Would you let someone physically harm you or your family?

[Michele]

 Self-Defense....

I was reading up on some post that someone sent in about self-defence and also one of Rays replies to it...which was of course the "turn the other cheek" thing that Jesus said. I hope and pray that God never allows me to have to make that decision,



Personally I was  sexually abused for years as a child by a person I trusted, so I unfortunately, even though I deeply care for most human plight in the world, I  mostly do not trust people in general and keep to myself as much as possible...and if someone tried to hurt my child...I don't know what I'd do but I know I'd try everything I could to stop them.

But my question here is honestly and truly What would YOU do if a evil person was attacking you? Trying to rape or otherwise harm you, your wife or child?  Trying to kill you or your family?  What would YOU do, honestly?  And if you had to harm another to keep them from harming you or your loved ones, what would God do?  Does God want you to let others hurt you or yours?

Thank you for your honest replies,
Michele

[andrevan]

Hi Michelle.

God knows every situation and He knows our motives, our hearts. If preserving a life meant harming another, then I would do it if there was no other way out.

I've always found the following verses interesting, perhaps it has something to do with self defense. Other members here could shed some light on it better:

Luk 22:35 And He said to them, "When I dispatch you minus purse and beggar's bag and sandals, you did not want anything?Yet they say, "Nothing."
Luk 22:36 Yet He said to them, "But now, he who has a purse let him pick it up, likewise a beggar's bag also; and he who has none, let him sell his cloak and buy a sword."
Luk 22:37 For I am saying to you that this which is written must be accomplished in Me: And with the lawless is He reckoned. For that also which concerns Me is having its consummation."
Luk 22:38 Now they say, "Lord, lo! here are two swords.Now He said to them, "It is enough."
Concordant Literal Translation.

Andrevan.

[Chris R]

I would protect myself and family the best i could, I would try and step between the attacker and my family. If then he shoots me..then what would you have me do?

Jhn 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Although these questions are honest enough, No one hear knows what they would do, until faced with such events.

Read all you can on the website, "Exposing those who contradict" Dont worry so much about the things of this world, they will take care of themself.

Peace

Chris R

[hillsbororiver]

1Ti 5:8  But if any provide not for his own and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.

[Kat]

Hi Michele,

It would be difficult to say what one would do in a hypothetical situation.  I want to believe I would trust God to deliver me or my family, but fortunately I have not been faced with this situation.
But we do have the perfect example for this.

Luk 22:50  And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear.
v. 51  But Jesus said, "No more of this!" And He touched his ear and healed him.

Mar 14:65  And some began to spit on Him and to cover His face and to strike Him, saying to Him, "Prophesy!" And the guards received Him with blows.

Act 8:32  Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this: "Like a sheep He was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He opens not His mouth.
v. 33  In His humiliation justice was denied Him. Who can describe His generation? For His life is taken away from the earth."

Isa 53:7  He was oppressed, and He was afflicted; yet He opened not His mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before its shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.

There is no scripture that say that Jesus or any of the apostles ever use violence or even self defence to protect themselves.

mercy, peace, and love
Kat

[Sorin]

Question: "Would you let someone physically harm you or your family? "


Answer: No.

[Jennie]

Nope! Remember I pack...Jennie

[hebrewroots98]

Hi Michelle,
To answer your question upfront; I don't know at this point in my life how I would react; I guess it would have to do with who got hurt, how and when and where the person was. I do know that we are to treat others the way that we want to be treated and to love others.  Jesus turned the other cheek; so I truly would hope that I could DO as I am commanded, but, I am not that confident that my flesh would not get in the way.

All that I know is that in the past when I was only 19 yrs old and very niave and living pretty much by myself (as my room mate was hardly ever there); when I was a brand new babe in Christ (only about4 months into Christ),  I was sabatoged by a professional boxer who had done something to my car engineto cause it to not work,  in order to get an opportunity to give me a ride home (I did not know this at the time), but he was much older than I  and he saw my vulnerability and took advantage of me in this area.  He drops me off at my apt. and then pushes me into it and locks the door behind him and shoves me into my room and onto my bed; we struggled for nearly 4 hours b/c I would not let him rape me and I kept yelling out the name of Jesus outloud to help me; I never hit the guy, and He finally gave up and stopped and started to walk away.  I told him that he should be ashamed of himself, but that I forgive him and that I think that he needs to ask God to forgive him too.  They guy literally did repent in my living room and then walked out extremely humiliated.  I had to go to work that morning, but my body was to the point of muscle failure; I get to work and I am tired and in shock and they thought that I was on drugs so they fired me!  SO, NO, AT THAT TIME I DID NOT LAY A HAND ON THIS GUY, NOR DID I CALL THE POLICE B/C I WANTED GOD TO DEAL WITH HIM.  Today, I am not the same person that I was, so I would probably not react so graciously; the world has toughened my heart up I think, so I would probably not let the guy off the hook this time given the same situation.

