A BRIEF HISTORY:

The Desert Training Center (DTC) became operational on April 30th 1942 under the command of General George S. Patton Jr. Patton himself had selected the site of the DTC after surveying the area from the air, and on foot and horseback. Patton established the first base camp of the DTC about 25 miles east of Indio at Shavers Summit (now known as Chiriaco Summit, after the family which owns the land, and home to the General Patton Memorial Museum).

Patton only served in the Desert Training Center for a little less than four months, being called away to eventual service in Operation Torch in late July 1942. Yet it was his vision that created it, often at his own expense, and his energy that sustained it throughout its brief history.
The troops said the DTC was, “the place that God forgot.” The immediate purpose of the Training Center was to prepare troops for desert campaign against German and Italian forces in North Africa.

At it’s height the DTC consisted of twelve divisional camps, numerous support camps, and stretched from Indio in the west to Prescott in the east, from Yuma in the south to Searchlight, Nevada, in the north. In it’s final form it covered approximately 18,000 square miles and was divided into three areas. Area A covered parts of California and Nevada, area B part of southwest Arizona and C part of northwestern Arizona.

When Patton left the Center, General Walton H. Walker (who would later served under Patton in Northwest Europe) assumed command on August 2nd, 1942. He was later relieved by General Alvan Gillem Jr.

After the close of the North African Campaign the name of the DTC was changed to the California-Arizona Maneuver Area (CAMA) to better reflect it’s training of troops for all theaters of the war. At it’s height the CAMA reached a strength of 190,000 men under the command of General Charles H. White.

CAMA officially closed at midnight on April 30th, 1944. The 10th Corps being the last unit to hold maneuvers in the CAMA. With it’s closure came an immense effort to close the camps, ship out thousands pieces of equipment and tons of material. The last facilities to close were the Pomona Ordnance Base, the Base General Hospital Depot and the HQ at Camp Young.

In its two year history the DTC-CAMA trained approximately one million men in the largest military maneuver area the world has ever seen. Units trained there include the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 9th, and 11th Armored Divisions and the 5th, 7th, 8th, 33rd, 77th, 79th, 81st, 89th, 90th, 93rd, 95th, and 104th Infantry Divisions.

Judging from the performance of the troops in combat General Patton had been correct when he said, “If you can work successfully here, in this country, it will be no difficulty at all to kill the assorted sons of bitches you will meet in any other country.”

I guess the honeymoon lasted longer than I could have hoped for, but now it’s over!

Overnight I was hit with a ton of comment spam, all probably from the same lowlife, promoting internet gambling!

I deleted them all and will continue too – let’s just hope this doesn’t get out of hand or I may have to close comments. But for now I remain alert – DEATH TO ALL SPAMMERS!! (Uh – is that a Christian attitude??)

This is part 3 of my article on baptism. I’m discussing baptism and how it appears in the book of Acts at this point in the discussion.

If that’s true, you would expect to see the early church in the book of Acts follow this pattern. And that’s exactly what they did. When you study the Bible you find that the normal patter for people coming to Christ involved hearing the Gospel, believing it, turning away from their sin (repenting) confessing their faith in Christ to others, being baptized into Christ. Often they are then called saved.

Look at the chart below to see how often these important factors are mentioned in the book of Acts as Luke, guided and inspired by the Holy Spirit, recorded the major or historically noteworthy conversions in the early history of the church.

Pentecost – 2:22-41: They heard, believed, were baptized and saved.

Samaria – 8:4-15: They believed and were baptized.

Eunuch – 8:26-39: He believed, was baptized and saved.

Saul – 9:1-9: He believed, was baptized and saved.

Cornelius – 10:1-48: He believed, repented, was baptized and saved.

Lydia – 16:13-15: She believed and was baptized.

The Jailer – 16:25-34: He believed, repented, confessed, was baptized, and was saved.

Interesting isn’t it? The only thing that’s mentioned in every conversion occurrence is baptism! That’s probably the exact opposite of what most of us would expect, yet that’s precisely what we find in God’s Word.

This isn’t to say that all of these examples given didn’t do all of the things listed, just that Luke, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, didn’t always record them.

But he did record their baptism, which means at the very least it was seen as a very important part of becoming a disciple of the Lord Jesus, or as they called it often in Acts, a follower of the Way.

Next time, more in baptism and the sign of the covenant.

Check out this link on LaShawn Barber’s site. It’s a listing of some new blogs.

I’m trying to do this trackback thing – and still don’t understand it!! But I”m giving it a shot so that maybe LaShawn will mention this site!!

Update – 4:45 PM

Yahooooooooo!!! LaShawn mentioned me!! Victory! Rejoice!

Okay, calming down, but getting even a mention from a very popular blogger like LaShawn is a BIG deal! Please do visit her site and say “Thanks!”

Let Freedom Ring, #9

4-28-2005

By Louie Marsh

I’m continuing my look at Freedom in the Old Testament in Isaiah. This passage is important not only because I love it! – but more importantly it was also quoted by Jesus and serves as part of the bridge we’ll take into the New Testament.

