Sleepers

Published by John Bingaman on March 2, 2020March 2, 2020

Our seemingly endless military occupation of the Middle East has recently spawned speculation about terrorist “sleeper cells” here in the United States. 

A fair definition of sleeper cells is:

A group of people (sleepers) who inconspicuously remain dormant in a community until activated, by a prearranged signal, to perform acts of espionage, sabotage, or terrorism.

Maybe they exist, maybe they don’t.  Because of their inconspicuous nature they, of course, cannot be proven.  They have not yet acted to show their allegiances.  No action, no proof of existence.

In this new year, we might pray that God would send some prearranged (pre-destined?) signal to Christian sleeper cells here in the U.S. Scripture speaks often of the remnant of righteous believers in society – even when all seem scattered.  We’re also told that the increase of His government will never end – there are more believers every day.

A few cells of dedicated Christians can cause much change.  We are, for example, truly changing the discussion in this country about abortion.  It’s becoming less and less acceptable and there’s little doubt left in this society that a child is being killed in abortions.

Unfortunately, many so-called Christian churches who have abandoned the Bible for gods of their own making (“I like to think of God as…”) don’t seem to be candidates for activation as sleeper cells.  They are only sleepers.  They definitely fit the “inconspicuous” and “dormant” part of a sleeper cell, but they are not awaiting any signals to act.

Ask most main line congregants about King Jesus and what you get is, “Well, He will be king when He returns.”  Ask about the Great Commission where Christ says, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth,” and you find that they have skipped that part (especially the part about authority on earth) to get to the part that says, “Go and make disciples…” in order to justify funding missionaries.

We know that God can, if He wishes, grant ears to hear and turn those sleepers into sleeper cells, activating them into an army for good.  An activated army of Christians would be terrifying, indeed, to the Prince of Darkness.

We should all wish to be so feared.