VIOLENCE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

Often when Christians make comment on the present escalating violence by radical Moslems, someone sees fit to bring up 'The Crusades" and the violence in the Old Testament as if that somehow vindicates what is happening now. Concerning the Crusades; there were two sides to that story and yes wrong things were done by the Crusaders who went to recapture the Holy Land. That was over 1,000 years ago and I think that situation is well under control now. The thing to note is that when Christians do wrong things, they are disobeying their Scriptures. Jesus doesn't condone violence but taught "Love your enemy, pray for those who despitefully use you."

What about the violence in the Old Testament?  When Israel went in to possess the Promised Land, they were told to destroy the inhabitants. The Canaanites were a very depraved people. They practised bestiality among other vile sexual practices, also child sacrifice and all that went with the worship of idols. God gave them 400 years to repent, then used Israel to bring judgement. God withheld judgement for that length of time because He said, "The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." Genesis 15:16. God is longsuffering. As it says in 2 Peter 3:9, He is “……not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” Iniquity is rising in Planet Earth, but rest assured it is not going unnoticed.

 What is physical and natural in the Old Testament becomes spiritual in the New Testament. The enemies of God now are not people. God loves all people and Jesus died for everyone. The enemies of God are now “principalities, and powers, rulers of the darkness of this age, spiritual hosts of and wickedness in the heavenly [spiritual] places” committed to preserving Satan’s grip over the Earth and keep its inhabitants in spiritual darkness. [Ephesians 6:12]  Since the Cross Satan operates illegally, his only two powers left are to deceive and accuse. He is defeated by Truth.  Christ’s Army which He is raising up will bring down the devil’s strongholds in the Earth and make way for the Kingdom of God. As Jesus said “I will build My Church and the gates of Hell will not stand against it.” Matthew 16:18, 19 The Veil of darkness over the Earth will be destroyed [Isaiah 25:7-12] and Creation renewed. [Romans 8:19-21]Then at last there will be peace on Earth.

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb

The leopard shall lie down with the young goat….

And a little child shall lead them…..

They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain

For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord

As the waters cover the sea.” Isaiah 11; 6-9

 

Don't let the Accuser Silence You

 

One of the ways that the Devil tries to silence the Church, in fact the main way, is accusation. After all he is “the Accuser of the brethren” [Revelation 12: ] If you are a Christian who knows how to stand in the imputed righteousness of Christ, and he can’t get anything on you; then he’ll hurl someone else’s sins at you to shut you up.

 

The classic one of course is THE CRUSADES. “What about THE CRUSADES?” Well WHAT about the Crusades? They were well over a thousand years ago. Just a bit before my time!  I’m a bit fuzzy about the Crusades but I do know that the Crusades were to take back the Holy Land which the Turks had captured. There were a lot of nasty things that happened on both sides. However the Accuser wants me to feel guilty about the Crusades so I will feel I don’t have a right to speak up for the sake of the Kingdom. I was once even accused of being responsible for the Holocaust ‘That you Christians did.’ Huh! Hitler may have been taken to Church and sprinkled as a baby, I really don’t know; but he was no Christian. Jesus said that His people would be known for their love.

 

The- right- up –to- date accusation is the current investigation going on into the abuse of children in Church institutions. “What about THAT? THAT ought to shut you up!”

 

Jesus told the story about the wheat and the tares.

 

“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.

So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’

He said to them, ‘an enemy has done this,’ The servants said to him, ‘do you want us then to go and gather them up?’

But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

Matthew 13.

 

Don’t confuse the organized Church with the true Church – the Body of Christ. The tares are there, we know that; but the wheat is still working on producing a harvest. Because some person who calls himself a Christian does something disgusting, does that then negate my right to speak up? The Devil would like me to think so. But I don’t! And by the way because I don’t endorse homosexuality doesn’t mean that I’m ‘phobic’ or that I ‘hate’ people.  As a Christian I believe that when God says something is wrong, then that is that, and the Word is very clear on the matter. God loves all people but He doesn’t endorse everything people do.

 

The organized Church is going through a cleansing and that’s good. God is going to give us all a good shake up. He is going to ‘once more shake the Earth ‘  to bring down those things which can be shaken and reveal the kingdom which cannot be shaken [Hebrews 12:26-28]; and He is going to cleanse His Church. He is going to come  ‘suddenly come to His temple,…He will purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.” Malachi 3.

 

Meanwhile, keep on keeping on.  Don’t be intimidated by the Accuser. His day is coming.  [Check this out in Revelation 12 and 20:10.] Jesus is working on the Church “till we all come to the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”  [Ephesians 4:13] Look out then Devil!