“I will not fight; I am a Christian”. We live in a world geared towards personal gain and satisfaction. Building a nice life for yourself is the American dream, and anyone who wants it can have it. Jesus says that where your treasure is. there your heart will be also. The question is then asked of us: when our great possessions or our nice lives are threatened, will we defend them? Will we resist?
The Bible is very clear on this. Jesus Himself could have called legions of angels to defend Him in the garden. Jesus could have easily resisted the evil that night—it would have saved His life—however, He did not. He opened not His mouth and was slain by evil men. However, it seems that some who profess to be Christians today do not see it the same and are not as quick to allow someone to take all that they have, including their life. Why is that? Could it be our mindset? I believe if we are truly living a separate life—separate from this world’s system and separate from this world’s standards and politics—we will have little trouble to “resist not evil”. However, the opposite can also be true. If we are involved in this world’s system, if we are involved in its politics and basking in the freedoms of our land, it will be very difficult to “resist not”.
Jesus said that if His people were part of this world, then they would fight. It’s a simple truth. If you are of this world, you will fight. If you are part of God’s kingdom, you will not fight.
Years ago, while I was in training at Marine boot camp, I was quickly taught the Marines’ order of priorities: God, country, and corps. I found it interesting that they put God first on their list. We then marched in rhythm to the chant. “What makes the grass grow? Blood, blood!” From its start, this country has always said that they put God first. However, it is clear from its actions that God was not actually first. Freedoms are placed first, and if those freedoms are threatened, everything about God is forgotten, and they turn to their highly trained military to defend those freedoms. God ordained that the world should operate this way, but how should the Kingdom of God work? Are we as Christians also standing by our rights? The truth is, if we lift high our rights, then we also will fight for them!
Revenge is seen everywhere we turn. People still feel the pain from an attack that happened over 20 years ago and declare that this country will not back down. Billboards scream revenge as the lawyers of our land demand people defend their rights and freedoms, accidents are countered with life-changing lawsuits. People are told they will have peace once the price has been paid.
A stand-your-ground law is sweeping the nation, giving civilians the right to shoot anyone who seems to be a threat to their safety. Sales of concealed carry permits have soared as men and women right around us prepare in case someone attempts to infringe on their “God-given rights”.
Jesus taught us to lay down our lives, and then He showed us how to do it.
When talking about non-resistance, people always ask the same question, “So, if someone breaks into your house to harm your family, you wouldn’t do anything?” More and more Christians are stumped by this question. However, as followers of Jesus, we know that resisting is far from the answer.
Recently, I stopped by my neighbor’s place to chat. He is into politics and lives in fear. He asked me if I had any guns, and informed me that I was going to need them. After asking him why, he told me that it wouldn’t be long before city folks started coming around raiding our farms. I then asked him what he would do with a gun. In shock at my foolish question, he told me that he would start shooting people. I told him that I would do what Jesus told us to do in those situations and he replied by wishing me good luck! I then gave him two scenarios and asked him which sounded better. In my first example, I gave the picture of people arriving at his house with the intention of raiding it, him getting his gun and shooting at them, and then quickly returning fire. Then I gave a second example of those same people coming to my house with the intention of raiding it, and I would quickly ask my wife to get some breakfast going, we would begin to bless the persecutors, helping them load stuff up, getting them water, and so forth. My neighbor grumbled a bit then admitted it would likely end better for me. Of course, my neighbor is not a Christian.
How about you? How would you react in such a situation?
This scenario has been played out many times by Christians of old. Will it be played out again by the Christians of today? Or will we resist?
One day, I saw a man walking his dog and noticed he had a pistol holstered on his hip. I stopped and asked him why he had the pistol. “For self-defense!” He replied. I told him that Jesus said if you live by the sword, you will die by the sword. The man agreed but didn’t seem to think it applied to him. I asked him what he thought would happen if someone approached him with the intention of robbing him and then noticed his pistol. His eyes got big, and he said, “He would shoot me!” I told him of an account in Haiti when gangs were robbing everyone they saw. An acquaintance of mine always carried a gun with him. An armed man snuck up to him and demanded that he hand over the gun. My acquaintance said he would not. He ended up being shot, and his gun was taken.
As our freedoms and livelihood are under attack in America, more and more Christians are abandoning their faith in the Creator and putting their faith in themselves and buying guns—this makes no sense to me. Have we lost faith completely? Do American Christians now think they are stronger and wiser than God? When a Christian says he will not resist and instead bless, this man is laughed to scorn, and even at times by those who consider themselves Christians! I was recently called a coward by an ordained man because I said I would not fight off an intruder. Do we no longer believe that God is almighty?
I must be frank; I see our young sisters carrying pepper spray and our young men carrying pistols. We no longer smile and take the low road, the one much less traveled. We love our lives to the point that we will not lay them down, we love our freedoms and this country to the point of bearing arms. We must wake up! We can join a program to keep us out of the war, but I’d be more worried about what will keep me out of the kingdom of God!
This world will fall, and the systems of the world will fail. There is no hope in earthly governments.
