Whenever I begin to discuss and explain the Gospel commandments forbidden all forms of killing, that Jesus Christ has forbidden His disciples form killing other humans for any reason and without exception, I inevitably run in to the same counter argument.
“So, you would just let your wife be raped to death and do nothing to stop it?”
Sometimes it is children, but the argument is more or less always the same. If you don’t own a gun and/or kill other humans then you will be raped, tortured, and murdered and you are failing everyone you love.
First off, this kind of thinking is extremely narrow and misses the obvious response. Even if you haven’t come to the full spiritual realization of Christian nonviolence, you can use physical force to prevent your spouse form being raped without killing other people. There are a limitless number of ways to disarm potential attackers without killing said attacker. A well placed choke hold can render an opponent unconscious in moments without killing him or her. They even make shotgun taser rounds for those of you who cannot imagine how you could physically defend yourself or others without a gun. There is literally no reason for killing people anymore, no excuse for it of any kind. Your hatred and anger at the attacker is not an excuse or justification for such bloodlust. It is a sin and evil that you need to ask God to drive from your soul.
Second off, there is a simple truth that everyone must realize. One that is incredibly difficult for us to acknowledge given the way the Natural Man perpetuates the delusional belief that our actions can control the world around us and the way society portrays violence and mass murder as just. (Just go watch a John Wick movie if you don’t believe me.) That truth is this:
It is impossible for you to protect your family, to keep them safe.
No gun will keep your family safe. No military will keep your country safe. Trusting in these things for defense, protection, and/or safety is what President Spencer W. Kimball, then Prophet of God, called false gods of stone and steels, a warlike idolatry that is most repugnant to the Lord. Such trust in the arm of the flesh, the power of man, is to trust in that which will inevitably fail and which will bring a sore cursing upon yourself and your family. (See 2 Ne. 28:31)As David sang, “I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me. But Thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us.” (See Psalms 44:6-7) None of our weapons will protects us or keep us safe. Only God alone can save us. Only His power can protect us. Only His might can ensure our safety.
The Prophet Nephi gives us a dramatic and perfect example of the power of God to protect us when he is attacked by his angry brothers, Laman and Lemuel:
And now it came to pass that when I had spoken these words they were angry with me, and were desirous to throw me into the depths of the sea; and as they came forth to lay their hands upon me I spake unto them, saying: In the name of the Almighty God, I command you that ye touch me not, for I am filled with the power of God, even unto the consuming of my flesh; and whoso shall lay his hands upon me shall wither even as a dried reed; and he shall be as naught before the power of God, for God shall smite him.
1 Nephi 7:48 Emphasis my own.
When God has the power to do this then we have no reason to engage in violence. We have no need for soldiers, bullets, guns, or bombs. His power is greater than any weapon, any threat, any danger any human could ever level at us. Without His power there is no safety in this world, only the perpetual threat of blood and horror. With His power there is nothing that can come against us, no weapon which is formed against us that shall prosper (See. Isa. 54:17), no man or group of men which shall be able to harm us. When we have faith in God, repent of our sins, and strive to live His commandments then our lives are filled by His Spirit, His power is over us, and like little chicks gathered under the wings of their mother hen (See 3 Nephi 10:4-6), we will be gathered under the protection of God and kept safe by His omnipotent might. He sends His angels to protect us, as is demonstrated powerfully by the story of Elisha and the Syrian army.
To Save, Not To Destroy
Because the Prophet Elisha had revealed to the Israelite king a coming surprise attack which the Israelite army was therefore able to prepare for and defeat (remember the lesser Law of Moses gave allowance for more violence that the Gospel of Jesus Christ now forbids). The Syrians, angered at this and knowing Elisha was a prophet sent an army to destroy him. When Elisha’s servant woke up and saw the city in which he and his master dwelt surrounded by the Syrian army, he cried out:
“Alas, my master! What shall we do?”
He [the Prophet Elisha] said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
And when the Syrians came down against him, Elisha prayed to the LORD and said, “Please strike this people with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness in accordance with the prayer of Elisha.
