The following post from Russell Moore can be read in full at The Gospel Coalition. These are some great thoughts about the juxtaposition of justice and justification.
“Over the weekend many of us watched with horror and heartbreak as reports of terrorism came from Paris. At least 120 people were killed in what appears to be a coordinated operation by the Islamic State (ISIS), a terror organization that has murdered thousands of innocent people over the last year, including many Christians.
ISIS is one of the clearest embodiments of persecution and evil that we in the West have seen in many years. Their very existence is a commitment to wiping out political and cultural opposition through violence. They prey relentlessly on the innocent, including children. There’s no question that ISIS is a menace that must be engaged through just war.
But is justice the only thing that Christians should pray for when it comes to ISIS? Should we pray that our military, in the words of singer Toby Keith, “light up their world like the Fourth of July”? Or should we pray that, as a friend of mine posted on social media, there would be a Saul among those ISIS militants, whose salvation might turn the Arab world upside down with the gospel?
These are not contradictory prayers, and to each of them I say, “Amen.”
Continue reading here…
Christ Alone Wyoming 
“Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them” Ephesians 5:11
“These are the things which you should do: speak the truth to one another; judge with truth and judgment for peace in your gates. ‘Also let none of you devise evil in your heart against another, and do not love perjury; for all these are what I hate,’ declares the LORD.”
Zechariah 8:16,17
http://www.globalresearch.ca/steering-the-masses-towards-total-war/5489357
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Sadly you. Mr. cucumber are just as deluded as our president. I read your LINK and it blames America for everything bad in the world. It seeks to excuse the sinners for their sins. Their acts of evil proceed from their own wicked deceiving hearts. The Jihad march of Islam has continued unabated for 1500 years, long before the America and the free market existed. A fact of history that you deliberately leave out. The soul of Islam is by any means necessary to rule the world. The current Hajj is to COLONIZE the west to spread Islam. Muslims have never ever truly migrated. They colonize just as the Europeans did in the NEW LAND. We had no desire to integrate with the indigenous people and their culture or religions. Our goal was to move in and to take over. The goal of every Muslim and all Islam is the same. They all have but one goal which is to take over and rule every inch of planet earth with an iron fist.
Perhaps God is using them just as He used the Chaldeans to punish wayward Israel. Make no mistake this is an us or them event. They will never stop. They are like the relentless armies of evil in the Revelations. The one problem of converting Muslims to Christianity is that they immediately put all known converts to death. This is a serious impediment to mass conversion.
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TI-
Are you supporting christians taking part in war and killing muslims in the name of Jesus over preaching the Gospel to them?
-Jim
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Finnegan, thank you for your reply. I would like to posit a Biblical response to you.
1 Timothy 2:1, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people.”
Neither Paul or any other New Testament writer gives us the leeway to make demands that we must see or have success in the leading of others to Christ. Success belongs to God alone. And whether you or I pray is not the real issue as much as whether in our hearts we are willing to obey the commands of Scripture.
If God can save the terrorist Saul and turn him into the apostle Paul, and if He can save the wretch that I was, then I choose to remain faithful to what God has called me to do. There are lives that are being changed, albeit not in the numbers that we think is successful.
I would close with an illustration of our time in West Africa. I had the privilege of witnessing to several who had been former rebel soldiers. These were people who had committed atrocities that most people just cannot comprehend. God, in His grace and mercy, allowed us to see some of them come to faith in Him alone. There is always hope until those people draw their last breath.
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I appreciate your response. What you are saying is correct. Sometimes words can get in the way of what we actually mean. Yes, a similar daft question would be do we pray for the local Mormon temple or do we pray for those who attend and are deluded? Obviously, it is the latter.
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Mr. Flee,
God is immutable and God commanded the bloody conquest Cannon. Moses, Joshua, the judges, many kings such as David all killed in obedience to God. God did not command mass conversion of these people. Was God wrong?
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T.I. Miller –
God commanded the bloody conquest of you and I too, but Jesus Christ shed his blood for our sins and bore our wrath instead. Are you a born again Christian who has been forgiven your sins and made a brand new creation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? If so, I will say to you that you do greatly error and do not know what manner of spirit you are speaking from. For most professing believers who speak like this, there is a secret love of their life and things of this world in their heart. Unlike the one true Christ, who said His kingdom is not of this world, their kingdom is of this world.
Jesus came to lay his life down as a ransom for many even when we were still his enemies. As His professed followers we should seek the same heart. I understand muslims with murderous religious spirits, but professing Christians? That’s carnal thinking at best and roman catholic at worse. Of course we shuld pray for our authorities (who are of this world) to be wise that we may live peaceful lives in all godliness, but we personally should have a heart of sacrificial love towadrs our enemies. This is Christianity 101 I am sharing with you bro.
Luke 9:55 But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” And they went to another village.
John 18:36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”
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fleebabylon,
We are not of this world yet we remain in this world. Have you ever heard of the biblical case for fighting in a just war? The right of defense of family and self is not the outgrowth of a world loving carnal mind. Would you have piously overfilled all of the Titanic’s lifeboats so that all would drown and none survive? Our triune God slew 180,000 warriors attacking Jerusalem in one night. He slew all of the firstborn of Egypt. He did this to deliver the 12 twelve tribes and that His name would be magnified. Is this not the same Triune God that you just quoted? Jesus was speaking directly about His fellow Jews, children of the promise, not warrior enemies of God in Luke.
