“DON’T ‘Hold The Fort!'” by Dr. Sam Gipp

I like the song, “Hold the Fort.” I enjoy singing it. I enjoy “waving the answer back to Heaven.” I enjoy giving a loud “cheer” on the last verse. I love the song. But I hate it when it is a philosophy! “Hold the Fort” seems to be the underlying philosophy of Bible believers. “Here we are. All alone. They’ll be coming to take us to ‘the camps’ soon. Let’s just try to hang on until the end.” What a wimpy, whining loser’s mind set! The mentality is that we’re all huddled in our foxholes, down to our last bullet as we watch the unstoppable tanks of the devil grinding slowly our direction. Pray for the Rapture! It’s our only hope! You know the old saying, “The best defense is…to run and hide!” And that is something Christians have made a conviction out of. We are the runningest, hidingest bunch of hand-wringers the world has ever seen. Always ready to “snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.” We not only have no vision for America for the Lord, but if anyone dares to insinuate that we should come out of our holes long enough to try to win any kind of a victory he is decried as a heretic by the sluggards who have made cowardice a virtue.

Our crowd can only hide behind the limp-wristed argument, “Well, America started with a rebellion so it’s got to be bad.” Never mind the good this nation has done. We’re not allowed to consider it. Consider? We’re not even allowed to mention it! As though there was some gutless European country that is superior to ours!

What happened to the Lord’s return and planning where my next hideout will be. What I mean is that I totally reject the common philosophy that all we can hope to do is just barely hang on to the light bit of ground we have while we wait to be overrun. If this is a war then I want to take some ground from the devil. (I know. “Better be careful what you say about the devil or God will turn him lose on you.”) That’s right! We’ve raised a generation of Bible believing Christians who are more afraid of making the devil mad than making their God mad!

I’m not trying to pick a fight with the devil…he picked one with us! When you are under attack you have two chances. The chance to lose ground and the chance to gain ground. We have found the best way to keep from losing a battle is not to fight it! Forget that! I want some of the devil’s ground for the Lord!

Uncontested Ground – No one has ever tried to prepare our teens to defend their belief in the King James Bible when it is attacked in their “Bible” college. This ground has been surrendered to the devil simply because we have refused to contest it. Not anymore! The new Christian school lessons from DayStar Educational Ministry will prepare students for such attacks as, “The italics don’t belong in the Bible.”, “King James was a queer.”, “Easter is a mistranslation.” and many others. It incorporates material from The Answer Book, An Understandable History of the Bible and about 1/3 of it consists of totally new studies that I have never published before. It will also teach students not to disrupt classes or cause trouble. Next year will have material on Westcott & Hort, Erasmus, new version comparisons and numerous other subjects. The material is actually college level so it will well prepare them for defending their Bible in a college environment.

It is produced in a format that has 12 individual lessons with tests and score keys. It is on the order of ACE, Rod & Staff or Alpha & Omega Christian school curriculums but is not affiliated with any of them. It will be compatible with either church schools or home schools.

Why send 20 students off to college, have 18 of the them lose their faith in the Bible and waste our time re-winning about 5 of them back? Why not prepare all 20 for the attacks? We may not keep them all but the odds are certainly better.

A brain storm! – I was just returning from the printer when a brain storm hit me. Why not consolidate all 12 lessons into one volume in a workbook format for either a traditional schools format or Bible colleges? That day, as I waited for my airplane at the gate in Cincinnati, I already had the new project half finished. I finished it the other day but it will have to wait until we have money to print the lessons for 12th grade first. Then the workbook can move ahead.

Again, this is uncontested ground and these lessons will fill a void that has been left vacant for years while we hid in the bunker.

Contested Ground – I have another plan! It will not go into effect until next year. (I can only do so much at once.)

I don’t mind writing books which defend the King James Bible which are purchased by people who are already King James Bible believers. It helps them refute the arguments of Bible rejecters. But what about new ground? How do we get the books written by Bible believers into the hands of everyday Christians who are unaware of the issue? The only way is to get the books written by Bible believers onto the shelves of main stream Christian bookstores. I have a plan which, if the Christian school material doesn’t bankrupt us, this should. I am not at liberty to divulge all the details yet, but I plan to attempt (I can only “attempt” it) to get the books of King James Bible believers onto the shelves of at least some main stream Christian bookstores. That way a person may buy a book that is not necessarily about the King James issue but “discover” the superiority of the Authorized Version by what the author had to say. I don’t care if it’s my book they buy! I’ll be glad if they buy someone else’s book as long as it furthers the cause. Remember! We are supposed to be serving a “Cause” that is greater than ourselves! I will tell you more on this as the plan develops.

Please pray! All of these things are difficult to do when you live in a house. Being on the road greatly complicates things. (It’s safer to just hide in the bunker.) If I fail I couldn’t care less. I would rather fail trying to gain new ground than bury my head in my foxhole and whine about how tough things are.

I am not asking for help. Just prayer. Prayers! It will take a lot and I can assure you the fight will be hot. But I want to glorify my King and give the devil a hard time while doing it.

Yep! I love the song, “Hold the Fort!” But I totally reject it as my anthem. Too many gutless Christians are hiding behind their couches and claiming they can’t do anything or a “lion” may get them. (Proverbs 22:13, 26:13.) I do not intend to live, “Hold the Fort.” If I wanted an anthem it would sound more like…”I Want That Mountain!”

So what are you going to do? Are there battles in your area to fight? Are you going to let your precious time slip away while you make excuse after excuse for doing nothing? (“Well, there’s no sense in starting now, the Rapture is going to happen soon.”)

You can sing any song you want to. But which are you going to live? Decide on, Hold the Fort! or,

I Want That Mountain!