2 Kings 6:15-18
This story may seem dramatic at first. Armies of fiery angels is a pretty vivid picture. But that was the prophet’s vision. Most of us do not see that. We, like the servant, do not have eyes to see the armies of angels which God has given to protect His Saints. Unless our eyes are opened similarly to the servant we do not know that they are there. We only see the open air and the threatening hoards. But the angels are and they will protect us, as God wills it. Instead of dramatic visions He calls upon us to have dramatic faith – to lean upon His arm, His protection, and His strength, not our own. If we do so no army upon the Earth may harm us, though we may seemingly be but one or two against an endless multitude, we will see the Lord fulfill His promise that in these Last Days that the “weak things of the world shall come forth and break down the mighty and strong one, that man should not counsel his fellow man, neither trust in the arm of flesh.” (See D&C 1:19)
Before going any farther I actually want to focus on the rest of the story of Elisha and the Syrian army because, while the rest of the story is often ignored in favor of the dramatic point of the angels, I think it telling how the Lord and His prophet resolve the issue of the Syrian army that is now blind. I pick up exactly where I left off above, starting with verse 19:
And Elisha said to them, “This is not the way, and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek.” And he led them to Samaria.
As soon as they entered Samaria, Elisha said, “O LORD, open the eyes of these men, that they may see.” So the LORD opened their eyes and they saw, and behold, they were in the midst of Samaria.
As soon as the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, “My father, shall I strike them down? Shall I strike them down?”
He [the Prophet Elisha] answered, “You shall not strike them down. Would you strike down those whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master.”
So he [the Israelite king] prepared for them [the captive Syrian soldiers] a great feast, and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. And the Syrians did not come again on raids into the land of Israel.
2 Kings 6:19-23
I find it highly instructive that the Syrian soldiers were not wiped out. Further, they were treated as honored guests. Slaughter of captives, as the Israelite king asked about, was often the norm. Yet, the prophet teaches the king, and us, that we should be merciful to our enemies. That we should preserve their lives and treat them not only with mercy but love. As prisoners of war they could have only have hoped for bread and water, at best. Yet they were spared and given a great feast before being sent peacefully back into their own lands, without even an extra scratch done to them. Truly, here the Prophet Elisha was teaching by example what the Apostle Paul would later instruct the Roman Christians to do:
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.
…Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans 12: 14-21
Elisha did as Paul later taught and which we are commanded to do. Love our enemies. Do not return evil for evil, blow for blow, fist for fist, blood for blood, life for life. Do not seek vengeance, wrath, or suffering for those who have wronged you. Instead we should feed our enemies when they are hungry and cloth them when they are naked. Just as the Prophet Elisha did for those who had come to capture him and, undoubtedly, rape and pillage the village he lived in as was the norm when conquering a city. These same people the prophet saved, fed, and sent home safely. There is a powerful lesson here. It is, to paraphrase the Apostle Paul, that we do not overcome evil with evil – we do not defeat violence, suffer, and murder with violence, suffering, and death. We overcome evil with good – by doing righteous acts of kindness, charity, and service to those who do evil things to us. Our mission and response to evil done to use is explained perfectly by President Kimball in the aforementioned talk:
Our assignment is affirmative: to forsake the things of the world as ends in themselves; to leave off idolatry and press forward in faith; to carry the gospel to our enemies, that they might no longer be our enemies.
We are here to save. Not to destroy.
Heavenly Protection In The Modern Day
Another example of the way in which the Lord can and does protect His Saints in ways that are just as powerful if not as dramatic to the naked eye comes from then Elder now President Dallin H. Oaks, Apostle and member of the First residency. In the talk Bible Stories and Personal Protection Elder Oaks gives repeated scriptural examples of how the Lord will protect His people. Then he shares an example of how God preserved his life one night when a mugger stuck a gun into Elder Oaks’s stomach and demanded the keys to his car:
Bible stories such as these do not mean that the servants of God are delivered from all hardship or that they are always saved from death. Some believers lose their lives in persecutions, and some suffer great hardships as a result of their faith. But the protection promised to the faithful servants of God is a reality today as it was in Bible times.
