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“You are not following Jesus if you aren’t armed, ready to kill.” I reject that teaching @Pavel Mosko. Do you? Would Jesus? Would the apostles? What church affirms and teaches it?

Let’s go there. Then, being a retired “man of the cloth“ myself, I’m personally off the hook. I believe though in the priesthood of all believers.

Did Jesus and the apostles instruct the followers of Jesus to join the Roman military? Did church leaders during the Ante Nicene period instruct the followers of Jesus to join the Roman military? Did any of them encourage it or discourage it? That’s where we need to be if you want to persuade me...

Those were issues for soldiers who converted to Christianity. That there were soldiers who converted to Christianity isn’t in dispute. What did the church say about them? What did the church say about Christians joining the military?

I’ve addressed all of this in other threads. Your posts to me are too long to respond to without becoming a tome answering a tome.

“… biblically speaking, there is not and and cannot be any such thing as a ‘Christian nation.’” Church, State, and the Idea of a "Christian Nation" That is my position @Pavel Mosko.

That’s right. I’ll reiterate that my viewpoint is grounded in the Apostolic and Ante Nicene eras of church history. We live in a different era but the teaching of Jesus and the apostles remains the same. That will be the case in the age to come.

You may have heard me say that I’m a 1st century Christian living in the 21st century. My attitude toward enemies is that of Jesus and the apostles, and I see that attitude maintained during the Ante Nicene period. If you want to persuade me, the Apostolic and Ante Nicene eras are where you’ll...

As I pointed out above, my position is based on the teaching and example of Jesus, the apostles and early church history.

The Roman Empire in the Apostolic and Ante Nicene periods of church history was a religious state. The state religion was paganism. That changed in 380 AD when Theodosius I declared Christianity to be the official religion of the Roman Empire. (See the Edict of Thessalonica.) I touched on the...

From my X / Twitter “For you” feed recently - “Most Christian worship services don’t have just one sermon. They have three, four, five, or six. One is spoken; the others are sung. Of course, there is the sermon preached by the pastor, based upon the Word of God. But there are also the hymns...

“Storms are often the best time for growth in the Christian life. The hour you feel your insufficiency is God’s hour to prove his sufficiency.” - Michael Reeves

I might not get it - I’m at least willing to entertain the possibility that I don’t - but I’m not able to skip Jesus. I see his first coming as the beginning of the new creation. A change has occurred. I personally don’t consider followers of Jesus to be “extreme Christian idealists”. I...

The early Christians (pre-Constantine) applied it in this fallen world. Is it more complicated for us than it was for them? How connected / disconnected are we from them? They managed all of those difficulties without killing their enemies (and one another). Do later Christians have it more...

In regard to the centurion passages and Romans 13 - there isn’t anything in the New Testament that tells us explicitly what happened to centurions who heard the gospel and became followers of Jesus. Were they dismissed from the military when it was discovered that they were following Jesus? Were...

Is it a practicality issue?

It’s difficult to persuade Christians that they shouldn’t kill their non-Christian enemies and surprisingly difficult to persuade Christians that they should not kill fellow Christians in the wars of the nations. I was asked earlier this evening why I want to continue discussing the matter. I...

“Nothing seems to offend Satan and his children like genuine convictions.” - C.H. Spurgeon