Many are familiar with the infamous “slapping incidents” during World War II, in which General George S. Patton in two separate settings physically abused a couple of soldiers who displayed evidence of combat fatigue [1]. (The well-known movie about General Patton released in 1970, starring George C. Scott [2], compresses the above two incidents into one.)
Prior to the Second World War, it was commonly believed by military officers that what some called combat fatigue was simply an excuse for cowardice [3]. Patton in particular shared this opinion [4]. Following the first slapping incident on August 3, 1943 [5], Patton issued the following directive to the leading officers of the Seventh Army, of which he then served as commander:
It has come to my attention that a very small number of soldiers are going to the hospital on the pretext that they are nervously incapable of combat. Such men are cowards and bring discredit on the army and disgrace to their comrades, whom they heartlessly leave to endure the dangers of battle while they, themselves, use the hospital as a means of escape. You will take measures to see that such cases are not sent to the hospital but dealt with in their units. Those who are not willing to fight will be tried by court-martial for cowardice in the face of the enemy [6].
Following both slapping incidents, General Eisenhower demanded that Patton apologize to the men he had slapped [7], and while Patton would eventually be acclaimed for commanding the Third Army in the post-Normandy liberation of Europe, his desire to play a leading part in the initial invasion came to naught because of the aforementioned episodes [8]. Ironically, Patton’s disdain for the notion of battle fatigue helped draw attention to the need for military and medical experts to address the problem [9].
Spiritual Battle Fatigue
Emotional and nervous exhaustion is not unique to military combat. It can be a problem in the spiritual realm also. As Christians are unavoidably involved in what the inspired writings depict as the great controversy between good and evil, the need to carefully assess and navigate the challenges of spiritual warfare is a most important subject.
Wise parents and institutional leaders understand this. It is tempting for persons in authority to view every struggle as a dilemma where no compromise is possible. When dealing with the witness of the inspired text, whether Scripture or the writings of Ellen White, such an attitude is both understandable and imperative. But not every struggle that involves authority, whether in the home or the church, falls into the above category. Choosing one’s battles with wisdom, guided by the transcendent testimony of the inspired pen and strengthened each day by the ever-present help of God, is the surest way to avoid spiritual battle fatigue.
Not all leaders in the faith community have demonstrated such wisdom. King Saul is one such example. Because he was so busy trying to capture and kill David, whom Saul knew God had chosen to be his successor, Saul unwittingly exposed the kingdom of Israel to invasion by their enemies. Ellen White recounts this story in her description of the prelude to Saul’s final battle against the Philistines:
The king was in sore distress. It was his own unreasoning passion, spurring him on to destroy the chosen of God, that had involved the nation in so great peril. While he had been engrossed in pursuing David he had neglected the defense of his kingdom. The Philistines, taking advantage of its unguarded condition, had penetrated into the very heart of the country. Thus while Satan had been urging Saul to employ every energy in hunting David, that he might destroy him, the same malignant spirit had inspired the Philistines to seize their opportunity to work Saul’s ruin and overthrow the people of God. How often is the same policy still employed by the archenemy! He moves upon some unconsecrated heart to create envy and strife in the church, and then, taking advantage of the divided condition of God’s people, he stirs up his agents to work their ruin [##10|Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 675.##].
For the same reason, when Christian parents, pastors, teachers, and other spiritual leaders expend emotional and nervous energy making trivial issues tests of willpower with those under their care, the former often find their authority compromised when major questions of spiritual faithfulness enter the picture. If authority figures and would-be reformers risk their credibility over issues beyond the guardrails set by the inspired writings, the whole idea of spiritual authority, revival, and reformation can find itself discredited, and when issues arise with a clear foundation in Scripture and the writings of the Spirit of Prophecy, far fewer may listen to appeals from those seeking to uphold and maintain standards.
