Ozandy,
I suggest you find out just what is happening in third world countries and by whom. One large church nearby sends over 24 construction teams each year to install fresh water in third world villages. Their national governments squander their wealth on weapons

Pride in the so called "Protestant Bible" is ill founded. It was not given to them alone and the King James version of it is far from ideal.

The original Bible was written mostly in Hebrew and partly Arimaic by the Jews when they called themselves "Children of Israel", and then translated into Greek. Even the New Testiment basically came from them because at that time there were no Christains so named.

The Latin version was somewhat late and inaccurate when it too appeared. The Masonite version which is mostly based on the Hebrew and Greek works, is perhaps the most accurate and satisfactory. There are versions of it in modern English and not of the kind with the older Jamite English words of the 17th centuary.

The Bible remains the world's most popular book and its has been translated into more languages than there are nations.

Dear Philo,

You are correct. Leaders of third world countries squander their wealth on weapons. By far the biggest weapons supplier is that mainly Christian county, the US. Other developed Christian countries are also big weapons suppliers. The arms trade exacerbates poverty, leads to conflict and we possibly agree that it is immoral. Although some Christian denominations such as the Quakers oppose that trade most churches including the Quakers do nothing to censure their members who are engaged in that trade.

david f,
What did Jesus say about weapons? Matthew 26: 52 "Those that live by the sword shall die by the sword". After he told Peter the former zealot to put away his sword. Peter had just cut of the ear of the High Preist's servant and Jesus compassioinately healed his ear. Again he said do good to those that persecute you

Dear Philo,

We both selectively quote Jesus, but there really isn't any evidence that it makes much difference to people. Christians and other people pay attention to what they want to pay attention to.

Jesus in the BIble also made warlike remarks:

Matthew 10:34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. 35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. 36 And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. 37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

The above is Jesus, the troublemaker. It certainly doesn't sound as though he has anything against weapons. He is pushing a sick, jealous love. Any figure, secular or religious, that would ask you to put him ahead of your daughter isn't worth much. I find Jesus in the above passage just a sick, arrogant personage. He certainly isn't worthy of me and possibly not worthy of you.

Davidf,
Jesus is not condoning violence, he is identifying to stand against injustice may not give you a peaceful life but a threatened life by the sword. In His life he stood for honesty and justice which ultimately led him to torture and having a sword thrust into his side. To follow him may mean crucifixion and a sword.

To understand the mind of Jesus is to take both verses. They were spoken within the three years of his public life. At the beginning when he was tempted by the leader of the Jewish zealots held out in the desert, in Matthew 4: 1 - 10 he refused to take up weapons and join them in their endeavour to overthrow Roman occupation by the sword; and at his arrest in Matthew 26: 52.