Why Vigilance? Because Holy Scripture calls believers to be so.
“For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go set a Watchman, let him declare what he seeth.” Isaiah 21:6
“But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.” Ezekiel 33:6
“A prudent man forseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.” Proverbs 22:3 and Proverbs 27:12
“I can hardly help wondering all the while whether human affairs are worth serious effort. And yet it is our unhappy lot to take them seriously.” The “Athenian Stranger” in Plato’s Laws VII, 803
“Freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it.” Pericles (c.490-429 BC) Ancient Greek statesman and general whose name means “surrounded by glory,” called by Thucydides “the first citizen of Athens,” presided over Athens’ Golden Age.
“There is no power representing the good or the just … Power, whomsoever exercises it, is the Devil, the corrupter of man.” Thucydides 460-395 BC) Ancient Greek historian remembered for his history of the Peloponnesian War ( c.430 BC
“Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.” Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill: The Second World War: The Gathering Storm (1948)