False Tests
This week I read the following comment from another website, posted by someone who seems notably afflicted with spiritual battle fatigue. In the midst of a discussion suffused with secular political screeds reminiscent of Joe McCarthy, conspiracy theory-driven assumptions, and anti-vax tirades, this person wrote:
Isn't it interesting how many truly decent people read Ellen White (and Scripture) so very differently from one another? All of them praying and believing they are under the influence of the Holy Spirit? I do believe God will make allowances in such matters, for we are all faulty and none of us can claim to have discovered "all the truth." So it's helpful to make allowances for each other, I'd say.
I can’t help recalling the words of Abraham Lincoln toward the end of the Civil War, when he stated: “Both (North and South) read the same Bible, and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. . . . The prayers of both could not be answered. . . . The Almighty has His own purposes” [##11|Mark A. Noll, A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Erdmanns Publishing Co, 1992), pp. 322-323.##].
Perhaps the blogger noted earlier neglects to consider that if the logic of her post is pursued to its natural conclusion, Seventh-day Adventists would stop doing evangelism. After all, how many Christians outside our denomination pray, read the Bible, and seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and then find in the Sacred Pages such heresies as Sunday-sacredness, the natural immortality of the soul, the eternal torment of the wicked, once-saved-always-saved, the secret rapture, and a host of other falsehoods?
Does this person realize that the reasoning, “We are all faulty, so let’s make allowances” is exactly how theological liberals in Adventism and elsewhere rationalize the acceptance of interchangeable gender roles in ministry, the acceptance of LGBT relationships within the fellowship of faith, and theistic evolution as an explanation for the earth’s origins?
But this is what happens when cultural and other non-spiritual agendas color the lenses through which Christians read the inspired writings, thus misdirecting and perverting their spiritual perceptions. And it becomes increasingly easy to blur the distinction between divine and human agendas when issues arising from outside God’s written counsel are allowed to consume the passion of God’s professed people, and are thus treated with an importance equal to what God’s written counsel actually teaches.
Ellen White gives the following dire warning against false tests and their negative impact on the spiritual perception of the church:
From the light given me of the Lord, men will arise speaking perverse things. Yea, already they have been working and speaking things which God has never revealed, bringing sacred truth upon a level with common things. Issues have been and will continue to be made of men’s conceited fallacies, not of truth. The devisings of men’s minds will invent tests that are no tests at all, that when the true test shall be made prominent, it shall be considered on a par with the man-made tests that have been of no value [##12|White, Selected Messages, vol. 2, pp. 14-15.##].
The last sentence of the above statement is especially significant: “The devisings of men’s minds will invent tests that are no tests at all, that when the true test shall be made prominent, it shall be considered on a par with the man-made tests that have been of no value” [##13|——Selected Messages, vol. 2, pp. 14-15.##].
This is where, I fear, a certain class of conservative Adventists may rapidly be headed.
When God’s people exhaust their energies fighting over culture and politics, labeling each other with nasty epithets arising from agendas unknown to the Sacred Writings, they and those around them could easily find themselves growing so tired of controversy that the craving for peace at any price will gain increasing traction in the weary minds of spent believers. The path of least resistance will grow more and more desirable, and multitudes will make shipwreck of faith.
REFERENCES
1. “George S. Patton slapping incidents” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_S._Patton_slapping_incidents
2. “Patton (film)” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patton_(film)
3. “George S. Patton slapping incidents” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_S._Patton_slapping_incidents
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. “Combat stress reaction,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_stress_reaction
10. Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 675.
11. Mark A. Noll, A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Erdmanns Publishing Co, 1992), pp. 322-323.
12. White, Selected Messages, vol. 2, pp. 14-15.
13. Ibid.
Pastor Kevin Paulson holds a Bachelor’s degree in theology from Pacific Union College, a Master of Arts in systematic theology from Loma Linda University, and a Master of Divinity from the SDA Theological Seminary at Andrews University. He served the Greater New York Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for ten years as a Bible instructor, evangelist, and local pastor. He writes regularly for Liberty magazine and does script writing for various evangelistic ministries within the denomination. He continues to hold evangelistic and revival meetings throughout the North American Division and beyond, and is a sought-after seminar speaker relative to current issues in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He presently resides in Berrien Springs, Michigan