Tag Archives: Self Defense

What Does the Bible Teach About Self Defense?

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In Psalm 149:6–7, David, a man after Elohim’s own heart, speaking of the saints wrote, “Let the high praises of El be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people.” Was David’s statement merely poetic hyperbole, or was this how he, as the king and a spiritual shepherd of Israel, literally defended the people YHVH had placed under his charge? We know from his life story that the latter was the case.

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When Abraham, the father of the faithful and a man who was the model of righteousness had his nephew Lot kidnapped what was his response? Does Scripture record that he prayed, then sat down expecting YHVH to supernaturally intervene and cause the Babylonians to release Lot? No. His response was to muster the 318 soldiers of his own personal army and to pursue the five kings. What was the result? YHVH granted Abraham a miraculous victory over Lot’s captors and Abraham gave a tithe of the spoils of war to Melchizekek (Gen 14).

The Torah, YHVH’s divine instructions in righteousness, in Exodus 22:2, permits and even expects a man to defend himself against a thief breaking into his home. If the defense of one’s home results in the death of the thief, there is no retribution against the defender. There are no penalties or prohibitions in biblical law against a man acting in self defense.

The well-known Aaronic Blessings (Num 6:22–27) contains the following words, “May YHVH  bless you and keep [or, safeguard, The ArtScroll Stone Edition Tanach] you.” The word keep is the Hebrew word shomar (Strong’s H8104) meaning “guard, observe, watch, have charge of, protect, save.” Such a promised blessing could be taken in two different ways: one simply sits back and does nothing to protect oneself, for that is YHVH’s job; or one does what one can to protect oneself in a reasonable and prudent manner, and beyond that one trusts YHVH to do the rest. The latter and not the former is the logical approach to follow, and is substantiated by numerous scriptural examples to be the correct interpretation of this verse.

Psalm 145, the famous Ashrei blessing of the daily Jewish prayers, states that YHVH protects all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy (verse 20). The psalmist restates this idea elsewhere when  he declares that YHVH saves his servant “out of all his troubles,” the righteous he “delivers … out of all their troubles,” and “many are the afflictions of the righteous, but YHVH delivers him out of them all” (Ps 34:6, 17, 19, emphasis added). The question we must ask here is this: does all literally mean all, in biblical thought? Clearly Scripture gives us a historical record of many of YHVH’s servants being persecuted and even martyred. Furthermore, the Scriptures prophesy that in the future many saints can expect this fate as well. Such passages are to be found in both the Tanakh (Old Testament) and Testimony of Yeshua (New Testament).  Are the promises of YHVH a lie, or are we missing what he is really saying to us when he promises to deliver his people from all their troubles? Clearly, in light of the scriptural promises, the historical record and prophecies recorded in Scripture, all  can mean only one thing: YHVH will deliver his people from ultimate evil, namely, death, hell and the grave, and he will avenge them of their adversaries by bringing ultimate judgment against them. This doesn’t mean that he won’t deliver his people from present evil by supernaturally protecting them, but some will suffer and even die a martyr’s death here and now. His people must trust in his sovereignty, love, justice and be assured that he has their best interests in mind even if they suffer and die now.  The reward of the righteous is sure as is the fate of the wicked; both are in the hands of a just and all powerful Elohim.

With these truths in mind, it is the responsibility of the righteous to walk in faith, trusting YHVH day-by-day with their lives, but not to be blithely ignorant of the evil around them throwing all caution and prudent preparations to withstand evil to the winds of fate and calling it faith in YHVH. This is not faith; it is folly! Wise saints do not even practice this kind of “blind faith” in their daily physical lives. Most have locks on their doors, have fire extinguishers and first aid kits handy, maintain insurance policies, keep spare tires in their cars, wear seat belts and have extra batteries and food in their homes in case of an emergency. Proper preparation is called wisdom, and to not do so is foolish and fool-hardy. To not prepare, if one is able to do so, is not faith, but is tempting YHVH, something Scripture tells us not to do (Matt 4:7; Deut 6:16).

Scriptures Used to Justify Christian Pacifism

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What To Do When Terrorism or Rioting Comes Knocking on Your Door

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Silhouette of several muslim militants with rifles

When you see evil coming your way, the first and most important thing to do is to watch and pray (Matt 26:41; Mark 13:3). Pray for discernment and guidance from the Spirit of Elohim as to what to do. Don’t react impulsively out of fear, but out of love, power and a sound mind (2 Tim 1:8); be led by the Spirit. Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). Reacting out of fear or emotion leads to cloudiness and confusion of thinking leading to wrong action.

