To Permit Murder When One Could Have Prevented It Is Morally Wrong
BY Herschel Smith
5 years, 9 months ago
On my various travels, I crossed paths with this quote.
“…to permit murder when one could have prevented it is morally wrong. To allow a rape when one could have hindered it is an evil. To watch an act of cruelty to children without trying to intervene is morally inexcusable. In brief, not resisting evil is an evil of omission, and an evil of omission can be just as evil as an evil of commission. Any man who refuses to protect his wife and children against a violent intruder fails them morally” (The Life and Death Debate: Moral Issues for Our Time, by Dr. Norman Geisler and JP Moreland, Greenwood Publishing, 1990).
This sounds like things that have been said here before at TCJ.
God has laid the expectations at the feet of heads of families that they protect, provide for and defend their families and protect and defend their countries. Little ones cannot do so, and rely solely on those who bore them. God no more loves the willing neglect of their safety than He loves child abuse. He no more appreciates the willingness to ignore the sanctity of our own lives than He approves of the abuse of our own bodies and souls. God hasn’t called us to save the society by sacrificing our children or ourselves to robbers, home invaders, rapists or murderers. Self defense – and defense of the little ones – goes well beyond a right. It is a duty based on the idea that man is made in God’s image. It is His expectation that we do the utmost to preserve and defend ourselves when in danger, for it is He who is sovereign and who gives life, and He doesn’t expect us to be dismissive or cavalier about its loss.
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If you believe that it is your Christian duty to allow your children to be harmed by evil-doers (and you actually allow it to happen) because you think Christ was a pacifist, you are no better than a child abuser or pedophile.
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God demands violence as a response to threats on our person because of the fact that man is created in God’s image and life is to be preserved. It is our solemn duty.
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I am afraid there have been too many centuries of bad teaching endured by the church, but it makes sense to keep trying. As I’ve explained before, the simplest and most compelling case for self defense lies in the decalogue. Thou shall not murder means thou shall protect life.
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If you’re willing to sacrifice the safety and health of your wife or children to the evils of abuse, kidnapping, sexual predation or death, God isn’t impressed with your fake morality. Capable of stopping it and choosing not to, you’re no better than a child molester, and I wouldn’t allow you even to be around my grandchildren.
I’m in good company. Or maybe Geisler and Moreland are.
On February 21, 2019 at 11:50 pm, Conrad said:
And, when the State enters a man’s house (storage requirements) and tells him to lock up all his guns, they in effect make his tools unusable, and neuter his responsibility as a provider.
I appreciate the man whose house was called an “arsenal of democracy”.
On February 22, 2019 at 6:54 am, MSG Grumpy said:
I have a question I have asked all of the “pro-choice” people I meet…
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If your morals allow you to kill the most innocent and defenseless among us,
what exactly does your morals stop you from doing?
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As of today, and the dozens that I have asked this question,
I have yet to receive any response except for profanity.
MSG Grumpy
On February 22, 2019 at 7:29 am, MSG Grumpy said:
And my own personal opinion about the Second Amendment…
The Second Amendment is NOT about guns.
The Second Amendment is about the God given right, that predates the Constitution, (and all man created governance as well) and is enshrined in the Second Amendment.
It is the God given Right (and therefore a responsibility) to support and defend yourself, your family, your tribe, your city your nation, from all who threaten you. Up to and including your own government.
Consider this, the framers used the term “gun”, yet what was the idea that is enshrined? The idea of “gun” that they used was at that time the most powerful and deadly individually used implement. The crew served weapons of the day were not addresses, we see no right to cannons in the Second Amendment as these are a group effort. The idea of the most powerful man carried element of war being an individual right is what was stated.
But it is the idea of a man being secure in the ability to defend himself, his family, his nation with the implements that are necessary AND effective.
It is the idea that the people are NOT subservient to their government, but are a servant of God, not of other men that the Second Amendment enshrines.
MSG Grumpy
On February 22, 2019 at 7:32 am, MSG Grumpy said:
The short form is…
The Second Amendment is:
The idea that you have the right to defend yourself from all evil including your own government
On February 22, 2019 at 8:55 am, Frank Clarke said:
Yes, I think we’re all on the same page…
On February 22, 2019 at 1:02 pm, Happy said:
Grumpy,
I believe your concept thinking is correct regarding purpose and intent.
However, the word “gun” is not in the 2nd Amendment. Is not the word “Arms” more expansive terminology regarding ways/manners/types of self defense tools?
On February 22, 2019 at 1:07 pm, Herschel Smith said:
@Happy,
I concur. And the word “gun” is nowhere in the post either.
