Introduction to This Article

Our nation [The United States of America] where I live and much of the world is deeply divided and troubled.  There are many surface arguments and debates that involve the outworking of deep fundamental core life values and mindsets or ideologies of masses of peoples.  This is deeper than Muslims versus Christians.  There are divisions and separations even within both groups.

On a corporate worldwide level this is a war between two kingdoms.  Also on a personal individual level it is a war of two kingdoms seeking to occupy the hearts of human beings.  These are both spiritual kingdoms that through the hearts and lives of human beings are manifested into the natural world.  Each kingdom is ruled by a spirit or Spirit.  The two kingdoms are known as the Kingdom of God or light and the kingdom of the devil (Satan) or darkness.  Actually that which is called the kingdom of the devil is not a kingdom but a defeated principality that the will of man continues to release back into the world.

Each kingdom manifest into the natural world the character and nature of the spirit or Spirit that rules it.  A few major characteristics of the Kingdom of God and Christ are love, righteousness, peace, joy, truth, grace, mercy, power and wisdom.  The major characteristics of the kingdom of Satan and anti-Christ are the opposite of the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God works by LOVE.  The kingdom of darkness works by cunning deception, force and evil law.  Man is made to be ruled or led by one kingdom or the other.  The Kingdom of God is the true primary eternal creator and ruler.  The kingdom of darkness is a counterfeit rebellious kingdom whose major objective is to oppose the true Kingdom of God.

Currently the world is experiencing a failure of the Kingdom of God people to advance into the reality of complete fullness and obedience to the Spirit of God that rules the kingdom.  In so doing there is a loss of the attributes of God and a lack of ability to discern and walk in love, truth and power.  This allows a release of the defeated kingdom of darkness to be strengthened on earth.  Blindness is upon much of the people of God.  Many are unable to discern truth and are believing the lies of the opposing kingdom.

The great confusion, divisions and debates over immigration, tolerance for Muslim, gun control, acceptance for Jews and Christians and other surface issues are secondary issues.  The primary issue is alignment and submission to the Spirit of the kingdom in which we live.  Currently most Muslims are in almost perfect alignment with the spirit that is the head of their kingdom.  Christians have slipped from the place of alignment with their King and must come to Him with their whole hearts to regain the walk of love, power and wisdom to release the supreme works of God into the world.

The following article is not necessarily for or against any of the surface debates.  Rather it seeks to deal with the deeper core of the current issues.

Is There A Time to Bear Arms?

A Biblical View

“And He said to them, “When I sent you without money bag, knapsack, and sandals, did you lack anything?”
So they said, “Nothing.”
Then He said to them, “But now, he who has a money bag, let him take it, and likewise a knapsack; and he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one.  For I say to you that this which is written must still be accomplished in Me:  ‘And He was numbered with the transgressors.’  For the things concerning Me have an end.”
So they said, “Lord, look, here are two swords.”
And He said to them, “It is enough,”   Luke 22: 35-38.

Jesus knew that the time had come for Him to return to the Father and leave His disciples alone for a brief time and then return to them in the Spirit.  He knew they would be in need of protection, and that He would not be there with them for a short time during and after the crucifixion.

While Jesus was with the disciples, they had no need for resources or protection.  Jesus saw to it that they were taken care of, and none was lost except the son of perdition.  However, for this brief period of time between the night of His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane and the day of His return in the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, they were dependent upon natural protection and provision, thus the need to bear arms for protection and to go fishing for provision.

After His resurrection and before His ascension, Jesus was able to advise them in their natural pursuit of provision.  He told them to cast their net on the other side of the boat to make a great catch of fish.  He prepared a natural meal for them the natural way on the shore.  The disciples were back into a natural existence for this brief time before Christ was fully glorified by His ascending to the throne of the Father.

Peter was impulsive and had used his sword prematurely in the Garden while Jesus was still with them.  Jesus told him to put it away for now and fixed the damage done to the soldier’s ear.  They did not need to use the sword as long as Jesus was with them.

Arms are needed for protection when Jesus is not with a nation in his manifest presence.

Christ Jesus (Yeshua) returned in the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to indwell the disciples in fulfillment of His promise to His disciples in John 14:17-18:  “The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him;  But you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you orphans;  I will come to you.”

John 17:20, 23:  “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word…. I in them and you in me;  that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”

Colossians 1:26-27:  “The mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.  To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

As far as I know, the disciples never carried or used arms for protection after the return of Christ Jesus in the Holy Spirit.  The disciples were experiencing the reality of Christ in them and were supernaturally protected until their time of martyrdom came for them.  However, it is a very different situation for those that either do not have Christ in them or are not aware of Christ in them by the Holy Spirit and thereby deny the work of the Holy Spirit manifesting Christ in them.

