HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF
WITHOUT A GUN

Our Scripture lesson today is found in Matt. 26.

Our perfect model, Jesus, never carried any kind of sword although His life was constantly under attack from His enemies who were daily plotting to take His life. In spite of this sterling example we find most Christians today believe in protecting themselves with some kind of a carnal weapon.

In Matt. 26:39 we find Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. He asks His Father that if possible, to let the cup of death He is about to drink "pass from me," or in other words...be removed. This cup represented all of the sins of the world and the terrible burden and weight of their guilt. Yet, He added a little P.S. onto that prayer..."Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." Matt. 26:39.

How far can you throw a stone? Luke 22:41 tells us that Jesus removed himself about a "stone's cast" from eight of his disciples. That could be as much as 50 yards or more depending on who is throwing the stone. Sister White tells us in Desire of Ages that he left the eight disciples at the entrance to the gate of the Garden. Only Peter, James and John went with Him another 50 yards or so. Then Jesus began to be deeply distressed and troubled, the NIV Bible tells us...the King James version says that He began to be "sore amazed, and to be very heavy." Why? Because the stark reality of the terrible ordeal that is just ahead of Him begins to press down upon Him. He asks for his three closet friends to watch and pray with Him, but they fell asleep. He prayed for several hours...probably from about 8 or 9 o'clock in the evening until after 1:00 A.M. in the morning, just before Judas came with the mob to arrest Him.

Three times He requests for this cup to be removed from Him. Luke, Paul's beloved physician is the only gospel writer who records that great drops of blood fell from Jesus' face and forehead as He prayed. As a doctor of medicine he was the only one who recognized this strange incident for what it was...a medical phenomenon. In fact, it even has a name...diapedesis...an experience that has happened to only a few people throughout history when they were under tremendous mental stress and strain. The blood actually leaps through the pours of the body which is precisely what the Greek word means...da (through) and (poetess) to leap. But Mark 14:33 tells us that He took Peter, James and John with Him to give Him comfort and prayer support in this awful hour of supreme suffering. But sad to say, these three disciples who had all promised to stick with Him through thick and thin...even to prison and death failed to stay awake and pray with Him so they would not "enter into temptation."

But His Father never forsook Him. He sent the angel Gabriel to strengthen Him to drink the cup and continue on with the final demonstration of the character of His Heavenly Father. Even though the disciples were very sleepy they saw some of this scene which they related to others such as Luke. Suddenly, they see Judas and a mob with soldiers coming to arrest Jesus. Christ steps out from the protective circle of His 11 disciples and asks who they are looking for. The leader of the mob answers that they are looking for Jesus of Nazareth. He then tells them that He is the very one they are looking for and requests that the others be allowed to leave. Of course, Judas steps forward and kisses Jesus in order to identify Him. And Peter draws His sword and begins slashing wildly, cutting off the High Priest's servant's ear. Jesus immediately rebukes Peter and heals Malthus' ear showing His true character of love and non-violence.

He then administers a stern rebuke to Peter...telling him to put away his sword for all who take the sword will perish with the sword. Matt. 26:52. He also tells Peter that He could call upon twelve legions of angels or about 72,000 angels to help Him if that were in harmony with His divine character. Later He explained to Pilate that if His kingdom were of this world His disciples would be taking up the sword and fighting...but the very fact that He had never commanded them to do so proved that beyond a doubt that His kingdom was not of this world. Yet, He burned up Peter's sword with the power of His Word of truth...proving and showing that the literal sword has no power to overcome the enemy but only make them worse enemies. Jesus burned up Peter's sword with His loving rebuke of truth and righteousness. He destroyed the darkness of error with the light of truth.

So, from the life of Jesus we can clearly see that He did not believe in defending oneself with the carnal or fleshly weapons of this present world.

Paul tells us, "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal." So, they must be spiritual weapons. What are these spiritual weapons? Well, the first one I will refer to is prayer.

If you know how to pray to God in times of need this is a mighty weapon. I heard recently of several instances in which people who were being robbed prayed to God and the robbers put down their gun asked for forgiveness or just took off. There is great power in prayer and it is our mightiest weapon once you learn how to use it properly along with the Word of God which you can quote even as you pray. So, God's holy Word is another mighty weapon...it is called a "sword" in the Bible.

