Ah, I see. Christians are supposed to let anyone who feels like it assault and murder them whenever they feel like it because if they defend themselves from being assaulted and murdered someone might get the wrong idea.
Does this extend to the wife and children too?
^ Has it occurred to you that someone might get the wrong idea about Christianity if you DO NOT stop them from assaulting and murdering you and your family?
If I saw someone who could stop a murder refuse to do so, I would think the person a cowardly, evil, morally blighted person and would want NOTHING to do with their belief system.
First, there's the inherent moral problem with your position as it violates God's righteousness/justice which is intrinsic to God Himself who is infinitely and immutably righteous. Literally, the word righteous (Gk: dikaios) means "to be just" or "right." Theologically, it refers to the intrinsic characteristic of God wherein He is absolutely just or right and is the ultimate standard of justice and rightness.
Now pay attention. Sins can be placed into two broad categories:
1. Sins of commission: These sins are doing what we should not do. Sins of commission, doing what we should not do, are described by the apostle John in this verse: "Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness" (1 John 3:4).
2. Sins of omission: Sins of omission are not doing what we should do. As James put it, "Anyone... who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins" (James 4:17).
God singled out seven particular sins He cannot abide:
"There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: [l] haughty eyes, [2] a lying tongue, [3] hands that shed innocent blood, [4] a heart that devises wicked schemes, [5] feet that are quick to rush into evil, [6] a false witness who pours out lies and [7] a man who stirs up dissension among brothers. (Prov. 6:16-19).
Simply stated; these are pride, deceit, murder, plotting evil, quickness to do wrong, false testimony, and troublemaking.
It is a serious sin of omission not to stop a murder if you can!
Now the Gospel has never taught us to be pacifists (but rather to seek peace when possible). The reason for this is because pacifism is a catastrophic intellectual and moral failure. The pacifist invokes the ultimate immorality by aiding, abetting, and encouraging evil through the sin of omission. Their excuses fail because they are aiding, abetting, and encouraging evil through the sin of omission.
The moral stance of the Pacifist is, unwittingly perhaps; homicidal, genocidal, fratricidal, suicidal, etc... The Pacifist says, in effect: “There is nothing good worth fighting for and there is nothing so evil worth fighting against.”
As the English philosopher Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” The Pacifist replies, “I am so good that I will do nothing, I will hurt no one, even if that means that good will be destroyed and evil will win. I am so peaceful that I will not discriminate between the goodness of good and the badness of evil, certainly not with enough conviction to take up arms, literally or figuratively, against the triumph of evil over good, of totalitarianism over freedom, of barbarianism over civilization.”
And so the Pacifist aligns with evil itself for in the end, the pacifist is the enabler without whom the triumph of evil would not be possible.
IF there were to ever be a reason to think Christians should not defend themselves here it is.....In my opinion....
Imagine two kids in a room fighting and the parent is in the other room.
One of the kids cries out for help.
The parent walks in and sees both going at it.
The parent breaks them up, and asks who started it.
Both claim the other kid started it.
It's impossible for the parent to know because both are claiming innocence.
If the parent had walked in and seen one kid laying there and taking it, and one kid clearly continuing the aggression, it would be clear who was innocent and who was guilty.
When Christians fight back, it can be sketchy who is innocent and who is guilty.
If Christians don't fight back, the innocent one is easy to identify. (Yes there are probably exceptions to this rule. Save the rant. You get my point.)
It could be possible that Jesus doesn't want us to fight back, that way it will always be clear his children are innocent of not starting a fight.