Just so you understand where I'm coming from here, I'm a Calvinist. All 5 TULIP points. The two that apply here are I - "Iirresistible Grace", and P - "Perseverance of the Saints".
So, if that young fella is destined for Salvation, he won't break into my house while I'm home. He'll either break into someone else's house, or just pass out drunk and skip it for that night. He will be "persevered" until such time as he's ready to accept the Grace he's destined for.
And that Grace WILL come to him, if he's meant for it. He can run, he can hide, but he cannot avoid it forever. God will eventually get him if he's one of God's People. God's will cannot be thwarted forever. We as mortals are emphatically NOT more powerful than God. We cannot stymie his plan.
So, If I CAN kill him, then he was never meant to be Saved. If I CAN kill him, then his portion was always meant to be Perdition.
Taking a life is traumatic. I've been traumatized killing animals to eat, much less humans, but I didn't allow that to let me starve to death. Neither will I allow it to get in the way of defending my family - "A man who will not take care of his own family is worse than an Unbeliever". Some times I reckon, you have to choose between the love for your own people, and the love for the strangers who attack them. In my case, I know which love wins out.
If that makes me "evil" in the eyes of some, then so be it. That's something I'll have to live with, not them.
If I'm wrong in that, then, like Samson who brought down the temple on the heads of guilty and innocent alike, I will have to take that up in due course of time with God. Until that time comes, folks who think they can attack mine with impunity should probably re-think that.
It will be less traumatic for the both of us.
.
So, if that young fella is destined for Salvation, he won't break into my house while I'm home. He'll either break into someone else's house, or just pass out drunk and skip it for that night. He will be "persevered" until such time as he's ready to accept the Grace he's destined for.
And that Grace WILL come to him, if he's meant for it. He can run, he can hide, but he cannot avoid it forever. God will eventually get him if he's one of God's People. God's will cannot be thwarted forever. We as mortals are emphatically NOT more powerful than God. We cannot stymie his plan.
So, If I CAN kill him, then he was never meant to be Saved. If I CAN kill him, then his portion was always meant to be Perdition.
Taking a life is traumatic. I've been traumatized killing animals to eat, much less humans, but I didn't allow that to let me starve to death. Neither will I allow it to get in the way of defending my family - "A man who will not take care of his own family is worse than an Unbeliever". Some times I reckon, you have to choose between the love for your own people, and the love for the strangers who attack them. In my case, I know which love wins out.
If that makes me "evil" in the eyes of some, then so be it. That's something I'll have to live with, not them.
If I'm wrong in that, then, like Samson who brought down the temple on the heads of guilty and innocent alike, I will have to take that up in due course of time with God. Until that time comes, folks who think they can attack mine with impunity should probably re-think that.
It will be less traumatic for the both of us.
.