01/03/20 THIS MAY HELP

01/03/20 THIS MAY HELP

I'm sad church people suffered attack, glad God stopped evil gunman and appreciate protector. Doesn't change God's word.

I HOPE YOU TAKE A COUPLE OF MINUTES TO READ THIS.

We live in a fallen world. God uses various means to provide and protect people. God actually established military and law enforcement as part of government. God sometimes uses "means" to care for His people (medicine, physical force, and sometimes evil people) but Biblical non-violence, Biblical peacemaking is God's will for His people.

I do not judge (lionize, idolize or criticize) the churchman who used his gun to protect others. I trust that he did what he did as a service to the parishioners. As well meaning and as beneficial as it may have been to others, that man may go through personal struggles in the days ahead; not because a bad man was stopped, but because he was the one who stopped him. Trauma often attends such acts of protective intervention, even with law enforcement and military.

God's directive for Christians to be peacemakers (refrain from lethal force and violent resistance) is not a directive to pacifism or cowardice retreat. It is not a directive to denounce government force (law enforcement, military or personal actions to stop violence).

I have waited to address this terrible church shooting because it is normal for people to quickly reject the Biblical directive to Christians as being cowardly, or non Christian. This is a much more volatile subject in the wake of an actual shooting.

There are some people who want to attack and condemn the churchman who used his gun to defend others. I am not one of those people, though I still hold to Christian non-violence. I do not condemn those who take up arms as law enforcement or military. I appreciate them. However, that does not change the Biblical directives to Christians. I believe there would be more acceptance and more practice of Christian non-violence if the Biblical truth was taught by the Church.

I am not being duplicitous about this subject. This has been my position for decades. I think most of us would agree that there are fleshly, temporal answers to problems, which are not in agreement with God's word. I think most of us would agree that faith in Christ and faith in the Sword of the Spirit takes us down a different road than faith in the arm of flesh or the sword of steel.

My intention is to love those who disagree with me and even ridicule me. I want to be loving and accepting of those who are living under different light than I have, while I hold forth the word of God as the more excellent way. I believe that this issue of Christian non-violence is based on Scripture and understood through personal light.

I accept people with different views, understanding, levels of light. HOWEVER, few people accept me because they do not accept my personal convictions and understanding of the word. I have no problem letting others live according to their light, but most people want to deny me the right to be a Christian and live by the Sword of the Spirit rather than the sword of steel.

Though we seldom see Christians rely on the Sword of the Spirit, it is God's weapon of choice for believers. And remember the sword of steel often fails in time of trouble.

All believers grow in grace and knowledge. There are truths, which are essential to conversion. There are other truths that we need to grow into. We are required by God to walk in the truth (light) that we have.