Moral Courage or Foolishness? Ukraine.
- Thread starter randyk
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I know exactly where my freedom and salvation comes from.
I would recommend spending more time in the Word and on our knees giving credit, honour, and Glory to whom it is due.
I love you brother. I am only commenting on those video clips. I value you highly as a friend and brother. I just wish you would not feed your head with all that mush that comes out of Hollywood.
God bless you, brother.
I would recommend spending more time in the Word and on our knees giving credit, honour, and Glory to whom it is due.
I love you brother. I am only commenting on those video clips. I value you highly as a friend and brother. I just wish you would not feed your head with all that mush that comes out of Hollywood.
God bless you, brother.
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The problem with Russia's political leadership is that the only thing they understand is military might. So a treaty of Mutually Assured Destruction is all that would work. And the acronym for that is MAD. Crazy Putin and crazy Biden have decided to unleash madness on the world. And so we are seeing the results. Both of them should have been in a lunatic asylum already.
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The Bible speaks of an "apostasy" taking place in the endtimes. Throughout NT history, Christian states came into existence that later apostacized or backslid from the Christian standard. It becomes difficult to tell what a "just war" is, in these circumstances. Some say Russia is corrupt, others say Ukraine is corrupt, and yet others claim the West is corrupt. You have to use your Christian discernment to know what God would have you to support.
If you go back in history, you might look at the Crusades and conclude they were all bad. That's what most people do. But I don't believe that's correct. Some of the early Crusades may have been just, to some degree. But later on, clearly, the Crusades became a corrupt endeavor. Christians came and went spiritually, just as they do today. But you can't say that because some Christian wars were unjust that all Christian wars were unjust.
Israel had precisely this situation in the books of Kings and Chronicles. At times, the wars were just, and at other times they were not. None of this means that wars that were just should've been opted out of. On the contrary, God called Hebrew men to participate in just wars, as I already related to you. It's in the Bible, and Israel is an example for Christians in the NT era.
If you go back in history, you might look at the Crusades and conclude they were all bad. That's what most people do. But I don't believe that's correct. Some of the early Crusades may have been just, to some degree. But later on, clearly, the Crusades became a corrupt endeavor. Christians came and went spiritually, just as they do today. But you can't say that because some Christian wars were unjust that all Christian wars were unjust.
Israel had precisely this situation in the books of Kings and Chronicles. At times, the wars were just, and at other times they were not. None of this means that wars that were just should've been opted out of. On the contrary, God called Hebrew men to participate in just wars, as I already related to you. It's in the Bible, and Israel is an example for Christians in the NT era.
Hi randy.
Thank you for your detailed reply. I do understand that Christians have been involved in what they think as `just` reasons. I think of defeating the Nazis etc. However we still need to be careful for God`s word says -
`They are NOT of the world, just as I am NOT of the world.` (John 17: 16)
I think there are many ways to help others without taking up arms and killing. Self-defense or protecting others, but not just killing for that is the way of the world.
`Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war.
...Do you not know that friendship with the world (system) is enmity with God? (James 4: 1 - 4)
regards, Marilyn.
Thank you for your detailed reply. I do understand that Christians have been involved in what they think as `just` reasons. I think of defeating the Nazis etc. However we still need to be careful for God`s word says -
`They are NOT of the world, just as I am NOT of the world.` (John 17: 16)
I think there are many ways to help others without taking up arms and killing. Self-defense or protecting others, but not just killing for that is the way of the world.
`Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war.
...Do you not know that friendship with the world (system) is enmity with God? (James 4: 1 - 4)
regards, Marilyn.
I don't agree except that there is sanity in what you're saying. The problem, however, has nothing to do with NATO creep. The problem has to do with Russia's autocratic control over states within its territory. It controls not by the consent of the governed, but rather, by threat of force.
If it wasn't for this aggressive, hostile nature of Russian government there would be no need for NATO. After all, even Russia is part of European commerce and tradition. They all should be compatriots, rather than hostiles.
NATO creep has to happen with every threat imposed upon E. European countries. Did NATO creep cause Russia to take over Crimea? Did NATO creep cause Russia to overpower Chechnya?
What that basically boils down to is Russian control over any independent development among its republics that prefer an alignment with the West over Russia. That isn't NATO creep--that is self-governance by republics that wish not to be oppressed and dominated by Russian authoritarianism.
If it wasn't for this aggressive, hostile nature of Russian government there would be no need for NATO. After all, even Russia is part of European commerce and tradition. They all should be compatriots, rather than hostiles.
NATO creep has to happen with every threat imposed upon E. European countries. Did NATO creep cause Russia to take over Crimea? Did NATO creep cause Russia to overpower Chechnya?
What that basically boils down to is Russian control over any independent development among its republics that prefer an alignment with the West over Russia. That isn't NATO creep--that is self-governance by republics that wish not to be oppressed and dominated by Russian authoritarianism.
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There is more ways to `skin a cat.` In other words getting control is not just about arms.
Gt Britain and America used the Pound and now the dollar. (white horse crowned)
Russia uses arms. (red horse - great sword)
The EU uses their philosophy of a free market. (Black horse - great inflation)
Islam will use deception. (pale horse - death and hell)
Gt Britain and America used the Pound and now the dollar. (white horse crowned)
Russia uses arms. (red horse - great sword)
The EU uses their philosophy of a free market. (Black horse - great inflation)
Islam will use deception. (pale horse - death and hell)
Everyone laughed at Putin when he said Russia created Ukraine they called it revisionist but it was actually true. The Soviet Union granted Ukraine and the other states independence with the understanding that they would not become enemies to Russia.
