Dying by the Sword

In Oregon a man, a father lies dead, gunned down by Federal law enforcement agents.

I do not celebrate the actions of the Federal Government or its various arms of violence.

But at the same time I do not revere the death of this man, a fool who defied the commands of Scripture and took up arms against the state.

Many of these misguided souls think that they haven't 'taken up arms' but the minute you pick up a gun and defy the powers that be, you've unleashed the threat and issued the challenge.

The state showed a great deal of longsuffering with these men. That may be a controversy in and of itself. Nevertheless the state showed restraint but these men demonstrated a clear unrepentant will to violence.

Do these people not understand what a gun is? They treat it like it's some kind of badge of citizenship, a symbol of freedom. As one poet declared...

Handguns are made for killing, they ain't no good for nothing else.

That's true enough for all guns. That's what they're for. If you want to argue some killing is good or justified, then fine. That's another issue.

But whether for good or ill, they are for killing and when you take them up in defiance of the state, you've declared that you live by the sword.

And you had better be prepared to die by it.

What fools they are, as are all fools who take up arms. Freedom, rights, the law... these supposedly noble ideas are quickly forgotten when a bullet tears through flesh and life is cut short. At that point it's all about vengeance and little more.

This man, this fool died for absolutely nothing and has left a widow and a lot of children. Their father died for nothing and in fact... had it coming, or at least should have expected it. His actions were not morally justified.

We can cry conspiracy and murder. You know what? Even if the FBI said we're going to teach these boys a lesson and when we pull them over, we're going to gun one of them down, he had it coming.

That doesn't make it right. None of it is right. The whole system is dirty and murderous, but so are these men.

Someone will declare, "They didn't murder anyone!"

They threatened to and when you do that you need to expect to get shot. Due process, habeas corpus etc...

Not in war. This cowboy heretic was shown the same law of retribution given to those captured overseas. I have a sneaking suspicion he wasn't upset when Bush opened Guantanamo and the government engaged in extra judicial killing and torture.

Again I'm not defending the actions of the US government. It's an evil empire and its ranks are populated with a lot of handed over people and false Christians who need to repent.

But this violent activist... I feel sorry for him because he was stupid. I feel sorry for his family because they're lost. But as far as him getting shot, if you live by the sword you had better be prepared to die by it.

And he did. He made his choice.

Knowing nothing of Christ and His Kingdom he thought he was doing some kind of service to the Kingdom. He erred not understanding the Scriptures or the power of God. He died for the false religion of Mormonism and for the idol of America.

Don't make the same mistake.