The Fifth Column

Watching the TV miniseries “V” is possibly the reason I wanted to find the origin of this term, “The Fifth Column.” In 1937 when the Nationalist Army General Emilo Vidal of Spain was marching toward Madrid, he said in a radio broadcast that his four columns of troops were supported by a “fifth column”, a clandestine group inside the city intent on undermining the loyalist government from within. [ask Yahoo.com] That expression caught on!

Christians are the “Fifth Column” as we fight for the cause of Christ and his kingdom. As C.S. Lewis said, “We find ourselves behind enemy lines.” The Apostle Paul put it this way: Satan is the “god of this world.” Make no mistake. Jesus is the ultimate winner but for now, in this world, Satan is, as the Apostle Peter said in I Peter 5:8, “as roaring lion, walking about, seeking whom he may devour.” Jesus himself indicates that there are “few that find” the way to eternal life. (Matt. 7:14)

Christians are indeed a small group fighting against Satan! But every successful fight we make against temptation, every soul we can win for Christ, every kind deed (the simple “cup of cold water given in his name,”) each is a powerful act of sabotage against Satan’s power. Jesus said the kingdom, Christians, are “like leaven that a woman hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened.” (Matt. 13:33) In A.D. 60 the Apostle Paul was in that small group called Christians. But by 600 A.D., philosophically, most of western Europe acknowledged Jesus as God’s Son. The leaven was taking effect!

Behind enemy lines, outnumbered, often discouraged, we must continue to “fight the good fight,” seek to spread Christ’s word and his kingdom, “Put on the whole armor of God,” be leaven in a spiritually darkened world, rescue [enlist] as many as we can, till the Victory is won!
–Hugh Price