BEYOND THE BULGE

The Battle of the Bulge was one of the most decisive battles of World War II. In it Hitler launched his last great offensive in which he was all but successful. He used his last and best tanks, and commissioned one of his most trusted and skilled officers, Col. Otto Skorzeny, to plan and oversee a strategic part of that attack. Though the entire battle was a complex operation, the plan was to break through the Allies lines with captured American jeeps and English-speaking commandos who would greatly aid the German army as it followed. Though the bulk of the offensive was thwarted, a few commandos, disguised in American uniforms, were successful in breaking through. After carrying out a few minor devious missions, their gas ran so low that they were forced to flag down an American army vehicle to ask for fuel. Having learned English in Great Britain, they made the mistake of asking for petrol instead of gasoline. As a result they were immediately detected and captured.

Ironically and unbeknown to them, their greatest success was realized when rumors spread that English-speaking enemy troops, dressed in American uniform, had broken through the lines and were now among them. Now every one was suspect and no one was trusted. Troops, convoys, and even officers were detained for questioning–sometimes for hours-- while priceless time was lost. On the Allies’ side was massive confusion which threatened to destroy all unity and cost them ultimate defeat.

Though the Battle of the Bulge occurred over half a century ago, it offers valuable lessons that are relevant for us today. The old “divide-and-conquer” tactic is being employed even at this very moment, and it is used with no less success than it has enjoyed throughout history. If our enemy can not win through brute force he will employ our help by setting us against our brother. That goal he might not easily achieve unless he can cause us to suspect our brother of insincerity, duplicity, or hypocrisy.

To be quite honest, our common enemy has been all too successful at this goal. Too many of us, for whatever reason, have begun to see our brother as a potential traitor. Now we spend both ours and his precious time in profitless interrogations to verify his integrity while at the same time, in his mind, ours is in question.

Jesus foresaw this danger when He gave us the parable of the wheat and the tares. He foresaw that we could end up trudging through massive fields of wheat trying to identify and purge out the tares. In the process, we would both purge some, and trample underfoot what little would be left of the precious wheat. Instead Jesus said, “Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.”

Jesus knew that our effort and ability to always distinguish between the true and the false was futile. He knew that such an endeavor would do more harm then good. No, I do not think that He was teaching that we should allow to continue as one of us he who is obviously the product of bad seed. There are plenty of Scriptures to back that conclusion. What He did teach was that we would not always know the difference and in attempting to make that judgment, we would end up, in many cases, plucking up the wheat and leaving the tares.

What a sense of relief has flooded my mind and soul to discover that it is not my responsibility to clean the field! I am convinced that the same relief can be yours as well if you will “bow out” of this job to which you have not been assigned.

Had the Allies not given up their “witch hunt,” the final outcome of that battle and even that war could have been quite different. We are today in a warfare between good and evil, and for many it is a matter of heaven or hell. Time is too short and the price of souls too great to spend our time wrangling over details that do not fall within our job description, and by this ultimately lose the battle for souls.

As it was in the great Battle of the Bulge, so it is in this spiritual battle for souls. Though on some fronts we are making advances, on others the enemy’s offensive is bulging the lines. Furthermore, beyond that bulge the enemy is already at work draining our strength, breaking down our oneness and rendering us defenseless at a time when unity is most crucial. One of the objectives of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians was that Satan should not get an advantage of us: “for we are not ignorant of his devices.”

--Philip Burch