Bible Discussion Thread

Since Christ never endorsed violence except possibly in His zeal for purity in The Temple -- I am not a passifist , and because there are many other scriptures that state how pro-active and aggressive we need to be to "fully " experience the blessings of Kingdom life like, "take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ " - I will be working on that one my whole life ,...it seems to me that when I type Violence, almost all the references I see have to do with evil men and their agendas. Now, we know that much violence was done to advance God 's agenda under the Old Testament to route out evil in many aspects and forms and this is certainly a principle for us to be ruthless with sin, doubt, temptations, etc. today. Yet the passage is in the context of John about to lose his head, at the hands of a very violent, evil man. So,...in a nutshell, it seems to me this passage MAY be a statement of fact and warfare that began ref. the new "kingdom " at the time of John the Baptists ' arrival. This kingdom will and is suffering violence like Johns ' upcoming beheading and then through all the martyrs though human history since AND Violent Men and this is a bit harder take or seize it not enter, but sieze or stop or seek to destroy...possibly via Force! And this is the pattern we see regarding Christs ' kingdom from the beginning till now - even today. Men of Violence, wicked, powerful leaders often seek to snuff out this kingdoms ' advancement - in China, Korea, Russia the list goes on and on throughout this time in His-story history. Just some thoughts - I don 't know for sure.