On February 22, 2019 at 2:35 pm, Fred said:
How can a Letter of Marque be issued to a privateer, corsair, freemen, or a frontier town militia if they have not the arms by which to effect a proper defense in reprisal on behalf of the Nation? The 2A applies to ships, tanks, fighter and bomber aircraft of all vintages including the most modern. And the 2A modifies the ‘militia clause’ so that multi-division sized maneuvers and further down to the unit level are all under the purview of the 2A, all at the private hand of honorable men.
Like a husband beating his wife, the State demands submission while increasingly becoming a most dangerous threat and the longer it goes on the more the abused comes to believe it’s her own fault, she becomes self limiting and unawares of the prison she has built voluntarily.
“Thou shalt not kill.”
Yes, the literal translation of the word used in the Sixth Commandment is Murder, but Kill is a better understanding. This is not a pick at our gracious host as I’m only an uneducated man who reads his bible, but perhaps this could be a furtherance of the perspective. The problem in the failure to grasp self defense as an imperative of God is a lack of proper Christian depth and in teaching, but perhaps a conspiracy. When one takes a life in Self Defense he is not killing but he is rightfully preserving life, a commandment of Holy God. He just said; don’t kill, did He not?
This is a Natural Law fact of God written on every man’s heart. This is God’s Natural Law of Self Defense. To kill is wrong and by any reading of the Holy Bible to allow killing is equally wrong, but it is even worse for a Christian to let killing proceed unabated, such as Abortion, and the knowledge that any of the ‘isms’ will eventually kill indiscriminately and that the lacking in a more proactive posture against these mass murderous heathens is warranted as God commands specially, naturally, and by enjoining; “Thou shalt not kill.”
You WILL defend all life as it is precious is the eyes of God; therefor you WILL kill to preserve it.
Secondarily but equally as important, by this measure, a Christian knows when it is time to stop killing, as rightful self defense to the preservation of life is the start and STOP point. This is why Totalitarians everywhere attempt to kill or otherwise pacify all of the Christians at the outset because once a Tribe or People or Nation is secured the Christian knows it is then time for the killing to stop, but the ‘isms’ are mass murderers and they don’t stop until stopped by good men or everybody that’s left surrenders plunging themselves into abject servitude.
This is the Natural Law that even non-believers understand because, it is by Blood Covenant that these truths are written on the very sense of self. The Holy Bible is not some ridiculous rule book, it is the facts of human existence in a fallen world and whether you believe what’s in it or not, the facts of God’s created order shall not be broken by anybody, try as the Leftist Tower of Babel 2.0 NWO might. There is a Holy Reckoning. All things are brought to right; there is an eye for an eye. Get on the right side of history and like a viscous wild animal defend yourselves, for it is Holy unto God!
The American Church and it’s false profits have attempted to separate you (believers) from the fact of your agency as one of God’s army. This is a great deception. You WILL defend yourself and all life in His holy name, or you sin before the great and terrible God of creation. The God of the Bible is not a pacifist hippy and to misrepresent Jesus as such is a lie, Sin.
On February 23, 2019 at 4:08 am, Dan said:
You call people who fail to act in the face of evil actions equally evil as the perpetrators. The EXACT SAME ARGUMENT can be used against God…
who is advertised to be omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent….and who therefore has the power and ability to prevent ALL EVIL ACTIONS from occurring. The rules of logic apply everywhere equally….or else they are just opinions…..baseless subjective personal belief.
On February 23, 2019 at 10:25 am, George said:
Dan, one reason is that God made us. Not the other way around.
” For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways”, declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
We must seek to understand what God requires of us. Not question his plan.
On February 23, 2019 at 12:33 pm, Fred said:
Dan, that is an excellent point and I completely agree. Here’s the thing though, we broke covenant with God. God promises a great many things to believers and unbelievers alike although there isn’t a total overlap in all of the promises made by Holy Christ. We disobeyed our LORD by taking of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, an act that had it not occurred, you wouldn’t understand that right and wrong exist. This is a self-proving point as you know that good and evil exist and you know that only humans understand this, we are made in the image of our Creator as Mr. Smith points out.
God wanted us to live in perfect fellowship with Him and with one another but we disobeyed, our eyes were opened and we continue to know that good and evil exist. Folks have been questioning whether God created and endorses evil for several millennia now. The answer is no, the LORD created free will, it is us, we, you and I, and every man that fails to do that which is right in the sight of the LORD who has failed.
The covenant was, that we would not know good and evil. This knowledge is the type in the Holy Bible that is experiential. Since we failed to heed God, we will experience good and evil as a result of our disobedience to the Holy Creator. That was, and is, the covenant that God made with the first men, Adam and Eve. If they had simply obeyed God we would not now experience good and evil and the horrific effects of it but they didn’t listen, and now evil abounds and even resides in the hearts of men.