All over the world, faithful Latter-day Saints are protected from the powers of the evil one and his servants until they have finished their missions in mortality. For some the mortal mission is brief, as with some valiant young men who have lost their lives in missionary service. But for most of us the mortal journey is long, and we continue our course with the protection of guardian angels.
During my life I have had many experiences of being guided in what I should do and in being protected from injury and also from evil. The Lord’s protecting care has shielded me from the evil acts of others and has also protected me from surrendering to my own worst impulses. I enjoyed that protection one warm summer night on the streets of Chicago. I have never shared this experience in public. I do so now because it is a persuasive illustration of my subject.
My wife, June, had attended a ward officers’ meeting. When I came to drive her home, she was accompanied by a sister we would take home on our way. She lived in the nearby Woodlawn area, which was the territory of a gang called the Blackstone Rangers.
I parked at the curb outside this sister’s apartment house and accompanied her into the lobby and up the stairs to her door. June remained in the car on 61st Street. She locked all of the doors, and I left the keys in the ignition in case she needed to drive away. We had lived on the south side of Chicago for quite a few years and were accustomed to such precautions.
Back in the lobby, and before stepping out into the street, I looked carefully in each direction. By the light of a nearby streetlight, I could see that the street was deserted except for three young men walking by. I waited until they were out of sight and then walked quickly toward our car.
As I came to the driver’s side and paused for June to unlock the door, I saw one of these young men running back toward me. He had something in his right hand, and I knew what it would be. There was no time to get into the car and drive away before he came within range.
Fortunately, as June leaned across to open the door, she glanced through the back window and saw this fellow coming around the end of the car with a gun in his hand. Wisely, she did not unlock the door. For the next two or three minutes, which seemed like an eternity, she was a horrified spectator to an event happening at her eye level, just outside the driver’s window.
The young man pushed the gun against my stomach and said, “Give me your money.” I took the wallet out of my pocket and showed him it was empty. I wasn’t even wearing a watch I could offer him because my watchband had broken earlier that day. I offered him some coins I had in my pocket, but he growled a rejection.
“Give me your car keys,” he demanded. “They are in the car,” I told him. “Tell her to open the car,” he replied. For a moment I considered the new possibilities that would present, and then refused. He was furious. He jabbed me in the stomach with his gun and said, “Do it, or I’ll kill you.”
Although this event happened twenty-two years ago, I remember it as clearly as if it were yesterday. I read somewhere that nothing concentrates the mind as wonderfully as having someone stand in front of you with a deadly weapon and tell you he intends to kill you.
When I refused, the young robber repeated his demands, this time emphasizing them with an angrier tone and more motion with his gun. I remember thinking that he probably wouldn’t shoot me on purpose, but if he wasn’t careful in the way he kept jabbing that gun into my stomach, he might shoot me by mistake. His gun looked like a cheap one, and I was nervous about its firing mechanism.
“Give me your money.” “I don’t have any.” “Give me your car keys.” “They’re in the car.” “Tell her to open the car.” “I won’t do it.” “I’ll kill you if you don’t.” “I won’t do it.”
Inside the car June couldn’t hear the conversation, but she could see the action with the gun. She agonized over what she should do. Should she unlock the door? Should she honk the horn? Should she drive away? Everything she considered seemed to have the possibility of making matters worse, so she just waited and prayed. Then a peaceful feeling came over her. She felt it would be all right.
Then, for the first time, I saw the possibility of help. From behind the robber, a city bus approached. It stopped about twenty feet away. A passenger stepped off and scurried away. The driver looked directly at me, but I could see that he was not going to offer any assistance.
While this was happening behind the young robber, out of his view, he became nervous and distracted. His gun wavered from my stomach until its barrel pointed slightly to my left. My arm was already partly raised, and with a quick motion I could seize the gun and struggle with him without the likelihood of being shot. I was taller and heavier than this young man, and at that time of my life was somewhat athletic. I had no doubt that I could prevail in a quick wrestling match if I could get his gun out of the contest.
