A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine and I were having a good natured argument about pacifism before a Sunday morning church service. I made some suggestion that Jesus would never have taken up the sword, to which my friend responded (in good humor) "Jesus didn't use the sword because he didn't have the opportunity to." At that point I kind of shrugged my shoulders, grinned, and said, "I don't know about that", then we went into the auditorium because the service was about to start.
I'm still thinking about those words, and I think that they capture the viewpoint of a good number of sincere Christians, but probably not my friend (non-Freudian slip?). This viewpoint seems to be: "If Jesus had somehow had the numbers (maybe 12,000,000 disciples instead of 12) he would have picked up the sword and given the kingdoms of this world a firm thrashing." I'm not convinced that Jesus' mission in this world would have profited at all if he had picked up the physical sword instead of bringing salvation to earth through his willing submission to death at the hands of those kingdoms (i.e. Rome and Roman occupied Israel). What do you think?
"To live is Christ, to die is gain." Paul in Philippians 1:21 from the New International Version of the Bible
Monday, April 14, 2008
Thursday, April 3, 2008
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