06/06/18 DASH-CAM MESSAGE I WAS NOT TAUGHT NON VIOLENCE
IT IS PEACEMAKING, NOT PACIFISM
In this video I point out that I was not taught non-violence as a child, or in Bible College, or by Friends, or by Wesleyans or any other group. I came to my understanding when I studied to see what the Scriptures actually say. In fact, everything I was ever taught was consistent with the Roman Catholic and Reformed point of view, which is the basis of other errors in the modern and western Church. In this video I turn my attention to the error of violent Christians and misplaced attention on the Arm of Flesh.
We all know people who follow certain religions or hold to certain religious beliefs because that is what they have been trained to do rather than because that is what they have discovered to be true.
This is true for people raised in Islam. While there are fully convinced Muslims, it is probably true that most Muslims are Muslim because that is the way they were raised. In fact, there are Muslims who would readily leave Islam because the do not agree with the beliefs of Islam, but they fear for their lives. Remember, Islam was born in religious violence, propagated through religious violence, sustained by religious violence.
People in other religions also follow their religions because they were brought up to follow their religion, rather than being convinced believers in their religion. They have followed families, communities.
People also follow the CHRISTIAN RELIGION. They follow primarily because they just accept what they have been taught.
This is seen in the Catholic faith, but also among Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostals.
But it also happens with those who are followers of a faith relationship with God. Though they hear the gospel truth and they place their faith in Jesus, they are not always led into more truth.
It happens also with cults. People are brought up in the so-called Jehovah's Witnesses or Seventh Day Adventists or Latter Day Saints (Mormons), but because they have always been taught that the Bible is filled with errors, they do not learn the truth and they close their ears and heart to the message of God.
Not only are there people in the cults who were born into the cults, but there are people who came from traditionally Christian backgrounds into the cults, because their churches failed to teach them the Bible. This includes the Baptists and Methodists, among others. The cults are able to allure those people by telling them that they will teach them the Bible. What they do not tell them is that they are going to give false interpretations that are actually contrary to the Bible. But people, not knowing any better, are ensnared.
The cults "interpret" the Bible according to their own false prophets and writings (J.W.s have The Watchtower; SDA has Ellen G. White; LDS has Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and a list of false prophets. Then those who convert to the cults are steeped in false doctrines, which blind them to the truth of God's word.
Sadly, even those who are part of "Bible believing" churches have not been told the whole truth of God. Other Christians often reject me or my teaching when they hear me talk about such "STRANGE" doctrines as holiness of heart and life or Non-Violence. These two doctrines are not strange, according to the Scriptures, but they are strange to our modern, western Christianity.
The Bible clearly teaches that God saves us from all sin in this present evil world; that His blood cleanses us from all sin; that we are conformed to the image of Jesus; that we can be more than conquerors; that we can always be victorious.
I also teach that there is a difference between the Church and the State, and therefore the State has been given the responsibility to govern nations and to protect the righteous and punish the wicked. Christians are not given the right to wield the sword of steel for the State. The Church has been given the ministry of reconciliation by wielding the sword of the Spirit.
The confusion goes back to the Roman church, the Reformers and Protestant groups who followed in their steps. The Roman religion believed that the Church and the State can be, could be, should be on and the same. This was retained by the Reformers and incorporated in the first Reformed churches, then adopted by subsequent Protestant groups.
These western, modern churches have taught against the idea; the New Testament idea; the Jesus idea, the Apostolic idea; the Early Church idea that Christians are suppose to be Peacemakers, non-violent witnesses for Christ, willing to lose their lives for the gospel's sake, rather than take lives. Christians do not bear the sword of steel; they do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and power, against spiritual darkness; they do not use carnal weapons, but spiritual weapons; they love their enemies. These things seem strange to modern, western Christians, when in fact these beliefs are as old as the New Testament.
I mention this because people who accept much of what I teach and preach begin to think I am off on a weird tangent when I preach non-violence, even though this teaching is straight out of the Bible. But because they have been taught differently, they "KNOW" that Peacemaking cannot be right. They (and this includes me) have been taught that Christians take up weapons to protect ourselves (but that is not Biblical); take up weapons to protect our families (but that is not Biblical); protect our homes, our churches, our community (that is not Biblical); and to protect our nation (and that is not Biblical). God has commanded the State (the governments of this world) to protect the righteous and punish the wicked.
Then people ask, "what about the Old Testament record." Well, the Old Testament concerning taking up arms has nothing to do with Christians and our response to evil. God has a nation in the Old Testament. He does not have a nation in the New Testament. God has a kingdom. Some things in the Old Testament did not carry over to the New Testament. God has a kingdom, a spiritual kingdom without natural or political borders. We should be good citizens in our various countries, but this does not mean we are trying to establish any earthly kingdom through physical force.
Jesus said, "if my kingdom were of this world, THEN WOULD MY SERVANTS FIGHT, but my kingdom is not of this world." This is not hard to understand.
The idea of non-violence, of Christians not bearing the sword of steel is so contrary to what they have been taught that non-violence seems to them to be cultic.
