Those words were spoken by Lt. Hiro Onoda, age 52, when the bearded lieutenant in the defunct Imperial Japanese Army emerged from the jungles and surrendered his rusty sword—in 1974, 29 years after the end of World War II. (Another Japanese straggler-soldier had given himself up in January of 1972, having been hiding in the jungles of Guam.) Lt. Onoda said that he surrendered because he was ordered to by his former commander, Maj. Yoshimi Taniguchi. “I am a soldier. I have to follow orders; without an order, I cannot come out,” Onoda said. The surrender ceremony took place with 150 newsmen crowding around Onoda. Wearing a Japanese military cap and a gray, short-sleeve shirt with neatly patched tatters, he appeared in good health, though with a skinny frame. Also present was a 30-man honor guard. Onoda approached two Japanese military dignitaries, snapped a salute, and handed his sword, with its rusting blade wrapped in white cloth, to his superior, who described Onoda as a “perfect example of a soldier.” For a full account of Lt. Onoda’s remarkable story, you can read this article: Hiroo Onoda: The Japanese Soldier Who Refused to Surrender.
Onoda’s story is a pretty amazing though somewhat pathetic example of what I am going to write about in this post: loyalty! In this case, loyalty to the Imperial Japanese Army. In this 21st century, we can only scratch our heads in unbelief that there were men who were that loyal to an oath of obedience to a superior—military or otherwise.
“Till death do us part” is generally spoken only as part of a ceremony, with little thought of the implications. And, when one joins a club, an association, a company or organization, loyalty to that entity is not front and center on one’s mind. And this covenantal casualness is easily observed in the relationships that members of local churches, the Head of which is Jesus Christ, evidence today.
A dear friend of mine now with the Lord, Evangelist Phil Shuler, published a newsletter when he was cris-crossing the United States for decades as a “sheep dog”—i.e., helping local pastors in church revivals in their efforts to take care of the sheep under their watch care. Phil and his wife Marie, who was at the piano, did a marvelous work in a few days, singing each night—in his inimitable tenor voice—one of the 450 songs that he had written. His preaching was usually textual, driving a point home in each sermon through a Biblical text, accompanied by stories that kept hearers of all ages hanging on every word.
In one edition of his newsletter, “The Itinerant Evangelist,” Phil began with these words: “Something bothers me. In the last ten years or so I have seen a growing number of Christians who belong to good, strong fundamental churches, leaving those churches to skip across town to join another. The churches that they leave have no real problems with the leadership, nor can they testify to the fact that the doctrine of the pulpit is faulty. They just leave without any scriptural reason, and settle elsewhere.”
Phil went on to say that he could find nothing in scripture to justify this trend. He then wrote, “I remember problems in my father’s church as I grew up. We had friction, now and then, right up to the board of Stewards. [Phil’s father, “Fightin” Bob Shuler, pastored the largest independent Methodist Church in America, in downtown Los Angeles.] But we hardly saw people right with God jumping ship. We had people leave, but usually it was because they were in rebellion, or they were transferred to another town. We did have some that we handpicked to help out small, struggling churches—but other than these incidents, we saw extreme loyalty to the local church.”
Phil said that he was raised to be loyal. In time, when the Trinity Methodist Church, where his dad had pastored, was led by a modernist, his family was forced to leave. Phil continues, “In searching the scriptures, I find only three real ‘reasons’ for leaving a fundamental church and joining another. First, doctrinal. If the pastor leaves the Apostles’ doctrine, then we leave that pastor. If the pastor will leave the church, all good and well; but if the constitution does not allow for one to leave, even though he turns from the scriptures, then it is up to the members to move elsewhere. Do not give comfort to the enemy.”
The second reason Evangelist Shuler stated was, as taught in the Bible, when there is a moral problem with the pastor, which “we are seeing more and more of this in these last days. Finally, the third reason to leave a fundamental church and join another is the leading of the Lord in one’s life that moves his headquarters to another region, making it impossible for that person to continue in his present church.”
Phil concludes: “I honestly feel that the spiraling divorce rate has given birth to the idea that a Christian can ‘divorce’ a good fundamental church with less pain and strain than a mate, so they do it. Maybe the church across town has a better youth program. Still no reason to leave. Just put your shoulder to the plow and build a better youth group! Don’t put your efforts into the problem, put them into the solution. Don’t be guilty of gossiping and complaining. Refuse to listen to those who criticize your pastor. Stay true, folks. In these last days, many shall faint and fall along the way. Fight it. Continue to pray for the ministry of evangelism. Yours for souls, Phil Shuler.”
Though these words of admonition were penned decades ago, they are still relevant today. Hear them! Heed them! Be loyal to Jesus Christ, the Head of the church. Don’t abandon the post that He has ordered you to watch. Be loyal to the local church He has placed you in to serve. Cultivate the practice of loyalty!
“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be manifest that they were not all of us.” (I John 2:19)
YOU and GOD 