Pacifism has long been a thorny problem for conscientious people and war itself is a degrading and horrible event. But Christ did say, There will be wars and rumors of wars; however, His mission, as I said before, was to lead the Jewish people (His people) into a new ere, away from the eye for an eye teaching of the Mosaic Lawmost of which was passing away, except for the Moral Law. The Old Testament has meaningful lessons and prophecies and was mainly about and for the Jews. The New Testament had a higher message to attain to.
Now at the time of Christ, the spiritual antagonism against the children of light, which Jesus thoroughly understood, seeing what He could spiritually see and what he experienced in opposition to his holiness and mission of redemption--this antagonism would heat up, and to go to war against the Romans, for example, would have caused the obliteration of the Jews and not allowed for the message of Peace and Forgiveness to be spread. Many of the Jews believed that their Messiahw ould come to overcome all their early enemies, and if Jesus was the Messiah, then they expected Him to overcome Roman power. However, that was not the message and purpose of Christ's first coming--so He had to teach them another lesson, and clari9fication of the purpose and the times gets pretty thorny, as it appears that Christ was a total Pacifist for all time.
Times change--people belong to a nation, or a large clan, and they have the right to protect themselves and their families against mauraders; they have the right, in some countries, to serve as conscientious objectors. My grandparents fled Europe when the Russian revolution was being experimented with in the early 1900s--my 6'5" strong grand-father, Paul, did not want to get involved in the wars and sought passage to America for his young bride, my grandmother, and their three very young children.
In a way, he was against war, but he certainly did not speak up against the younger men in the family going to war against Hitler and Hirohito, for he knew what evil and rapcious power could do. One must measure the place one stands in such circumstances--
If there were no evil intentions, no power-mongers, no Sadam Husseins in the world, and all of us were spirituall children of light, we could well live in peace. But Jesus said, that there comes a time when everyone will be cryng Peace! Peace! but there will be no peace, nonetheless, Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
The Hopi Indians are a very peaceful tribe, but they are nearly wiped out now because their detractors take advantage of their peaceful, non-fighting spirit.
The Apostle Paul used the symbols of war and fighting the enemy in the spiritual battle. One cannot find these metaphors or similes of any sense or logic if what they stand for is not acceptable--"Fight the good fight of faith!"
A man has the right (as does any adult) to protect the family, the weaker ones, like the children and grandparents, to save one's village or country--each person must come to terms with such potential circumstances and be brave.
What more can I say? Christ seemed to be a pacifist, but, in truth, He fought the greatest fight of pf all. tje fight of facing off against evil (remember the time described in the New Testament when He was in the wilderness for 40 days and nights and met with Satan, who tried to tempt Him into bowing down to himself, etc? So the fight of victory over evil, the fight of redemption, of overcoming death, was a gigantic fight, for Christ allowed Himself to be beaten to nearly a pulp and sufferied dire physical and spiritual agony, going to the depths of darkness and not giving up, to fulfil His reason for His first coming as Man/God: to overcome evil--and is that not what some of human wars are for the most part about (looking at it from the modern US perspective, which has been constructed upon the teachings of the New testament?)
In this perspective, we want to defend life and liberty and safety and peace; other religions, such as the those who would nowadays destroy Western and other civilizations, are not for life and peace, but for death and destruction. It is a worldview that is incredibly dangerous, and if we do not stand up to these mauraders, we will end up in much greater dire straits than sitting at the computer trying to figure out whether one should or should not defend one's place on earth or not.
The history lessons that so many have leaned upon, about the Crusades, about the Inquisition, etc. may not be about true religion, or true spiritual faith, but we did not live in those times and we don't fully understand many parts of history. Would we have done any differently had we been there in that historic mindset?
Thank you for this opportunity to discuss important issues; I hope I didn't serve to confuse you.
Hope to hear from you again, Sincerely, Musician
