I’ve wrestled with this thought process for years. The movie, The Mission, with Jeremy Irons and Robert De Nero has always been my stumbling block. Each man ended up the same way, and each had a good stance, and lived their lives in their convictions. Yet we war a spiritual war in the heavenly. We have been given Jesus’s authority to take the land. But no one fights, because we chose comfort over war, compromises over standing.
“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.”
— Dante Alighieri, Inferno (c. 1320)
“You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor." -Aristotle-
“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.”
-Thomas Paine-
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
-Edmund Burke-
"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer-
"To sell your soul is the easiest thing in the world. That’s what everybody does every hour of his life. If I asked you to keep your soul – would you understand why that’s much harder?"
Wow there’s a lot here! I very much appreciate the message to pull our heads out of the sand in these times of ignorance.
I’m also reminded of Ephesians 6:12 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against the spirit of wickedness in high places”
To me that points to the inner battle with a non-physical, non-local, demonic parasite call it what you will.
I think it’s critical to realize and remember the evil is not “the flesh and blood” of the “other” aka the wokers, the communists, the pedophiles, fill in the blank. To point fingers and cast harm outside of ourselves makes a home in our own hearts for the “rulers of darkness/spirit of wickedness in high places”.
I’d personally like to keep my heart and mind clean so I can go forth as a warrior of Truth, armed with the unblemished connection with the God of Love who directs my action towards resolution.
I feel much better knowing that some people actually understand this article is not a call to violence in the name of God. I have had a dozen comments from people that seem to think I am calling for some sort of Christian jihad by publishing this. There is more to fighting evil than grabbing a machine-gun and shooting people but they can’t seem to get over the image of Christ with the gun. Apparently a lot of people do not understand what ‘eye candy’ is in regards to click-bait?
<< To point fingers and cast harm outside of ourselves makes a home in our own hearts for the “rulers of darkness/spirit of wickedness in high places”. >>
True, but in spiritual combat the territory the enemy occupies first is our own souls and bodies. And there is evil “outside of ourselves” that wants in, and once let in we do not fight it outside of ourselves. “Turn the other cheek” is not ‘give up the other children.’ To me that includes the Holocaust of abortion at the idol & altar of the self. The Constitution was written for those alive at the time and “our Posterity,” who are for those who wrote it, ourselves and those in a mother’s womb. Examine your heart and you will find ways to see that Jeremiah 17:9 is true. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked (or “sick”). Who can know it?” God can and can intervene in us; ask for help in revealing the “stronghold” for sin that we become without God. It’s difficult indeed because we cannot wait until “cured” of the sickness of sin before facing the sick world.
Ilyn's framework on resistance to evil is incredibly timely right now. The comparison betwen biblical warriors like Joshua and Methuselah fighting giants adds a poweful historical dimension to the argument. What strikes me most is the rejction of pacifism as complicity when evil cannot be reasoned with. The spiritual warefare angle is what seperates this from purely political discourse.
In Catholicism there is such a thing as a just war where your justified in using force against evil like say a war with isreal to stop the genocide of Palestinians that be a just war.
"Tactical Jesus has a new gospel for the wicked and it comes in armor-piercing 5.56mm."
This is blasphemy and heresy. Our Lord would not even glance at anything less than a 7.62mm and even then he would find you lukewarm if it was a mere .308.
Substack decided to show me your post today, probably some algorithm knew we were posting on similar topics. I have recently done a post on liberation not rebellion because the world would have us think we are being rebellious and defiant but the the truth is that the world is in rebellion with God. Us upholding his Law is liberation. Yah is the one who led us out of slavery but at every turn the world wishes to enslave us again. The reframe may seem slight but seeing ourselves as defenders of the first commandment is more accurate than the world's view that we are rebellious unruly citizens. My post looks at how scripture supports this idea of defending faithfully and interposing between an unlawful authority and its "victim" A link to my post if anyone wishes to view it. https://carafromthewilderness.substack.com/p/liberation-not-rebellion-believers?r=4bkd83
FINALLY!! I believe this message 💯 ! Ty Wise Wolf, this needed to be said. I keep saying, WE ARE IN SPIRITUAL WARFARE! Make no mistake. We are beyond passive resistance. God showed us how we must FIGHT EVIL. Build yourselves up WARRIORS, get ready for battle against Demons and principalities. Put on the full ARMOR of GOD and evil will flee.
Thank you for this amazing piece. Loved reading it .. specially the part of realizing this is not time for complacency ... may God help us to share this and be outspoken as much as we can .. specially with the days we are living in.
I think you mean Tolstoy. Dostoyevsky died earlier, in 1881 (just checked, sorry) and saw it all coming. He was trying to wake up hearts in his day, and that it became too late is a warning to us. But a small percentage of anti-Christ zealots with guns & bombs can do a lot of damage. Resist those who would take away 2nd amendment gun rights. Islamist Jihadis among others would love for us to be pacifists and unarmed. A pacifist with a gun can do good when needed - check Alvin York, a religious pacifist who “single-handedly killed at least 25 German soldiers” while saving many of his brothers in arms, and while capturing 130 of the enemy - that’s “pacifist” math.
I’ve wrestled with this thought process for years. The movie, The Mission, with Jeremy Irons and Robert De Nero has always been my stumbling block. Each man ended up the same way, and each had a good stance, and lived their lives in their convictions. Yet we war a spiritual war in the heavenly. We have been given Jesus’s authority to take the land. But no one fights, because we chose comfort over war, compromises over standing.