But here is a very real problem. Today, in our western, modern world, Christians talk so boldly about bearing arms, with which they will use violently and possibly with deadly force. Because of their religious training they believe violence and lethal force are their God given right. But the Second Amendment is not compatible with the New Testament, for Christians. Instead of taking up arms against our enemies, we pray for them, love them, feed them. We may flee from them but we cannot be violent with them.
Think about this. What good has been accomplished by believers bearing arms, wielding weapons, threatening violence? IT HAS DONE NOTHING. God gave the State this responsibility, not the believers. Christians brandishing weapons has not stopped the enemy. Christians owning weapons has not secured our communities or protected them from the overthrow by darkness.
Christians are trusting in the arm of flesh and failing to trust in God. They think in terms of violence rather than faith. They think in terms of guns being their hope, rather than God. In fact, they speak as if weapons are their gods.
THE MORE THAT CHRISTIANS TRUST IN THE ARM OF FLESH, THE LESS WE WILL SEE THE POWER OF GOD. American Christians are boasting in chariots and horses instead of trusting in the Lord. No wonder we are losing ground. The Church in America is being marginalized and snuffed out because people are turning to the sword of steel rather than the Sword of the Spirit.
Believers today talk about guns and violence as if they are God's way of deliverance, or as if they are God or God's plan, but we are not seeing deliverance.
Someone may say that PRAYER AND FAITH do not save us either. Well, I can't say that. All I know is what the Bible says, and what I have personally experienced and that tho which others have testified.
The New Testament forbids it.
I have been delivered from physical violence by calling on God.
Others have been delivered from physical violence by calling on God.
Others have suffered defeat when they have trusted in the flesh.
No, we do not always escape physical harm through faith, but we always please God through faith. We will not win or convert this world, but we must be faithful to God in this evil world. However, I have seen miraculously rescue His people, even from physical attacks because they fought with spiritual weapons instead of carnal weapons. ON THE OTHER HAND, I do not see people using carnal weapons and winning our spiritual deliverance.
LOOK AT THE EVIDENCE TODAY.
Look at what is happening with the domination of Secular Humanism.
Look at what is happening to our children.
LOOK, people don't even know what bathroom to use. THAT IS SPIRITUAL DARKNESS, DECEPTION AND DEFEAT.
The State has the right and the Obligation to bear the sword of steel to protect the righteous and punish the wicked. If the State refuses to do its Divinely appointed task, God will send in dark forces and remove the authority from that State. Either serve God willingly or serve your enemies unwillingly.
His kingdom is not of this world. I am not trying to establish an earthly kingdom. I am trying to win the lost through the preaching of the gospel.
The more that believers trust in the arm of flesh, trust in chariots and horses, trust in men and the systems of men, then the less they will trust in God. If our weapons are carnal, we will not know how to wield spiritual weapons and fight spiritual warfare. THOSE WHO LIVE BY THE SWORD (of steel) WILL DIE BY THE SWORD.
The battle is heating up. Don't delay in spiritual armor, weapons and warfare. Look how quickly things have gotten really bad, and it is going to get worse, even more quickly.
Though people have learned great truths from their churches in the past does not mean that everything they were taught was true.
MY TESTIMONY...
I was not taught Biblical non-violence by my father.
I was not taught Biblical non-violence by my churches as a child or young person.
I was not taught Biblical non-violence by my Bible college.
I did not learn Biblical non-violence from my friends, the Friends.
I did not learn Biblical non-violence from the Holiness folks.
It may have been there, but I did not hear it.
After Bible college and after being a pastor for several years, I came to a point that I wanted to know what God said, so I researched the word and found God's viewpoint.
Love does not take a gun and blow people into eternity without God.
As a young man in the 1960s I considered joining the Marine Corpse and going to Vietnam to kill Vietcong in order to stop Communism.
NOW DON'T LAUGH AT ME.
I thought maybe I would take a Bible in one hand (to convert the lost) and a machine gun in the other hand to stop the Communists.
I WAS WRONG. I WAS WRONG. I WAS WRONG. I had blindly swallowed the popular, but un-Biblical idea of Christians killing for the glory of God.
I don't teach non-violence as an essential to get saved. We must all walk in what light God gives us. God's grace covers a lot of "stuff" in our lives. We don't have to be perfect in understanding in order to be saved. But this is important light, and it will become more evidently important in difficult times.
We live at a time when people view GUN TOTING as if it is the same as BIBLE TOTING. People are confusing the sword of STEEL with the Sword of the SPIRIT.
IF WE DON'T LEARN SPIRITUAL WARFARE we will depend on carnal warfare.
Christians can server their country without taking up arms. And when we come to the knowledge of the truth we find out that we cannot serve God by taking up arms. We are called to be Peacemakers.
Even our society will turn against those of us who will not take up arms.
Cowardice is not standing for truth without a gun. Boldness and courage is standing by faith and trusting in Jesus instead of the arm of flesh.