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion– to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. Isaiah 61:1-4 (NIV)

I love that fact that freedom in this passage is equated with being whole hearted (or being heal from being brokenhearted.). See how it all ties together? Being in darkness equals being a prisoner, which equals being comforted, etc.

The Bible view of freedom is what we would call today a “holistic” view. You probably won’t read that again here since I hate the word! I really bugs me to hear snobby elites who live on both coasts and sneer at those of us in “fly over country,” who are “trailer trash,” and other kinds of lower life forms, throw that word around. (BTW – I live in a single wide trailer – and am proud to claim for myself the title – KING OF THE TRAILER TRASH!)

Read more »

I just finishing reading an article in Science & Theology News that reminded me why I’m a Pastor and not a Theologian!

Yes, I know Pastors are theologians or a sort, but not the kind that tend to isolate themselves in ivory towers and ponder deep mysteries all day long. Said mysteries are usually so deep that most people never even wonder about them at all!

This article provides a good example of that – not to mention a great example of someone who has clearly has a lot of knowledge of Christianity but doesn’t understand it at all!

When accepting the Templeton award in 2000, physicist Freeman Dyson said that, as a religious person, God to him is what mind becomes when it has passed the scale of our comprehension. This is certainly the most scientific way of thinking about God. However, contrary to popular belief, as matters stand in science, we do not even know what constitutes the mind or how it evolves from the brain — or vice versa. It is a stretch to derive complex emotions from fundamental principles, let alone locate their origins in God.

Yet I am optimistic. I agree with David Griffin that “panentheism holds out the promise that in the coming generations, the scientific and the theistic communities share the same basic world view.” This requires major revisions to current cosmological models, but the prospects are there. (I will discuss these prospects in a future posting on this website.)

The author of this learned discourse is one Paul Utukuru. Like said, he knows a lot about not only the Christian faith, but many others as well. And in the process of this learning he has completely missed the point of the Christian faith at least!

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[In my last post I talked about the meaning of the word baptize - which is immerse. So having established that, let's take it from there.]

What The Bible Say About This:

So while the meaning of the word is clear, is there any support for this in Scripture? The answer is yes, there are several passages that make it clear that baptism is immersion.

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. Romans 6:1-5 (NIV)

After reading that passage over it’s clear that it only makes sense if baptism is immersion. Otherwise the whole metaphor that Paul is using falls apart. He speaks of being buried with Christ in baptism. Well how do you bury someone? Then as now the dead were buried by putting them under the ground! So when you are lowered into the water it’s a picture not only of Christ’s death and burial, but your own death to sin through your faith in Him.

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You really ought to check out the latest post on Real Clear Theology Blog – it’s hard hitting and will upset some people, but it ought to be read and thought about.

Here’s the core of what Eric Svendsen had to say.

Why the need to downplay the differences in national press coverage and focus on political agreements instead? (You may be certain that the Roman Pontiff is certainly not focusing on agreements!).

Here’s why. Because evangelicals like James Dobson are more committed to politics than they are to the truth of the gospel. They think it’s more important to get social laws passed to increase their own comfort in this life than to make sure that people are not deceived by a false gospel and perhaps increase the comfort of many in the next life. Dobson thinks he represents evangelicalism when he is interviewed by the national press; he thinks he represents the evangelical agenda. He doesn’t.

Wow! That ought to get a some people talking!

Where do I stand on this? I hate to say this but I pretty much agree. I’m not sure that Dr. Dobson understands this, but it’s as true of him as it was of Jerry Falwell when he was running the Moral Majority and teaming up with the Mormons to fight abortion and other issues.

As believers it’s okay to team up with others to fight evil in our society, as long as we don’t become political hacks in the process. We have to make absolutely clear where he agree and disagree with people – and not give cults and other groups a patina of acceptability because they happen to be associated with us on a certain issue.

This is why is so dangerous for the church or leaders in it to become politically active. It’s a danger that I’ve decided to avoid by making my ministry and pulpit as politics free as possible. That of course invites the opposite problem, silence on the pressing issues of the day.

Sigh!

Hey, no one said it was going to be easy now did they?

Let Freedom Ring, #8

By Louie Marsh

I’m continuing my look at Freedom and the Bible by going to an Old Testament passage which is not only one of my favorites, but was also quoted by Jesus and serves as part of the bridge we’ll take into the New Testament.

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion– to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. Isaiah 61:1-4 (NIV)

I’ve quoted far more than Jesus quoted in Luke 4:19-19 because I want us to see how beautiful and comprehensive these verses really are.

Isaiah gives us a huge clue to help us understand the identity of who’s speaking here when he says the Spirit of the Lord is upon him, and that he’s been anointed by the Lord. An obvious reference to the Messiah, since the word Messiah or Christ (the Greek form of that word) means Anointed One.

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Yes that’s right my friends! This afternoon I recieved a phone call from Lin Sue Cooney, who anchors 12 News at 5 p.mp, 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. in Phoenix.

Not only is she a famous news type person, but she’s not bad looking either! Check it out!

She wanted my help – to complete a survey. And yes, it was a prerecorded message played by a computer!

Hey – it’s about as close to contact with the fairly rich and sorta famous I’m likely to have – so I just had to mention it on my blog!

I’m such a silly guy!!