Apparently the Lord looks upon those that offer their life in the service of others with honor......as I said the very first gentile convert to accept Christianity was indeed a career soldier. (ACTS 10:1) There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band. BD

BD lets make commentary on the entire chapter 10 and chapter 11 that follows. this must be done to get the meaning of the main theme of both chapters. I cannot see how it does any good to choose a sentence or a few words and assign a meaning to that sentence when the entire chapter and often chapters around it have to be read to get the real meaning of the words. The bible is a big book and we could group together a sentence here and a sentence there and make it say anything we want. Thankfully we both know that is not how its to be read and the entire chapter and those before and following must be taken into account to understand it.

Luke mentions that Cornelius was a centurian, one who gave alms to the poor and was well thought of by the Jewish community for his treatment and respect of them. Luke does this to illustrate the main theme of chapters 10 and 11 which is that gentiles were being saved , baptized and receiving the Holy Spirit. Even soldiers were being saved Luke threw in the fact the man was a soldier and that even soldiers were being saved. That is not the main theme of the chapter. The main theme of chapter 10 is the sheet Peter sees in a vision. the sheet is filled with unclean and clean animals per the Jewish dietary rules under the laws. As you know Peter is told by God that these dietary laws are not to stand in the way of spreading the gospel of Christ to the gentiles and indeed later peter eats with them in his obedience to God . Something I am sure Peter did not relish as he was a staunch Jew and never had eaten what he considered unclean animals. But God said to Peter that he had made all clean in the vision Peter is given.

Then we go on to chapter 11 a continuation of chapter 10.

Nowhere in chapter 11 is the fact the man was a soldier even mentioned, because the main theme was not that he was a soldier. It was that gentiles were being saved.

Acts11:1 The apostles and the brother throughout Judea heart that the gentiles had also received the Word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem , the circumcised believers criticized him and said. You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them?

Peter began and explained everything to them precisely as it happened. I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision.

Please do read the entirety of chapters 10 and 11 but for this question lets skip to verse 17 and 18 of chapter 11 so I do not have to type the entire chapter.

verse 17: So if God gave them the same gift he gave us , who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God! When they heard this they had no further objections and praised God, saying , so then, God has granted the gentiles repentance unto life.

verses 17 and 18 sum up the entire theme of both chapters 10 and 11 in Acts. " God has granted the gentiles repentence " is the theme. A secondary theme is that even a soldier has been saved.

The statement was made in fact that he was a solider, and not only that but a devout man that worshiped God...even before he became a Christian...the point was that because someone chooses to be soldier does not exclude that person form being a good and moral person....or in fact a Christian. Was one of the prerequisites for Cornelius to become a Christian to give up his practice of being a soldier? No of course not. The main topic of this entire thread is that of military service...is it not? The fact that Cornelius was chosen to be the first gentile convert and a soldier was in the context of my post, and presented only in that context...and it in fact proved via the use of scriptural truth....that it does not matter if one is in the service of his nation as a soldier. Just what is the point that you are making? You can not prove that Cornelius was not a soldier, I miss the object of your study...if you want to talk and reason on another topic besides how the scriptures describe what effect that being a soldier has upon anyone accepting the Christian faith, it needs to be addressed as to just what is the purpose of the study, and we shall proceed....along the lines of any given topic and the Scriptural Truth thereof. BD

BD

If I did not make you understand with my last post then I did not do a good enough job of explaining I guess.

Let me try again.

If you go back and read my last post , I meant that whenever you pull out some sentences or a phrase from the bible its important to look at the entire chapter and perhaps several chapters to see what the meaning is.

I am not saying its impossible to be a soldier and not be a christian . I am sure many are christians in fact I know some. The ones I know would have a really hard time killing somebody because they do not believe that is what Christ wants them to do.

BD people come to Christ from just where they are. Christ said he came not to the church of his day but to the sinners. So if a prostitute finds Christ , should she continue in her sin? If a thief finds Christ does he continue to steal? You get my point?

Nowhere in the bible are we told what cornelius did after he was saved and got the Holy Spirit. For all we know Cornelius might have lived out the rest of his life as a soldier, but if his Christianity was real and we are led to believe it was, what would cornelius do if his commanders told him to wipe out a village of rebels that included many innocent women and children? As a christian should cornelius follow that order? And I am not talking about a christian village I said a rebel Roman village.

