Bible believing. Seminary educated. CCW for 15 years now. I agree with just about everything that was quoted in the first post with the exception of:
Hopefully the attacker will have at least had a glimpse of the love of Christ in our nonviolent response.
When Jesus Christ came for the first time, there was an expectation that he would establish His kingdom as promised in the Old Testament. It did not happen because the fullness of the Gentiles had yet to be realized. The Kingdom of God is not being built on violence, but on faith in Jesus Christ. the time will come when it is no longer being built, but will be established. The preparations for that are being made right now.
Turn the other cheek is a very specific reference to personal insult. In the most literal sense, we are to forgive insult that does not really do injury. After this, it gets a little grey, with no specific passage giving explicit direction. However, as I have already seen quoted, we are to be good stewards of what God has given us.
I thank God for the money he brings into our family's life, and the food he gives us, but I still work for that. Why would I not work to protect my family? To not provide for their protection in every way available to me would be like refusing to have a fire extinguisher on hand, or take my child to the doctor for a disease.
I could write an entire sermon on this, but I will try to keep it brief with three observations. First, a quote from Daniel regarding how the Lord keeps me. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Bablylon is speaking first here.
and what god is there who can deliver you out of my hands?"
16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. 17 "If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. 18 "But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up." (Dan 3: 15b-18 NASB)
Pacifist or not, the saints of God have the confidence that He will preserve them regardless of whether or not they lose their life here on earth. This is what we are seeing in the Amish right now.
Second thought. People, mostly non-Christians, but also a lot of Christians, view Jesus as some kind of hippy like do-gooder who was wimpy and just wanted us all to love one another. His attributes of love and patience are often mistaken for weakness. What many people do not realize is that He is the Lord Sabaoth - Lord of Hosts - or as I used to tell my Mennonite Sunday School class, the biggest baddest general of the biggest baddest army in all of creation. When He returns it is not going to be with a smile on His face, and He will wipe out evil once and for all (in a very specific and planned out way). You can read about it in Revelation, Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Joel, Matthew, and many other places besides.
I am sure there are those who will take issue with me, and I say to them, that God's plan is not dependent on anything that I or anyone else believes. He knows what He is going to do, and I am confident in His ability to do it in my life and in that of the entire world. But until He arrives to take me home, I will carry my Bible in one hand and my gun in the other.
