Reflections on Memorial Day 2016 — Soldiers of the Armies of Heaven

May 30th marks the 148th observance of those American Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guard who have fought and died in battle.

Many will attend ceremonies and listen to speeches about remembering the fallen. Some of these ceremonies will be at National Cemeteries. Photos appear on social media of the white grave stones of the fallen. But are we missing something?

What many forget is that our fallen have been reborn and now reside in heaven with God.

A question arises as I reflect on this Memorial Day: What are our fallen doing in heaven? Have they been recruited by God for a purpose?

I believe the answer lies in the Book of Revelation. Revelation 19:13-15 reads:

13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and His name is The Word of God.

14 The armies of heaven, dressed in fine linen, white and pure, follow Him on white horses.

15 And from His mouth proceeds a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God, the Almighty.…

Has God taken the fallen and created a “Heavenly Army” which will return to finally defeat evil after the Apocalypse?  Answer: Yes, the Bible tells us so.

I therefore rejoice, for our fallen will return and their glory will be great once again.

America has always fought against evil. From the American Revolution, to the Great War On Terror, Americans have stood up against those who would do harm to the world.

President Abraham Lincoln may have been thinking of the Book of Revelation when he wrote on November 18, 1863 en-route to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania,

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

RELATED ARTICLE: ‘They Stood for Something and We Owe Them Something’: Reagan’s 1986 Memorial Day Speech

Here is Toby Keith singing American Soldier:

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