Can declining churches revive? Answer is YES!

Could non-violence be the solution to modern war?

My father served in the British Army, my grandfather was a general in the British Army my great great great grandfather was Admiral Rodney. For our family fighting for our country was considered honourable and necessary – and certainly not unbiblical.

For many years I read the New Testament selectively. Most of us do. Most of it is immediately understandable and directly applicable to our lives.

However, Passages like Matthew 5:38-40 – surely did not apply to us!

 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well”. (Really tough teaching!)

Equally ‘Those who live by the sword will die by the sword.’ Matt 26:52

As we know Jerusalem suffered terribly by ignoring these teachings and Our Lord Prophesy. The Jews took on the might of the Roman empire and lost. They not only lost their capital city but their Temple which had been the core of their religion for centuries. It is now a Mosque.

By contrast Mahatma Gandhi took on the might of the British Empire non-Violently and won. We were as violent and ruthless as the Russians – but we could not resist Gandhi’s campaign of non-violence

The question arises: do these lessons apply to Ukraine - If Our Lord had been alive today would our Lord have warned Ukraine?

The answer surely has to be probably. Had they listened or followed his teaching these things would never have happened.

·        Ukraine Cities would never have had to undergo bombardment

·        Mariupol would never have been reduced to rubble

·        National monuments would never have been destroyed

·        Tens of thousands of men, women and children would never have been killed or injured

·        Millions people would never have been displaced.

Equally thousands of young conscript Russian soldiers would never have been killed and as many Russian mothers would have never lost their sons.

However, the only certainty in the current situation is that sooner or later Putin will leave office or die.

The emperor Titus died …… and the Romans ultimately left Jerusalem ….  and the Roman empire ultimately turned in to the Holy Roman empire

The current evil expansionist Russian regime will fall and be replaced by a more moderate one interested in restoring commercial and diplomatic relations with the world – speeded on by crippling sanctions and international isolation

Interestingly the NATO campaign of sanctions and total isolation is Biblically supportable.

Just as our Lord wept over the coming fate of Jerusalem, I believe that he would have wept over the coming fate of the Ukraine. ‘Those who live by the sword die by the sword.’

Surely our Lord would have point out that the long-term effect of the courageous resistance of the Ukrainian people would be to create a generation of orphans and widows and the loss of countless cultural icons.

The fact that the Jews mostly turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to our Lord teaching was to their very great loss. Are the Ukrainians making the same mistake? Possibly.

Interesting in Wiki there are pages and pages of examples of successful non-violent revolutions eg Martin Luther King’ non-violent  American Civil Rights movement, Women suffrage, and the extraordinarily Estonian Singing moment

Perhaps, if ultimately defeated, the Ukrainians could adopt the Estonian ‘Singing Revolution’ that led to the reestablishment of Estonian independence in1991. This was a non-violent revolution that overthrew a very violent occupation