Jesus, Warrior King Subtitled: or Jesus is not a pacifist

former fifties with their fifties: therefore let my life now be precious in thy sight.
15 And the angel of the LORD said unto Elijah, Go down with him: be not afraid of
him. And he arose, and went down with him unto the king.
We have just examined two different accounts of men invoking the judgment of God. In
the first incident, (Luke 9:51-56) the disciples ask "Lord, wilt thou that we command
fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?" As we observed,
Jesus' disciples received a strong rebuke while Elias (Elijah) did not. Why? Simply put,
God saw Elijah was just in his judgment while James and John were unjust.
Dispensationalists, who mistakenly assume that a metamorphosis has taken place in the
Divine Character, would interpret this supposed inconsistency between the New
Testament disciples, James and John, and the Old Testament prophet Elijah according to
their presupposition. To wit: In the Old Testament, the God of Elijah was mean and
exacting, but Jesus, the New Testament God of James and John, reserves all judgment
and is always merciful, regardless of man's heart condition.
This distorted view of the Divine Character will manifest itself in a kind of
schizophrenia in the decisions and judgments of them that embrace it. In the Gospel
proclamation, the law and its righteous judgments reveal God's character. This revelation
of God's character is paramount to the saving of men's souls. If God's ministers present a
perversion of God's character, how then will any of our hearers get a clear revelation of
God? James and John's notion of justice and judgment in this particular instance was
perverse, thus deserving of the Lord's sternest rebuke. How difficult and humbling it
must have been to receive such a harsh rebuke from the Master. May we as Christ's
ministers learn from James and John's mistake, lest we receive a just rebuke from the
Lord as well.
Let us embrace this admonition from Jesus Christ as found in John 7:24:
Judge not according to the appearance, but
judge righteous judgment.
Pastor Williams also cites Psalm 11:5 – The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked
and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.
The LORD's soul hateth him that loveth violence. Amen. Self-defense can hardly be
considered loving violence. Let's imagine five guys are planning to employ violence in
silencing God's minister. They attack and the victim defends himself. If I had to choose
which one loved violence it would have to be the group of five attackers. It is good to