Luke 16:13 No servant can serve two masters: Revelation  13:11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. 12And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him,

 

Jesus Never Told You To Be A Warmonger

Source steemit - doitvoluntarily

 

Warmongering statist “Christians” need to reconsider the reality of truly embracing peace; the message taught by Jesus Christ.

Sometimes on my journey through Pinterest or Tumblr, I'll accidentally stumble upon some “Christian” troop blogs and the propaganda really makes me want to gag.

Here's an example:

It's glaringly obvious that not only do many of these "Christians" not think that the violence they are engaging in is wrong, but even worse, they think that they're actions are blessed.

Funny, because I still have yet to come across the scripture passage that endorses followers to murder/initiate violence against someone else so long as the order comes from Washington...

Now, I am no expert on the Bible and I would be wary of anyone who claimed to be. But of the portions that I am familiar with in the KJV, I certainly don't see any justification in teachings from Christ or his followers, for warmongering in the least or even for violence being initiated against others in general. Jesus never told his followers to harm other people, in fact he taught quite the opposite in telling them to hold onto their peace and allow God to fight for them. Some will paint such a stance to be passive and it's true that physically yes it is passive, but spiritually (which is how a Christian is supposed to conduct warfare in the first place) it is very active.

Then you get some Christians saying that, oh well “defending yourself” against an attack doesn't count as initiating violence. Okay let's play semantics. Does violence as a definition take account of the direction in which it was initiated from or is it simply descriptive of the actions being carried out? Violence is descriptive of behavior involving physical force and self-defense is descriptive of using physical force to defend your self interests/property... Self-defense is thus descriptive of violence initiated for protection, so again we return to the question of who exactly should be protecting the Christian from harm.

And can we please stop pretending that the war on terror is in any way defending us. Because it isn't.

Does Christ teach his followers to defend themselves and if so how? Does he teach that He/God will protect them or did He teach them that they would need to protect themselves from evildoers and those who wish to do you harm by working to try and stop them?

Consider these passages:

“Luke 6:29 - And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also.”

“Luke 6:30 Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.”

“Matt 5:40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.”

“Romans 12:17 Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.”

“1 Peter 3:9 Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.”

“Romans 12:21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”

“Exo 14:14 The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.”

“Matt 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”

“Matt 5:5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”

“Deu 20:4 For the LORD your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.”

“Romans 12:19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

“2 Chron 20:15 …. Thus saith the LORD unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's.”

And when it comes to those terrorists overseas and potentials sneaking in with those pesky immigrants? Well...

“Luke 12:4And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.”

“Matt 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell”

“Isaiah 41:10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”

“2 Tim 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

Of course there is a much broader context to go along with each portion of scripture, but it's rather obvious that the consistent message of peace is clear. True followers of Christ are supposed to be walking billboards for peace! Isn't this the message being taught? And how refreshing that you no longer need to worry about and fight in your own battles and instead you need only hold onto your peace.

It may seem like a simple task upfront, but choosing to hold onto peace when everything inside of you is telling you to become violent can be an extremely difficult behavior to master. We can see that this is evident when we look at the area of parenting for example, when children act-up it is all too easy to resort to bullying and using size in order to intimidate the child or to punish them. It is much more difficult to try and resort to a calm alternative, because that requires creativity and patience etc.

So when Jesus tells his followers to be peace-makers, I don't see the simultaneous message being declared that they should also start wars that last for decades and destroy families, that never seem to end which drive many nations further into debt.... And then after all that to say 'God Bless America'....

Some Christians might say: 'well, how can I hold onto my peace when there are terrorist groups out there!' We have realities like war, crime, poverty, deceit all over the media etc.. However, it's important to keep in mind that during the time that Jesus spoke his message of peace, the area then was characterized by war, slavery, poverty, and problems similar to those like we see today. We are surrounded by problems that if we chose to we could easily worry about and get upset over.

Peace is one of the biggest subjects in the bible, found mentioned over 330 times. And I think the individual's adherence to the message of peace depends ultimately on how seriously they take/believe in the word of God. Either you believe that God will protect you or you don't.

In the worst case that he doesn't protect the individual in some event and they lose their life, Jesus still never taught that those who follow him should do good/hold onto their peace---UNLESS they feel fear and think they might lose their life. In fact, he said to lose sight of yourself specifically, didn't he? And the word teaches that a Christian should be more concerned with storing treasure in heaven rather than worrying about there life here on earth (Matthew 6:19-21) and that they shouldn't worry about those who can kill the body, but be more concerned with Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.

An agnositc/atheist etc. perspective might call this sort of consistently peaceful approach in all matters to be one that appears rather "anti-human" because it seems like it would be encouraging physical passivism and hypothetically set a person up for victimization. But the discussion being presented here is whether or not a true follower of Christ (someone who believes there is a God/Christ was God in the flesh) is going to embrace the message of peace that He taught consistently, regardless of times they feel fear or times where their lives might seem in danger, or times when someone passes an order from Washington for them to do otherwise.