A third weapon is faith. Trusting God...having total faith in the Promises of His Word at all times. Another weapon is love. While you are praying and quoting texts from the Bible in times of stress you can maintain a spirit of kindness and love even as Jesus did while He was being beaten by the soldiers and hanging on the cross. He forgave all of His enemies when He said, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."

A fourth weapon we can use in times of stress and danger and in the midst of various types of problems is "Praise." In Acts 16 we read that the praises and songs of Paul and Silas brought an earthquake that shook that old Philipian jailhouse to its very foundations. And like old Jericho it fell down flat. In 2 Chron. 20:20 we read of another instance in which God's army, which by the way, was lead by the church choir of all things, marched ahead of Israel singing praises to God.."Praise the Lord for His mercy endures forever."

A fifth weapon of our warfare is "Thankfulness," which is the sacrifice of praise. Eph. 5:20 and I Thess. 5:18 both tell us to praise God for all things for by faith we can know and believe that all things are under the Father's control and nothing can happen unless He first approves it and therefore allows or permits it to happen. This is such a profound truth that by faith we can therefore boldly state, everything is happening just like it should or as the Father knew it would.

In Rev. 17:14 we read that the carnal powers of this world are going to make war "against the lamb, but the lamb will overcome them because He is Lord of lords and King of kings." Now, how does Jesus overcome and subdue His enemies? Let us first look at Luke 9:54, 55. Here we see that a Samaritan village has just refused to rent a motel room to Jesus and His disciples and James and John are so ticked off about this they request permission to bring fire down from heaven to destroy this entire village. Sister White comments on this story and tells that Jesus had a very pained look on His face as He told these disciples that they had the wrong spirit because He had not come to destroy men's lives but to save them. Do you realize what a rebuke this was to Elijah of the old testament who brought fire down from the sky and roasted several hundred soldiers? Jesus is saying that Elijah had the wrong kind of attitude and spirit...not the spirit of love but the spirit of Jonah who wanted God to destroy the whole city of Nineveh just to prove that he was a great prophet and preacher and all he had predicted about Nineveh would come to pass...(forty days and Nineveh will be destroyed).

Proverbs 25:21 explains the method God uses to overcome His enemies...He pours coals of fire upon their heads...in other words He treats them with kindness...He feeds and gives them drink and therefore heaps coals of fire upon their head. The coals of fire represent truth and love.

Now, this brings us to the subject of the fire of God. There are two kinds of fire in the Bible...literal fire which comes from Satan and man and the fire which is not literal but represents the Holy Spirit and God's presence and is symbolical or not literal. God's fire or His Holy presence will not hurt you in any way, shape or form. To prove this just think of the burning bush and then the day of Pentecost. In both instances God revealed Himself in the form of fire but it was not a literal fire. But on the day of Pentecost it did consume...it consumed all of the sin out of the disciples lives and filled them with Holy Ghost.

In Job 2 we read that "the fire of God" came down and destroyed Job's children and property. But that fire came from Satan, not God. Now, we know the Bible teaches that God never changes, therefore, God's fire or His self revelation is never destructive but only life giving. When the Bible records that any kind of fire destroyed someone that fire is from Satan or man, not God. There was no literal fire in the Garden of Eden for they didn't need any kind of fire there to cook their food or stay warm. Lightning and fire from the sky and other places originated from the prince of the power of the air whom God allows control to a large extent the atmosphereic heavens. All destructive lightning and fire comes from Satan.

Sister White makes this very clear in Great Controversy, pages 589 and 590.

You might want to reconsider all you have been told about God bringing fire down to kill people in the Old Testament. Look at Rev. 13:13. This fire is clearly from Satan.

Now, let's look at Psalm 78:49...here we see that it is Satan's angels who brought the 10 plagues of Egypt. And Exodus 12:23 clearly shows that it was the destroyer, not Jesus who killed the first born of Egypt. Rev. 16:14 also prove that the 7 last plagues on this earth are brought by Satan.

In John 8:44 we read that Jesus tells the Jews that their real father is Satan and that he is a liar and a murderer from the beginning. What right would Jesus have to charge Satan with these crimes if He Himself does the same?

Of course, He couldn't.

The point is this friends: In order to survive the final time of trouble we must understand the true character of God so we can learn to be like Him in all things. This means that you can become a member of the Melchizedek priest hood which is "Holy, harmless and undefiled." Heb. 7:26.