- Christians are called to emulate Christ. As He lived
His life here on earth. That's all we have to go by. The suffering Christ,
not the vanquishing one yet to come. We are to follow Him to the cross
if necessary, and are commanded to love those who crucify us. "Love
your enemies" are His exact words.
-
- Jesus Christ did not "fight back". He did not
"kick ass". He did not endeavor to destroy his enemies, or
support
those that were doing so. Rather, He COMMANDED us as Christians to LOVE
them. UNCONDITIONALLY, as He loves us.
-
- Jesus Christ did not bomb women or children for any
reason
whatsoever. Nor would He ever condone or support such behavior. Jesus
Christ
abhorred the behavior of Pharisees who prayed publicly and exploited their
faith while doing evil behind the scenes. Nor would He have anything at
all to do with, or support any kind of "War on Terrorism"
whatsoever.
-
- Tough words. Tough commandments. Hard to live by. Even
harder to die by. But undeniable. IF you're a Christian and believe in
what the Bible says about Jesus Christ's life.
-
- Jesus Christ also warned of those who would come after
Him, come in His name, claiming to be doing good in His name, but instead
doing unspeakable evil. He warned all Christians against these people,
telling us that they would come as "Angels of Light". He didn't
go into specifics, but if He had, He might have said that they would
promise
to appoint judges to end abortion, promise to fund "faith-based"
ministries and schools, and cast stones at rivals who "wanted to
destroy
the family by supporting abortion, voting against parental notification
rights, give the 'morning-after' pill to our children," etc.,
etc.
-
- I hope you get my point by now. The AntiChrist will not
come saying "I am evil, follow me". On the contrary, he will
say "I am good personified, I will make the world a better place and
give all that believe in me and support me everything they want that is
good. I will protect the weak and innocent and make peace, and destroy
all evildoers."
-
- I'm not saying Bush is THE AntiChrist, but he certainly
qualifies as an antiChrist, because every single thing he says, and most
importantly, does, goes DIRECTLY AGAINST EVERYTHING that JESUS CHRIST
taught,
lived, believed, and DIED FOR.
-
- It is time for the Moral Majority and all who identify
themselves as "Fundamentalist Christians" to decide what they
really are; followers (emulators) of Christ or members or supporters of
a worldly power-seeking political movement. YOU CANNOT BE A MEMBER OR
SUPPORTER
OF ONE and BELONG TO THE OTHER.
-
- Jesus Christ eschewed (avoided to the greatest extent
possible) politics and political power at every turn in His life, and His
own people turned on Him as a result, desiring a "strong" leader
who would come as a conqueror and throw off the occupation of the Romans.
There was a reason for this and He said it over and over again in His life;
that the world of the Spirit was more important than the world of Man and
that the world of Man would fall away and amount to nothing. Suffering
to prove you loved your enemies was far more important than vanquishing
them.
-
- But aren't we expected to make the world a better place?
Absolutely. And Jesus told us how, by LOVING OUR ENEMIES. How do we do
that? Find out what they want, why they want it, give it to them, and then
give them more. If they ask for our shirt, to give them our cloak also.
If they ask for our life or the lives of our loved ones, so be it. First
Century Christians went to their deaths in the arena singing and praising
God, rather than fight the Romans. How does this make the world a better
place? By letting Christ's love so shine through us that all come to Him,
by choice and free will. Not by coercion, and certainly not by force,
murder,
destruction, and worst of all, revenge. Unconditional Love is the only
way to true lasting peace. Those First Century Christians' witness
converted
first a handful, then an emperor, then an entire empire, and eventually
the entire world came to know of Jesus. Would this have happened if they
died fighting against overwhelming odds? How many other ethnic or religious
groups that died fighting the Romans do we know anything at all about
today?
-
- Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I do NOT want you to
stand before God at the final reckoning and have to experience the
following:
God asks you what you were doing when Bush was bombing women and babies
(whatever Bush's reason; it doesn't matter) and you tell God "We were
fighting to keep a hunk of rock in a courthouse" or "We were
fighting to keep doctors from killing unborn babies" or worst of all
"We were fighting to keep what we thought was a Man of God in the
White House doing your work, Lord."
-
- A Christian can never lose their salvation, but they
can lose their soul when they do what they feel is the right thing for
all the wrong reasons. Or actually doing the wrong thing for all the right
reasons. Jesus told us how to do the right thing for all the right reasons.
It isn't easy. In fact, it's the hardest thing in the world to do. LOVE
YOUR ENEMIES. But He also said He would help us do it, if we took the first
step.
-
- May God grant you the power of discernment and the power
to see "Angels of Light" for what they are. Know them by their
works, not by what they claim to be. And may you never be blinded by much
lesser meaningless works of seeming good, while abominable acts of
unspeakable
evil occur immediately behind them.
-
- May God bless you and keep you,
-
- Leslie Bell
-
- P.S. You might say "What about the military? Doesn't
somebody have to fight for freedom? What about our Christian young men
and women in uniform?"
-
- My answer is going to be very hard, but it is going to
be what Jesus taught. As Christians, we aren't to worry about or ever
partake
in "fighting for freedom" or for anything else; there will always
be men and women who will take any opportunity given them to kill for any
reason whatsoever. As Christians we aren't to join them, period. God will
decide their fate. We are commanded to LOVE OUR ENEMIES. This doesn't ever
include bombing, maiming, or killing them for our freedom, their freedom,
or anything else. For those that already have done these things, there
is complete absolution and forgiveness for all those that ask. Killing
is sin. If we have done so, we are called to stop. As individuals and AS
A GOD-FEARING NATION.
-
- Then what course of action is there left to take? Crying
out the Truth, loud and long. That will be more than enough.
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