I was preaching at a seminar when I was notified that a Haitian pastor who also was going to be speaking was not going to be able to make it. He asked if I would take his sessions and told me he would send me his outlines. I agreed. The first topic was called “Hope for Haiti”. The outline listed all these practical ways of restoring Haiti to an economically stable Christian country. I had to scrap the outline, and I started the session by stating “There’s no hope for Haiti”. I would like to make the same statement here about America, “There’s no hope for America”. There is only hope for the redeemed soul! There is only hope for the one that abandons this world, the things of this world, their freedoms, and “ye, their own life also” and joins the Kingdom of God!
We dare not forget that we as Christians are merely passing through, we are only strangers here and heaven is our home!
We so often get ourselves entangled with the cares of this world. We enjoy our lives here to the fullest, we love our lives, and you better believe we will resist when someone or something threatens it!
Is it pride to say we will not resist? No, it is confidence in our God! Once, I was traveling with a few missionaries when a gang emerged suddenly and overtook our vehicle. They pulled me out of the driver’s seat while demanding our guns. They didn’t believe us when we stated that we didn’t have any. They fired shots over our heads as they searched us and our vehicle. After they took anything of value, they left. The leader somehow got my phone number and called me a few weeks later. He said he knew where I lived and was coming back for more. I told him that was fine, I would be waiting for him; he could have whatever he needed. He got frustrated and asked me where I went to church, I then told him about the life-changing power of Jesus Christ. I shared with him my testimony. He got excited and demanded we meet to talk more about this Jesus.
When people see us “resist not” it is so unusual it demands answers. When we were in Haiti, a local gang leader threatened to kill us all and burn our house to the ground if we didn’t give him a large amount of money. Since I did not fear these things but rather anticipated them, I knew God was about to work! I told him that if God allowed him to kill us all, that would be fine with us; we would not resist him. He had never run into something like that before. His whole live he had taken advantage of people by using his guns and force. Now he had met a follower of Jesus Christ who was doing the opposite. He told me to tell Jesus to come down and he would cut off his head. I cringed at the remark and warned him of the danger of a comment like that. Sadly, this man was dead within 24 hours of when we spoke. Oh, that we would wake up to the reality of God!!
During the kidnapping of the 17 missionaries several years ago, a Haitian pastor asked me why the U.S. military didn’t come and kill those wicked men and free the missionaries. If we are honest, were some of us thinking the same thing? I told the pastor that it would be a terrible ending to a great opportunity to show the power of God. I told him that I had been talking with the gang leaders and praying for them. I told him the gang leader even told me that he loved me. I shared that these evil men only need Jesus!
The pastor started to cry and gave me a big hug, then told me he would be praying for me because he would never be able to do that.
We must realize that Jesus Christ is the only difference between us and those living after the world! Jesus Christ is the only difference between us and any evil man, whether that be your sinful neighbor, the local drug dealer, or your worst enemy! How dare we put ourselves above them because of our culture or financial standing?
“Come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord.” We as Christians are called to be a separated people. The church has always been a separate entity from the state. We do things differently and that is what separates us. The early Christians realized they could not be faithful to both God and civilized governments. So they refused to be involved with the government and its doings and paid dearly for it. They knew that they could not both love their enemies and kill them. Today our country is trying to do away with the separation between church and state. Conservative Americans want the kingdom of the world to try and live by principles of the kingdom of God. This is impossible. The country of America, as great as it may be, will never be able to live for God. It will live for itself, protect itself, and live like unregenerate men live. Will we as God’s people accept this separation?
God’s ways are bigger than our ways. God is in control. We must simply trust in Him, leaning not on our own understanding. There will be wars and rumors of wars.
We need not to defend ourselves when we have the King of kings on our side!
Let me present two accounts that highlight the difference between the two kingdom’s ways of resisting evil.
I was walking home one day on our small dirt trail when I saw a man approaching quickly. At first, I didn’t think much of him, but that changed rather quickly. I had never seen him before and the determination on his face was alarming. It all came together when I saw the pistol gripped in his right hand. A hitman was all I thought of since several people had threatened to kill me in the preceding weeks. As he approached and aimed the gun at me what do you think when through my mind? One could assume my military training would have kicked in. In the Marines, I was trained how to disarm, take down, and kill a man in 17 seconds with only my bare hands. Did I think of that? No, not once. I won’t forget the sense of peace I had, I will assure you that I thought my life on this earth was finished, however the presence of God was overpowering! I smiled at the man and asked him if he was going to shoot me. He got frustrated, lowered the gun and quickly walked away. Oh, how I praised the Lord! I’m not sure what happened to that man, I never saw him again, however, I trust he didn’t forget that encounter quickly.
A local gang leader was terrorizing the community, he would target business owners demanding that they pay him a certain amount of money in a certain amount of time, or he would kill them. Because most of these people could not pay the large amount, they would succumb to the latter and be found dead.
One day, my time came. He told me I had two weeks to pay him $5,000. We turned the situation over to God. After the two weeks were over, I received a call from a neighbor who told me the man was waiting outside my gate. I told the neighbor to let him wait, we were not home at the time. Unfortunately, my neighbor then called the authorities. A truckload of police charged onto the scene, and the gangster was killed! I told my family that I wished I had been home to talk to him! Now it is too late; forever in hell!
Dear friends, if we truly lay down our lives as Jesus teaches, we then will easily be able to “resist not” evil! Then this world once again can witness the power that is so much greater than the powers here on this earth, the power of the living God!
