If peace does not depend on you then you are obligated to fight back! Rise up!

Hi ATS,

Reading through the latest threads today, New Year's Day 2024, I was saddened to come across news of a barbarous murder spree in Nigeria these past couple of days, in which up to 200 Christian men, women & children were butchered by an Islamic militia belonging to the Boko Haram terror organisation. This Satanic group of Islamists basically rolled into various locales with their weapons & proceeded to simply slaughter hundreds of Christian believers of all ages. When they feel like it, they will hunt for women & children who get the honour of serving them as sex slaves rather than receiving death at the hands of these beasts in their amped-up religiously-driven frenzy of murder & abuse. It's probably far worse to live under Boko Haram than it is to die at their hands. That is a terrible & tragic fact which surely must cross the minds of the Christian communities in the central Nigerian plateau region.

For thos who aren't aware, Nigeria is culturally divided into the mainly Muslim north, and the predominantly Christian south. The centreground, where each sector brushes up against the other, is routinely subjected to despicable violence - solely against the Christians, perpetrated solely by Muslims. And the problem is, the Christians won't fight back in any meaningful way! They seem to be living under the false pretext that Jesus taught us to "turn the other cheek". What they don't seem to realise, is that Christianity was never intended to be a pacifist religion. Jesus was talking about minor conflict between family, friends & neighbours when he issued the 'turn the other cheek' command. He certainly would not have advocated for turning the other cheek when you & your wife are being murdered, and your children kidnapped to serve as the sex slaves of a sadistic paedophile warlord. Most assuredly, Jesus never intended for anyone to consent to that sort of treatment.

Saint Paul expounded on this very issue, very specifically, in the Book of Romans, chapter 12 verses 17-18, which read as follows:

Carefully consider what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible on your part, live at peace with everyone.

Romans 12: 17-18

As you can see, the important part is in verse 18. If it is possible on your part to live at peace with a certain community, then do so. But if it is not possible to live at peace with them BECAUSE OF THEIR EVIL BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS YOUR COMMUNITY then you have every right to go to war with them, and to righteously kill the murderous SOBs, as I stated in a thread specifically about those killings, which can be found HERE.

It is abundantly clear to me that Jesus never intended for us to roll over like sick dogs to consent to being murdered en masse. Yes, there were Christian martyrs, who were generally murdered specifically because they were sharing the Gospel in realms of the Earth where it had not previously been preached, where the people did not immediately welcome it. That is very different from the situation in Nigeria, where two separate religious communities are living in proximity - communities that have been established for over a thousand years. If we follow the teaching of St Paul on the issue, then if the Muslims left the Christians alone, or even better, if they got on well together & flourished in safety around each other's communities, then all would be fine. The Christians certainly aren't going to instigate any en masse violence, because that is most assuredly against the true & authoritative teachings of the Christian faith. There are no Christian terrorists, for example. However, with the Islamic community, it seems they can't just agree to get along with people of other faiths - indeed Jihad of a real & violent nature is definitely part of their religious cult (don't be fooled by nonsense about 'moral Jihad against oneself') - and so they murderously attack & butcher/ rape/ enslave whole communities of Christians who were simply minding their own business, living out their lives.

There is no way to live at peace with such people, and so the only solution is WAR. That is literally what warfare is supposed to do, in the context of righteous living. If your community is being brutally targeted in this way by Muslims, then as Christians it is your moral duty to arm yourselves & to go to war against the perpetrators of these violent & unwarranted assaults against the peaceable activities of the Christian community in Nigeria.

I'm sad to say it, but the only solution to the matter of Boko Haram in Nigeria, is civil war. Nothing short of that will get the Muslims of the North to take action against Boko Haram - whom they defend.

It's either that, or keep failing in your moral obligations to protect your family, friends, neighbours, and wider community. You have a duty to defend freedom, you have a duty to defend your religious culture, you have a duty to defend your family & everyone in the wider community. You cannot simply roll over & wait to be murdered, while your daughters are enslaved by paedophiles either within or beyond Nigeria. It is morally outrageous to suggest that you have to turn the other cheek in a situation like this. God-fearing Christians around the world should be encouraging these Nigerian Christians to arm themselves (assisting with that financially, if necessary) so they can defend the liberty of their religion & day to day lives.

What are your thoughts on this, ATS? The same general principle will apply in the Western world when the Agenda 2030 international mandates & ESG atrocities of the WEF, WHO, UN & BlackRock (etc) are levied aggressively against peace-loving libertarians everywhere. IE, there is a lesson for us here, as well.

FITO

a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

Islam is a terrorist cult, political ideology pretending to be a religion.

Not all Muslims are terrorist killers, but all Islamic terrorist killers justify their terrorist killing by Islam.

a reply to: DBCowboy

10-4 Good Buddy . Religion is Truly the Opiate of the Masses if Taken to Far .

a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

Jesus died on the cross, without putting up a fight
You either live for Him or for yourself

Our fight is not against flesh and blood
Rome was oppressing both Christian and Jew, what was Christ’s message?

You pull a random verse, just the 1 verse and build a sermon of hate
This world is not Gods and it’s a mere puff of smoke
Go,read the sermon on the mount, fruit of the Spirit

a reply to: Creaky

The sermon on the mount has no bearing on this subject. You accuse me of 'pulling one verse & creating a sermon of hate', yet you are doing the exact same thing in reverse! Claiming that we all must roll over & agree to be murdered & have our daughters enslaved under the hand of a brutal paedophile? You are insane if you believe that Jesus would advocate for that.

