Template:Pacifist
Pacifist
A "Pacifist"[1] is said to be "a person who believes that war and violence are unjustifiable."
But if you are unwilling to defend others then you should not expect anyone to defend you. That would mean that if a pacifist will not come to the forcible defense of others he should not call the police for his or her own protection.
There is another hypocrisy more common among those who call themselves pacifists. A true pacifist would never use force to take things away from other people or want anyone to take things from others for his or her personal benefit. But many who claim to be pacifists look to men who call themselves benefactors but exercise authority using force to take from others to provide their social security, free education, and welfare.
In Christianity Jesus said we are to love our enemies and even asked for forgiveness on the cross for those who abused Him "for they know not what they do". But how far does this go toward modern versions of pacifism?
Jesus also said in Luke 22:36, "Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take [it], and likewise [his] scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."
Having a sword did not mean you would wage war, perform acts of militarism, or condone violence against others.
Pacifists with swords
Philo suggests that the Essenes were a pacifist group while others carried swords and even trained but were counted as being willing to take a personal blow without retaliation. He also describes the group in a way that suggests Pythagoreanism because of their rejection of taking oaths, and the keeping of slaves.
Philo claims that the Essenes abstained from animal sacrifices altogether.
At the time of John the Baptist, who many consider to be an Essene, there were welfare systems that depended upon taxation to finance them.
Jesus forbade the ministers to whom he appointed a kingdom[2] to exercise authority like the Benefactors of other governments but they were to supply benefits through charity, rather than force.
There was lots of welfare around in the Roman Empire but most of it depended upon membership in temple systems and the taxes that supported them. Israel had depended upon freewill offerings until the voice of the people rejected God and chose a king. 1 Samuel 8.
The voice of people have chosen kings like Saul and Nimrod and the Caesars of the world. Herod had started a system of Corban or welfare dependent upon forced offerings.
Many of these Modern Christians also talk about "The Kingdom Gospel that concerns the nation of Israel and the fact that the nations of the earth can be blessed by blessing Israel was not a mystery but in prophecy." But they deny the power of Christ and what he was really doing and look no farther than their private interpretation of the gospel that is void of the works of the early Church and its Daily ministration.
Yes, Moses and Gideon and Samson were leaders in a nation called Israel which was "the place where God prevailed". But they led their nation and the people according to the perfect law of liberty. There was no king and men were to learn to rule themselves according to the leading of God in their hearts while loving one another.[3]
Saul became king when the people sinned and rejected God. And he was told he would lose that kingdom because he forced an offering which was a "foolish" thing.[4]
All Saul had done was command the people to give him an offering to support his troops.[5] We see Samuel's reaction in 1 Samuel 13:11 asking him "What hast thou done?" with Saul making excuses that he feared the Philistines who gathered to make war.[6]
So what did Saul do?
He forced an offering to supply his army.[7] Israel operated according to the perfect law of liberty up till that point but God had warned them this would happen.
The people were told that the government they wanted Samuel to create was a rejection of God[8] He told them that the ruler would end up taking and taking and taking and their sons would run before their chariots and war machinery of the king.[9]
And God would not hear their prayers because they wanted a ruler who could exercise authority one over the other.[10]
The rulers in the world today are like Saul because the people, including Modern Christians, have rejected God and His ways and even the Gospel of Jesus the Christ.
So who should rule over you?
Who ruled over the Christians?
Who was their king?
- Acts 17:7 Whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, [one] Jesus.
Who said he was the rightful heir of the throne of David.
- Matthew 21:9 And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed [is] he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.
What did the Romans say about Jesus?
- Luke 23:38 And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
How does His kingdom operate?
By the perfect law of liberty.
You need to read the book The Higher Liberty.
These false, do-nothing Christians who do not know the Gospel, God nor Christ use verses like Acts 3:19-21 that talks about those who "Repent" but they have not repented themselves. They are living like the Pharisees because their false preachers are not telling them the whole truth. Therefore they are not converted, nor are their sins "blotted out" because like Cain they have gone out of the presence of God.
These false ministers are not "his holy prophets".[11] Therefore there is no "Dispensation of the Grace of God" for them because they are not "true believers".
- Part 2: Golden Calf ~5 min
- Part 3: Mammon ~4 min
- Part 4: Baptism ~5 min
- Part 5: One Purse ~4 min
These false believers, who still pray to men who call themselves benefactors, are not forgiven because neither do they forgive their neighbors' debt. They are not doing what the Ephesian Christians were doing but what those who opposed Christ were doing. They are not covered in His Blood nor His grace.[12]
They also quote Colossians 2:13-14 "And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, HAVING FORGIVEN YOU ALL TRESPASSES; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;"
He has not forgiven them because they will not forgive others the debt that provides their benefits from those benefactors who exercise authority.
They like to excuse their continued policy of sins with statements like, "The fact is that we are all sinners and none of us measure up to God's Holy and perfect standards. Only by believing the Gospel can we be saved and have Christ's righteousness imputed to us."
But they do not know the Gospel, nor Christ, nor God, and remain workers of iniquity rather than seekers of the Kingdom of God and his righteousness not doers of the word.
Murderous Pacifist
Some pacifists say they would never use force of any kind. But that pacifism may negate the responsibility to attend to what Christ called the weightier matters.
If a thousand people are about to be killed and the only way to save them would be shoot the fellow who has his finger on the bomb, would you do it?
If you don't, many innocent people will die and you could be charged with criminal negligence because you could have saved them but did not.
If you saw your neighbor being attacked by murders would you call the police?
You are calling them not just for their badge, but because they will bring a gun.
- ↑ Pacifism is opposition to war, militarism, or violence. The word pacifism was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud (1864–1921) and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901.
- ↑ Luke 22:29 And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me;
- ↑ Leviticus 19:18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I [am] the LORD.
- ↑ 1 Samuel 13:13 And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the LORD have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue:...
- ↑ 1 Samuel 13:9 And Saul said (translated command 30 times), Bring hither a burnt offering to me, and peace offerings. And he offered the burnt offering.
- ↑ 1 Samuel 13:11 And Samuel said, What hast thou done? And Saul said, Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and [that] thou camest not within the days appointed, and [that] the Philistines gathered themselves together at Michmash;
- ↑ 1 Samuel 13:12 Therefore said I, The Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication unto the LORD: I forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt offering.
- ↑ 1 Samuel 8:7 And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee.
- ↑ 1 Samuel 8:9 Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them. And Samuel told all the words of the LORD unto the people that asked of him a king. 11 And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. 12 And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. 13 And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. 14 And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. 15 And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. 16 And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. 17 He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.
- ↑ 18 And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day. 19 Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us; 20 That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles. 21 And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the LORD. 22 And the LORD said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king. And Samuel said unto the men of Israel, Go ye every man unto his city.
- ↑ Acts 3:19-21 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
- ↑ Ephesians 1:7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;