Justified (not Timberlake)

So here is a question that I have recently been thinking about. I hope that one of brave people that read my blog and comment might be able to give some insight.

Most Christians would agree that we are called to love God with all that we are and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We all struggle with the direct application of the command to love our enemies as well.

Question: why do some Christians find it necessary to try and justify the use of violence when they find out one of their fellow Christians considers themself a pacifist?

Correct me if I am miscommunicating, but I don't believe I am trying to "convert" all of Christianity into a life of pacifism. It is a central tenet to my faith.

Celibacy and poverty are central to the lives of some monastic orders, but they don't believe everybody should be celibate and/or poor.

Are we guilty of ignoring?

I have been exchanging emails recently with a friend who took issue with my Peace post. It appears that I am ignoring part of the Old Testament by taking a stand against violence. God led Israel to war and God cannot be wrong.

I believe that war was allowed by God but not part of his plan.

Also, aren't we (as Christians) guilty of ignoring huge parts of the Old Testament by focusing on only 10 of the 613 commandments given by God to the chosen people?

I believe we can live holy/righteous lives in Christ without following Old Testament law literally. Our lives will be holy if we center them around loving God and loving neighbors/enemies.

Communion or Common Union

Just as many individual grapes are crushed and processed to make wine, so we as individuals are to be processed from unholy to holy as part of the church.

Just as many individual grains are crushed and processed to make bread, so we as individuals are to be processed from unholy to holy as part of the church.

It is common practice in many churches to practice open-communion. By this they mean that anybody who claims Christ as Saviour may participate. For most of my life I have participated in communion in multiple denominations.

Recently, I have begun to think that communion is not only a memorial of what Christ did for the Church on the cross but it is also a commitment to the common beliefs held with those that we are participating in communion with.

[For example, I agree with the Catholic church for saying that they will withhold communion from politicians supporting legislation for abortion, but why stop there. Why doesn't the church withhold communion from all civil servants. Due to their duties there are multiple things that they must do in order to do their jobs correctly that go against church teachings. If Catholics do not agree, then they can either get a different job or find another church.]

Believe and be Baptized

I believe that baptism is the result of obedient discipleship. It is not an issue of adult versus infant baptism, but rather believer's versus non-believer's baptism.

Sometimes I think that there is a contradiction between "justification by faith" and "infant baptism". I could be wrong.

Baptism is the external testimony of the internal submission to a life of discipleship.

Water does not save us so it does not matter how many times we are baptized if we don't believe. The fact that I have been baptized three times in my life does not make me a better Christian than somebody only baptized once.

It may be that baptizing infants gives them a false security that prevents them from taking the step of making faith in Christ personal and more applicable to their lives. I took the step of faith and made following Christ personal to me. My siblings who were also baptized as infants did not. If you looked at our lives now, then most would not know that we were all raised in the same Christian home.

Life matters

Some recent reading has led me to the conclusion that how we live our lives is more important than what we believe. This may sound too liberal for some people, but let me try and explain.

The church has divided so many times over disagreements over theological statements that there are almost too many denominations to count. Currently their are denominations that may split over issues like gay marriage or female ordination.

Christians should be guided by love for one another and not a specific creed.

The Old Testament is the foundation upon which the New Testament is built upon. The New Testament is the completed revelation of God. The New Testament should be our guide for how to live. Christ and the early apostles called their followers to be servants to the rest of humanity (much like Israel was blessed to be a blessing). We are to seek first the Kingdom of God by feeding the hungry, giving clothes to the naked, giving drink to the thirsty, giving shelter to the homeless. Whatever we do for the least of these we do for Christ!

Maybe this call to using the Scripture alone as a guide to living is too simplistic but sometimes simple is better than complex.

The lives of Christians should be drastically different than non-Christians.

Conflict

I went to church with my parents about a month ago. I went because they who led my Sunday morning Bible study in High school was going to be a guest speaker. He is a missionary who focuses on prison ministry and transitional housing for men and women.

He said something that really disturbed me while he was presenting new developments in his current ministry.

Just prior to him talking there was a prayer offered for one of the young men in the church who was going into active Army duty (from reserves) as a tank driver.

My former bible study leader got up after this and said that what he is doing pales in comparison to what the young soldier is going to be doing.

I could not believe my ears.

Is it common belief in the American church that soldiers fighting for the continued freedom of the USA (mideast democracy, peace, or oil depending on who you ask) are doing a better work than missionaries spreading the Gospel of Christ to the world?

Simple

Another idea that I think is central to Christianity is simplicity. Christians are not to worry about what they will eat, drink, or wear. We are not to worry about the future, but are to live in faith. Faith that God will take care of us and provide our every need.

I struggle to do this as much as most people. I have accumulated so much junk and debt in my short life because I believed I needed a lot of stuff. Most of my stuff is packed away in boxes and is never used. It may be used in the future when I move out of my parents' house but at the present it is useless.

How do Christians live simple lives in a country that tells us we need to accumulate more stuff to be happy and that we need to invest in our financial futures by buying stuff (houses, insurance, etc.) so that we will be prepared in case tragedy strikes?

Peace

I believe that pacifism is central to the Gospel of Christ. Christians are called to love God with all that they are and to love their neighbors as themselves.

How can we injure/kill those that we are supposed to love?

We are to bless our enemies, pray for those that persecute us, and turn the other cheek. We are not called to die for a country but for a God who gave us His son Jesus Christ as an example of how to live.

Jesus did not raise up an army and fight for our freedom, but suffered on a cross so that we could be free. I disagree with Dietrich Bonhoeffer's participation in the attempt to assasinate Hitler, but I agree with his assertion that when Jesus calls us to pick up our cross and follow him, He call us to suffer and die for him.

It is not the Christians goal to pursue suffering and death, but we should not try to avoid it by dying for something other than the Gospel. We should not kill others so that we can live free and comfortable lives.

National Secret

This may come as a surprise to some people (and common sense to others), but the United States of America is not a Christian nation. I won't debate the intentions of the founding fathers, but I will say that they made it clear when they separated the state from the church because the church should not be controlled by a secular government. I go further and believe that Christians should not try and make the USA a Christian nation.

Christians try to make the USA a Christian nation by trying to make laws based on what they are for or against. Issues such as abortion and gay marriage are the most common interests to the religious right and poverty and war are the most common interests to the religious left.