''The truth is we have brutalized and pillaged our neighbor through wanton social schemes and our personal apathy and avarice. We have no right to rebel against the so called government benefactors which we have elected time and time again for our private gain.''
As we saw in
Part 1, it is clear by an honest reading of the Bible that while the men of the Old and New Testament were consistently armed their motives were equally divided between defending themselves and defending others. Their mandate by Moses and Jesus was always to love others as much as they were to love themselves. This meant they were to diligently tend to what Jesus called the “weightier matters of law, justice, mercy and faith” or lose the rights endowed upon them by God and end up serving those who by nature are not gods.[1]
Paul said there were gods many[2] and of course both the Old and New Testaments tell us that those gods were ruling judges who ruled the people. Men often are cunningly coerced into into giving other men power by waiving their own rights in exchange for personal benefits or security.
People from the beginning were not to oppress the stranger in their midst,[3] nor deprive the workmen of the value of his labor,[4] nor do anything to their neighbor that they did not want done to themselves, nor covet their neighbor's goods in any way. They were to even love their enemy,[5] being just to all people, defend the weak, and care for the needy without using force.[6] The gods of the “world” often disregard these precepts.
Are Christian soldiers and policeman not to have their weapons any more and give beasts and bullies of society the right to rob and murder with impunity? That is not what John the Baptist said.
“And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse [any] falsely; and be content with your wages.” Lu 3:14
There is a difference between violence and using strength to put yourself reasonably in harms way to defend the needy. Recently in California several men raped a 15 year old girl on school grounds while dozens of people stood around doing nothing. Those who did nothing were just as guilty as the criminals. They did not love their neighbor nor tend to what Jesus' “weightier matters.” Their apathy, sloth or cowardice was an act of violence.
“Thus saith the LORD; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.” Jermiah 22:3
In a pure Republic the obligation of good government falls on the shoulders of everyman who must come to the aid of his neighbor by every means at his disposal. To righteously defend the lives of others who are unjustly violated by the brutes and criminals of the world is a duty and an obligation of everyman. It is not violence to do so, but violence to fail to do so.