Dear Brothers and Sisters,

While watching a presentation by Dr. Lee Merritt of Americas Frontline Doctors, she used a term to describe the situation that we are now in with Covid that I had not heard before but made a lot of sense to me, and I wanted to share it with you.

Dr. Merritt spent nine years as a Navy surgeon and physician , and she described the situation that we are in as a "5th Generation Uncharacteristic Unrestricted War". She also indicated that it was important to grasp this as it made the difference between our seeing ourselves as victims of circumstance or as soldiers/defenders in a conflict. That is, are these just circumstances (Providence) over which we have no recourse or are there intelligent intentional actions behind the chaos that we might oppose with some hope of success? Reading the description of this type of warfare from the article below gave me some puzzle pieces to include in my own thinking about Covid, and much more that is going on.

 https://warontherocks.com/2016/04/a-new-generation-of-unrestricted-warfare/ .

In this article you will find these quotes,

“In 1999, two Chinese colonels wrote a book called "Unrestricted Warfare" , about warfare in the age of globalization. Their main argument: Warfare in the modern world will no longer be primarily a struggle defined by military means — or even involve the military at all.”.

They argued, ” that war was no longer about “using armed forces to compel the enemy to submit to one’s will", but "using all means, including armed force or non-armed force, military and non-military, and lethal and non-lethal means to compel the enemy to accept one’s interests.”

“The barrier between soldiers and civilians would fundamentally be erased because the battle would be everywhere. The number of new battlefields would be “virtually infinite,” and could include environmental warfare, financial warfare, trade warfare, cultural warfare, and legal warfare to name just a few."

"They wrote of assassinating financial speculators to safeguard a nation’s financial security, setting up slush funds to influence opponents’ legislatures and governments, and buying controlling shares of stocks to convert an adversary’s major television and newspapers outlets into tools of media warfare.”

They “argued in a subsequent interview that “the first rule of unrestricted warfare is that there are no rules, with nothing forbidden.” That vision clearly transcends any traditional notions of war.”

They further” argued that the battlefield had fundamentally changed. It was no longer a place where militaries met and fought; instead, society itself was now the battlefield. Future wars would inevitably encompass attacks on all elements of society without limits. Military battles resembling those of 1991 might become secondary elements of conflict — if they even occurred at all.”

Sounds like they took a page out of the ancient book,"The Art of War" , from the Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu. "The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting."

But consider this--they realized and wrote of this over 20 years ago at the dawning of the growth of the internet. What they foresaw was that globalization, the growing integration of our industrial world into a smaller interdependent world, would now enable a new kind of unlimited and unrelenting warfare. Much as the creation of the atom bomb ushered in the nuclear threat that bypassed the protection of our armed forces on the borders of our countries and directly targeted our cities and homes. So the channels of connectivity across the globe have opened the doors to direct potential subversion and aggression in every sphere of society and to every individual they touch.  

As Lady Galadriel says in the opening scene of the movie Lord of the Rings, "The world is changed."  We have entered a new era with new challenges where warfare doesn't need  bullets to be intentionally aggressive warfare or have lines of battle to define it. 

But who are the combatants?

As a Christian I trust the original teaching that the setting of the conflict in the world proceeds from a spiritual war of evil against good, as spoken of by Paul, and as recorded in the Book of Revelation by the Apostle John. The out-working of this has been historically displayed in the accounts of Cain and Able, the Canaanites verses the Hebrews, and the Jews and Romans verses the Christians. In summary it teaches that as long as there is history, evil will assail and assault the good in conventional warfare or in "Uncharacteristic Unrestricted Warfare" of all types. So yes, there are spiritually intelligent intentional actions behind the chaos and we apper to be in this kind of "unrestricted" war now. And the aggressors, conscious of their intentions or not, may rise and wane and change with time and they may combine or may not be allied with one another and they will use their advantage when they have it.

The difference is perceptions and actions. It is not just circumstance, it is a form of warfare, and we are combatants whether we understand it, or want it, or not. The only question for us is will we recognize it as warfare and react as soldiers of Christ or will we acquiesce and play the victim?

Seems to me that just becoming aware of this is the first step.

The next is:

Improvise, adapt, overcome!...

…because it is more than just a Marine motto…it is Faith put to action!

May God Bless,

Jonny