Sunday, September 23, 2007

Mercy and Justice

Romans 12:18-20 tells us about the Christian concept of how to deal with your enemies:

If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 Therefore “ If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”

Matthew 26:50-52 tells us:

Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and took Him. And suddenly, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword, struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear. But Jesus said to him, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.

In fact, Mercy is the continual message you hear preached in church after church throughout the world - mercy and forgiveness toward your enemies.

However, it is very different in the islamic world. There, you continually hear calls to kill the Jews, behead the infidels, etc. etc. And you actually see this kind of thing going on.

All of the schools of thought in islam agree on what to do when an islamic army invades a country. They are to give three options to the country being invaded:
  1. Convert to islam
  2. Be second-class citizens in the islamic system
  3. Fight

There is nothing similar to this in Christianity. In the book of Acts, we see that the disciples of Jesus went all over the world as ambassadors of Christ, inviting people to convert to Christ; rather than as an invading army, forcing people to convert to islam.

It was never acceptable to force people to accept Christianity, such as we see in the islamic world.

Force wasn't even necessary, because often God would miraculously move on His own, in a way that a real God would do.

If your God is real, then you don't need to force things or people; God is well able to do His own forcing, such as when Paul and Silas were locked up in the jail, singing praises to God at midnight. The Bible says that the prisoners heard them. All of a sudden, an earthquake shook the prison, and all of the doors came open! But no one escaped!

The jailer came running in to see what had happened. When he realized that the doors were open, he was going to kill himself, rather than face Roman justice. Then, miraculously, Paul yelled at him not to kill himself, that all the prisoners were there. How could Paul know that the jailer was about to kill himself, or that the prisoners were all there? Or even that all the doors were open? It was dark in the prison, because the jailer asked for a light.

Now here is the biggest miracle: the jailer and all his house converted to Christianity! No need to hold a gun to his head, as is done in islam. The God of the Bible, the real God, got ahold of the jailer's heart and converted him!

This is real mercy, and the real GOD, not the so-called mercy and fake god of islam.

2 comments:

Abe Bird said...

bon voyage!
I hope to see more of your wisdom.

person of the Book said...

I think you have on a certain other website.

I believe I've seen your name there.