We are told that with regards to the scripture, we are to learn to "rightly divide the word of truth". What that means, is learning how to apply scriptural authority appropriately, contextually in each different situation to which we need to apply God's wisdom. Did you never read the Old Testament? Do you think that God is averse to righteous warfare? Of course He isn't! In fact, He counselled the Shepherd King David to go to war WHEN HE SOUGHT GOD'S WILL REGARDING THE MATTER. This example alone should demonstrate that we are permitted to go to war when it is necessary & justified. How can you not understand this?

With that understanding in mind, it is clear that Christian communities have not only the right, but the DUTY to defend themselves, their families, their property & their community from marauding bands of raping & pillaging monsters under the control of brutal & perverse warlords controlling terrorist networks such as Boko Haram. If you are suggesting that these people should just roll over & die, you are missing the point & in fact you are perverting the interpretation of scripture. If Christians over the past two thousand years had simply rolled over & died when challenged by warring parties - the Islamist hordes - then the Christian faith would not have survived the past thousand years & therefore would not be around to bless us, our families, our communities & our national culture with its wisdom & the promise of a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

If good men do nothing, then evil will triumph.

Stop telling me that I am failing to rightly divide the word of truth. I know my Bible (& the Christian faith) far better than you do (that much is obvious), and it's all about context, when it comes to self-defence & the protection of one's family, property & community. Jesus died on the cross voluntarily to save us from our sins - NOT because He was a weakling who refused to defend Himself. He even said to Peter:

"Are you not aware that I can call on My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?”

Matthew 26: 53

Granted, in the preceding verse He admonishes Peter to sheath his sword - but again, CONTEXT. In this context, Peter was acting out of anger (& even selfishness) to defend Jesus, when Jesus had already explained that He would voluntarily give Himself up to be condemned to die in this way in order to liberate Mankind. He immediately then made mention of the possibility of calling for warring angels, so Heaven is not averse to conducting warfare when necessary.

In the context of whole villages of men, women & children in Nigeria being brutally slaughtered or enslaved by Muslim terrorists unless they defend themselves, Jesus would immediately command them to do their duty & fight against the oppressors. But then, when the warring was finished, He would command them to sheath their swords & to live at peace with their neighbours. Because that is the Christian way, when properly lived, a balance between compassion & righteous self-defence.

CONTEXT.

a reply to: DBCowboy

Agreed - Islam was instituted by the Devil to uproot the productive organic growth of the Christian church across North Africa & the Middle East in the centuries between the apostolic age & the time the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as its state religion. If you were to look at a map showing the growth of population centres with the influence of the church in those areas, North Africa looked like a blooming oasis as the centuries progressed - pockets of devotion springing up & growing gently until they had great influence.

Then, suspiciously close to 666AD - when Islam was being formed - a tidal surge of Islam just sweeps across the whole of North Africa & the Middle East, decimating the flourishing church communities & forcing everyone to accept Islam or die. If it weren't for the French King Charlemagne & his resistance in Spain against the invading Muslim hordes, Europe would have been decimated too, forced to convert to Islam at the point of a sword, and the world would be an oppressive hell-hole across its entire landmass by now, not only as it currently is in Africa, the Middle East & parts of Asia.

Even now, the Western nations must stand on guard against the Muslim influence, because if they could, they would attack & take over in a heartbeat. Indeed, when they move into a nation as immigrants, they stay quiet until they've grown in numbers & strength, and when they think they can get away with it, they institute Sharia Law & try to usurp the proper political authorities, or wage a civil war, as soon as they are able. They are insidious, and deadly.

I don't like to see attacks against Christians anywhere. Seems like Muslims go after Christians a lot. Christians usually do not just attack Muslims because of their religion very often. Most Christian churches actually try to condemn those kind of unprovoked attacks by their members. But Muslims often back those kind of actions in that part of the world. I hope most Muslims here in America are peaceful people.

The radical Muslims that attack Christians are zealots of the highest order. They think they are helping God. The more radical ones that are bombers believe the same thing. Sadly, there are zealots in most, if not all religions and other institutions as well. Zealotry can apply to other things...

Believing oneself to be of a higher authority than common people, and thus making their own rules, or ignoring the laws of God and country because their view must be forced upon all. They allow their own pride to convince them of these things.(I can think of a large swatch of political leanings that fit this as well.) Mainstream news op eds and their story writers. A world of zealots. Bill Gates is a good example, or that WEF spokesman guy. Not judging them, just observing their behavior. It doesn't align with anything good, except what they think and deem is good.

This covers a lot of what is happening in the world today, in my honest opinion.

a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

The sermon on the mount has no bearing, nor the fruit of the Spirit I expect

Jesus didn’t end slavery, He could have
Jesus didn’t kick out the Romans, He could have
Waring angels, Jesus didn’t

Jesus came to set people free spiritually, share the gospel of love and forgiveness
Your evangelising of war at christians seems to have no biblical foundation

Go watch hacksaw ridge
Called, but not like you desire

And I bet, those Muslims believe exactly as you do, it’s God ordained and righteous just like the witch burnings and crusades were, I guess

a reply to: FlyInTheOintment

What we are seeing in a lot of locales and in several religions, is thugs hiding behind a religion to further an agenda and to consolidate power. That does not mean that EVERY adherent to said religion is an advocate of violence. There are plenty of people in Israel who do not agree with what is going on in Gaza, and there are a lot of Muslims who don't at all agree to the atrocities committed in Israel and the crimes you outlined. We are in a situation where there are two groups; the extremists of various religions, and the run of the mill people who want to live in peace. Basically, it's the people who hate against the people who don't. Thats the real dividing line.