The sparks of revolution are predicated by moral outrage and/or despair. The unreasonableness and outright immorality of tyranny reach a fever pitch, provoking the oppressed and/or offended party to action. This is when “violence” begins.
In speaking about the kingdom of heaven and the tyranny of the Old Testament Law, Jesus said,
“...from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force. For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John (Matt 11:12-13, See also Luke 16:16).” Jesus was speaking on the one hand, about the pharisees, who had been trying to force their way into the kingdom of heaven through their personal righteousness, by trying to obey the prophets and the Law. But Jesus Himself denied that it was possible to reach the kingdom of heaven with the righteousness of the pharisees. On the other hand, Jesus was speaking about the violence with which His true followers were entering the kingdom of heaven. Martin Luther, the spiritual reformer, spoke of the aggression and boldness with which the Christian was able to enter the Kingdom of God due to the death and resurrection of Christ, the violence, he might say, of entering the kindgom of God by grace through faith alone. As Ephesians 3:12 states, “we have boldness and confident access through faith in Christ.”
The lesson here in particular is the kind of violence being used. You cannot access spiritual victory over tyranny by means of physical, emotional or mental labours. Just as you cannot be reborn or have a revolution into a new system by means of a likewise tainted source, neither will corruption overcome corruption. The project of the pharisees therefore would inevitably end in failure. Using the law to combat spiritual death was a lesson in futility. It is incomparably absurd, like literally trying to destroy a tank with a team of lawyers; what we would call a categorical error. Violence must be of the right degree, as well as the right kind if it is to end tyranny.
Jesus knew the right weapon against the power of death: Himself. When accused (unjustly) of being the 'rule of demons', Jesus simply stated that if Satan was casting out his own demons, his kingdom of death would not stand (Matt12:26). With His miracles and status as the incarnate God, Jesus indicated that He Himself was not just a force against the tyranny of sin and death, but also the only 'weapon' against such forces,
"But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can anyone enter the strong man's home and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house. He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters (Matt 12:28-30)."
If this were anybody but God in the flesh, I guarantee you he'd be another tyrant, amongst other not so good things. It's no coincidence that then Jesus stated the consequence of forsaking the Spirit of God as sure damnation (Matt 12:31). Crudely put, if you discard your only effective weapon against a deadly threat, annihilation is only a matter of time.
My point is this, you must accurately appraise the kind of threat being posed by the tyranny you face. Is it physical, mental, emotional, spiritual? Is it other or self or both? A tyranny may in fact pose a threat to all of these, but the tyranny itself, the source of the tyranny must be identified and uprooted. Sometimes it is necessary to uproot one tyranny before dismantling another. It is quite common that before spiritual, mental or emotional liberation can occur, physical safety or health is necessary. But this is not always the case. Once you know what you are destroying, then you know what to pick up, the pen, the Bible, the rifle, or a plate of cookies.
It is my belief that spiritual tyranny is the root cause of all tyranny. This kind of tyranny cannot be directly combatted by any other means than the gospel. However, there are now other moral challenges and realities we must face in a world devastated by human moral failure and rebellion against the rulership of God. Spiritual death has afflicted every part of human existence; there is now also a moral imperative that there are mouths to feed, broken hearts to nurture, minds shattered and helpless people to protect. To ignore one is to ignore another. But that's a topic for an entirely different post.
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