HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, August 15, 2024 – I’m not talking here to casual Christians in the worldly church but to born-again believers in the Kingdom. There is never a time or place or situation when it’s right to take someone’s life – not in the defence of your country, not in the line of duty, not in the defence of your loved ones or yourself or your property, and certainly never, under any circumstance, in the name of God or Jesus. THOU SHALT NOT KILL covers every conceivable evil foisted on you, including being arrested under trumped charges and sentenced to death. You are not to physically fight back or to resist arrest; if it’s your time, it’s your time, and God will walk you through it and strengthen you spiritually for your final tests and temptations, but only if you don’t resist. If it’s not your time, God will get you out in ways that only he knows how. Scripture 100% backs these assertions. If you’re born-again, you know the scriptures I’m talking about; if you’re not born-again, these directions are not for you.

I’m not here to talk in riddles, and I’ve been open and frank with you since the start of this blog nearly 10 years ago. I’ve been open and frank about this not being an evangelical outreach site. I’ve been open and frank about what it means (or in academic parlance, what the “lived experience” is) to be a born-again believer. I’ve even been open and frank about informing you that there are things I cannot talk about, and we all have those. Each one of us in the Kingdom has been entrusted with certain secrets as a test of sorts, to see how much we can be trusted. Again, if you’re in the Kingdom, you know what I’m talking about.

We must never kill another human being, not under any circumstance. When God first gave that Commandment through Moses, those who were not under the jurisdiction of the Law were not considered human, so they could be killed with impunity, that is, without breaking the Commandment. Many of the genetic and self-styled descendants of the people of that time still consider those who are not under the jurisdiction of the Law not to be fully human and therefore to be treated as humanely as cattle (which includes slaughtering, consumption of their flesh, and the use of their skin for practical and decorative purposes), but we are not of that misguided ilk. We are in the Kingdom, and Jesus showed us that we are to carry weapons when it’s time – that is, when we’ve formally become outcasts and outlaws from society – and that we’re to brandish our weapons as if we intend to use them, but that we’re never actually to use them. That is, we’re to use our weapons for deterrence purposes only.

There is never a time or place or situation when we in the Kingdom can break any of the Commandments and not expect major blowback, up to an including the loss of grace. Again and again and again, I’m not talking here to worldly Christians or to unbelievers. Certainly, the Law is also meant for them as a guidance (and is enshrined in the laws of most lands), but if they choose not to abide by it, they will suffer the consequences of not treating others as they themselves would want to be treated, and they will each suffer according to the degree they have earned the suffering, that is, according to how much they knew they were in the wrong, minus their overlay of self-justification. We in the Kingdom should never compare our sufferings to those of worldly Christians or unbelievers; we suffer differently and in different ways and are held to be more responsible for our actions if we choose to break a Commandment. The exact degree to which each of us is held responsible depends on the level of intimacy of our relationship with God and with Jesus, through God’s Holy Spirit.

We should always strive for the deepest of intimacy with God and Jesus. We should never hold ourselves back or put someone or something ahead of them. After all, loving God with everything we have and everything we are is the first and greatest of the Commandments. To put someone or something ahead of God is to break that great Commandment right out of the gate and is the main cause of low levels of intimacy with God and Jesus. Low levels of intimacy with God and Jesus translates to low levels of faith.

I’m not telling you how to live your life. That’s not what this blog is about. I’m just reiterating what Jesus taught us and applying the lessons of scripture to the here and now. We are never, under any circumstance, to break a Commandment. If we do it unwittingly and God brings it to our attention, we are not to resist his correction but to humbly submit to his Word. There is enormous pleasure in humbly (that is, willingly, of your own volition) submitting to God. In fact, there is no greater pleasure, which you would know if you submit to God and live in submission to him. This is how you achieve higher and higher and deeper and deeper levels of intimacy with God and with Jesus. There is no other way than through humble submission, and there is no greater pleasure than intimacy with God and Jesus.

But if you resist God when he draws attention to your error, and disregard – or worse, protest – his Law as if you were an unbeliever or in the worldly church, things will not go well for you (understanding that “things will not go well for you” is an understatement). Whatever God knows we can handle by way of persecution, deprivation, and other forms of suffering, we need to endure, not curse or complain or fight against. We need to endure it. Our time here is so short that if we willingly choose the path of endurance, it will seem to us that even before it’s begun, our time for endurance will be over, submission to God having miraculous and unforeseen rewards.

TL;DR – There is never a time or a place or a situation when it’s OK to kill someone, not under any circumstance. You are called and chosen by God to follow Jesus, not the world; to adhere to God’s Law, not the world’s laws; and to suffer on occasion what you haven’t earned as a test and a trial permitted by God for your ultimate benefit. Living your life humbly submissive to God every day is the only way to achieve deep intimacy with God and Jesus, and there is no greater pleasure than this intimacy, not in time and space, anyway. Maybe in Heaven God is saving up greater pleasures for us, but on Earth, submission to God is the greatest, which is why loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength is, as Jesus reminded us, the first and greatest Commandment.