should CHRISTIANS OWN WEAPONS OR FIGHT BACK AGAINST THE SYSTEM?

[Righttruth]

There is a difference between faith and presumption.   Just because we are living for the Lord doesn't mean that we won't be faced with danger from enemies. 

 

It is not a matter of living in fear, but living prepared for what comes, having a plan.   We have fire insurance on our house, but that doesn't mean we are living in fear of our house catching on fire.

 

Being prepared isn't fear motivated.   It is love motivated.   Being ready to defend your loved ones by any means necessary including using a gun isn't fear.

You think you can protect your dear ones better than God?

[hmbld]

Being in possession of a weapon when an intruder enters your residence with harmful intent does not necessitate use of said weapon.

[The_Patriot21]

That much is true, there are many non-violent uses of firearms, in fact very few firearms in America have ever been used in violence. I use my firearms regularly, but they have not once, to date, ever been used against another person, nor have I had to even threaten their use. And I don't ever plan to. That's not to say I'm not ready to-i am prepared to use them if the need arises-but I make no plans to ever be in such a situation.

[Guest shiloh357]

Righttruth,

 

I don't think I can defend anyone better than God.   But were I a husband or father, I would have a God-given responsibility to defend them and I would do so with his blessing and his help.   Any man who doesn't defend his family, doesn't deserve to be called a "man" and doesn't deserve a family.

[Bible2]

shiloh357 said in post 10:

 

Pacifism is a secular concept, not a biblical concept.

 

Note that pacifism is a Biblical concept. For:

 

Matthew 5:39  I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

 

Matthew 26:52  Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.

 

2 Corinthians 10:3  For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
4  For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;
5  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

 

Ephesians 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
13  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
15  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
18  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints . . .

 

shiloh357 said in post 10:

 

Pacifism ensures the triumph of evil people. 

 

Actually, pacifism as it spreads eventually undercuts tyrants, for it robs tyrants of soldiers willing to fight their wars for them.

 

Hitler would have conquered nothing if the German people of his time had been pacifists.

 

Also, Christians can be inherently susceptible to propaganda, so that they are lulled into thinking a war is a "just war" when in fact it isn't at all. Look at the American Civil War, for example. Both sides truly believed God was on their side. Christians slaughtered Christians in the name of God, when in fact it was just for political power. Same during the wars during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation: Catholic Christians slaughtered Protestant Christians, and Protestant Christians slaughtered Catholic Christians, all in the name of Christ.

 

Same during World War II. Both sides in Europe truly believed God was on their side. British Christians slaughtered German Christians, and German Christians slaughtered British Christians, and both sides truly believed their cause was just.

 

And even if Hitler had managed to defeat Britain and to hold off Stalin, and to make it to American shores with an army. Should American Christians really have taken up arms against German Christians, most of whom were deceived by Hitler into thinking what they were doing was a good thing, and who would have been instantly shot by the Gestapo if they laid down their arms in the name of Christ and peace between Christians?

[Bible2]

1to3 said in post 35:

 

"Blessed are the peacemakers".

 

Amen.

 

Matthew 5:9 refers to those believers who turn strife into peace, not by employing weapons or any other violence against people, but by being peaceable, i.e. by employing calmness and soft words to a situation (Proverbs 15:1a).

 

--

 

Someone might ask: "But wasn't it because of a pacifist eagerness to appease Hitler that the world suffered the loss of over 40 million lives?"

 

No, pacifists have never killed anyone. It was only war-makers who killed the over 40 million people who died in World War II.

 

--

 

Someone might ask: "But wasn't it Chamberlain's bowing to a despot's demands that made the war inevitable?"

 

No, and it is curious that the war-makers would condemn Chamberlain for handing an ethnically-German part of Czechoslovakia over to Hitler, when the war-makers themselves would later turn around and hand over not only all of Czechoslovakia, but all the rest of eastern Europe, to Stalin. So who bowed to a despot more than the war-makers themselves, and even after they had caused the completely-unnecessary deaths of over 40 million people in a war?

 

--

 

Someone might ask: "So we should have just let Hitler continue the slaughter of innocents in the Holocaust?"

 

No, and the war wasn't fought over the Holocaust, but over the political control of countries. Also, even if it had been fought over the Holocaust, should over 40 million people be killed in a war to save 6 million alive? Instead, what could have saved them alive would have been an American offer to receive as immigrants all the Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and disabled people whom Hitler thought were weakening Germany. Hitler could have agreed to let them all go, for he would have seen it as a way for them to (in his mind) weaken his ultimate rival America instead.

 

Also, who supports the idea of a shooting war to stop the current Holocaust of millions of aborted babies who are being brutally murdered around the world each year? Who are more innocent than these little ones? And yet where are the war-makers put who try to defend these innocents by killing anyone who would harm them? They are put in prison, as murderers.

[Bible2]

shiloh357 said in post 62:

 

Any man who doesn't defend his family, doesn't deserve to be called a "man" and doesn't deserve a family.

 

So does the man Jesus not deserve to be called a "man" for not physically defending his wife/family the church of Smyrna in Revelation 2:10?

[Guest shiloh357]

God promises that we will suffer persecution.  That's a different issue. 

 

What we are talking about is criminal activity, if someone breaks into your home and tries to harm your family.    If a man would not defend his wife and kids from harm, he should not have a family.  He's  not a man, at least not a real one.

 

Pacifists allow evil to thrive.  Pacifists would sit by and allow thousands to be slaughtered.   Pacifism isn't biblical, it's anti-biblical.   Pacifists would rather see people be killed than to be rescued from the murderous agenda of evil people.

[John Robinson]

If a man's yellow ... he knows it.

[LadyKay]

What system are we fighting against and why do we need weapons to do it? If you are talking about self defense then yes, I would shoot them. But I am not sure what you mean by "the system" but feel I would rather fight whatever that is in a non-violent way if at all possible.