The pen is mightier than the sword unless some barbarian is trying to lop off your head. At that point, a sword is mightier until the threat is neutralized.
This morning, a respected friend of mine posted the following: “AP reported last night Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was asked to evacuate Kyiv at the behest of the U.S. government but turned down the offer. An American official tells me Zelenskyy said, ‘The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.’”
When the dust of a conflict finally settles, a pen can then be used to offer our reasons for using a sword. It can also craft a warning for those in a future context why after experiencing the pain of a life and death conflict that using a pen is always a preferable first choice until the barbarians arrive.
If young David had a choice, he would have used a pen to write an appeal to his brothers and the nation of Israel not succumb to the threats of Goliath and the Philistine army. In that encounter, the time for a pen had passed and a stone in the forehead of Goliath was what turned the tide, not a well-penned appeal to an unyielding barbarian.
Some of our understanding of reality in matters of faith has been constructed within the insulated halls of religious academia or in coffee shop bible studies where no real life and death threat is approaching our table of discussion. We are in a moment of history when the harsh realities of life will redefine some aspects of our faith as we move through the blood and grit of physical and spiritual conflict.
Once again my brother Elkins the wisdom of God dispensed through you is speaking volumes. Indeed, applying God’s wisdom to differentiate between the “pen” and the “sword”; the spiritual and the physical is much needed as the spiritual warfare intensifies and even manifest physically.
The Word of God informs us that governments bear the sword of the Lord to execute vengeance on those who are wicked (Romans 13:4). Thus, the “redefining of some elements of our faith” is really an adjustment to wrapped theologies, that view physical force exerted by God ordained governments and protective services under their regime as wrong. The theology of God’s Word is constant and clear but must be rightly divided through study guided by the Holy Spirit. The elements of our faith is unadulterated. It is religious theology that must conform to the faith that makes not ashamed.
Yours in Christ,
Apostle Jonathan Khan.
It seems strange that which government bears the sword for attacking the wicked depends upon which side a mile marker one is born upon. It is the further complicated when the two sides of that mile marker have different views of who and what is wicked. Christians should understand that Paul was writing about how to survive under harsh regimes and he was not in fact claiming that the Barbary Coast should be obeyed as they enslaved your fellow sailors as their wielding the sword against the wicked.