Violence in Jesus' Teaching???

Submitted by TruthWFree (United States), May 14, 2010 at 21:42

aspacia,

Jesus did say "I have come to bring fire on the earth and how I wish it were kindled." I interpret this as the "fire" of the Holy Spirit in Christian hearts. He also said "They will be divided, father against son and son against father, ...". This in Luke 12:49-53 NIV. This is speaking more to some getting His message and some opposing it within families and within nations (NIV). If anything, Christian families are more united and strong than those that have no faith or no belief in God.

The sword statement was in Luke 22:36, "if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one". The disciples said "here are two swords" and He said "enough". This was on the night of the Last Supper and when the High Priest's servant's ear was cut off; He said "no more of this!" and healed the person. That tended to negate the sword statement even as a defensive action (which would be hard for me to restrain myself if someone meant harm to me or my family or nation).

Christians have never been involved in stoning for adultery or any other reason to my knowledge because of Jesus' teaching. The many wars between Christian nations have been more related to falling away from the Gospel message than because of it, including "my way of Christianity is better than your way". Christ did tell the apostles not to stop the man who was preaching in Jesus' name as "any one who is for me cannot be against me". If anyone believes that Jesus was the Son of God and that he died for our salvation, he is a brother or sister to me regardless of Christian denomination.

The Gospel teachings are as applicable today as they were when they were written. There is very little history except by example (i.e. Christ referred to Noah, Jonah, Abraham and Elijah, but generally to make a point). I cannot point to any Gospel statement by Christ that would allow me to do violence to another. Man's nature is violent so we don't need God encouraging violence, granted, He apparently did in the taking of Canaan (present day Israel) in Joshua's time (1200 BC).

The Quran also is a book by Muhammad on his "revelations" from Allah and from my observance of reality and statements made by Islamic clerics and Muslims, Muslims act on and believe the violent passages in the Quran (as coming from Allah), and consider the book as relevant today as when compiled in the 700's. To them, it's a way to live just as the Gospels (Christ's teachings) are a way to live for Christians. Sharia Law is based on the Quran and Muhammad's Hadiths.

As far as the Torah (first five books by Moses in the Old Testament per Wikipedia) is concerned, it is basically a history of God's interaction with His people Israel and the source of the Ten Commandments and the Jewish law, I believe. Jesus said he did not come to change the law so Christians follow the Ten Commandments but many of the Jewish rituals such as circumcision and prohibitions on food such as pork were done away with in an early assembly by Peter and Paul. Paul argued that Abraham covenant with God was through faith, not due to the act of circumcision.

Since there are only 14 million Jews in the world and since they don't go killing (on the offence) and then point to one of the violent passages in their Torah or other Holy book, then I think it's safe to say the Torah violence does not motivate them as the Quran motivates Muslims to violence against unbelievers.

Finally, Jesus did say He was the only way to the Father (God) and as a Christian, I believe that. Muhammad said He was the final prophet. The man was a robber and murderer and married many women including a nine year old girl (Robert Spencer "The Truth About Muhammad"- from Islamic sources). He performed no witnessed miracles compared to Christ's many eye witnessed miracles in the Gospels. Since killing in the name of Allah is allowed by the Quran in Islam, death and destruction could go on for a long time unless the West does something about it. The first thing we need to do is have a public admission by our leaders that the Islamic religion/ideology and the Quran are the root source of Islamic terrorism. The Islamic ideology should not qualify as a religion under our Constitution because it calls for killing and fighting the 99% of Americans who are non believers.

Although I pray for Muslims to come to the Light of Christ (the penalty for leaving the cult can be death), I do not believe in turning the other cheek to these Islamic terrorists. If a wasp periodically bites you, you wipe out the nest.

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