So the soldiers are sinning and should all return to the barracks, no, to the prayer room.
That is not what I said at all. You spoke of government ineptitude or
complicity. We never spoke about soldiers. Soldiers are meant to protect lives
even if it means killing...
Are you not speaking with two sides of your mouth? First, you say, “Do
not kill them but pray for them.” Now you say soldiers should kill them. I
thought you were a pacifist.
No! That is not the Christian position at
all. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have
no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will
receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do
wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant
of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Rom 13:3-14(ESV) Government is created
by God, and soldiers are anointed to carry out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Gen
9:6(ESV) Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man
shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image is valid
until this day. I am no pacifist.
I thought you were a New Testament man who follows the examples of
Christ and the apostles.
But I am my brother. I am. Have you not noticed the use of soldiers in
Paul’s journey?) As the people were trying to kill Paul, the officer in
charge of the Roman soldiers received a report that all Jerusalem was
rioting. Immediately, he took some soldiers and officers and charged the
crowd. When the crowd saw the officer and the soldiers, they stopped beating
Paul. Act 21:31-32(GW Not only this time, but when over 40 Jews banded themselves together to kill Paul, and he knew
of it, he sent
information to the commanding officer who took armed men to travel with Paul
and give him protection. Then he called two of the centurions and said, “Get
ready two hundred soldiers, with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen to
go as far as Caesarea at the third hour of the night. Also provide mounts
for Paul to ride and bring him safely to Felix the governor.” Act 23:23-24(ESV) There
is enough scriptural precedent for that in the New Testament.
Well, we are forming a militia with an oath
to protect people’s lives. We have been advised to pray but also defend
ourselves. We have the mandate to kill.
Given by whom? Which government has
conscripted you? Can’t you see it is a desire to fight for yourself that has come upon you? Make use of
your rights as a citizen to protect yourself from abuse. God expects that too. Act 22:25, 29(ESV) But when they
had stretched him out for the whips, Paul said to the centurion who was
standing by, “Is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and
uncondemned?” So those who were about to examine him withdrew from him
immediately, and the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a
Roman citizen and that he had bound him. If however
despite our use of legal rights and appeal to authority the very persons
anointed by God to protect us fail us we must, we must avoid taking the laws
into our own hands. Rom 8:36-37(ESV) As
it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are
regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more
than conquerors through him who loved us. Victory is
not that we survived at all costs. Victory is that we represented Jesus Christ
at all costs. Php 1:21(ESV) For to me to
live is Christ, and to die is gain.
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