No you have a physical body which Christ redeemed via his own incarnation and resurrection. You think, like the Gnostics did, that you are beyond this prude matter but you are not. You will always have a physical body, even after the resurrection.
By insinuating that we can't walk in the Spirit, you are in effect admitting to walking in the "flesh".
I pray you will repent of sin, and get your past sins washed away by the blood of Christ at your baptism into Christ, His death, and His resurrection.
Be raised as a new creature...with Christ !
Also circumcising the body of the sins of the "flesh", putting off the body. (Col 2:11)
Thereby also crucifying your "flesh" with the affections and lusts...so you can walk in the Spirit.
If every Christian had followed this advice then we would not be Christians today. Fighting was necessary to preserve Christianity.
That is not what Christ says.
Where did He authorize the ways of the wicked to preserve His kingdom ?
You do. You consider someone who kills a murderer. Therefore you are condemning them even if they kill for a just reason.
By letting liars know the punishment for lying, do you also opine that I condemn liars ?
They condemn themselves, as do those who kill in the name of Christ Jesus.
There is no justification for murder/killing.
I consider relying on the protection of the authorities a good thing. But you condemn those same authorities for protecting you because ultimately authority must be willing to use violence in order to enforce order and justice. Protection requires to use of retaliatory force and you make all force evil with your views.
Your reliance is on the "also-rans".
Turn to Christ for real protection.
Then there were no Christians throughout the whole of history. You have an explicitly Gnostic view of the body and the Gnostics died out a long time ago. You'd be better off as a Dhimmi in Spain though no Christian community there would accept you.
You seem to have forgotten who you are writing to.
I received the gospel from others who live the doctrine which is according to Godliness. (1 Tim 6:3)
We are not alone.
Well yes. There's a difference between living in Europe and the Middle East. Europe is the result of Christianity even if the latter's influence has declined. You are basically positing a world which looks like the Middle East, if our Christian forebears had done what you wanted and just run away and or surrendered. I quite like the Christianity of my forebears.
You are welcome to post your opinion, even if I see no wisdom in it.
Yes it was the policy of the Christian King and Queen of Castille and Aragon.
What makes you think they were Christians ?
There have been plenty of Christian soldiers throughout history. It's because of then we are Christians because without their protection we could have ended up like the Copts in Egypt or died out completely.
I disagree.
I will also add, that there have been plenty of men and women who have remained obedient to God and not killed anyone.
You're still offering nothing. If the Christian action is to retreat, to be weak and never defend oneself then those with the will to dominate would have won a long time ago. I am grateful for Christians in the past being willing to resist their enemies. They were not pacifists or sadomasochists, they understood how society functions and acted accordingly.
I would rather die for walking in and after the Spirit, than depend on the disobedience of others to save me from anything.
