Violence?

Violence

Here is my rapid and simple stance on violence as a Christian. 

First, I will define what I mean by violence. Violence is the use of physical force with the intent of causing harm, submission, death, or displaying authority through ones power. Pugilism and wrestling are forms of violence in sport or in combat. Punching a wall in anger is a form of violence on display as a reaction to an emotion. The act of battle in war is clearly violence. Violence can be performed in anger or in love, in offense or in defense, for righteous reasons or for evil. Violence is just the interpretation of the action. 

A Christian is a man like any other with one very distinct spiritual exception. A Christian has become a child of the Most High God through faith in Jesus the Christ and is held to a holy standard that he has willingly agreed too. There is much debate amongst many denominations on what this holy standard says about violence. I will explain my position. 

The God of the New Testament is the same as the God of the Old Testament. LITERALLY THE  EXACT SAME GOD! Jesus (God) called us to be peaceful. He called us to place high value on human life, even the lives of our enemies. He taught us to “turn the other cheek”. He taught that at all costs we must do our best to cherish life as it is a gift from Him! Essentially, we have been called to defend life! We have clear needs for military protection and police protection, both of which require violence at times to accomplish their goal of establishing this peace. This duty is not just that of the police and military! They are an extension of the people. When the police and military commit violence to keep the community safe they are doing your job for you at your request so that you are less likely to have to do it yourself. By doing this you are thus ok with the violence when done correctly following appropriate use of their force. 

If you walk in to your home and your spouse is being attacked by evil people and they seem too powerful for you to stop them, you will greatly appreciate the rapid arrival of police to stop the attack with whatever violence is necessary to bring order and safety to the situation. If the police are too far away to prevent the damage from getting worse on the spousal attack, would you be willing to end the attack before your spouse was killed or permanently damaged if you could? If I were to give you a tool to make you strong enough to defend your spouse from people who could overtake you with physical hand to hand combat would you be willing to use that tool if it would spare the life of your loved one? Most would say yes. If that tool were a samurai sword or a 12 ga. Shotgun, would it be worth the mess that would be made to spare the life of your spouse? 

Here is the deal. It is up to you to find where you stand on any possible situation you may encounter. Currently, it has been made clear to me that there is a place for the proper use of violence and I must train to be good at that violence. But I also must plan and train to be good at all forms of standing with God to find peace! Both are actions that must be performed at the time God is asking us to use them. Both require great faith as well as boldness and courage. Right now is the time to find where you stand! I fully support standing with God! If that means you respond like Sam Childers then so be it... If that means you respond like Desmond Doss, then AMEN on that as well. Both are correct, both are of God and both require great courage and love. Who are you?

Kelly