{"id":108,"date":"2010-09-15T19:52:08","date_gmt":"2010-09-16T00:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skygov.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/15\/do-not-make-a-religion-out-of-your-patriotism-no-automatic-sainthood-for-americas-soldiers-killed-in-action\/"},"modified":"2022-01-18T21:58:25","modified_gmt":"2022-01-19T03:58:25","slug":"do-not-make-a-religion-out-of-your-patriotism-no-automatic-sainthood-for-americas-soldiers-killed-in-action-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hj.kingdomfromheaven.com\/?p=108","title":{"rendered":"Do not make a religion out of your patriotism: no automatic sainthood for America’s soldiers Killed in Action"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is ridiculous to compare Jesus with American soldiers, especially those in Iraq.  They may risk their lives to defend the American Federal Government's interests on the other side of the planet, but I don't see any American soldiers voluntarily laying down their lives for anyone — not at all like Jesus, the Lamb of God, did for the World.
\n\t 
\n\tJesus is the Prince of Peace, the only begotten Son of the God of Peace, who offered Himself as the Lamb of God to establish the Gospel of Peace.  This same Jesus preached, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they are the sons of God."  What does that say about what Jesus thinks of the war-makers, particularly of those who make war over reasons that turn out to be false?  Where are the world-threatening weapons of mass destruction that American soldiers invaded Iraq to remove for our safety?  Those world-threatening weapons of mass destruction are still no where to be found in Iraq or anywhere near it, (except Israel, which has over 150 nuclear weapons according to a President Carter, a former commander-in-Chief of America's soldiers and a veteran of nuclear submarines in America's Navy).  So, please, let's spare the automatic sainthood concept of American soldiers who die in battle — it sounds too much like the twisted martyr syndrome of Muslim suicide bombers of today or of the bizarrely suicidal Japanese kamikazees of WW2. 
\n\t 
\n\tLet's not make a religion out of patriotism — it been proven dangerous time and time again since WW2's fascists of Italy, Nazi's of Germany, and kamikazee's of Japan, to the brainwashed Soviet Communists of the Cold War to the suicide bombers of Palestine & Iraq.  Let's not emulate the examples of the enemies of peace.
\n\t 
\n\tLet's just follow Jesus, the Prince of Peace, the Son of the God of Peace by promoting the Gospel of Peace.  And there is nothing in the Gospel, the real Gospel, the New Testament, that promotes physical warfare.  Jesus Himself set down the opposite tradition — in the ultimate way, the Cross.  Rather than mount an army of disciples or of angels, Jesus laid down His life on the Cross for sinners, for you & me, for Iraqis & Americans, for Palestinians & Israelis, European & Arab & Chinese and African and Indian and everyone in between.  Jesus laid down His life peacefully, without strife or violence, and brought real freedom for "whosever will."
\n\t 
\n\tFreedom does not come from soldiers.  If it did, the Soviets would have had plenty of freedom because they had plenty of soldiers.  So would the Chinese… and even Saddam's Iraq of yesteryear.  Many countries with many valiant, fighting soldiers have come and gone without peace since ancient times until now  — and they had no freedom.
\n\t 
\n\tFreedom comes from God, from obeying Jesus, from decisions in the hearts of men when they hear the Gospel of Freedom, the Gospel of Christ.  Where the Gospel is strong, there is freedom.  Where the Gospel is weak, there is no freedom.  And the Gospel, unlike Islam, is not spread by the sword.  The Gospel of Peace is sown in peace by those who make peace.
\n\t 
\n\t2 Corinthians 3:17<\/font><\/a><\/strong>
\n\tNow the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord <\/strong>is, there is liberty<\/b>.
\n\t 
\n\tGalatians 3:5<\/font><\/u><\/strong><\/a>
\n\tHe therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit<\/strong>, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

\n\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is ridiculous to compare Jesus with American soldiers, especially those in Iraq.  They may risk their lives to defend the American Federal Government's interests on the other side of the planet, but I don't see any American soldiers voluntarily laying down their lives for anyone — not at all like Jesus, the Lamb of God, did for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hj.kingdomfromheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hj.kingdomfromheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hj.kingdomfromheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hj.kingdomfromheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hj.kingdomfromheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hj.kingdomfromheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":302,"href":"https:\/\/hj.kingdomfromheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions\/302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hj.kingdomfromheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hj.kingdomfromheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hj.kingdomfromheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}