This evening, for about two hours, I have had a fascinating conversation with one of my fellow instructors here, who I did not realize was a huge military buff and also a strategic thinker (his Myers-Briggs is an INTJ, whereas mine was an ENTJ–I knew we thought alike). The conversation began with a suitably random musing on how different personalities would fare sent back in time. We both quickly agreed than an NF (Healer) would almost certainly be snuffed out throughout almost any time in the past by their reaction to the basic cruelty of the world around them. We also agreed that a rational (people like ourselves, in other words) would almost certainly have a hard time appearing nonthreatening or blending in anywhere, but would probably be smart enough to keep their mental machinery underground while they planned how to find themselves an honorable place and some security without appearing like some kind of wizard.

We also agreed that Guardians (SJ) would have an easy time finding some authority to suck up to and serve as an underling to and allow them the chance to preserve traditions while finding honorable and elitist places for themselves. Guardians do seem to have that knack (I’ve seen enough of them in my time, especially in the Church of God). We both also agreed that Artisan (SPs) should be able to make the best downtrodden peasants, searching for a place of land to farm or crafts to make and use their hands to make a go of it in almost any time period. I think pondered the proportion of personality types, which I consider to be an element of divine design (then again, being a theist, I would). The vast majority of people are either SJs or SPs, and it is those people that preserve the past for the next generation and pursue basic crafts and trades and pursuits (like farming, hunting, and so on) that keep societies stable and fed. I do not begrudge my brothers among the logistical or tactical intelligence those skills. The skills of diplomatic and strategic intelligence are higher order abilities that depend on a base of preexisting and functioning society, and so it is no wonder that only 20-25% are made of the personalities in the NT and NF range. More specialized niches limit the numbers of people that can make a successful go of it in those places where we are best-suited.

We then discussed how a super-advanced people from the future could take over a less developed people in the past. There would have to be a plan, a strategy, from the mind of a rational being. There would also be a time period. Rationals would scope out the best land to take, presumably territory no one else wanted anyway, so there would be less fighting and a lower profile while one built up one’s strength. Then artisans would be sent out to drain the fen and set up the basic farms and crafts needed, guardians would be sent out to run the villages and set up the necessary social hierarchies, then the healers would be sent out to engage in the counseling and physical healing necessary–growing the herbs, mixing medicines, serving as a willing ear. Then the rationals would come as advisers, planners, generals, making sure everything was well-organized towards the desired end of world conquest.

We figured that in order to engage successfully in world conquest one would probably want to work in a variety of places simultaneously, in order to build networks of alliances, as long as everyone involved was on the same page, so that there would be no destructive fighting between the elite timelords of the future. In order for there to be peace and a successful effort, everyone had to be able to work together and not engage in internecine fighting. Everyone involved in the project would have to be on the same side and work from the same plan.

The more we talked about this, the more this resembled the way the Kingdom of God works. Of course, the plan involved in that belongs to God (and not any of us), but God does not accept any into His family who cannot accept His standards (reflected in His law), or his authority, or who is not willing to work according to His plans and purposes, to His ends. There is no room for private agendas or faking compliance to get larger scope for one’s personal vices and control, as is common in human institutions and organizations. Satan’s realm is divided by such fractures and fighting, but God’s kingdom offers many niches for specialists who are willing to work from a unity of authority and approach.

We then pondered the current state of the Church of God. Indeed, we are divided among many organizations, but such a state need not suggest that we are mutually hostile. I remember hearing a sermon not too long ago about the Jews of Krakow, who made up a large proportion of the city’s population but were so divided against themselves that they were unable to present a common front of action against the deadly Nazi threat. We in the Church of God could be very vulnerable to such a threat right now, though we need not be, even as many groups, as long as we have the right approach.

There are advantages to being many groups, so long as there is a unity of identity, a recognition of a common community, and a common approach. A decentralized network of cooperating groups, without a center to attack or a leader to remove, is a vastly more dangerous threat to a centralized Satanic realm, because there is no solid base to attack, while the guerrilla groups can melt into the local population, into the topography, and choose where and when to strike, act quickly to threats and opportunity, and present a target impossible for a big and slow and centralized state to hit.

I realized that for a variety of reasons, God may have intentionally set up His church in these times to be guerrilla groups, deep in hostile territory, light on their feet, ever vigilant, and able to use their small numbers and ability to think and move quickly to good advantage. If we realize that we are involved in a greater war and can move beyond fighting with our natural allies (i.e. other guerrilla groups) and work together against the real enemies (the big, nasty armies of tyrannical states), we can work little by little to reducing their control and showing their vulnerability to ever growing amounts of people who can then overcome their fears and take a more active role against the evils of the world around us. To do that requires a great deal of situational awareness and wisdom as to the signs of the times.

And we can do all of this, if we are able to change our way of thinking to take advantage of mobility and decentralized cooperation (without control) given our common aim and principles. If we are able to do this we will be able to achieve a greater degree of effectiveness because we will be less tied to vulnerable places that can be damaged or destroyed, or less controlled by centers that can be co-opted, inflitrated, or eliminated. What we need is to realize the reality of our situation and to act accordingly, to realize what game we are in and what we need to do to win it, to understand ourselves, our own strengths and weaknesses, who is on our side to fill in what we lack (and vice versa), and who we are really fighting against. It is only once we know, and act on, these matters that we can be successful in our very deadly serious combat.

I am a student of war, and I have been from my youth. This is not because I am a particularly war-like person by nature, but because from my earliest childhood war was declared and waged on me. Seeing as I had little choice in the matter, I made it my point to learn how to wage war successfully, since if one does not have the choice to fight or not, one must choose to wage war in such a way that one can win. Sometimes the only peace one can find is through victory, and when that is so (and it has been so in my life), then wage war in such a way as to win, with whatever strategies and tactics, materials and allies that one can find, always aware that the physical plane is merely the visible part of a vastly deeper and more complicated warfare that cuts to the very core of us inside, as well as the highest and most cosmic levels of existence. For we are in a war that has waged at least since humanity began, so let us wage it so that we may win it, and therefore enjoy a well-earned victory, having been brave soldiers and alert guerrillas along the way. I hope I have many such conversations while I am here–it it is very nice to meet such a like-minded and deeply intelligent student on the ways of spiritual warfare.