It sits on the tarmac near the hanger with the cockpit open awaiting the pilot. The F-16 fighter jet is known the world over as a premier fighting machine. It is as agile in flight as its sleek design would lead one to imagine. The bubble shaped canopy that covers the cockpit is a very distinctive feature of this jet which makes it easy for the pilot to keep a 360 degree awareness of his surroundings at all times. The performance factor of its engine and the pound per thrust ratio make it a superb aircraft.
The F-16 is only one of several fighting aircraft in the U.S. arsenal. And then, there are those under development. These aircraft are some of the best in the world. They are highly sophisticated in their electronic warfare capability. They can track multiple targets simultaneously and they can carry hefty payloads of very lethal and very accurate armament.
What the F-16 is to armies today, is very similar to what the horse was to armies way back then. Back before the era of jet fighters, tanks, armored personal carriers and missiles, there was the horse. The horse, in times past, has been a symbol of military strength. In medieval times, a horse was outfitted with layers of thick covering draped over its sides and face, for the purpose of shielding the horse from arrows and swords of opposing armies. A soldier riding such a horse, had a tremendous advantage over an opposing soldier who was merely on foot.
For the purpose of this article, I am going to call the F-16 jet fighter an “Iron Horse.” I could use a tank, which might seem more appropriate but, for this article, I am choosing the jet fighter. We, as a nation, have put our trust in the Iron Horse. We, as a people, have put our trust in what we can build with our hands. We, as a people, have put our trust in our ability to develop and fabricate highly technical and ultra-sophisticated electronic warfare devices. In the process of the time span covering the era of such high-tech warfare, we, as a nation, have marginalized our trust in God, and have instead begun to do what the Bible refers to as putting trust in the strength of a horse. We read in Psalm 33:16-18 “No king is saved by the multitude of an army; A mighty man is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a vain hope for safety; Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength. Behold the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, On those who hope in His mercy.”
Here is the problem. For every F-16 sitting on runway, you need a pilot to fly it. Not only do you need a pilot, but you also need maintenance personal, parts and fuel. Then, once airborne, the pilot will need the support of air traffic control, ground tracking info and eventual landing and refueling location. All of this requires a tremendous and expensive and elaborate support system. Lots of money. When looking at the money issue, we have even built one model of jet fighter (F-22 Raptor) that proved to be too costly to fly and maintain. Even now, the plane chosen (F-35 Joint Force Fighter) as the alternative, is proving to be very costly and by the time all the top military officials get their add-on features incorporated into the project, it will most likely end up being as expensive as the F-22. A serious threshold to be sure, but the money issue isn’t where I’m going with this. There is something more serious.
What I see for our country that is the more serious issue, more than money, is the absence of a belief in God and the absence of vision for the future as a Christian society. This may sound old fashioned but, when one contemplates the transition that has begun, the future of our society looks anything but promising. We, as a nation, are going headlong into a post-Christian era. Some, upon reading this may say “yes, this is a good thing.” The arrogant, atheist intellectual may think he will one day live in a world free of all religion, but such an individual is naïve. Mankind has been religious from the beginning, and will be in the end. Imagining a world in which there is no religion, is the product of the mind of a person who has insulated himself from the rest of the world.
The United States of America is drifting away from God. The United States of America is transitioning from a Christian nation to a post-Christian nation. If history proves correct, such a transition will not go smoothly. We, as a people, have put our trust in the Iron Horse that we made with our hands. We thought if we could build such technologically innovative and superior war machines that they, of and by themselves, would keep us safe and secure as a nation. What we have failed to realize is that it is in God, and in Him alone where our security is to be found. Once we abandon the foundation of faith and trust in God, then all is lost. Once we start putting our faith and trust in our own man made devices, all is lost. It is the Lord who delivers a nation, not man. It is the Lord who provides peace, safety, security and comfort, not man. If our future is left in the hands of mere men, then only misery awaits.
As important as it was to design and build the F-16, it was equally important to ensure that you had pilots to fly them. As a nation, we needed to ensure that we were training up pilots we could trust and pilots who had the same vision and hope for the future. We, as a nation, have failed in this area. It is the unity of vision and values in our society that is slipping away. In other words, the dilemma rapidly overtaking us is “so what, if we are able to build the best jet fighters in the world. If we don’t have loyal pilots to fly them, what good are they.” And, this is where I see our society heading at a rapid pace. It is coming down to the issue of trust. Who do you trust to put on the Iron Horse? If you cannot find soldiers you can trust and you cannot face an enemy with a unified force, you will lose the battle. This is the dilemma we are facing as a nation.
We have chosen to put our faith and trust and in ourselves and the work of our hands rather than putting our faith and trust in God. So what, if we can build the sophisticated Iron Horse. If our nation is rotten and corrupt on the inside, if our society has turned its back on God, if our people have gone headlong into a lifestyle of sin, then no degree of sophistication or lethality of our military Iron Horse can save us. We are doomed. God will leave us to our own devices and we will fragment and begin fighting each other. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 28:19 “Where there is no vision (prophetic revelation), the people perish (cast off restraint). We, as nation have lost our vision.
So, there on the runway sits the new Iron Horse. Who will fly it? What will be the loyalty of the pilot who sits in the cockpit?