NATO [America] you must forgive me I mean the hawks in the Pentagon. are being totally cynical. They will fight Putin to last drop of Ukrainian blood.
NATO [America] you must forgive me I mean the hawks in the Pentagon. are being totally cynical. They will fight Putin to last drop of Ukrainian blood.
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Israel was called to a higher standard than the standards of the world, which are not informed by God's Law. Nevertheless, God's Law informed Israel that they had a responsibility to obey the God of heaven. And in His Law He clearly commanded the men of fighting age to advance into Canaan, a land God had given up on and felt was worthy of destruction.
We don't get to make those decisions apart from hearing from God in our conscience, apart from prayer, or consulting God. Only when we know in our hearts that the institutions defending our country is something God has called us to should we pursue a job in that. I agree--our standards must by by divine revelation, and not simply patriotism.
We don't get to make those decisions apart from hearing from God in our conscience, apart from prayer, or consulting God. Only when we know in our hearts that the institutions defending our country is something God has called us to should we pursue a job in that. I agree--our standards must by by divine revelation, and not simply patriotism.
I don't correlate the 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse with the entities you are using-I just see them as angelic punishments upon a disobedient, rebellious world in the endtimes--actually, in the entire NT era. Whether they line up with specific kingdoms I just don't know.
But the issue of "how to skin a cat" cannot forbid the use of weaponry. In Isaiah God says He presides over the manufacture of weapons that He intends to use. That means that the manufacture of nuclear weapons is something God intends to use eventually.
Isa 54.16 See, it is I who created the blacksmith who fans the coals into flame and forges a weapon fit for its work. And it is I who have created the destroyer to wreak havoc.
But none of this has a thing to do with just or unjust wars--it simply justifies God's right to oversee the development of the weapons of war, and explains that God does use war, whether by the hands of the just or the unjust. Again, determining a just war is a matter of revelation, since God clearly used war in the OT Scriptures.
David was a man of war by God's calling. It was, in a sense, a necessary evil. But it was sanctioned by His word. We just have to make sure that we are on the right side of God and history.
But the issue of "how to skin a cat" cannot forbid the use of weaponry. In Isaiah God says He presides over the manufacture of weapons that He intends to use. That means that the manufacture of nuclear weapons is something God intends to use eventually.
Isa 54.16 See, it is I who created the blacksmith who fans the coals into flame and forges a weapon fit for its work. And it is I who have created the destroyer to wreak havoc.
But none of this has a thing to do with just or unjust wars--it simply justifies God's right to oversee the development of the weapons of war, and explains that God does use war, whether by the hands of the just or the unjust. Again, determining a just war is a matter of revelation, since God clearly used war in the OT Scriptures.
David was a man of war by God's calling. It was, in a sense, a necessary evil. But it was sanctioned by His word. We just have to make sure that we are on the right side of God and history.
Your history of Ukraine doesn't go very deep. They've apparently been a distinct people for a long time and enjoyed a measure of independence long before the Soviet Union. Russia apparently viewed them as "lesser Russians."
If Russia gave them independence, they had already had it in the past--it was not theirs to give, except that they had decided to stop bullying these people. And if they made covenant agreement to let Ukraine be independent, if they gave up their nukes, then what gives them the right to impose their will on Ukraine if an independent Ukraine wishes to find military support from the West? Truly independent states have this right!
If Russia gave them independence, they had already had it in the past--it was not theirs to give, except that they had decided to stop bullying these people. And if they made covenant agreement to let Ukraine be independent, if they gave up their nukes, then what gives them the right to impose their will on Ukraine if an independent Ukraine wishes to find military support from the West? Truly independent states have this right!
That appears to be a form of dualism, in which one becomes the transient pattern, and the other becomes the eternal reality. While there is certainly some truth in that I think there is also a danger in this, if we don't properly understand it. Israel was a pattern for the future Church, but the Jewish People did not thereby cease from being called as an ethnicity and as a nation to the many-membered Church. When Israel converts to Christianity, they will take their place among the many nations in the Church.
We know also that the tabernacle was purely a temporal pattern for God's eternal dwelling in heaven. What God's eternal dwelling is I can't fathom, except that I know He dwells in us, His Church. The heavens cannot contain God's omnipresent Person, but He can indeed dwell in and among His people.
Though the tabernacle was only a transient pattern for a future reality, while it was still in play it had very real value in terms of Hebrew worship of the one true God. It was not a meaningless, symbolic worship, but a genuine worship, if only for the time. The infrastructure was designed to fit a temporary purpose until worship could be properly centered on Christ, the eternal temple of God.
We know also that the tabernacle was purely a temporal pattern for God's eternal dwelling in heaven. What God's eternal dwelling is I can't fathom, except that I know He dwells in us, His Church. The heavens cannot contain God's omnipresent Person, but He can indeed dwell in and among His people.
Though the tabernacle was only a transient pattern for a future reality, while it was still in play it had very real value in terms of Hebrew worship of the one true God. It was not a meaningless, symbolic worship, but a genuine worship, if only for the time. The infrastructure was designed to fit a temporary purpose until worship could be properly centered on Christ, the eternal temple of God.
Some good thoughts there bro. And yes the word `tabernacle` means to dwell, and Jesus, when manifest on earth, `tabernacled,` (John 1: 14) And in the NHNE God will `Tabernacle,` with those in the NJ and on earth, by His Holy Spirit. We, the Body of Christ, however will be on Christ`s own throne in the highest part of God`s great kingdom. (Rev. 3: 21)
So as you see God has every realm - earth, Universe and angelic realm, all populated with His children, and all rulership under the Lord Jesus Christ.
So as you see God has every realm - earth, Universe and angelic realm, all populated with His children, and all rulership under the Lord Jesus Christ.