why do non christians, page-75

Gravscan,that is a well thought out question and deserves an answer.

Can I please take you back firstly to the night of Jesus arrest and I will try and establish a vital principle,one that all christians would need to observe.

When the soldier band came to arrest Jesus in Gethsemane, an impetuous Peter wielded a sword,striking off the right ear of Malchus,a slave of the Jewish high priest.Now a casual bystander would have thought that was a noble thing to fight for,protecting the Son of God.But Jesus did not think that way.He healed the slaves ear and reminded Peter that his heavenly Father was able to send 12 legions of angels to Jesus aid.One angel killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night when they were invading Judah in the book of 2 Kings.So what could 12 legions do?Jesus knew he had to be tried convicted on false charges,murdered and then resurrected it was all prophesied to happen like that.

Now here is the fundamental principle.Math 26:52 "All those who take the sword will perish by the sword.In John 17:16 when Jesus was before Pontius Pilot he said "My kingdom is no part of this world.If my kingdom were part of this world,my attendants would have fought that I should not be delivered up to the Jews.But as it is,my kingdom is not from this source". So true christians do not take up weapons,they are strictly nuetral.In those days, Jewish factions were fighting one another,both verbally and by shedding blood.But Jesus disciples did not get mixed up in those revolutionary campaigns.The benefits of heeding this vital principle was borne out in the year 70 CE.That year the Roman general Titus destroyed Jerusalem with great lose of life.Josephus account says that 1,100,000 were killed and over 100,000 were taken off as Roman slaves.But the christians were not affected,they obeyed Jesus command in Luke21:20,21 and had fled to the mountains around the year 66CE.They did not get caught up in any revolutionary war because they applied that basic truth of not taking up the sword and not being part of the world.

Cornelius as you rightly stated disappears from history after his conversion.The scriptures do not tell us what Cornelius did.But dont you think he would have scrutinized his secular position as an army officer in the light of his new found faith? Would he not have pondered over and reasoned on such scriptures as Isaiah 2:4 where people who obey God will not lift up sword against nation and learn war anymore.And Micah 4:3 talks about peoples beating their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears.Christianity is about peace and that is why right now men are in prison,denied their basic human rights and robbed of their dignity only because they practice that fundamental Bible truth to not take up the sword.

Today world leaders say we have to have wars to establish some sort of peace.Well that is a lie.Thousands of years of war have only caused more wars,suffering and misery.And now we have the U.S. announcing a 60 billion dollar weapons sale to the Saudies.Human governments will never bring peace.Only God can achieve that and that will be realised after Armaggedon.But that is another topic.

So would Cornelius have remained a Centurion?From my personal Bible study,my answer is no.But I truly respect the views and ideas of others,but one day we will all be accountable to our maker for the way we individually lived our life.