A nation of so called Christians who do not truly have the fullness of the presence of Christ in them by the Holy Spirit are unprotected and will need arms to survive in a hostile world that is armed with weapons.

The Kingdom Being Restored on Planet Earth

For two thousand years after the time in which Christ was crucified, ascended to the Father, and returned at Pentecost to indwell His people, many people of earth have denied the fullness of Christ indwelling them in the Holy Spirit.  A few centuries after the crucifixion, the Christian religion developed that denied the indwelling Christ by the Holy Spirit.  The gospel of the kingdom was then lost for many centuries.

Therefore, for the most part the full presence of Christ was not indwelling His people and could not therefore do His mighty works of protecting and providing for His people supernaturally.  The best that God could to do for His people was to help them to develop arms and means of provisions.  God worked with men to bear arms and stand against the enemies of God in the natural.

It has been necessary and needful for God’s people to develop and manufacture powerful armament to exercise natural dominance of authority over those who were driven by Satan to destroy the people of God from the earth.  In the season without the fullness of Christ in His people, God has helped us bear arms for protection.  In the same way He has helped us to develop ingenious methods of providing food, shelter, transportation, medicine, communication, and other means of technical works bordering on miraculous in their nature.  These indeed have been works of man gifted by God to restrain evil and secure the survival of God’s people on earth even in their rebellious state of denying the fullness of Christ Jesus in them by the Holy Ghost.

Theologians have called this roughly two thousand year period a dispensation of grace.  However, it has been a period of as much mercy as grace as God has allowed and assisted man to endure while preparing a people to receive layer by layer the reality of the indwelling King and His kingdom.

The great value of religion in history

Though the Christian and Jewish religions were for the most part not able to receive the revelation of the gospel of the kingdom that Jesus preached including the indwelling Christ (Yeshua) within His people by the Holy Spirit, both religions served at least two major purposes.  Between the two religions they retained and protected the Old Testament and the New Testament Bible and other original written historical works.  The Christian religion in the past five or six hundred years has also received and retained salvation by grace through faith in Christ Jesus as Savior.

Religion has provided a collective force of God-given natural strength and power with arms to fight against evil forces while God has been moving the people toward the revelation and restoration of the Kingdom of God on earth through Christ in His people by the Holy Spirit.

In the past forty years or so, a clear revelation of the gospel of the kingdom has been restored to forerunners of the people of God.

Restoration had begun layer by layer and piece by piece over the past five or six centuries.  The Christian religion is not the leader in the restoration of the Kingdom of God because the kingdom necessarily means the end of the reign of religion on earth.  The true relationship of God in and with His people is now establishing God’s kingdom in His people on earth.

Thus the greatest transition of modern history is now in process

The Christian religion age is passing away, and all that it has built that was not of God is passing away.  However, the parts which God has built shall remain.  That which has denied the God of heaven in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit indwelling His people to rule and reign must be dissolved.  Place must be made for the kingdom of heaven on earth in Christ Jesus (Yeshua) in His people by the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of the living God.

The last historical transition of this magnitude occurred in the first century in the time of the returning of the kingdom of heaven to earth in the life of Christ Jesus and His disciples.  After Jesus was baptized and began His ministry on earth, His message was “the Kingdom of God is at hand.”   When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming to be baptized, He called out, “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.”  He began to call to the people, “Repent, the Kingdom of God is at hand.”

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
The people He has chosen as His own inheritance,”   Psalm 33:12.

“Happy are the people who are in such a state;
Happy are the people whose God is the Lord!”   Psalm 144:15.

In summary regarding this present time 2015-16

There is only a remnant forerunner group of saints who are truly walking in the experience of Christ Jesus fully living in them who do not need natural arms for protection.  They, like the first century disciples, will be supernaturally protected by Christ in them until their time of passing or martyrdom.  The masses of people including Christians who have not yet received the fullness of Christ in them by the Holy Spirit will be led of the Lord to arm themselves for the protection of the people of God and His work that is in process at this time.

If the wayward “Christian” people of the nation will turn and “draw near to God,” they will be empowered to arm themselves and resist the enemy with God-given natural force.  However, if and when the believers will in the process of time receive the fullness of the work of the Holy Spirit to fully form Christ Jesus within them, there will be no further need for arms.

The harvest time of the earth is now upon us.  Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’?  Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! (John 4:35).

“Do not fear little flock; it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom,”   Luke 12:32.

 

~ Ron McGatlin

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Ron McGatlin Ron has over 62 years of seeking to serve God in ministry and business.  Barbara has served in pastoral and Christian education positions for over 10 years.  They currently make their home in the foot hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, USA.  Ron has written 5 books on revival and the in-breaking kingdom and continues to write powerful apostolic/prophetic articles published weekly in the OpenHeaven.com Digest.