01/08/21 TIME TO TURN FROM FAKE CHRISTIANITY

01/08/21 TIME TO TURN FROM FAKE CHRISTIANITY

Few Christians realize the New Testament addresses the 2 issues of Christian non-violence and State right to protect and punish.

Christian Peacemaking (as shown in the New Testament) is not the same as Pacifism. God appoints Government the responsibility and right to use weapons to protect the innocent and punish the wicked. This is the job of military and police forces. New Testament Christianity does not oppose the funding and support of legitimate military or police forces. It is God's plan.

The State (Government) is obligated before God to use its power according to the will of God, rather than corrupt purposes. If the State misuses its power then God will judge those leaders and the State for anarchy.

Worldly government is God's way of letting man exercise restraint and justice in an evil world. Man has the right to set his own laws, provided they do not conflict with revealed Divine will (such as the moral law of God). When the law of man opposes the law of God, we are required to obey God rather than men.

Christians, New Testament believers and followers of Christ, are not of the world. We are part of God's kingdom and we are have a higher agenda than worldly rule and government. Though New Testament directs worldly governments to bear the sword (weapons to protect and punish) it precludes Christians from killing people.

There are several passages in the New Testament that address this issue. When asked to defend the erroneous view that Christians can take the life of another person, people go to the Old Testament because the New Testament does not support that position.

In this post, I am not going into the New Testament passages (Though I have addressed it on other occasions and will be glad to share with folks).

Pagan culture corrupted the Christian view concerning violence and killing at the time of Constantine (Roman Emperor 306-337). The Roman "Church" tied its religion to the Roman government. When the Reformation took place, the former Roman Catholic priests and laity carried the errant view that the Church and State are intertwined. This led to the idea of Christians taking up arms for State. Prior to Constantine, the Christian view of personal violence and killing was New Testament based and precluded Christian violence.

Modern, Western Christianity has been built on the Constantinian, Roman Catholic and Reformationist error. It is time for Christians to take the New Testament view concerning non-violence.