Religious Wars
Jesse2016
One only has to think back to the early 17th century during the Thirty Years’ War in Europe or the Crusades during the 11th to 15th centuries to remember the devastating effect religious wars had on people. The use of religion to justify fighting a war is sadly a common occurrence in Christianity’s history but the Bible in the New Testament does not support using faith as the basis for war. Even under foreign rule, the Bible points to peace rather than war as it says in Romans 13:1-3 “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended.” Therefore, rebelling against the authorities or government is wrong and rather we should endure hardship and pray that the government would promote peace for our country. This may seem impossible to keep considering that some oppressors may force a certain religion on the people, which suggests that resistance wars are the only option. But history shows that non-violence is capable of overthrowing foreign oppressors such as Ghandi’s success in gaining India’s independence from Great Britain.
Furthermore, Christians advance their faith through spiritual war (through ways such as prayer, teaching and rebuking) not physical war. 2 Corinthians 1😇
-5 says “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” This shows that non-violence is how Christianity should be spread, not through conquest but through peaceful means which in itself has tremendous spiritual power to “conquer” other spiritual kingdoms. Therefore, we can learn from the mistakes in our past and prevent the tarnishing of Christianity by its involvement in war and instead to support a Christianity that truly promotes peace, truth and hope.
Comments
I believe in prayers. I pray to Dio everyday.
Prayers are great for sorting out our thoughts. Believing that coincidences are your prayers being answered is not.
I mean that in the general 'your,' not you personally, Nyx.
The universe in it's essence is ever-present. We are all part of one entity, but we are all apart. United we are divided. Every force, every being, every life form in this great and humble universe created by our Lord, is one.
Know well that all of your actions have an influence in the cosmic balance. A gust of wind can alter worlds, and perhaps the biggest explosion is only a fractal of a second in it's importance.
Treat others as you would want to be treated, and you will be rewarded.
I believe in the sun, even though it is slow in rising.
I believe in you, without realizing.
I believe in rain, though there are no clouds in the sky.
I believe in truth, even though people lie.
I believe in peace, though sometimes I am violent.
I believe in Dio, even though he is silent.
Hope, peace, unity, beauty -- all things valued through most religions as part of the human condition. Take out the words "Lord" or "Dio" and it makes sense in most belief systems.
Take out Dio? Never!
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If you want take out, try some chinese. Dio ain't even taste that great..
Atracurium? He's left the game. Now he was a real gentleman.
~hyuu~
I quite agree with the overall message here, and while I've left behind all notions that a god exists, I still value any faith that espouses peaceful deliberation as a way of winning its battles (in the ideological sense). In fact, it's such a good idea that followers of any belief would be persuaded to act according to what you just wrote (with only a couple small changes):
"This shows that non-violence is how knowledge should be spread, not through conquest but through peaceful means which in itself has tremendous intellectual power to “conquer” other spiritual kingdoms. Therefore, we can learn from the mistakes in our past and prevent the tarnishing of humanity by its involvement in war and instead to support a society that truly promotes peace, truth and hope."
I'm glad you agree, sometimes war happens but it shouldn't be about religion as the reason for fighting the war. Here in Canada we are blessed to have freedom of religion and it's horrible some of the things people are doing in wars for the sake of religion (i.e. Jihads, crusades). It's the same with ethnicity that it shouldn't be a reason for war otherwise it would be called genocide and we know how wrong genocide is.
"Christians advance their faith through spiritual war (through ways such as prayer, teaching and rebuking) not physical war"
Bahahahahahahahahahahah hahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahaha....
haha
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Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Does anyone else remember that guy that wrote articles about Christianity on a regular basis? I want to say once or more a week for what seemed like months.
http://m.erepublik.com/en/article/do-not-dwell-on-the-past-1214318/1/20
Interesting character
That's the one. He kept it up for over a year. That's way longer than most media mogul types.
Dang, I didn't even remember that guy lol.
Also, while I'm no expert on the new testament, wasn't Jesus rebelling against the government in place at the time?
Actually it's very interesting you brought up the topic. It's exactly where the Jewish people got it wrong. The Jews thought that Jesus would lead a rebellion and overthrow the Roman government to establish the new Kingdom of God. But that's not what Jesus came to do. He came to overthrow the kingdom of darkness by dying for everyone who believes so that those who believe don't have to fear death because after death there's eternal life. The new kingdom the Jews were looking forward to is still yet to come when God destroys the whole earth and heavens and will create a new earth and new heaven.
In fact, the Pharisees (teachers of the law) tried to get Jesus to rebel against the Roman government by asking a trick question: "Should Jews pay taxes to Cesar or not". If Jesus answered yes to pay taxes, the Jews would see him as a traitor and if Jesus answered no to not pay taxes, the Pharisees would report Jesus to the Romans to say he's rebelling against the government and have him put to death. Jesus' answer was truly ingenious he asked the Pharisees "who's face is on the coin" and the Pharisees answered Cesar. Then Jesus said "Give to Cesar what belongs to Cesar and give to God what belongs to God" So Jesus doesn't support rebelling against the government while still maintaining that the Jewish nation should be independent.
*Nothing* legitimately belongs to caesar though.
~_^
ÁLDASSÉK DJOZIKE!
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religion is the opium of the feeble minded ... those who cannot handle facts of life or death escape in their mind to fake self-righteous place .. they should be treated for physiological disorder
Most of the Catholics I know are intelligent and emotionally stable people. They're only religious because they were brought up that way and attend church as a duty to family, friends, and community. They're pretty far from being lunatics, even if their beliefs are not factual.
Or look at it this way:
People who cheer for the Vancouver Canucks are foolish to believe their team is that great. However, because they live in the city, they just think of themselves as Canuck fans by habit. But then you get the die-hard fans who pay stupid money for season tickets and buy all the Canuck gear, or even paint themselves blue and white for the games. Thankfully, there's not many of those types left these days, but they're really only the very few that need to seek help and start cheering for the Oilers.
The Catholic church is pretty good at passing along a sense of obligation, if not belief at this point.
Interesting that you brought sports into this discussion, though. Chomsky - with whom I don't always agree - has an interesting view on sports being a distraction from larger issues. It's not entirely dissimilar to what Wolf was saying about believers.
yea i see what you mean, its just im severly alergic to religion so as long as all keep their beliefs to themselves and not preach it i can stay semi civilised