People come to the Lord just where they are , and many times I have talked with soldiers in war time , my own brothers included during the first desert storm, for whom the fact they might be required to kill, had never occurred to them. And they could not be sure because of the teachings of Christ that was not a sin. Sure soldiers should think about killing before they enter the military, but for many the fear of facing their own death is just what the Holy Spirit needs to begin to draw them closer to what God wants to teach them. And then they realize they are not sure killing is right , even for a soldier, at least a christian soldier who does not want to go to judgment with the blood of a innocent man on his hands.

And come now BD, in every war young men go off who have no idea what they are facing till they get in the middle of battle. Then with all their heart many wish they were any where else but in that battle. Can any soldier say with no doubt when he kills in battle and does not know the men he killed that they all deserved to die? I do not think so.

What somebody said that "JESUS SAID"


USING A CORRUPTED BOOK as thier personal AUTHORITY.

SHE (the holy spirit) put all those books out on the sidewalk.....NONE of them hold THE LIVING WORD........that comes from INSIDE......not OUTSIDE.


THOSE WHO HAVE TAKEN AUTHORITY AS THE TRUTH
RATHER THAN TRUTH AS THE AUTHORITY ARE IGNORANT BIBLE THUMPERS
Zeitgeist - The Movie, 2007

and they WILL make life difficult for everybody.

la la la la.

Jesus is a LIVING SPIRIT

not dead words to be used for arguement.

HE says to ME

YouTube - dido thank you

I SAY ta HIM.....YOU'RE WELCOME BUCKO

The first problem is that you have beleifs and morals based on a sky fairy, so you should not take the bible literaly in the sense of giving in to an another. But just remember if everyone goes for "An eye for an eye" then the world will go blind!

Jesus also according to A Bilble said

" do not think i came to bring peace on earth ( as evry one says) , i did not come to bring peace but a SWORD !!

THANKYOU.....for being smart .........;-)

http://www.arguewitheveryone.com/229304-post20.html

“Do not think that I come to bring the peace upon earth: I came NOT to send peace but the sword.

For I come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and the man’s enemies shall be they of his own household.

He, who loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he, who loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me. And he, who does not take up his cross and follow Me, is not worthy of Me” (10: 34-38

Christ did not bring peace, but the sword by Fr. Louis Claude Fillion - Forgotten Truths @ TraditionInAction.org

PEACE MY ASS........you can't get it without putting GOD in GODS PLACE....

it's a scientific universal principal....and a mathmatical fact....not a feeling.

don't buy it till ya try it.......IT'S FREE.

BE A SCIENTIST.........do some experiments yourself......HE don't want to be worshiped......He just wants to be recognized.

BUT.......for your LOVE............well

For your love.
For your love.
For your love.
I'd give you everything and more, and that's for sure.
For your love.
I'd bring you diamond rings and things right to your door.
For your love.

To thrill you with delight,
I'll give you diamonds bright.
Double dates that will excite,
To make you dream of me at night.

For your love.
For your love.
For your love.

For your love, for your love,
I would give the stars above.

For your love, for your love,
I would give you all I could.
http://www3.telus.net/theguardians/l_euphoria.jpg
For your love.
For your love.
For your love.
I'd give the moon if it were mine to give.
For your love.
I'd give the stars and the sun 'fore I live....
For your love.

To thrill you with delight,
I'll give you diamonds bright.
Double dates that will excite,
To make you dream of me at night.

For your love.
For your love.
For your love.
For your love.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus, 1962
^I^

http://www3.telus.net/theguardians/l_gazebo1600.jpg

THE WHITE TATANKA

Live Search: THE WHITE TATANKA

Tatanka Iyotake or Tatanka Iyotanka or Ta-Tanka I-Yotank , first named ... performing the ghost dance
__________________
If you don't KNOW where you come from...you WILL wind up going nowhere.

That goes for Ideas, institutions as well as individuals :-I

YouTube - - You CAN Handle The Truth - TRANCE Form America - 3of7


^I^

You see here in lays the problem...you want to live your life in the way that you "feel" about any given life situation. Whereas if one uses the word of God to direct their life...one does not have to place hypothetical theories into practice. No, the scriptures do no say nor conclude what in fact this faithful man done with the rest of his life....by what authority do you conclude what he would have done? We do not know, and anything that you present would be only "speculation". If anyone wants to know "exactly" how God would want us to act...just open the book and find a biblical example of such...it indeed is hard for one to live a "Christian" life...if they act contrary to what has been revealed by God....via direct inspiration and authority of Jesus by the actions of the Holy Spirit. When he as spoken one thing....why assume that he now would act contrary to what He has already spoken? BD