Did Christ Carry a sword? Should We? Obviously, these are controversial questions. For the purpose of this article, let’s see what the Bible actually says about the subject of weapons, and self-defense. For those that have not studied it, a sword is a weapon of war, strong’s G6132. The only reason people carried swords was because guns had not yet been invented, they are the exact same thing in function. Let’s also examine the arguments used to say that Christians cannot or should not bear arms. A lot of these arguments are compelling, many cite scripture, but I think you will find they are lacking in foundation. I would imagine that I of all people, will be considered to have a bias, and that’s understandable; however, there is a reason for my position. After all, you don’t have to agree with me, my goal, in all my writing is for YOU to ask and answer the question yourself. Let’s start by establishing some of the arguments Against a Christian bearing arms. 1. Christ said to Pe...
I started thinking about faith again today while talking to a friend who is still, like a great many of my old friends, unknowingly deep in the muck of institutionalized religion. Earlier this week I was contact by another person who was concerned about my salvation in light of my not keeping the Levitical Holy Days. Together these two conversations really did a number to my mood. I'm 98th percentile Neurotic according to the 'big 5' personality test system, and these kinds of conversations really bring me down. In the majority of these types of conversations I find myself in a corner, not a corner with no answer to questions of faith mind you, but a corner with no chance of explaining myself. In talking to someone who is unknowingly trapped in darkness there is no way to 'explain' what light looks like. Faith came to mind because in most cases, at least in most of the times I have heard it preached, faith is seen as the method by which you continue to do what yo...
Sermon - Such a Time as This We had some friends over a few weeks ago, and we were playing a Reverse-Q-and-A game. In response to one particular statement, nearly all of my friends stood on the Strongly-Disagree side and all of their reasons really struck me. The statement was ‘Political Issues should be talked about at church’. I, as a skeptic and part-time contrarian was on the Strongly Agree side, all alone. As you can imagine by my mentioning the story at all, I’m still of the same opinion, but I also COMPLETELY agree with all of my friend’s reasons for taking the opposite position. While playing this game, I was the only person on that side, so I had the first round of explanation. I said that I believe political issues should be talked about even more at church because ALL things that pertain to life have a way of becoming political. In response my friends said a few variations of, ‘if you want to define political things that broadly, you’re muddying the idea’. When th...
Comments
Post a Comment
Comments are welcome if not anonymous.