the church, the end times warns of it, and preachers of the past 100 years have had that strong conviction that most of the regular attenders in any church are 100% LOST.  A lot of my articles address that because I too believe it based on experience and studying what the Bible says about true conversions.  My heart wants to get to the reason why, and I desperately want an answer to pull people out of a fire they wrongly think they are already saved from.

It will take a great miracle as is nearly impossible to tell them apart from the real born-again believers.  First because they can act, smell, and look like the real thing.  And they can “perform” almost better than the truly saved because as they attempt to serve God in the flesh, the devil can leave them alone.  The way the church is today, we have so many programs and methods and trainings that you literally can learn to “do” Christianity without the power of God. And possibly the saved can fall victim here as well.

What is absolutely terrifying is if you are a false convert, how would you ever know?  The heart is deceitful.  You can find doctrine that will interpret whatever you are doing and thinking in a “you must be saved” light.

You can’t look at your works, but the truly saved will have works that back up their profession.  But the lost can counterfeit even the best fruit of Christianity.  How many of us have right doctrine but lousy attitudes? Look at the Jehovah Witnesses.  They do visitation far better than the best Baptist.  Mormons are far more devoted missionaries and Muslims are better at separation. Catholics might have more appreciation for the church and atheists have stronger faith.

I think though that perhaps the main issue with the “truly saved” is we tend to be more absorbed in the busy affairs that make American Christianity so internalized.  We literally could get saved, be busy most of the week in our churches and “serve God” for the next 40 years and never have to leave our pews.  We are constantly given much of our time and energy for the good things offered in today’s church life, and often end up sacrificing eternal things.  Jesus didn’t die so we could just have a good time and be so busy, like Fireman #4 who was so glad to be around the fellowship of the fire department, he forgot there was a fire.

Jesus died to restore relationship with him and fellowship with him.

This is perhaps how to convey what I am talking about.  I can personally testify that when I was in the battle more, I was not as “irritable at the other soldiers”.  When I was out fighting the enemy, I would want to rally the troops instead of shoot back at them.  If I got captured by enemy soldiers I would desperately cry out to get freed to get back the battle.

Soldiers are meant to fight.  They fight, risk death, and offer their lives in the battle.  In between battles, it might be a good stress reliever to get some fellow soldiers together and share some stories, pop some popcorn, and have a game of pick up football.   But if all you did with the guys is play football and you ignored the sirens blaring signifying you need to go put out a 5 alarm fire or you need to go battle the enemy, you will be dull.  Bored.  And looking for substitutions for the natural desire to go to war when full scale war has been declared.

Imagine D Day if some soldiers just decided to take out their fishing poles and fish instead of marching up the beach.   It is quite a different mentality to fish after days of fighting and going to fish instead of fighting.   I think that is why, in general, our Christianity is so “blah”, empty, and shallow, and frankly, so weak, powerless, and purposeless.  We rarely know what it is like to go to war, we sit and soak and just go from fellowship to fellowship, we hear all kinds of orders on a weekly basis yet get little opportunity to act them out, and we wonder why all that happens is friendly fire hitting everyone in it’s path.

War from the god of this world has been declared on the truly saved.   We can ignore it, we can hide from it, we can cower in fear, or we can accept it and learn to fight like men.

That is a bit of the heart of the End Times Vol. Fire Co.  We need charity, we need grace, we need to share truth in love.  But ultimately I think we just need to fight again.

And then we will stop fighting each other.