The Modern Christian and Fighting

Perhaps it is easy to proclaim that fighting is a pattern and condition of the Old Testament. Wars were the stuff of Ancient Israel and for the nations, not for Christians; not for the redeemed. We are taught that we are to turn the other cheek and let our enemies have power over us because that gives us the opportunity to be a "good" witness. I am not trying to take away from the admonition of Jesus to his disciples. He recognized that in Roman tradition to strike a man with your left hand was an offense for the Roman not for the one being hit. To say this was to say, there is a way that your behavior will bring shame to your enemy.

This doesn't take us away from what fighting really is. I speak mainly to the western version of Christianity where violence is eschewed as some kind of backwoods neanderthalic method of dealing with enemies. But in saying that, isn't the real confusion really about who the enemy is? Paul declared in the book of Ephesians that we wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with principalities, powers, and rulers of darkness....Why do we have to argue about the voracity of this statement? Why do we have to rationalize Paul's true narrative here? What do you think it was that John saw in Revelation 12:12-15? Do you believe that God cast satan out of heaven for his rebellion? Do you see that he was cast out and into the earth?

Another clue is the description of Adam's responsibility: "Subdue!" Why would Adam, who lived in a so called "perfect" garden, need to subdue anything at all? Would it not be conceivable to believe that, as Jesus said, "he saw the devil cast down to the earth like a bolt of lightening", and therefore the deceiver was already in the garden? Would it not also be conceivable that the serpent was borrowed as a communicator and that the effort to deceive Eve took some time? Look at Jesus in Matthew 4. Three temptations. Three decisive victories using the Word of God. But also the patience of a skilled attacker who is looking for weaknesses and has contingencies in case one method does not succeed. He is a lion, a hungry lion, who walks about, seeking whom he may devour! Cats by nature are patient hunters.

We underestimate our enemy and we underestimate our own capacity. Jesus said that the Kingdom of God suffers violence, which is to say that as God is communicating to people with the Spirit, both the message and the messengers are under constant attack because to hear G-d's communication is to get free of the very prison that the devil himself built: the prison of lies. The verse ends with this phrase, "but the violent take it by force." Is this physical violence? Not in the fist fight sort of way, but Paul declared that he buffets his body and makes it his slave. Why? Because he understood, as so many Christians seemingly do not, that the body, mind, and heart are the battleground for the spiritual war. He had to be aggressive to hear and he had to be aggressive to respond accurately, consistently, and honestly to each imagination that would come against him to resurrect the first Adam that had died on the cross. For Paul, this was a serious issue. He didn't want to lose a single ounce of that kingdom vision that he had owned for himself and he protected it with tenacity. Are you a fighter? KAB!

Pastor Llave

Look for our digital E-Booklet by Pastor Richard Weintraub called, "The Face of Deception" for a more detailed look at this issue. It will be online in the next couple of weeks.