This was from Matthew 10:34. I have spent the entire afternoon reading the Gospels and have now gotten through all of them. I am utterly horrified by what I read. I always had this idea he was the prince of peace if you will. I now realize if you read what he states closely that he is angrier than God himself. In all four gospels he mentions cutting off body parts, cities and children being killed and only a small percentage of people getting to heaven. Who the hell am I to think I have a chance? In the book of revelation again it mentions only a small percentage of people will make it into heaven. Oh my heart grieves this will never do if I am to live another 30 years or so and have to live with this. Can someone restore my faith in this. What sword does Jesus speak of. I thought I would feel better reading this stuff.
2007-05-28 15:54:09 · 20 answers · asked by Progeny Rising 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
You ask a couple of great questions: 1. Should you be scared--yes. As you read God's word, it is living and teaches many things to different people. For example a Christian would read the Gospels and be encouraged because it is a message of hope and love. For non-Christians, it is condemnation and ultimate destruction. For you it sounds as though you do not have a personal relationship with Christ--Is this true? If so, then you are stuck reading it from a condemnation point of view. the Bible says that if you turn to Christ, you will be saved. This is a simple answer to a complex issue but never the less it is true. 2. The number of people getting into Heaven is smaller than the number going to hell but this is no small number in general. Millions will be there. 3. The sword that Jesus is speaking of is more specifically "spiritual warfare" and division between believers and non believers. This can also be found in Luke12:51. Read Romans 3:23, 5:8, 6:23, 10:9-10 and finally 10:13--Then turn to Christ by faith and you will be saved and the worries that you now feel will be defeated.
2007-05-28 16:07:04 · answer #1 · answered by eversafe2 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Its not that Jesus is bringing a sword, but because that Jesus gospel ( His Word ) will be a sword between those who choose to obey and disobey him. This precept is written throughout the bible. Heb:4:12: For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.Rv:2:16: Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.Lk:2:35: (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. There is a sword that is a physical long knife in scripture but the sword also represents the Word of God and the Word of God will separate those who are saved and lost.
2014-01-18 23:45:32 · answer #2 · answered by Holland 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
He knew how radical his message would be to the world at that point. He knew the upheaval, the fear it would put into the hearts of those in religious/political power. The message is peace, but the world rejected it, and largely still does. But he knows it is illusion.
The sword is the reaction of the world to truth that seems to contradict what appears.
You must understand the shroud of mystery the Bible was put under to hide its true purpose, which is to teach us that we form our own reality, that God is love and only love.
"God is not fear, but love." --A Course In Miracles.
If you want to feel better, stop reading the sections that are clouded by metaphor and imagery, such as the Book of the Revelation, and stick to the Psalms, or the other places where Jesus speaks of love, and what peace is.
2007-05-29 09:36:21 · answer #3 · answered by Sky in the Grass 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
As I have mentioned to you before there is a spiritual conflict between God and Satan. Anyone who aligns himself with God will automatically enter into conflict with Satan and his forces. God does not promise His followers an easy life, but a righteous life, in tune with God and in close relationship with Him.
Following Jesus brings radical changes in a person's life and it also affects those around us either positive or negative, according to their heart-attitude toward God.
Jesus is the Prince of peace. Once you have entered into a relationship with Him you will have an incredible peace in your heart, but He hasn't promised to make everything peaceful around you.
As to talking about cutting of your hand or tearing out your eye, Jesus said that He wants us to live holy lives, and if your eye or hand causes you to sin, tear it out or cut it off. Jesus is speaking in metaphorical terms, like He does in many of His parables. He is trying to say you have to take a tough stance against anything that would cause you to sin.
You are right in saying that it is only a small percentage who will follow Jesus and make it to heaven, because most people do not want to acknowledge that they are sinners and need God's help to get them to heaven. Our pride is our greatest enemy.
John 3:19-21 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."
2007-05-29 04:20:29 · answer #4 · answered by pinkrose 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Believing in Jesus is the most divisive thing a person can do because believer's lives are so different than non-believers. Also, Jesus was talking to Jewish people in Israel, and He was destroying their religious traditions by His works and words, if you read the gospels you would have seen this throughout. He says that "I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother..." He is saying that the most important thing a person can do is trust Him, even more important than family.
2007-05-28 23:02:18 · answer #5 · answered by john smith 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Reading a little more it says he would cause division with a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a young wife against her mother-in-law. Indeed, a man's enemies will be persons of his own household. Jesus was just stating that the truth would not be believed by all people, even those of the same families and it would cause divisions, which would lead to greater trouble in some cases.
2007-05-28 23:09:35 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Jesus knew that the Apostles would have many battles to fight defending the fact that Jesus was the Messiah.
I mean, can you imagine a whole country believing in one God, and then coming up and saying, no this guy is God. Jesus was trying to be realistic with them, by telling them that their job would not be easy.
