THE SALVATION ARMY!

The Salvation Army represents a fundamental break from the modern conception of God. Here God offers no succour to the suffering, no courage for the fearful, is no companion to the friendless, no source of strength to the weak, the meek and the mild.
Let us quote from one its own theologians
'Who is this pitiful God happy to sleep side to side with beggars in the wind swept streets, who pleads with the powerful to sheathe their swords, to reliquish the spoils they have won through stength of sinew and fixity of will? Who chides the proud hero and lauds the weak sister. Who, tell me, is this slavish God, this weak, wretched God of conquered peoples? Who bleats for love and understanding. We recognise no such God. Would God shy away from the world he has created? Admonishes the kings he has set to rule over it and laud those who are crushed under its weight? A God who bemoans his own creation? Impossible! What God would make a world only to disown it? This can be no God of ours.
Our God is a God of the victor and not the slave. A God to inspire fear not wheedle for insipid love. He is powerful. He is fierce. His hair and beard are of flame. His counternance is that of the thundercloud and the roiling ocean, the savage tiger, the erupting volcano. Sharp of fang and claw, thew and sinew. Strong and ruthless. He pleads not for mercy, nor does he beg for compassion. He does not cousel forgiveness. He hungers for blood and death. Only victory honours his name, victory and the blood of those who deny him. Fear God. Fear his wrath. Give him his tribute as you would a conquering king. Seek not to humanise him. He is God and He is terrible'
from 'The Wolf and the Sheep'