In Enemy Territory: A Survival Manual for Believers

Are Christians Biblically Justified to Defend Themselves Using Lethal Force?

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It can be winter and still a shelter can be built and keep the temp nicely above freezing — if done right. The Bible records many passages that promise His children a place of shelter. I will only highlight a few. You surround me with joyful shouts of deliverance. Of course, the well known Psalm 91 is an awesome finale for this promise. Note some of the verses…Whoever seeks shelter in the Most High, will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

It DOES mean that the shelter and safety of being deeply in love with Jesus means that this life is not what counts. We are already dead people walking!!! Steve Quayle said a good one for us to ponder. Let us move ever nearer Him in these evil days and let us continue this sojourn together and not fighting amongst ourselves. I have been prompted by God to use what skills I learned from going through S. There are 7 Priorities contained within the wilderness survival component. Each post will highlight 1 of them and show verses for us.

This is the last priority in wilderness survival. I have said prior to this that I am sure so many will be surprised that it is last. Too often we get our priorities all muddled in life. If you were ever to be lost in the wilderness it is imperative that we get our priorities right.

Food is more readily available than we think. Many good publications out there share where to find edible plants; how to catch fish without a hook or setting snares for small an imals etc. For us, this list of seven priorities is completely reversed!

We are encouraged to find our sustenance in Him. Oh sure, I existed, I even functioned and coped. I was empty, however, inside.

Sermons on Daniel

I was suicidal, riddled with disease and ptsd, I was lost in a wilderness of my own making. Look again at the top at that picture of the mound of food. Feed on what He gives. Try looking at the Bible as the love letter that it is! He had it recorded for YOU! He loves you beyond all measure and has provided a refuge…His Son! Twitter More Email Print. I have not ever done this -write a follow up to a blog post! The Lord does work in amazing ways when we let Him! For many of us who are authentic followers of Christ; the idea of ever having to face hiding is beyond our imagination! The Bible tells us that the day IS coming when we are to face severe persecution.

We are to stand and fight against the evil that pervades and YES! How do we do that? I cannot tell you the where. Only the Holy Spirit will reveal that to each of us. We are to gather though, in groups — call them cells or communes, whatever, for mutual strengthening and providing. I CAN tell you some pointers on hiding. Look at the pictures below. Which do YOU think is the smart attire for hiding? I still consider him a dear friend. There comes a time -very soon! Jesus calls each of us, equips each of us and encourages each of us to unite. We will be known by our love.

Once in hiding, we have to drop all the games.

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No more can we bicker over this translation or that way of praying. ONE body is what His bride is to be. ONE united and cohesive unit to serve. It shames HIM and mocks our calling. There is an old hymn that I want to include here as a prayer. Listen closely to the words.

Only in Him -our Redeemer and King — are we truly hidden. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?

Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? If you are that person, forgive my coarse words and go do some study. Imagine if that was His objective. Imagine if He were indeed giving you every all-encompassing command for how to respond to everything and everyone, ever.

Action, fulfilling a command, apart from the heart means nothing. So, I can do what Jesus tells me to do, but with the wrong attitude or with an evil heart. Imagine if I were to walk into a bank. But a door opens to my left and out comes a security guard, armed with a gun. To Jesus, everything is a heart issue.

Once the heart is changed, actions will spill forth. Jesus put it like this, in Matthew 7: Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. Slapping someone, being sued, being required by law or court order to perform a task, and the loaning of money. What should be emphasized here is that, for the sake of repairing relationships and living our lives in love towards other people, instead of seeking compensation for the wrong done to us by other people, the Kingdom heart invests in the relationship, not in the compensation that we can receive from it.

Essentially, I believe that Jesus is asking us not to damage relationships and peace for material things, money, or compensation. Let us assume that Jesus had none of the following in mind and let us navigate through the text. When was the last time you were slapped?

Not to do irreversible bodily harm or death. Slapping is a way that we communicate disgust with a person when mere words could not communicate in that moment like a strike on the face could. In the first century Jewish world Jesus lived in, shaming was a big deal. The culture was that of shame and honor and both were held in such high regard that great shame would lead someone to suicide Judas Iscariot, for example.