Pray and trust in YHVH for deliverance and protection (Ps 3:3; 57:1; 68:1; 69:1; 107:6, 20; 108:6; 121:1, 2; 144:11; 145:19–20).

Do spiritual warfare against the enemy using the Scriptures.

Sometimes there is a time to fight (Ps 94:16; 144:1; 149:6), sometimes a time to flee (Matt 24:16–20; Eccl 3:3, 8). We must pray for discernment and guidance from above to know what to do and when. If YHVH directs us to fight, keep this in mind: fighting doesn’t always involve physically violent confrontation. Fighting can also involve spiritual warfare and clever non-violent tactics. Think Gideon who used lamps and shofars to defeat the Midianites.

If in response to preaching the gospel, 

  • Jeremiah was taken by the crowd/civil authorities and imprisoned
  • Paul submitted to the custody of the Roman civil authorities.
  • Yeshua submitted to the Jewish and Roman civil authorities.
  • Peter, John and James submitted to the civil authorities.

If civil authorities demand one to go against the laws of Elohim, it’s biblically permissible to defy them in deference to the higher governmental authority of Elohim (Act 4:19; 5:29).

If you’re being physically attacked by evil doers, consider the following…

  • Self defense from evil attackers is not a sin. It’s not against Scripture to defend yourself and your loved ones. In fact, it’s the duty of a man to provide for his family by protecting his loved ones (1 Tim 5:8).
  • To turn the other cheek when evil people attack your family and loved ones is a twisting of Scripture and is not what Yeshua meant when telling his disciples to do so (Matt 5:39). Turning the other cheek should be the saint’s response to wrongs and offenses committed against the saints by evil doers in the regular course of life. Yeshua in no way means that when a robber, murderer, kidnapper, terrorist, mugger, rapist or other such vile person comes to kill, steal and to destroy that the saint is to passively lay down and let the evil doer have his way with us and our loved ones. If so, then doing so violates many other scriptures where YHVH’s people defended themselves against such enemies, and did so with YHVH direction and blessing.

Remember this: when evil times come, this provides an excellent opportunity to share the love of Yesshua and the Truth and hope of the gospel message with those around us including our unconverted neighbors and loved ones. This is an opportunity for them to see our faith and love in action, and to see the hand of Elohim move on our behalf in answer to our prayers of faith. In so doing, the kingdom of Elohim will be expanded.

 

What Does the Bible Teach About Self Defense?

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In Psalm 149:6–7, David, a man after Elohim’s own heart, speaking of the saints wrote, “Let the high praises of El be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people.” Was David’s statement merely poetic hyperbole, or was this how he, as the king and a spiritual shepherd of Israel, literally defended the people YHVH had placed under his charge? We know from his life story that the latter was the case.

20699115

When Abraham, the father of the faithful and a man who was the model of righteousness had his nephew Lot kidnapped what was his response? Does Scripture record that he prayed, then sat down expecting YHVH to supernaturally intervene and cause the Babylonians to release Lot? No. His response was to muster the 318 soldiers of his own personal army and to pursue the five kings. What was the result? YHVH granted Abraham a miraculous victory over Lot’s captors and Abraham gave a tithe of the spoils of war to Melchizekek (Gen 14).

The Torah, YHVH’s divine instructions in righteousness, in Exodus 22:2, permits and even expects a man to defend himself against a thief breaking into his home. If the defense of one’s home results in the death of the thief, there is no retribution against the defender. There are no penalties or prohibitions in biblical law against a man acting in self defense.

The well-known Aaronic Blessings (Num 6:22–27) contains the following words, “May Continue reading →

 

In Response to the Texas Church Massacre—It’s Time for a New Mindset!

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Wake up Christians! We’re living in a post-Christian society full of anarchists and Satanic God-hating nihilists who hate you and me. We’re sliding quickly into the heathenistic barbarism of Baalism. It’s the wild west guys! It’s time to wake up from you spiritual nap and to saddle for battle! The battle starts on your knees, but it doesn’t stop there.
In light of the recent Texas church massacre, Christians need to consider this: Yeshua told his disciples (that’s you and me) to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Instead, the churches are full of people who are oblivious to the evil serpents who want to kill and destroy them, and at the same time are still harmless as doves.
 
