Dear hopefulson,
Mostly agree with your assessment, and totally agree with guns/weapons not being instruments of Love, Mercy, or Grace, but I'm sure many can say that they can be used to allow them to flourish. Yes, one can look at the fate of the Jews and others as well at the hand of the Nazis. Yet one must also look at the side that sacrificed all to defeat that evil. Was it worth the sacrifice, or better to capitulate and accept the outcome?
I can make no decision for another. It's each person to make. The only ones I have issue with are those who would require it to be one way or the other at the detriment or making the other less for their choices. I cannot walk in their shoes and know the anguish of what they must feel at what they have done. Whether it is to take another's life, or to allow the lives of loved ones to be taken. My prayers are such that if the choice were mine to make, then no man would have to make it, and so the longing for my Lord and Savior's return. Though much of both will be experienced before then, to see an end to it I can say in all honesty say I long for that day when it will be ended!
There are many nuances to this discussion, and many the decision that once done cannot be undone. I would suggest one pray that whichever choice one actually makes, that God's Mercy and Grace will in time follow the making of it.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, and I hope I answered the question you posed to me.
With the Love of Christ Jesus.
YBIC
Nick
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