Just as I was about to make my move, I had a unique experience. I did not see anything or hear anything, but I knew something. I knew what would happen if I grabbed that gun. We would struggle, and I would turn the gun into that young man’s chest. It would fire, and he would die. I also understood that I must not have the blood of that young man on my conscience for the rest of my life.
I relaxed, and as the bus pulled away I followed an impulse to put my right hand on his shoulder and give him a lecture. June and I had some teenage children at that time, and giving lectures came naturally.
“Look here,” I said. “This isn’t right. What you’re doing just isn’t right. The next car might be a policeman, and you could get killed or sent to jail for this.”
With the gun back in my stomach, the young robber replied to my lecture by going through his demands for the third time. But this time his voice was subdued. When he offered the final threat to kill me, he didn’t sound persuasive. When I refused again, he hesitated for a moment and then stuck the gun in his pocket and ran away. June unlocked the door, and we drove off, uttering a prayer of thanks. We had experienced the kind of miraculous protection illustrated in the Bible stories I had read as a boy.
I have often pondered the significance of that event in relation to the responsibilities that came later in my life. Less than a year after that August night, I was chosen as president of Brigham Young University. Almost fourteen years after that experience, I received my present calling.
I am grateful that the Lord gave me the vision and strength to refrain from trusting in the arm of flesh and to put my trust in the protecting care of our Heavenly Father. I am grateful for the Book of Mormon promise to us of the last days that “the righteous need not fear,” for the Lord “will preserve the righteous by his power.” (1 Ne. 22:17.) I am grateful for the protection promised to those who have kept their covenants and qualified for the blessings promised in sacred places.
For those who might object that I have equated relying upon weapons such as guns as a means of defense with relying on the arm of the flesh, I ask you to re-read the last paragraph of the excerpt above. It is not I who said it. Elder Oaks said it was soon when he said that his refraining from using violence to defend himself was relying on the arm of the flesh and that finding nonviolent and nonlethal solutions to the threat was trusting in God. I am merely following his example here.
Elder Oaks’s testimony is powerful and true. The Lord will protect us in the modern day. Even when we, like Elisha’s servant, cannot see the angels round about us or the hand of God resting upon us, it is still there nevertheless. If we hold faithful to Christ then He will protect us and our loved ones and not only protect us but empower us. If we allow Him then He will save not only us but create the space where even those giving offense to us – our attackers, robbers, muggers, etc. – may themselves find redemption and salvation. We need not be men of bloodshed, we need not have the blood of others upon our hands, upon our garments, upon our souls. We need but trust in Heavenly Father and He will bless and guide us as He has all His faithful throughout all history by means miraculous and mundane.
The Mission Of Christianity
I am sure that some will still refuse to hear the message here. I have often had responses like, “Yeah? Well why don’t you leave you front door open and let just anyone come in and take what they want if you’re so righteous!” To these types of responses I have three retorts.
First, I am not especially righteous or particularly good. The only good man who ever lived was Jesus Christ. The rest of us hobble along the best we can, hopeful to reflect His light as best we can. I am trying my best. But the accusation of self-righteousness is often made by those who wish to not listen to what they’ve heard and are seeking some reason to be angry with the person telling them something they don’t want to hear as a way to justify their rejection of the message being shared. Humans are awash in social conditioning and instinctual programming that tells us violence is good and normal and that we can use it to save ourselves or others. Breaking this conditioning is extremely difficult and can take a very long time. If you aren’t ready to fully embrace nonviolence at least consider and prepare nonlethal solutions. If you spend as much time learning nonlethal protection measures as you do learning how to safely handle a gun then you’ll be prepared if some danger arises. Remember, the worth of every soul is great in the eyes of God and even the person you despise is a Child of God with infinite value and worthy of salvation. You do not need to destroy them in order to save yourself or your loved ones.