Sadly, most Christians are living in an altered reality bubble of denial about how evil the dark side really is. Too many believers are blinded by their normalcy bias and feel (emphasize the word feel—feelings are usually not based on reality ) that things aren’t as bad as they really are. This is the spiritual blindness of Laodiceanism that Yeshua talked about in the Book of Revelation chapter three. They don’t want to believe that things are as bad as they really are, and that Yeshua’s return is imminent, and that Satan is desperate to maintain control over his world no matter what and will stop at nothing before his ultimate defeats occurs. To face this reality would mean that these sleep-walking saints would have to wake up from their spiritual nap, repent of sin and get honest about their spiritual walk with Yeshua! This would mean that they would have to confront their sin of putting Yeshua on the back burner of their lives and to repent of their addictions to Facebook and other social media, as well as recognize their idolizing their electronic devices, video games, movies, sports and other mind-numbing forms of entertainment and start giving more time to the one who bought them with his blood, redeemed them from sin and demands total obedience and allegiance as a pre-condition for granting them the ultimate reward of eternal life.
 
Not only that, most saints get their news info from the Uncle Walter propagandistic and slanted major news outlets that tell us “that’s the way it is” and we as sheeple blindly believe them.
In reality, most of these journalistic liars typically either under-report or gloss over the depths of the evil of the dark side and its hatred for villainous desires against Bible believers. This is because these leftist news pundits are sympathetic fellow-travelers with the God-hating evil-doers. While maybe not guilty of crimes against Christians, they hate Bible believers and are guilty of murder in their hearts because their own deeds are evil. To expose the other guy would be to expose themselves for who they really are. It’s a defensive tactic of human nature to hide the truth for fear of self-exposure. At the same time Christians are oblivious to the murderous evil of the satanic-serpents who want to kill, steal and destroy, while they still naively act as harmless as doves.
 
All this to say that when I was pastoring, many years ago after the first several church shootings occurred, I got a concealed carry permit and always carried a firearm during church services. I saw the handwriting on the wall and refused to bury my head in the sand to the reality of the times in which we are living. How could I be so arrogantly ignorant to think that I was so special to YHVH that a church shooting couldn’t occur in my church? Look, if I’m going to be a martyr for Yeshua like nearly all the original apostles were, that’s one thing, but I refused to be a martyr because of my own naive stupidity!
 
Others in our congregation got their carry permits as well. I would have pitied the poor demoniac who would have tried shoot up our congregation! At the same time, we kept the doors of the church locked while services were occurring and kept a security guard at the door, while, at the same time, covering our congregation with spiritual warfare prayers as our first and most important line of defense.
 
Wake up America, wake up pastors, wake up Christians, this is 2017, not 1957! Pastors need to start acting like shepherds and start protecting their flock instead of leaving their trusting sheeple vulnerable like sitting ducks!
 
Our first and most important defense is spiritual warfare and the blood of Yeshua. After that, well…you connect the dots! We must do your part.
 
Most of you have locks on your doors, wear seat belts while driving, carry a spare tire in your car, have a first aid kit, smoke detectors in your home and have insurance to protect yourselves from everything, but when it comes to protecting yourselves in church, we’ve become naive and trusting ignoramuses who are living in the mental bubble of a past reality!
 
It’s time to grow up America! We’re not living in the 1950s anymore. It’s time for the sleeping church to wake up! Pastors: It’s time to start acting like shepherds who really protect the sheep both physically and spiritually instead of acting like the hirelings most of you really are!

 

What Does the Bible Teach About Self Defense?

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In Psalm 149:6–7, David, a man after Elohim’s own heart, speaking of the saints wrote, “Let the high praises of El be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people.” Was David’s statement merely poetic hyperbole, or was this how he, as the king and a spiritual shepherd of Israel, literally defended the people YHVH had placed under his charge? We know from his life story that the latter was the case.  

20699115

When Abraham, the father of the faithful and a man who was the model of righteousness had his nephew Lot kidnapped what was his response? Does Scripture record that he prayed, then sat down expecting YHVH to supernaturally intervene and cause the Babylonians to release Lot? No. His response was to muster the 318 soldiers of his own personal army and to pursue the five kings. What was the result? YHVH granted Abraham a miraculous victory over Lot’s captors and Abraham gave a tithe of the spoils of war to Melchizekek (Gen 14).

The Torah, YHVH’s divine instructions in righteousness, in Exodus 22:2, permits and even expects a man to defend himself against a thief breaking into his home. If the defense of one’s home results in the death of the thief, there is no retribution against the defender. There are no penalties or prohibitions in biblical law against a man acting in self defense.

The well-known Aaronic Blessings (Num 6:22–27) contains the following words, “May Continue reading →