The Christian And Violence

 The Christian And Violence

 What is the truth?

 

I want to start with the ultimate truth, then talk about the current times, and prophecy.

If you want to know God’s will on any subject you can probably find it in the Garden at Creation.

There was no evil or death present. Nothing killed anything else.

The humans and animals all ate fruits, veggies and nuts. This did not kill anything. They ate the fruits and pooped out the seeds spreading more life.

There was no killing of any kind. There was no violence.

All creatures including humans had all of their needs met. There was no competition. There was no striving to avoid pain and death. There was no disease.

Adam and Eve had a purpose, and walked with God.

So, when you speak of God and political views and how things should be.

The Garden is God’s will.

That is Paradise, which will come again when Christ returns and the city of God is on the Earth.

We see the teachings of Jesus about love, forgiveness, turning the other cheek, loving our enemies and other lessons clearly speaking of non-violence.

We see him being brutally murdered by Satan, through religious, and civil leaders. While He submitted and forgave them, like a lamb.

He forgave and took upon Himself the sins of the world, to save us if we turn to Him. He did not violently destroy them, even though He had twelve legions of angels ready. (Matt. 26:53)

And when we turn to Him and ask Him to save us, He fills us with the Holy Spirit, which starts working to bring out the Fruit of the Spirit in us. This is “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” (Gal. 5:22-23)

Not violence. The violence in us is the flesh. Not the Spirit. It’s the old man. Not the new spirit man.

Christians are to love God and others. We are to help others and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Even if that leads to persecution and death.

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”–Psalm 116:15

Because when we die knowing Him and serving Him, we go home to Paradise to be with Him.

We die for God’s purpose and we die for others.

We die to ourselves and live for Him.

This is a fact. This is spiritual reality.

BUT…

Because of the Fall, we live in a world filled with evil, death, darkness and ruled by the enemy; Satan. We are surrounded by corruption, murder, robbery and all forms of evil wickedness constantly. People doing the most heinous things, being guided by demons and their own sinful nature. Even the saints are striving with demons who whisper to the flesh.

It’s every where.

Jesus prayed “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.”– John 17:15

We are in this evil world, but we are protected from the evil corrupting our souls as well, if we know Him.

We confess our sins to Him and He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness –1 John 1:8-10

He washes our feet as we walk in this filthy world.

He has given us the Law to show us we are sinners and need Him, but also to help us have order in this world ruled by evil.

In the Law and in the Old Testament we see plainly that because of the Fall; because we are surrounded by evil, in a world ruled by Satan. There are times when violence is required and allowed, lest the evil take over.

Of course, violence does not have to be killing.

There is all kinds of violence that can occur short of killing.

The Bible says, “Thou shalt not kill” it does not say, “Thou shalt not beat severely”

Just to clarify.

As believers we should not want violence. The Holy Spirit guides our heart toward peace. love and mercy.

But, there are various levels of violence.

According to scripture, we are allowed to kill humans and animals, for the following reasons.

War, Capital Punishment, Self-Defense, Defense Of Others, Defense of the Nation, Sacrifice (animals), and Procuring Food and Survival Needs (animals).

You will find that all reasons fit within these categories.

All of these are to be done truthfully, prayerfully and with righteous judgement.

We are not supposed to want to just go out and kill for no proper reason. To get land, or trophies or money. To exterminate whole groups. For hatred or revenge, or sinful reasons.

If we are saints our hearts are to be turned towards God and what His will is.

It’s hard.

Sometimes we show mercy.

But sometimes we must destroy evil, without letting the evil consume us.

The New Testament speaks of the ruler bearing the sword for the evil doer. (Rom. 13:1-8)

God set up government for the purpose of making things safe and good, so the saints can live in the spirit in this evil world.

God is our ruler, not humans.

God does not condone sin and corruption in government any more than He does in the individual. It needs to be dealt with.

There are those who think evil is fine, if it comes under the guise of government authority. That is not the case.

We are called to serve God. We are called to answer to Him.

Government is to be a servant of God, and should be doing right, and it is our responsibility to make sure it does.

But do we do it violently?

We are to use every means we can to change things without killing people.

It’s that simple.

But there is a time for everything. There is a time for war. There is a time to kill. There is also a time to heal, and a time for peace. We have seen these times, where war is needed to stop evil and to bring those responsible to justice. (Ecc. 3:1-8)

It’s up to God, when those times are.

We know His voice. If we know Him. He let’s us know.

He raises up people, for such a time as this.

The saint must understand that this world is being pushed by the spirit of antichrist and the forces of Satan, toward the building of the Kingdom of the Anti-Christ to come.

It is being prepared.

According to God’s Word, the saints will be defeated, and we will face persecution like nothing ever seen before. (Rev. 13:7, Dan. 7:25, Luke 21, Matt. 24, Rev. 6:9, Rev. 20:4 )

“Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.”—Psalm 44:22

“And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.”— Dan.7:25

God allows it.

There will be people who have been in church claiming to be Christians, who actually never knew Jesus and will become the Apostate Church following the False Prophet; who will lead them into worshiping the Anti-Christ.

Those false brethren will betray the saints.

Their leaders at church will sell them out.

Their own children probably brainwashed in schools, colleges and universities, will turn their parents in to be jailed and killed.

And the Anti-Christ will wear out the saints and make war against them and kill them. (Rev. 13:7)

The saints waging war with violence will not matter, it will compound to more violence. It will add to the defeat of the saints. (Rev. 13:10)

We will see the enemy destroyed when Christ returns and sets up His Kingdom on Earth. Justice will come. (Rev. 14)

All of this is the doctrine of spiritual warfare. It is the truth from God’s Word, about the saints and violence.

“The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;”— 2 Cor. 10:4

God’s Word teaches us how to wage war. The Holy Spirit teaches us how to wage war.

We overcome the enemy by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony, and not loving our lives more than Jesus. (Rev. 12:11)

Our purpose is to Love God, Love others and to tell them what great things God has done for us.

We are saved. We are forgiven and called to protect the least of these and call them to Christ. (Matt. 25)

Get to work.

The time draws near.

Jesus is coming.

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