Somewhere in the New Testament Jesus said to sell a cloak and get a sword.
TY; my comment already spoken.
The ultimate human copout, passivity toward evil?
“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.”
— Dante Alighieri, Inferno (c. 1320)
“You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor." -Aristotle-
“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.”
-Thomas Paine-
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
-Edmund Burke-
"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer-
"To sell your soul is the easiest thing in the world. That’s what everybody does every hour of his life. If I asked you to keep your soul – would you understand why that’s much harder?"
-Ayn Rand-
💯
Wow there’s a lot here! I very much appreciate the message to pull our heads out of the sand in these times of ignorance.
I’m also reminded of Ephesians 6:12 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against the spirit of wickedness in high places”
To me that points to the inner battle with a non-physical, non-local, demonic parasite call it what you will.
I think it’s critical to realize and remember the evil is not “the flesh and blood” of the “other” aka the wokers, the communists, the pedophiles, fill in the blank. To point fingers and cast harm outside of ourselves makes a home in our own hearts for the “rulers of darkness/spirit of wickedness in high places”.
I’d personally like to keep my heart and mind clean so I can go forth as a warrior of Truth, armed with the unblemished connection with the God of Love who directs my action towards resolution.
I feel much better knowing that some people actually understand this article is not a call to violence in the name of God. I have had a dozen comments from people that seem to think I am calling for some sort of Christian jihad by publishing this. There is more to fighting evil than grabbing a machine-gun and shooting people but they can’t seem to get over the image of Christ with the gun. Apparently a lot of people do not understand what ‘eye candy’ is in regards to click-bait?
<< To point fingers and cast harm outside of ourselves makes a home in our own hearts for the “rulers of darkness/spirit of wickedness in high places”. >>
True, but in spiritual combat the territory the enemy occupies first is our own souls and bodies. And there is evil “outside of ourselves” that wants in, and once let in we do not fight it outside of ourselves. “Turn the other cheek” is not ‘give up the other children.’ To me that includes the Holocaust of abortion at the idol & altar of the self. The Constitution was written for those alive at the time and “our Posterity,” who are for those who wrote it, ourselves and those in a mother’s womb. Examine your heart and you will find ways to see that Jeremiah 17:9 is true. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked (or “sick”). Who can know it?” God can and can intervene in us; ask for help in revealing the “stronghold” for sin that we become without God. It’s difficult indeed because we cannot wait until “cured” of the sickness of sin before facing the sick world.
Ilyn's framework on resistance to evil is incredibly timely right now. The comparison betwen biblical warriors like Joshua and Methuselah fighting giants adds a poweful historical dimension to the argument. What strikes me most is the rejction of pacifism as complicity when evil cannot be reasoned with. The spiritual warefare angle is what seperates this from purely political discourse.
Exactly.
In Catholicism there is such a thing as a just war where your justified in using force against evil like say a war with isreal to stop the genocide of Palestinians that be a just war.
Islamists are engaging in jihad throughout the world.
"Tactical Jesus has a new gospel for the wicked and it comes in armor-piercing 5.56mm."
This is blasphemy and heresy. Our Lord would not even glance at anything less than a 7.62mm and even then he would find you lukewarm if it was a mere .308.
.300 WM minimum and .338 Lapua for proper dogma.
lol!
🙏✝️⚔️
Jesus with a gun is stupid. He just needs to speak and millions fall dead and birds eat their flesh.
Substack decided to show me your post today, probably some algorithm knew we were posting on similar topics. I have recently done a post on liberation not rebellion because the world would have us think we are being rebellious and defiant but the the truth is that the world is in rebellion with God. Us upholding his Law is liberation. Yah is the one who led us out of slavery but at every turn the world wishes to enslave us again. The reframe may seem slight but seeing ourselves as defenders of the first commandment is more accurate than the world's view that we are rebellious unruly citizens. My post looks at how scripture supports this idea of defending faithfully and interposing between an unlawful authority and its "victim" A link to my post if anyone wishes to view it. https://carafromthewilderness.substack.com/p/liberation-not-rebellion-believers?r=4bkd83
I call crusade for The One and His people only. 🗡️
FINALLY!! I believe this message 💯 ! Ty Wise Wolf, this needed to be said. I keep saying, WE ARE IN SPIRITUAL WARFARE! Make no mistake. We are beyond passive resistance. God showed us how we must FIGHT EVIL. Build yourselves up WARRIORS, get ready for battle against Demons and principalities. Put on the full ARMOR of GOD and evil will flee.
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal.
Thank you for this amazing piece. Loved reading it .. specially the part of realizing this is not time for complacency ... may God help us to share this and be outspoken as much as we can .. specially with the days we are living in.
Is there a reason for omitting the first sentence in James 4:7? "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee."
A fine piece about an important (though heavy) book.
In the Russia of the day, the problem was intellectual pacifists like Dostoyevski, today the problem is straightforward cowardice and stupidity.
I think you mean Tolstoy. Dostoyevsky died earlier, in 1881 (just checked, sorry) and saw it all coming. He was trying to wake up hearts in his day, and that it became too late is a warning to us. But a small percentage of anti-Christ zealots with guns & bombs can do a lot of damage. Resist those who would take away 2nd amendment gun rights. Islamist Jihadis among others would love for us to be pacifists and unarmed. A pacifist with a gun can do good when needed - check Alvin York, a religious pacifist who “single-handedly killed at least 25 German soldiers” while saving many of his brothers in arms, and while capturing 130 of the enemy - that’s “pacifist” math.
The issue is getting others to wake up.