Either way, the Greek language here in Matthew 5: It refers to a sharp slap. In the Gospel of Luke, a different Greek word is given, but refers to the same thing. A sharp, quick slap. Instead of striking another person back because of your wounded ego, the Kingdom heart that Jesus calls us to have is to be reflected by the TYPE of person who makes themselves vulnerable to public ridicule for the SAKE of the offender.

The late Dallas Willard had some fascinating words from his book, The Divine Conspiracy that explain this best stay with the lengthy quote for the sake of the point:. What does the person attacker do who has been offered the other cheek?

Or perhaps has now slapped it? We must always be alert for acceptable ways of removing ourselves from the situation… Our tormentors, no doubt, count on our resistance and anger to support their continuation of evil that is in them. If we respond as Jesus indicates, the force of their own actions pulls them off their stance and forces them to question what kind of people they really are… the justification of their anger and evil that they were counting on has been removed.

As anger feeds on anger, so patient goodness will normally deflate it. It is easy to return anger for anger in these situations, but that would seem to demonstrate that the attacker was in control of our emotions, when they are not. We are in control of our emotions. The type of person Jesus is describing is the type of person who sees a situation for what it is because of their elevated perspective. Imagine if Jesus, in the following examples, were giving us an exhaustive list of everything the Christ follower was suppose to do? That would be kind of cumbersome would it not?

One could look at these examples Jesus gives as the following paraphrase:. Because it demonstrates that you are in control of your emotions. It demonstrates that you have an elevated perspective over the person and why they slapped you to begin with. So does this passage so far teach us to be pacifists? It teaches us to be the type of person that has the higher perspective and deflates a situation by not feeding into the anger of the other person. And if you did, how should you respond? And would you believe it, this outside the box thinking is only supported when we see the rest of what Jesus has to say concerning the rest of His examples:.

Presumes that you are under legal obligation to work for someone else and applies to the Roman Law in effect over the Jews during this time to serve Roman officers by carrying their pack as far as they need. Presumes social and family obligations where the goal is the honor those obligations instead of copping out and claiming that money is to be used and dedicated to God — which was an interesting tradition that Jesus debates again in Matthew So these are examples, not laws that Jesus gives us.

Grant it, there may be times where you, in fact, do need to turn the other cheek. Or not repaying someone for the wrong they did to us when they drove into the side of our Jetta? These are principles that bleed from the Kingdom heart of the Christ follower. They are not end all be all formulas that we thrust into every social occasion while we live. How many times should she continue to turn the other cheek?

Which again, is OK. Ultimately, I rely on the grace of God every day and I see that no different for the pacifist. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. Let us be all about that. Let us be people who are continuing with that elevated perspective over our enemies.

Let us be the people who, even though we have people who hate us, we would do whatever we could for those people. There are people believe it or not who hate my guts so much that they would crack a smile and have a beer if they found out a student accidentally shot me in the face during a class.

I have people who persecute me with slander, defamation of character, libel, spreading rumor and lies, developing propaganda, and the occasional meme against me. There are people who are actively trying to hack my website, phone, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube accounts all because… well, who knows. And when you pray for people, they are always on your mind. But do you think Jesus would rather have us restore and establish relationships through love, rather than through hate?

I think this because this is the story of the Gospel. This is the story of the cross. This is the story of God, while we were enemies and still sinners, Christ died for us Romans 5: Could I be wrong? Could Jesus be completely opposed to self-defense? He wrote more about the theology of Christ than any other Apostle and to this day, we are still trying to come to grips with his words and experiences.

The Book of Acts, written by Luke, describes in interesting detail how Paul found himself preserving his life even though he knew that God has set him apart for ministry to the Gentiles. We are looking at texts that describe the nature of Paul and the truth principles we can extract from these stories that Luke describes in Acts. At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.

After many days had gone by, there was a conspiracy among the Jews to kill him, but Saul learned of their plan. Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him. But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall. Paul, even though he surely had a wonderful opportunity to become a martyr for the sake of our Lord, decides is best not to go to the point of death in order that these people could see the love of God.

Quite frankly, God has already done that to the upmost degree through His Son Jesus.

