I think you're confused. There are a couple of people here who seem to think you can't shoot that terrorist in the hypothetical I posted in order to save the little girl and be a Christian. That's not true of course. But they have a really hard time defending their advocacy for inaction when their advocacy gets that hypothetical little precious girls throat cut.
Now, as to you. I had no idea you were speaking of personal experience when you posted your other remarks. And frankly it is none of my business.
The point of my question that you chose to respond to was to address those who seem to think you can't be a soldier in order to defend a country or a people and be a Christian too. That all lives matter no matter what. Of course that's bullnuts.
Even God proved that.
My question in that hypothetical was really simple. And you chose to go through a hefty list of thought processes before you responded to the simple question. Do you pull the trigger or don't you?
A sniper knows it is a split second decision when a target escalates to action against an innocent civilian. They pull the trigger. They don't go through a laundry list of stuff like you laid out, consult with their god, commit to prayer and serious introspection while watching that target through that scope. It's innate at that point. It's training. It's reflex. It's action.
You pull the trigger.
Leave your list for later. You just saved a little girl from a terrorist with a knife to her throat.
Does God judge that? The dead terrorist will sure find out he does. As for that sniper I would say God would say, well done my good and faithful servant.
When evil asks us to act in order to save the innocent we choose what we will serve. Rhetoric? Or righteousness.
I was raised in a family that knows what it is to serve. And being there's a restriction on women being snipers in the military my hypothetical answer is really easy. I'd pull the trigger without hesitation. Because a terrorist with a knife to a baby girls throat asks to be dead.
And for that precious baby girl's sake I'd be happy to oblige.
I don't love my enemies.
That insults the people I know that are worthy of my love. To put them in the same embrace as those who would have us dead? Not likely.
Christ like. Jesus = God. The same yesterday, today, and forever. God didn't love his enemies. Neither do I.
"You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:43-48)
Also, God did/does indeed love His enemies.
Jesus prayed for those who were crucifying Him.
"When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said,
'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.' And they divided up his clothes by casting lots." (Luke 23:33-34)
And Paul writes about how Christ died for sinners, enemies of God. (Which is every single one of us)
"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
"Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while
we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation." (Romans 5:6-11)
"Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because ofg your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant." (Colossians 1:21-23)
We were ALL enemies of God, and yet He loved us, and sent His Son to die for us and reconcile us to Himself.