Eleven of the twelve Apostles were martyred with violent deaths. Christians did not kill them, but Jews, Romans and anyone else that did not believe as they did.
He is the Prince of Peace and the King of Mercy. The parts where He is talking about cutting off body parts, He's trying to tell you that you would be better off without a hand and go to Heaven than to keep that hand that steals and go to hell.
The road to Heaven is Narrow:
Matthew 7:13,14
"Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few."
But as long as you accept Him as your savior and bear good fruits, you will be with Him for all eternity.
2007-05-28 23:05:03 · answer #7 · answered by Malaika 5 · 2⤊ 2⤋
Basically, faith in Christ seperates the Christian from the sinner and the world ( vs.32-37 ). Just the proclamation of God's Word and its Truths brings division, persecution, and opposition. But Jesus came not to make people feel good. He came with a sword ( God's Word ) to save us.
2007-05-28 23:05:49 · answer #8 · answered by HeVn Bd 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Try reading Matthew again with this thought in mind...
Jesus is "God With Us." All throughout Matthew you see that Jesus is putting people in the position of having to make a choice. Matthew's one main theme is that when God is "with us", truly and undeniably confronting us, we must make a choice. What that choice is will vary from person to person, but no one can meet God and remain unchanged. THAT's the sword Jesus is talking about, and that's why he talks about not bringing peace but division.
Peace to you.
2007-05-28 23:03:53 · answer #9 · answered by dreamed1 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
This is a hard saying for all who recall the message of the angels on the night of Jesus' birth: "Glory to God in high heaven, and peace on earth among human beings, the objects of God's favor" (as the message seems to mean). True, the angels' message appears only in Luke (Luke 2:14) and the hard saying comes from Matthew. But Luke records the same hard saying, except that he replaces the metaphorical "sword" by the nonmetaphorical "division" (Luke 12:51). Both Evangelists then go on to report Jesus as saying, "For I have come to turn 'a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law' " (Matthew 10:35; Luke 12:53), while Matthew rounds the saying off with a quotation from the Old Testament: "a man's enemies will be the members of his own household" (Micah 7:6).
One thing is certain: Jesus did not advocate conflict. He taught his followers to offer no resistance or retaliation when they were attacked or ill-treated. "Blessed are the peacemakers," he said, "for they will be called sons of God" (Matthew 5:9), meaning that God is the God of peace, so that those who seek peace and pursue it reflect his character. When he paid his last visit to Jerusalem, the message which he brought it concerned "what would bring you peace," and he wept because the city refused his message and was bent on a course that was bound to lead to destruction (Luke 19:41-44). The message that his followers proclaimed in his name after his departure was called the "gospel of peace" (Ephes. 6:15) or the "message of reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5:19 RSV). It was called this not merely as a matter of doctrine but as a fact of experience.
Individuals and groups formerly estranged from one another found themselves reconciled through their common devotion to Christ. Something of this sort must have been experienced even earlier, in the course of the Galilean ministry: if Simon the Zealot and Matthew the tax collector were able to live together as two of the twelve apostles, the rest of the company must have looked on this as a miracle of grace.
But when Jesus spoke of tension and conflict within a family, he probably spoke from personal experience. There are indications in the gospel story that some members of his own family had no sympathy with his ministry; the people who on one occasion tried to restrain him by force because people were saying, "He is out of his mind" are called "his friends" in the KJV but more accurately "his family" in the NIV (Mark 3:21). "Even his own brothers did not believe in him," we are told in John 7:5. (If it is asked why, in that case, they attained positions of leadership alongside the apostles in the early church, the answer is no doubt to be found in the statement of 1 Cor. 15:7 that Jesus, risen from the dead, appeared to his brother James.)
So, when Jesus said that he had come to bring "not peace but a sword" he meant that this would be the effect of his coming, not that it was the purpose of his coming. His words came true in the life of the early church, and they have verified themselves subsequently in the history of Christian missions. Where one or two members of a family or other social group have accepted the Christian faith, this has repeatedly provoked opposition from other members. Paul, who seems to have experienced such opposition in his own family circle as a result of his conversion, makes provision for similar situations in the family life of his converts. He knew that tension could arise when a husband or a wife became a Christian and the other spouse remained a pagan. If the pagan spouse was happy to go on living with the Christian, that was fine; the whole family might become Christian before long. But if the pagan partner insisted on walking out and terminating the marriage, the Christian should not use force or legal action, because "God has called us to peace" (1 Cor. 7:12-16 RSV).
In these words, then, Jesus was warning his followers that their allegiance to him might cause conflict at home and even expulsion from the family circle. It was well that they should be forewarned, for then they could not say, "We never expected that we should have to pay this price for following him!
2007-05-28 23:05:42 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