Secondly, if you value the treasures of the Earth, things which “moth and rust doth corrupt” (See Matt. 6:19), things which have a measured and definite value, which can be replaced with something exactly the same, over the life of your wayward brother and sister, whose soul is of such eternal value that God Himself became flesh and suffered humiliation, torture, death, and Hell, in order to redeem, then consider that your morals have become corrupted greatly. You have lost sight of who and what really matters. No TV, jewelry, or computer is more important than a human life. It is better to lose all your stuff than it is to lose a single human’s life. Act accordingly.
Third, it is impossible to rob someone who wants to help you. In Les Misérables, Monseigneur Bienvenu is a Catholic bishop who is robbed by the main character of the novel Jean Valjean. Valjean had been allowed into the bishop’s home after begging for a place to stay. He is fed and taken care of, given a warm place to safely sleep. He returns this kindness done to him by stealing all the bishop’s silverware except for two silver candlesticks and flees into the night. The morning comes and the bishop’s sisters are eating breakfast with him talking about how “pretty” but foolish it was to take in such an obvious man of poverty and low character as Valjean. Meanwhile, Valjean is caught red-handed by the city guard and brought back to the bishop where the guards want the bishop to confirm that Valjean had robbed him so that they could haul him away. The bishop tells the guards that Valjean was given the silverware and they release him. Then this scene ensues:
‘My friend,’ resumed the Bishop, ‘before you go, here are your candlesticks. Take them.’
He stepped to the chimney-piece, took the two silver candlesticks, and brought them to Jean Valjean. The two women looked on without uttering a word, without a gesture, without a look which could disconcert the Bishop.
Jean Valjean was trembling in every limb. He took the two candlesticks mechanically, and with a bewildered air. ‘Now,’ said the Bishop, ‘go in peace. By the way, when you return, my friend, it is not necessary to pass through the garden. You can always enter and depart through the street
door. It is never fastened with anything but a latch, either by day or by night.’Then, turning to the gendarmes: – ‘You may retire, gentlemen.’
The gendarmes retired.
Jean Valjean was like a man on the point of fainting. The Bishop drew near to him, and said in a low voice:— ‘Do not forget, never forget, that you have promised to use this money in becoming an honest man.’
Jean Valjean, who had no recollection of ever having promised anything, remained speechless. The Bishop had emphasized the words when he uttered them. He resumed with solemnity: – ‘Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I buy from you; I withdraw it from black thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God.’
Pgs. 184-186
If you need help don’t break down my door, knock on it. Tell me your story. Ask for help. I will give it to you. Christ has told us to love one another as He loves us. I am doing my best, as halting and laughable as it may seem, to live up to that. I want to love you. I want to help you. Let me do so and I will do what I can. My job, our quest as Christians, is not to condemn but to redeem. Just as Christ constantly forgives me for the literal suffering of Hell that I inflict upon Him through my constant and repetitious list of sins and always blesses and provides for me, so too I must forgive, love, and serve those who have wronged me so that they may become my friends, that they may be redeemed from Perdition, saved from Hell, and given to God. No thing is as important as the fate of some one. You don’t have to rob me, just ask and I will help you however much I can. You cannot rob me for I will give all I can to you.
Final Thoughts
Knowing this has already gone long, I will wrap up by saying this: God is with us, so then who can be against us? No one. Trust in God. He will protect you. He has given His angels protection over you. Do not trust in idols of stone and steal, the false gods of bullets and bombs and the false and bloody faith of trusting in the arm of the flesh. It shall inevitably fail you. It may even destroy you as it as so many others. It is, after all, a religion built on human sacrifice – your life or theirs. Instead, have faith in the True and Everlasting God. He shall protect you and keep you safe. His power is almighty and it is the only source of true safety, the only protection which shall not fail. Both the lives of peoples ancient and modern testify to these truths. He has commanded us to not kill, has forbidden us from slaying other people for any reason. And more, you have no need to slay your enemy. Instead of killing in response to killing, evil in response to evil, respond with overwhelming and overpowering good. Such good and such love that it saves instead of slays, that it redeems instead of destroys. In short, follow the words of the hymn:
Love one another as Jesus loves you.
Chorus to I’m Trying to Be like Jesus
Try to show kindness in all that you do.
Be gentle and loving in deed and in thought,
For these are the things Jesus taught.