Bulletproof Faith: A Spiritual Survival Guide for Gay and Lesbian Christians

There is a lot to be said about removing yourself from the situation and creating distance between you and your enemy in self-defense. Jesus does this a couple of times when His life was in danger. In fact, one of the greatest tools to self-defense is situational awareness. Preventing a situation from happening by being someplace else or removing ourselves from a situation if at all possible is one of the elements to situational awareness. Are there other examples of Paul using his legs to get him someplace else for fear of his life?

Why yes there are! There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed. But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the other Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders. The people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews, others with the apostles. There was a plot afoot among both Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, to mistreat them and stone them.

But they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding country, where they continued to preach the gospel. But when the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, some of them went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up. The believers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea. Those who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.

Paul is our shining example of what it means to keep your ear to the ground.

In Enemy Territory: A Survival Manual for Believers

Paul preserves his life and the life of his companions by acting intelligently and decisively. He is an intelligent man who knows about the escalation of anger. He knows what a shameful beating is like from a riotous mob because he had been on the giving and receiving end of both. And when that happens, he removes himself from the situation. He was one of the greatest Jewish patriots of his day.

This begs the question: I believe we are to be people who de-escalate situations with our gentleness and never repay evil for evil.

Encouraging one another on the frontlines.

This is in line with Scripture. But I also believe that there are people who seek to cross a line that severs the peace and possibility for a future relationship with their violent and evil choices. If God wishes the attacker to come to repentance in his life here on Earth, I promise you the Holy Spirit will intervene in that situation.

One could easily counter from the opposite end that same argument but they only find themselves arguing the same point we combated earlier about God magically putting zeros on the end of our welfare checks that God signed and put into our mailbox.

Keep Your Powder Dry. Ultimately, what it comes down to is this: Jesus calls us to love one another, to care for each other. Indeed, there maybe circumstances when the way we demonstrate love is by protecting the innocent from evil. Could there be scenarios in life that are not so black and white when it comes to self-defense? All we can do is act as justly as possible, being alert always.

As Christians, we have to allow God to govern our hearts and strive to be like Christ every day so that we have the best chance of judging a difficult situation with wisdom and clarity. I believe this to be fantastic advice for us today. Our trust is not in Glock or the AR We place our trust, our confidence, our unwavering hope in God the Father who is Creator of all things. But we also keep our powder dry. What an interesting phrase. If you are unfamiliar with how a muzzleloader works, gunpowder is pour down the barrel of the gun preceding the wad and ball. Keeping your powder dry has been a phrase use to symbolize preparedness, keeping an eye over your provisions, and always being will to fight the good fight if necessary.

But let us not just use this phrase as something clever and cool to communicate our edgy historical side. Instead, let us adopt the phrase as the foundation for those of us who choose to chary a firearm for self-defense. Schwartz Jewish Heroes, Jewish Values: Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy , pp. Thank you for writting this! I am a Christian and carry daily, only to defend or protect life! This is a very informative article and has only confirmed in detail what i already believed. I was aware of some of these scriptures, but your perspective and understanding is very helpful!

God has put you in a possition to do awesome works and I cant imagine a better job than to shoot and spread the good word! Great job and thank you for what you do! This is an even more in-depth explanation, than I could ever give. While I am a Christ follower, I am not a biblical scholar. This gives me what I need to research my own position, on self-defense. Thank you, for a well researched and presented article.

I will be sharing this…with family, friends, strangers, and the pastors of the church I attend. Thanks for the time and effort you have put into this, peace and blessings, grace and peace. Thanks for putting together thoughtful and sourced arguments! It will be nice to have this practical resource going forward, as a Christian who carries a firearm. Are you familiar with Wayne Grudem? He put forth some good insight on this topic as well, that you might find interesting.

This was certainly something that took a great amount of time to complete. It was definitely worth it! Added to Your Shopping Cart. Description This thoughtful, practical guide shows readers a way through the minefield of condemnation and persecution faced by gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Christians and helps foster a faith that is bulletproof—impervious to attacks, yet loving and savvy in its approach.

Bulletproof Faith is filled with useful insights and proven spiritual practices that deflect attacks and enhance and strengthen faith by turning attacks into opportunities for spiritual growth. Permissions Request permission to reuse content from this site. Table of contents Reviews Acknowledgments. There Is Only One Side. Reclaiming Our Authentic Self. Learning to Love the Questions.

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