Our free will remains, we choose good and, O’ thank you Jesus our risen Saviour, even love, with God and one with another. After taking of the tree Adam knew that he was naked (not nude), the shame of his betrayal of Holy God overwhelmed them even to the point of fearing God as their soul was exposed knowing right from wrong. They hid from God, as you are now, naked, ashamed, fearful, and I suspect often alone and unloved.
It’s a hard life, but this is where we Christians find our Hope, in Christ Jesus and those promises that I mentioned one of which is that He will save your soul if you call upon His holy name, taking your shame, fear, guilt and what we call sin, upon Himself and imputing righteousness upon you, making you guiltless, sinless, in the eyes of our LORD before the holy throne of Judgment. By covenant God did draw the first blood in covering Adam and Eve with animal skins and by covenant did God draw saving blood in allowing the killing of his only begotten Son that all of our sin, your sin might be taken away if you only would believe that Jesus lived a perfect and sinless life, died on the cross to save your soul, and raised Himself from the dead proving that He is who and what He says that He is, the Son of the living God sent to die for all mankind that through Him we might be saved.
For some, this is their heaven and this earth is their home. This is as good as it will get but for me, knowing good and evil has made me to understand that this isn’t the way it’s supposed to be, why else would everybody be constantly trying fix it. This is the curse of a dead and dying world.
Christians are not perfect, they are perfect in a future tense in the eyes of Father God before the white hot wrath of Christ who sits in judgment and power and glory over all men. My hope is on the glory of Christ Jesus wherewith I make my new covenant in Him to be spared the second death. He took all of my shame, the shame and curse of Adam, away and is making me a new creature transforming me from little better than a lust craving animal in pursuit of bodily pleasures and mindless endeavors of all types, making me into one who finally, rightfully, understands why this world is so very broken, replacing my fears and sin with the spirit of empathy, love, caring, and giving, and while facing the reality of evil and me doing that little bit which is good in the sight of the LORD I can know Him, until the promise that He takes me home to be with Him, my new home where my soul will no longer experience good and evil, will no longer know the torment of a sin filled dying earth and hell.
Read this about how you to can become a Son of God:
https://friends.freezoxee.com/read-blog/186_sons-of-god-the-holy-bible-explains.html
Here is further reading about knowing Good and Evil:
https://friends.freezoxee.com/read-blog/199_knowing-good-and-evil.html
On February 23, 2019 at 6:11 pm, Gryphon said:
Sounds like a Good line of Defense for the Abortion-Clinic Bomber, doesn’t it?
That can be construed as Sarcasm, but at What Point does it become “Moral” to Kill the people at “Planned Parenthood”? And the ‘politicians’ that ‘allow’ the Murderers to operate with Impunity.
“Trafficking” in Human Organs is nominally “Illegal” yet Planned Parenthood does it Every Day, plenty of Video and Documented Evidence of it, yet No One ever gets Arrested or Prosecuted.
On February 24, 2019 at 10:21 pm, Dan said:
Fred…..I’m just pointing out a logical flaw in the argument. Whether God exists or not is a matter of personal belief. Whether he is what he is advertised to be is also a matter of personal belief. But to hold people to a standard HIGHER than we would hold a deity alleging to be all powerful is ludicrous. As an aside I cannot help but wonder why an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent being would DEMAND under penalty of eternal damnation absolute belief, fealty and acceptance when he cannot or will not provide ONE SINGLE SHRED of tangible evidence that he actually exists. I personally place “God” in the same spectrum as Bigfoot and the
Loch Ness monster……except that the latter two apparently wish to remain occult. Rational beings would attribute the creation of gods to
the “ancient astronaut” school of reasoning. Thousands of years ago the
things modern Americans do and take for granted would make us appear to be gods to ancient societies.
On February 24, 2019 at 10:27 pm, Herschel Smith said:
@Dan,
It might be useful time for you to listen to the debate between Dr. Greg Bahnsen and Gordon Stein. Unfortunately, there is no video of it, but it’s classic and world famous. Warning: you have to listen to it all to get the full force of Bahnsen’s arguments, which are quite complex. But God exists because of the impossibility of the contrary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLZdOGCE5KQ
On February 26, 2019 at 12:01 pm, Gary said:
@Dan – Free will is what drives everything that happens to us in life. When someone is killed it is not because they were abandoned by God, it’s because they were taken by circumstance and circumstance is driven by the consequences of free will, yours or someone else’s. If free will and the resulting consequences are taken out of the mix, then you are correct that we could not explain the evil in the world without applying some fault to God. We were given the ultimate gift of free will, but that gift comes with consequences and, while we could not truly be free without it, it also demands that we not be protected from it. What happens in our world is driven by the choices made by you and your fellow humans. God gave us the opportunity, we choose what to do with it.