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No. Good advice. Easy for a pacifist to follow. I haven’t fired a gun since 1978 or 1979. Squirrel hunting. Boyd County, KY. Didn’t get any. Obliterated a hornet’s nest. Ran for my life. Lived to tell the tale.

You set up the school scenario. Do you spend a lot of time at children’s schools? (I did, before COVID.) How close do you live to the nearest school? Are you a vigilante? Have you ever killed anyone?

We can’t do either one, because he was neither one. After all that we read about his mental fortitude in the Gospels, I don’t see him having an issue in this setting. There is nothing written in the Gospels that points to the Messiah being afraid of the dark. They weren’t clumsy. It was...

* I’m growing old but I’m nowhere near that old. *

@markalan has by now seen you and the expatriate lady in Italy say that you don’t own a gun. Did he make the argument against the two of you that he tried to make against me?

Scripture doesn’t say that. Your imagination is running away with you. There was no banana peel. It was dark. Jesus didn’t react the way that they expected him to. Someone steps back and … people fell.

You would kill followers of Jesus in a wartime setting. How do you think Jesus feels about that?

btw, the intruders in the movie were far out of range of the shotgun blast. It was impossible for his son and the basketball coach to have been struck by pellets.

I’m not retorting his post, readers. I will, however, take the opportunity once again to point you to the teaching and practice of Jesus and the apostles, the Apostolic and the Ante Nicene eras of church history. To that I would direct your attention to the peace churches and the persecution...

There is no little girl at my home. If I were to discharge a firearm in the air, it would be aimed nowhere near anyone.

No. The disciples had a chance to flee when the arresting party fell to the ground. Scripture doesn’t say why they fell, only that they did. I didn’t avoid it. He’s a pacifist who would not kill someone attacking his wife. Neither would I. Would he go further than I would? I think he would...

Putting myself between my wife or child if they were being attacked, giving them a chance to flee, is what I see Jesus doing in the Garden to defend his disciples. I’d still like for you to comment on firearm registration and restrictions in Australia.

It doesn’t persuade you @Riven, but how did Jesus defend himself when he was threatened with physical violence? How did the apostles defend themselves when they were threatened with physical violence? Why wouldn’t you defend yourself the way they did?

Yes. Pacifism isn’t passivity - which is why the “you’re just going to stand there and do nothing” argument has no teeth - and what individual pacifists may choose to do is a wide range.

I didn’t say that I would use any physical force. I haven’t used any non-lethal physical force. What I have said that is that I might. In the thread I posted a link to for you, the Christian speaker in the video advocated “grappling”; grappling! I don’t see examples of Jesus and the apostles...

Did Jesus and the apostles use those items for that purpose? We’ve already discussed why my appeal to the teaching and practice of Jesus and the apostles doesn’t persuade you.

The teaching and example of Jesus and the apostles. What physical force did they use?