On the other hand, I have a little boy who is in Karate and he is there in order to learn how to protect himself (self defense) -(right or wrong, that is just where me and his daddy are right now) incase he is ever attacked.  We teach him to not hurt anyone physically (when he's outside of his training) so, we teach him to hit another only if his life is in danger, and to hit only enought to get away.  He has not murdered in his HEART when he learns strenght and protection and hitting techniques.  I think it is what is in your heart that God will judge.

And then there is the other kind of situation where there is someone who is helpless to get someone away from them and so others are to taked charge in my opinion; for example, while I was working at the hospital, an elderly geriatric patient of mine was on a diet that was liquid only..well his daughter would come into his room and intentionally feed him solid foods and he inevetably choke everytime (nearly to death), so we had to ensure that everytime that she came into the room that one of the staff had to be there too.  (She was trying to kill her dad so that she could get his money after he died!!!)

If someone walked into our home, my husband would not hesitate to protect me and our son at all costs.  This is his heart right now.

ALSO, THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MURDERING SOMEONE AND KILLING SOMEONE...I THINK IT IS ALL A MATTER OF THE INTENTION OF THE PERSONS' HEART AT THE TIME THAT THE EVENT OCCURED.  

I had an Aunt who was trying to get attention from a man and she didn't mean to kill herself, but the gun accidentally went off!

I guess it all boils down to each persons' ability to handle dif situations and them having to answer to God for what they do with each situation.

[Joey Porter]

I'd say it's all a matter of the heart.  You can physically intervene on an attacker without having hatred or malice in your heart. 

Jesus' command to turn the other cheek is a command of "spirit," as all of His words are spirit.  If we were to take that command literally and obey it completely, that would mean that if someone knocked us down and shattered our cheekbone with a sucker punch, we'd actually have to physcially pick ourselves up off the floor and and tell him to hit us again on the other side of our face.  This is not what Jesus was teaching here, just as when He said to "clean the inside of the dish" He was not talking about a real dish, or when He said "carry your cross," He was not talking about a real cross.   When He says "Turn the other cheek," He is talking about a spiritual cheek.

Again, I do believe it is very possible to physically intervene or subdue or fend off a violent attacker without breaking Jesus' command to turn the other cheek.  However, if we do it in a fit of rage and with a spirit of vengeance or hatred, we are breaking the command. 

I think if someone stood by and did nothing while they watched their mother or wife of child being abused or killed or taken away, it would probably turn into the biggest regret of that person's life, at some point down the road.

[snorky]

I don't want to be controversial here, but we can take the dictum "be in the world but not of the world" dogmatically sometimes. It really IS A MATTER OF SPIRIT, not physicality. Just as with churchgoing...we are commanded to "come out of her my people," but what if some who leave church NOT led by the spirit to do so? We can trick ourselves into thinking we are "out of" churchianity while still spiritually being there. There are, for instance, all sorts of so-called "Christians", especially those in the racist Christian Identity movement, who are convinced that because they live in tight or closed or survivalist communities that they are "in the world but not of the world"...however, with their paranoia about the "mark of the Beast" and the "anti-christ" "system" they are DEFINITELY OF THE WORLD because they lack THE SPIRIT GIVEN TO THEM BY THE HOLY SPIRIT.

Yes, Christ was not violent, even with the Romans. But let's get real here...if anyone tried to rape my 14 year old daughter, that peson had better concern himself with law enforcement catching up to him so he wouldn't have to face the wrath of mother bear and especially papa bear! (and no, we wouldn't kill they guy, okay? Vengeance is the Lord's.)

Deb aka snorky

[Craig]

This subject has been beat to death at least 3 other times in the past.

No more can be said now.  It's time to move on.

Craig