If it’s supported by the scriptures and all throughout the scriptures God has favored those who defended themselves against the wicked. This is what God said to Abraham after he rescued Lot and his wife from their capturers by killing them.
”After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.”“
Genesis 15:1 NASB1995
Apparently God was not angry with Abraham for what he had done.
When Jesus says, "You have heard it said of old, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I say to you, do not retaliate against and evil person" which position do you take, an eye for an eye, or turn the other cheek? Which is the way of the Christian?
It's possible to use the Bible to defend nearly any position we may want. I can, for example, justify infanticide by quoting Psalm 137:9. Would that make my position Christian? Would it make my position Biblical?
Any Christian with even a minute amount of religious literacy is aware of the fact that the Bible isn't just a collection of proof texts. And you'd agree with that. The Bible is a complex, and we engage in processes and methods of interpretation, hermeneutics, as part of a desire to not just read the Bible, but to read it correctly, understand it rightly, and then see in what ways we can apply what is contained in its pages.
In the 19th century, in America, there was a sharp divide between those who read the Bible and used it to defend the practice of race-based chattel slavery; and then there were those who saw in the Bible the exact opposite: such a system as this slavery as was practiced in the United States was an abomination, and thus it was a moral imperative to abolish slavery.
The question, therefore, that is before us is this: What is our hermeneutic when it comes to how we are to engage with a hostile person. In the Old Testament we see the use of violence in myriad ways. Indeed, we even see how God commands Israel, when it enters into the land of promise, to destroy entire population centers. In the Torah which God gave to His Covenant people, there is example after example of violence as a justified punishment for violating certain commandments. In the New Testament, on the other hand, without there being a rejection of the Torah, we do see something fundamentally new, through the Person of Jesus. Jesus simultaneously says, "I did not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets" and at the same time, undermines many of the common attitudes and opinions of the Scribes and Pharisees. Jesus' way is directly at odds with the prevailing Jewish religious frameworks of the time: While theologically Jesus is clearly in the Pharisaic camp; there is also a clear disconnect between Jesus and the larger Pharisaic establishment. Jesus is even further removed from the Sadducaic a Zealot camps.
Without undermining the Law Jesus brings fresh and new ways of understanding the essence of the Torah. Jesus summarizes the essence when He echoes the words of Hillel the Elder, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, this is the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 7:12).
St. Paul, in his epistles, will speak of the Torah as the paidagogos which points toward Christ. The major through-line of Pauline theology is that Jesus was the whole point of everything God ever did, and that the promise of Messiah predates Torah; and that Torah was given as a paidagogos (Galatians 3:24-27); as Paul is interested in speaking on the justification, that righteousness which is before God, which exists apart from the Law but which is by grace through faith.
The Christian, therefore, not subject to the old ways; but subject to the new which has come through the Messiah is therefore called to a way of life defined not by the old, but the new. St. Ignatius of Antioch will echo this in his own letters, writing,
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Let us not, therefore, be insensible to His kindness. For were He to reward us according to our works, we should cease to be. Therefore, having become His disciples, let us learn to live according to the principles of Christianity. For whosoever is called by any other name besides this, is not of God. Lay aside, therefore, the evil, the old, the sour leaven, and be changed into the new leaven, which is Jesus Christ. Be salted in Him, lest any one among you should be corrupted, since by your savour you shall be convicted." - St. Ignatius to the Magnesians, ch. 10
The Rule of Law, for the believer in Jesus Christ, is stated with exceptional clarity by both the Apostle St. Paul, and by the Lord's own brother, St. James Adelphotheos. Galatians 5:14, James 2:8.
The Apostle St. Paul says, in his magnificent epistle to the Church in Rome, how the Christian ought to live, not just in relation to one another, but in relation to those outside the Church--even those who are hostile and violent toward us,
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Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord.' To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by doing so you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." - Romans 12:17-21
Am I saying "don't defend yourself?" No. That's actually not what I'm saying. This entire tangent-conversation was initiated when you wrote the following:
I absolutely believe that a stranger’s death is acceptable since he’s the one that caused the situation where I was forced to defend myself and my family to begin with. I’m supposed to feel sorry for my attacker? Yeah maybe after he’s dead but not while he’s trying to kill me or my family. And why would you say that the attackers death was “needless” if he’s the one attacking?
To which I responded,
Do you believe this mindset is Christian?
And you said,
Except that what you expressed wasn't a Christian mindset, but a carnal mindset, a worldly mindset.
Your thought process is not derived from the Way of Jesus Christ, the Scriptures, or the way of His Church--but is of your own fallen, sinful flesh. You may try to justify your flesh by quote-mining the Bible; that too is how we sinners often operate in order to justify ourselves; but that is because we are unbelievably sick and perverse
"The heart is deceitful above all else and desperately sick, who can understand it?" - Jeremiah 17:9
"For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" - Romans 3:23
The call and command of God, in the Scriptures as described by St. Paul, "Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." (Romans 12:2) And again stated by the Apostle in Philippians 2, "Have this same mind in you that was in Christ Jesus", then quoting the great Christological hymn, "Though He was by nature God, He did not regard equality with God something to be exploited, but emptied Himself, taking on the form of a slave".
It may be justified to do X or Y; but what is Christian--that which is of Christ--is different than what we might do to justify our own actions. We ought to always be aiming for the higher standard, the higher calling, the call to take up our cross and follow the Master.
For "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me." - Philippians 3:12
Never be content nor comfortable, gaze upon the cross and seek the suffering by which you are to be defined. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer of blessed memory once said, "When Christ calls a man, He bids him, 'Come and die.'"
Pursue "the more excellent way" (1 Corinthians 12:31) which is set before you, the narrow road which few shall find; for broad and easy is the path toward destruction but narrow is the way that leads unto life. To learn what it means, "To live is Christ and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21). For the life of discipleship is a harsh cross (Luke 14:26-27).
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Now I begin to be a disciple. And let no one, of things visible or invisible, envy me that I should attain to Jesus Christ. Let fire and the cross; let the crowds of wild beasts; let tearings, breakings, and dislocations of bones; let cutting off of members; let shatterings of the whole body; and let all the dreadful torments of the devil come upon me: only let me attain to Jesus Christ." - St. Ignatius to the Romans, ch. 5
-CryptoLutheran
