(June 18, 2015 at 11:44 am)Catholic_Lady Wrote:(June 18, 2015 at 11:18 am)abaris Wrote: From the top of my head without having the exact quote at my hands, the thing about coming to bring a sword would fall into that category.
I know what you are talking about.
You have to understand the context this was said in, and you have to look at the entirety of the message brought by Christ. Jesus’ sword was never a literal one. This is made especially clear not only by Jesus' entire message and example, but by the fact that when Peter took up a sword to defend Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus very clearly rebuked him and told him to put away his sword, saying "for all who draw the sword will die by the sword”.
I think what he meant was that there will always be conflict between good and evil, as there should be, since we shouldn't just give up on goodness. The sword meant we should "fight" (figuratively) for goodness and not give up on it. The early Christians especially (and many Christians throughout history and even today) were severely prosecuted and tortured and killed in horrendous ways for their beliefs, but they still stood their ground in the midst of death. Even though we should seek to be at peace with all men, we should remember that Jesus warned us we will be hated for His sake by many people out there.
Wait, earlier you said that the OT was allegory but the NT was literal ... But here you are ascribing a different meaning to what he said -- and that is the antithesis of literalism.
