Hello to good people everywhere and love to all.
I wish to take this humble opportunity to share some musings around some of the teachings in the Bible in a kind of Bible for the common folk, made easy blog.
I am going to focus today on weapons mentioned in the Bible and the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot, through this sharing I wish us to recognise that to be a Christian does not mean to be a “doormat”, and for us to not misunderstand the concept of “turning ones cheek the other way”, or put simply, do we do nothing when some fools and idiots try to take children without any right or justification, or go even further and actually take children without any right or justification, or do we resist ?
So let us remember around the time of Jesus that the Romans were in power and the most significant personal weapon at that time was a rather lethal sword called a “gladius”. Only members of the Roman Legion or perhaps the Temple Guard would have been “packing” a gladius. The gladius was of course forbidden to the common folk, and these nasty Romans were in power and exercised their muscle everywhere. Now also at that same time along with the priests and the aristocracy that is the “Sadducess” and the middle classes the “Pharisees” there was this poorer group called The “Essenes”, Jesus was an Essene, and they were into wholistic health, prayer, baptism , helping the sick using herbs and eating good food etc etc, mainly because many were very poor and very very sick. Oh yeah and lets not forget some of them were musos (musicians), i just wanted to add this point for personal reasons as i love music. Now, most people think the Essenes were a “peace love and mung beans” kinda group and basically, as far as their moral and ethical code was concerned , this is entirely correct, however ………
It is well documented in the Bible that at least some of Jesus’s disciples also “packed” weapons, yep !!! they also had swords of a kind, but much smaller ones, because carrying a sword was illegal at that time so you had to keep them hidden or you would get busted by the Romans. Below is a picture of the disciple Simon Peter cutting the ear off of Malchus, let me repeat that, as mentioned in Luke 22 and several other sections of the Bible, here is the Disciple Simon Peter cutting the ear off of one of the idiots coming to grab Jesus !!! and yes we all know what happened to Jesus once they got him, not good at all, like really really not good !!!
Ok, so the Christian faith is based upon the Bible and the teachings of Jesus, as is our current society here in Australia and I might add, our Legal and Court Judicial system. This is why we have 12 people in a jury, this is also why the Judge/Magistrate is appointed to exercise the will of our Lord God and Creator here on earth, that is, our Laws (commandments) come from Mosaic Law, let us not forget the ten commandments scribed into a stone tablet by Moses on Mt Sinai.
So what is my point, well it’s pretty simple really. If anyone, sent by the Government (The Sadducees) from any Government department (Sadduccees, Pharisees and the Roman Army), that means any public officer, with or without the police (the Roman Army), attempts to exercise their will upon you (the Essenes), without any right or justification, without a lawful warrant, or a bloody good reason. Then you can if it is “reasonable” in the circumstances, which of course depending on how much they push you ? and what they are after ? then you could, for example, if they were after your children for money and tried to force their way in to your home ? Then you could cut an ear off and you would be completely within your rights legally and you would still be considered a good Christian, like Simon Peter. But it is important to note, that even though all of this is righteous and just, that they (The Sadduccees) may still want to nail you to the cross for this. Even though what you did was right and just and contiguous ( a response to their sick actions) , they (The Sadduccees) may well persecute you so they can frighten other people out of trying the same thing, because if people (The Essenes) realised this, they would overcome their fear (of The Sadduccees), then they (The Sadduccees) would no longer be in power and we (The Essenes) would have world Peace like we all want.
I am not suggesting for one moment that we all simply cut people’s ears off, i’m just making a very good and clear point that wether we are Christians or any other faith, or even if we do not believe in God, that we are not bloody doormats !!! and if you stand for nothing you will fall for everything.
That’s pretty much it “in a nutshell”
Much respect xxx Pastor Paul
