Near my home in Lake Forest Park, WA is a peace enclave, headquartered by an old pacifist whose back yard faces the busy intersection off the main highway near the center of town.
There are demonstrations organized by him and his merry band each weekend and sometimes on Wednesday evenings. But his real bully pulpit in the 30 foot high fence that borders his backyard and faces busy the intersection of Ballinger and Bothell Way.
He has a permanent sign there that says in tall bold white letters, "Lake Forest Park Peace Coalition. Join us!".
And frequently, especially during Christmas and Easter season he will post a a smaller sign that says, "War Denies the Prince of Peace".
It is an endless source of fascination to me that this ardent pacifist has taken it upon himself to lecture us Christians on our faith with regard to the "sin" of war and the nature of Jesus Christ, Our Savior.
Anyone who has seriously studied the Bible must surely know that Christ was not a pacifist. The commandment against killing refers to murder, not war, not capital punishment. If Christ has been a pacifist, surely he would have railed against the Roman military occupiers of Jerusalem during his ministry.
He did not. Not even once.
Christ himself said, "I have not come to bring peace but rather division"...
And that specific passage in Luke, Luke 12:49-53 was the topic of Pastor Lassman's sermon yesterday.
This side of Christ is least understood by the politically correct agnostics and liberal "Christians" who seek to water down or reconcile scripture to their contemporary mores of universalism and pacifism.
These are the same people who want to deny the existence of hell, excuse abortion, ordain homosexuals, take symbolic communiion with Hindus, Buddhist, Muslims and, in a myriad other ways water down or deny that which is clear in scripture...
We are all condemned sinners whose only salvation in in Christ.
"There is but one way to the Father and that is through me", John 14: 6, says Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Wake up, you silly hippies!! ;-)
http://www.messiahseattle.org/sermons/2010/081510.htm
Monday, August 16, 2010
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