Finally a who preacher/evangelist who understands Luke 22:36! I have argued with others and said that this is not a parable or a request. JESUS told his followers to buy a sword, but as usual the nay sayers and false prophets would muddy up the waters with the worldly cry for peace at any price. I would not let my family pay the ultimate price for my lack of understanding and or cowardice. How can you share your faith in a violent heathen country such as, India or Indonesia, if you are dead? Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and communists do not respect people who will not even defend themselves. Thank you for your courage in the midst of flesh-eating heathen ministries.

I am a Christian, and if we “Christians” have THE truth then we are the true hypocrites. When God or Jesus comes back to establish His Kingdom He WILL wipe out all the UNBELIEVERS. Not Christians. In the Bible.. or should I resay that for the simple minded..?

IN GOD’S WORD (much better) it says, love your enemies. Said by Jesus Himself. BAM!!! There you go. And one more thing my friend Jesus threw the people out of HIS temple. God is Just, Jesus is God. And the Holy Spirit is God as well, all 3 are the trinity. If you were God (hopefully not lol) wouldn’t you feel a bit PO’d at the thought of your Holy House being used for taxes and a market place and not for true worship? Jesus/God/Holy Spirit all the right to wipe all of us off this tiny planet but they don’t because God wants our love. So anyways, self defense, although tempting, is not the way of a True Christian, it is the way of a True Hypocrite because it IS US, Christians who are the true hypocrites for we have the truth but do not act upon it. We just ignore it and live our pathetic lives thinking we’ve already bought our free ticket to Heaven where, when we get to Heaven God will just ask, “Who are you?” and send you down where you deserve to go.

Please do no take this personally, this is just my opinion but I believe that self-defense and violence is not our weapon, it is LOVE.

Thank you for your thoughts and helpful insight.

I am for self defense, however I think you may be taking that verse out of context. I am a Bible College student in OKC and am currently studying for a debate in which my team has to defend the argument that a Christian should never end another person’s life. I believe that Christ might be using an allegory in this passage. The apostles were not to prepare for a physical war, but a spiritual war. Just a thought from an ignorant sophomore Bible college student. No disrespect at all. Just to reiterate, I am for self defense even if it means ending a person’s life. I am simply being forced to play devil’s advocate in this situation.

Sir, Your study is correct according to the context of scripture. The swords Yehshua commanded his disciples to acquire were in fact literal swords for the purpose of self defense.

Thou shalt not kill. It’s one of the 10. Now, if someone was going to kill another person and I could kill him to save them, that commandment would be very difficult to heed.

When the Bible says “love your enemies”, you can love your enemies and still dish out punishment. Just as you can love your child and still punish him for doing something bad. Also, what is the definition of “your enemies”? Even in the Old Testament it says to give your enemy drink if he’s thirsty. Is the enemy you’re giving drink to is at that moment trying to kill you or is your enemy the next door neighbor who hates you and makes your life miserable?

Speaking of Old Testament, “thou shalt not kill” is in the Old Testament along with plenty of cases where God told the Israelites to kill everything in sight in some cases. Also “thou shalt not kill” is enforced with if you do kill, your life would be taken by MAN. “Thou shalt not kill” means thou shalt not murder in context. In my opinion, anyone who quotes that passage in defense of no defense is either not thinking at the time he type or say that, is ignorant of the Bible in general, or is purposely ignoring the rest of the Bible trying to promote their view. In short, they’re setting themselves up for a easy target by those who studied the Bible.

Ive been studying this and its a difficult subject. I don’t see shooting someone the same as using a seat belt or locking a door. Its self preservation, but its protecting yourself without taking another life. taking another life is taking something that has a soul. I don’t know all the answers but I don’t think that’s the same