His kingdom is not YET of this world but He will return as the Lion with His heavenly host to smite the nations. Will you join the battle or pray for their salvation at that time?
God instituted the death penalty for any and all who murdered the Imago Dei. He never rescinded that command.
Rather than to just discuss obvious covenantal changes I also wanted to point out that His Holy Righteous nature is unchanged weather He slays or spares as with the Ninivites
But, thanks for questioning my salvation because we differ, thanks for the grace concerning non-essential matters my brother.
.
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“But, thanks for questioning my salvation because we differ, thanks for the grace concerning non-essential matters my brother.”
Wasn’t questioning your salvation bro, just trying to appeal to the 100% UNMERITED grace of God in your own life as a springboard to show just how unchristlike it is to wish damnation rather than salvation for our enemies. The early disciples were rebuked for a very similar attitude. We all stand justly condemned and sentenced to natural and the second death apart from the grace of God. I guess if you hold to theonomy or are a Constantine christian who sees christianity married to nation states as a good thing (rather than the harlot church of revelation it is) this conversation will be fruitless. But, if you love Jesus Christ with all your heart and desire to walk as He walked, as His ambassador in this lost and dying world, I would encourage you to turn off the christian right media and voices of hatred / fear that are speaking into your life. The fruit of these movements prove them to be none of Christ’s.
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to my brothers in Christ,
In WWII the military found that colorblind people were invaluable. Only they could spot were the enemy was hiding under camouflage. It was designed to fool everyone with normal vision. It stuck out like a neon sign to the colorblind. Conversely, for good reason, they were never allowed on the bomb squad. That would be bad. I was born with a mild case of Asperger syndrome. Seeing the world differently has its good and bad points. I find it very useful in helping me to see through camouflaged heresy and silly doctrines and traditions. Conversely I am blind as bat when it comes to communicating offensively. My thoughts often come to me in a disjointed and off the wall swirl. It is not an excuse to justify bad behavior. Yet the fact remains that I find it difficult to see what is obvious to “normal” people.
As for me I see the Christian left as the ones full of hate. Their the ones that worship their Jesus idols created in their own image. they are the ones dismissing scripture to do what is right in their eyes. they are mockers calling evil good.
It is one thing to pray for your enemies and quite another to inadvertently enable them.
I am keenly aware of my personal wretchedness both before being born from above and after.
I am also aware of the logical fallacy of, since this therefore that. IF the righteous suffer THERFORE is it always because of unconfessed sin as the self righteous would say or so that God may be glorified. the man born blind and Job had not sinned their way into suffering. .
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“As for me I see the Christian left as the ones full of hate. Their the ones that worship their Jesus idols created in their own image. they are the ones dismissing scripture to do what is right in their eyes. they are mockers calling evil good.”
For sure TI, that is not the point though. Just as it was best to avoid the leaven of both the pharisee and sadducee, it is best to avoid the modern equivalents of both sides in our day. Many focus on the ditch on one side of the path and inadvertently drift into the other. Better to leave the things of the world to the people of the world and keep our mind and energies on better things that only true believers are qualified for.
Respectfully in Christ -Jim
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fleebaby
I would encourage you to turn off the christian right media and voices of hatred / fear that are speaking into your life.
I see a yellow warning flag in your wording. The metaphysical blab it and grab it types, constantly use the, SPEAK IT, incantation.
Secondly I would appreciate you giving me examples of what you have deemed to be hate/fear speech. Who do you consider to be a among the rightwing Christian media spewing this alleged hate/fear?
perhaps I have been lead astray by these voices.
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‘I see a yellow warning flag in your wording. The metaphysical blab it and grab it types, constantly use the, SPEAK IT, incantation.”
Ha, you are something TI. I have 5+ years of blog posts linked to my name that you could read and never see anything like what you are suggesting. Seems like you are grasping and using sophomoric debate tactics but forgive me if your inquiry was innocent.
“Secondly I would appreciate you giving me examples of what you have deemed to be hate/fear speech. Who do you consider to be a among the rightwing Christian media spewing this alleged hate/fear?”
Alex Jones, Joel Richardson, Fox News crowd, etc. Anyone that seeks to wed true believers with mormons, catholics, etc in a social, religious, or political affiliation to protect our nation state against abortion, homosexuality, islam, liberalism (all evil things but none the less) and such. Not only that, they put fear in God’s people’s hearts to the point where they want to call fire down from heaven on lost people rather than call them to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ (which is exactly what you openly admit to doing here).
“perhaps I have been lead astray by these voices.”
I am not sure if your last comment was meant sincerely or just sarcasm but we do owe it to ourselves to consider we live in a day where many false christs will deceive many (even the very elect if that were possible). One of these false christs is right-wing american jesus who calls his disciples to fear, hatred, war, killing, greed, idolatrous political affiliation and such.
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PS – wanted to remove Joel Richardson from my list for now.
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