What will You Die For?

[Geist]

I don’t know if you are messing around or just evading the question.

Recant or die is the question. The only question.

I’m not joking, I own several firearms, am trained in their use, and they’re all kept ready to go.

If men with guns come for me, I will come right back at them with mine. If I triumph great, I live another day, if they triumph, well, I only hope I can take a few with me.

So no, I am neither joking nor evading, just answering. I have the means to defend myself from any aggressor and will do so. I dislike hypotheticals. Accept the third option or do not, it doesn’t matter to me.

 

[Julia_Mae]

I’m not joking, I own several firearms, am trained in their use, and they’re all kept ready to go.

I didn’t think you were joking about your guns, I thought you might be making light of the topic. Disliking hypotheticals and owning a lot of guns are indicative of needing to have a lot of control. The very idea of standing naked with a choice which gives you only two options not of your making is unthinkable to you. As a former cop who was child of a cop married to a cop, living a life always around a lot of firearms and trained in their use which were always kept ready to go, I get that.

There is a proposition in theology that we face this question every day, in that we choose God or not-God. The enemy holding us hostage is our ego, which demands we defend… our “honor?” Whatever it t is that we think justifies our acting in protecting of how we identify “self.” Our soul yearns for God Who came to earth to say, “Be meek and humble and turn the other cheek.” By which choice we die as self to live with Christ.

Dying for Christ is probably not that hard, especially if you think you can go out in a “blaze of glory” with your pride and courage intact. Living for Christ is the real test. It’s the life where you get rid of all your guns.

 

[CatholicFireman]

I would like to think I would die for Christ, considering he died (a hideous death) for me. This runs through my head every now and then, especially when I am faced with Catholic-bashing at work.

So I am going to say death.

 

[Geist]

I didn’t think you were joking about your guns, I thought you might be making light of the topic. Disliking hypotheticals and owning a lot of guns are indicative of needing to have a lot of control. The very idea of standing naked with a choice which gives you only two options not of your making is unthinkable to you. As a former cop who was child of a cop married to a cop, living a life always around a lot of firearms and trained in their use which were always kept ready to go, I get that.

There is a proposition in theology that we face this question every day, in that we choose God or not-God. The enemy holding us hostage is our ego, which demands we defend… our “honor?” Whatever it t is that we think justifies our acting in protecting of how we identify “self.” Our soul yearns for God Who came to earth to say, “Be meek and humble and turn the other cheek.” By which choice we die as self to live with Christ.

Dying for Christ is probably not that hard, especially if you think you can go out in a “blaze of glory” with your pride and courage intact. Living for Christ is the real test. It’s the life where you get rid of all your guns.

When you put it this way its easier to think of what you’ve been trying to say.

God gave me the right and the will to exist, and coincidentally the means to do so as well.

I do not wish to die prematurely, but “prematurely” is relative to me; I do not know how many hours I’ve been allotted.

As an American the odds of me being forced to choose between being beheaded by Jihadists or converting to Islam is essentially nil.

It would be easy for me to say, “Of course I’d choose death”, but I once saw a Russian soldier beheaded by a Chechen online…it takes alot longer than you’d think.

I will disagree that owning guns is an indicator of a need for control, rather, I accept I lack control over reality and am simply prepared for whatever it may throw at me.

Again I stand by my first post in this thread, I think its better to die fighting for your faith than just dying. If you’re historically inclined read up on the many attempted Muslim invasions of Europe and how they were repelled; it was by weapons, not martyrdom.

God bless!

 

[Julia_Mae]

Again I stand by my first post in this thread, I think its better to die fighting for your faith than just dying.

Yet, “just dying” is exactly what Jesus did.

Geist, you are never going to die. Ever.

 

[Geist]

Yet, “just dying” is exactly what Jesus did.

Geist, you are never going to die. Ever.

Christ had advantages I obviously lack.

Its worth noting his disciples were armed.

Luke 22:36

And He said to them, "But now, whoever has a money belt is to take it along, likewise also a bag, and whoever has no sword is to sell his coat and buy one.

There is no prohibition against self-defense (or defense of others) in either the Bible or the Catechism.

 

[Julia_Mae]

Christ had advantages I obviously lack.

Its worth noting his disciples were armed.

And when Peter sought to defend Jesus and cut off the soldier’s ear with his sword, what did Jesus do?

 

[Chaplain777]

Now, this may be by materialist atheist background talking, but isn’t it better to make the other guy the martyr?

If everyone had laid down and died at the hands of the Moslems invading Europe from Spain and the Ottoman Empire to be martyred wouldn’t that have been the obvious end of Christianity?

They’d have turned the Vatican into a mosque like they did Sancta Sophia in Constantinople.



So, its probably not what one should die for, but one should die fighting for.

That was General Patton’s attitude, but he was in command of the Army at the time.
They are not talking about being a pacifist in the face of the enemy, the point they are trying to get across is, if confronted with the situation of “recant or die” you’re not likely to Rambo your way out of it. I, like you, hope to be able to go down swingin’. But it won’t be like the barbarian hordes rushing your homestead, more like gradual erosion of your rights until we are in this type scenario where we really have no choices other than to die for our faith or live without it. You dig?

 

[Geist]

And when Peter sought to defend Jesus and cut off the soldier’s ear with his sword, what did Jesus do?

And so why did he command his disciples to carry swords while they were away from Him?

 

[Julia_Mae]

And so why did he command his disciples to carry swords while they were away from Him?

I think it was symbolic. I mean, He also referred to Himself as the Temple that would be rebuilt in three days. He called us sheep. Not a single Apostle in all of the Acts or anywhere I ever heard of fought, physically, against their oppression and execution.

Specifically: turn the other cheek, give them your tunic also, go two miles instead of one.

 

[Lochias]

Again I stand by my first post in this thread, I think its better to die fighting for your faith than just dying. If you’re historically inclined read up on the many attempted Muslim invasions of Europe and how they were repelled; it was by weapons, not martyrdom.

God bless!

The question is not what you’d do if you had loaded guns. The question is, what would you choose to do if you were in a situation where the only way to avoid death was to recant your faith. Where death or renouncing your faith were the only two possible outcomes.