O
ne might consider it strange that a blog dedicated to Christian Comment is featuring an ACOG – Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight but please read through and you will understand.
The ACOG truly is an amazing piece of equipment. You can learn all about it on their website but I will highlight a few of its features for you.
The ACOG has:
- Bullet Drop Compensating & Ranging Reticles
- Illuminated Reticle
- Fixed Magnification
- Both Eyes Open Design
- Superior Quality Glass Lenses
- Waterproof to 100 Meters (328 ft.)
- Rugged Aluminum-Alloy Housing
- Combat Proven
If you need a great optic for a battle rifle, it is hard to go wrong with an ACOG. They are at the very top of the industry standard. They take a lot of abuse and remain true to mission. They remain bright, clear, and on target. The ACOG lives up to its name – Adavance Combat Optical Gunsight. You cannot ask for more.
But what you see above in the picture is a fake. It is a cheap knockoff. It is a FACOG if you will. It was given to me by a guy who bought it thinking it would be good enough. It looks good – very convincing. People I know who have used ACOGs everyday (and as an Army chaplain I know quite a few people with extensive ACOG experience) cannot tell the fake from an original. It looks right, feels right, when you look through the optic the optical view seems right. Anyone looking at it would say it is an ACOG. It is only when you try to use it and you know the difference.
My friend who gave me the FACOG said he tired putting it on a 22 caliber rifle. In case you are not familiar, a 22 rifle has almost zero recoil, really more of a little vibration. My friend would adjust the sight and fire a few times and the tiny amount of vibration would cause the sight to drift off target. The FACOG – no matter how good it looks – just cannot standup under pressure, even if only a tiny amount.
And that is where we turn this to post Christianity. There are many FACOGs in the Church. These are people who look perfect. They dress right, talk right, show up to worship, volunteer for stuff, sing better than those around them, etc, etc. They are, in the eyes of the world, Advanced Christians Of God. Everything about them oozes Super Christian. However, for so many it is a show – they are Fakes. When things go wrong, when pressures build, when they experience a little tremor or vibration in life, their sights, which were seemingly so clearly fixed on things that are above, are suddenly thrown off target. Very quickly, it becomes clear that the faith that was put on like a shell was not actually within them. The outside may have looked perfect but the inside was not true faith. Instead of trusting that there is nothing that they could face that God would not also provide a means of endurance and that for the Christian there is nothing that cannot be done through Christ they turn to their own ideas which reveal their lack of faith.
This is not to say Christians will not face trouble – they will. This is not to say Christians can face down trouble with ease – sometimes yes and sometimes no. What it means is that the Christian will face those trials and challenges with the sure knowledge that God will provide and remain true to target. What it means is that the Christian will understand that no matter the current trial and struggle that may go with it the Christian need not deviate from the faith for they “are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in [them] is greater than he who is in the world.”
So Christians take heart, embody the faith, and be a true Advanced Christian of God – the world already has too many FACOGs.