What does God Say About Warfare and Preparedness

[Mr.Baker]

[Professor Plink]

Luke 22:36
[Jesus] said to them, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one."

[Wordupmybrotha]

Amen!

[jarhead714]

He says pray for peace and train for war.

[Sailormilan2]

Luke 22:36
[Jesus] said to them, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one."

Luk 22:35
And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing.
Luk 22:36
Then said he unto them, But NOW, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.

[MechaDad]

Ephesians 6:12 (KJV)
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

[gdr_11]

Luk 22:35
And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing.
Luk 22:36
Then said he unto them, But NOW, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.

The Lord was reminding the apostles that, while He was with them, they lacked for nothing while He and the Father were there to protect them. At the point He made the statement in Luke 22:36, He was preparing them for His departure. Without the physical presence of Jesus, the apostles were being told that they needed to protect themselves and their families because the presence of the Lord would be moving from a physical realm to a spiritual one which meant that the believers would need to clothe, feed and protect themselves.

This is the Scripture I use when people tell me we are supposed to turn the other cheek and allow others to hurt us rather than to defend ourselves. God told us to prepare ourselves financially and to arm ourselves to protect ourselves physically. That's good enough for me.

[ezaircon4jc]

Nehemiah 4:16-18:

16: From that day forward, half of my men were doing the work and half of them were taking up spears, shields, bows, and body armor. Now the officers were behind all the people of Judah 17: who were rebuilding the wall. Those who were carrying loads did so by keeping one hand on the work and the other on their weapon. 18: The builders to a man had their swords strapped to their sides while they were building. But the trumpeter remained with me.

[The War Wagon]

Luke 22:36
[Jesus] said to them, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one."

Lk.22: 36 is the fulfillment of Is.53 - that Jesus would be counted among the rabble-rousers.

If you want a preparedness verse, the MOST alluded to scripture in ALL of the NT, cover it perfectly: Ex.22: 2.

[CVShooter]

The story has changed over time. Here's my irreverent narrative.

**Warning! If you are easily offended by irreverent humor, read no further.**

OT: Kill the Canaanites! Wait, we need them as slaves. Let's just enslave & rape the Canaanites! Okay, now let's kill the Canaanite priests! Crap! Assyria just killed us, then Babylon. This sucks! Looks like the Persians will play nice.

Intertestamental period: Damn that Antiochus IV and his pig-slaughtering on our altar! Kill the Greeks! Wait, we'll just let Rome do that. Okay, Kill the Rom....

Jesus (gospels): "Prepare for War! The poor will rise and the rich will fall! I'll be the peaceful king you always wanted if you just follow me into battle instead of those other poser Messiahs!

Acts & Epistles: Well, now that our leader is dead, the temple is razed to the ground and the Jews are exiled again, maybe Jesus was just talking about a spiritual battle. Hey, Rome, we're okay with you, really. You can rule us here on earth because, obviously, Jesus only rules in heaven. So how about you leave us alone and we just talk spirituality instead of politics?

Rome: That's great! Maybe we can get the whole empire to buy into that idea.

And the rest is history.