Fear of violence.
Violence is wrong.
Must stand or protest only with non-violence.
Only Christians in the military can use violence.
“All who take the sword will perish with the sword.”
Many Christian martyrs gave powerful testimony while suffering, and dying peacefully.
– – –
The current conditions in America give Christians reason for serious thought about violence—soul-searching, Bible-searching, history-searching, world-searching.
++ soul-searching—Questions to ask ourselves:
If I would be face-to-face with a serious crime being committed, and I had the means to take out the criminal, would I do it ?
Does my response depend on the crime, and depend on making my decision ahead of time ?
If I am not face-to-face with crimes being committed, should I take steps to be there, and then ask the same question ?
Do we actually believe reality is different today than in the American Revolution, when individual Americans reconciled their conscience and used their guns, to gain our freedom ?
Do you know that Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a pacifist Christian theologian in Germany—wrestled for years inside—then hanged by Hitler for plotting to kill him ?
We want quick answers, especially to questions that could cost us severely.
But what about the cost to other people, when we do not make decisions and take action that could put us in danger, but save lives ?
++ bible-searching—Questions to ask:
Is God really “the same yesterday, today, and forever” ?
Is God in the Old Testament the same God in the New Testament and the same God right now ?
Did God really say to wipe out all evil in the land, or it would come back to bite them ?
HE DID—THEY DIDN’T—AND IT DID ! ! !
We really want the Bible to give us—give me—clear answers whether we should ever kill people.
We desperately want the Bible to tell us to never kill anyone (sixth commandment).
Perhaps our eagerness to quickly settle the question, for our conscience, leads us to default devolvement, and many, many more lives are lost (babies, sex trafficked slaves, transgendered traffic victims, just like gassed Jews, and communism mass murders).
++ history-searching—more . . . Questions to ask:
Is history not filled with ‘Christians’ who were so filled with convictions to not kill evil people, that millions more innocent people died ?
Did Christians follow the church so blindly that it robbed them and slaughtered any who disagreed?
Did Christians really turn their music up louder in churches to not hear the screaming from the trains hauling Jews to the gas ovens ?
Did some Christians get it right in history ?
King George feared most the Black-Robed Regiment, the preachers, that inspired the American Revolution from the Bible from their pulpits and from the muzzle of their guns.
They practiced what they preached by killing British soldiers.
Was Bonhoeffer wrong plotting with friends to kill Hitler ?
Are we so relieved the Holocaust is over that we can’t see it happening again, and stop it, NOW ?
++ world-searching—Questions to ask . . . now ! ! !
Why is evil so big and growing so fast these days, everywhere in the world ?
Where are the good guys to stop it ?
Where are the good countries to stop it ?
Can anything be done to stop it ?
Can I do anything to stop it ?
When will it seriously affect my life ?
When will it reach my community, my doorstep ?
Can I do anything to stop it then ?
Will I do anything to stop it then ?
What can I do then ?
Can any simple statement now, ease my conscience ?
Can any simple statement now, prepare me for then ?
And ‘then’ is coming, in America.
– – –
We better think about it now—yes, Christians—yes, American Christians, with a Constitution with a second amendment.
“Freedom will look easy when we don’t have to die to get it.”—–George Washington
We don’t get in that danger zone of what freedom really costs, if the only thing we think we can do is vote and peacefully protest—and now we’re even losing both of those right before our eyes.
For the first time in American history the second amendment is being put to the test, to stop a wayward government with our arms—and WE are failing the test.
Speak Your Mind