Bible Use: Tool for Change and Good Morals vs Terrorism - Essay Sample

Introduction

The Bible is one of the most effective tools for change and good morals in society. The use of the Bible has been depicted as a tool for character adjustment in pursuit of eternal life. For instance, it has been arguably confirmed that the Bible is key to the initiation of sound change. The use of the Bible has been portrayed in different vital occasions such as churches and other religious gatherings. Terrorism, on the other hand, is an act under which a group of individuals or a person inflicts pain by violating the fundamental human rights of a particular group. Terrorism circles around the use of excessive and unlawful force to injure an innocent group of individuals. Terrorism is highly promoted by the terrorists who are also the individuals partaking the act of terrorism. This paper aims to discuss how the Bible influence terrorism.

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What is Christian Terrorism?

Christian terrorism is the act of terrorism committed by groups of people or individuals and justified by Christian beliefs and goals. These acts are backed up by the use of the Christian interpretation of Bible. The link between terrorism and Religion has grown widely in the present society. Different groups have been linked to terrorism as a result of their religious beliefs. Previously Islamic faith has been highly related to the occurrence of terrorism due to their opposition towards the Christianity groups (MacArthur, 2017). However, the evolution of terrorism has resulted in the event of new trends that have involved the use of Bible to mastermind the terrorist attacks. The continuous influence of the Bible on terrorism has resulted in more significant pain and suffering within the society. This has attributed to the occurrence of Christian terrorism, which has directly used Bible as a tool to escalate terrorism instead of promoting the will of God.

Jewish Underground

According to Hoffman, 2013 there was a group of Jews called the Jewish Underground or the mastered among the Christian Religion, who plotted an act of terror purporting to blow up the Dome of the Rock in 1984. The rise of the group was facilitated by the signing of the Camp David accords. The Jewish underground group opposed the peace treaty that both Egypt and Israel signed as they viewed this act as a motive for establishing Palestine.

In the Bible, the Jew hated the Samaritans and mostly referred to them as "dogs" or half breeds in the book of (Deuteronomy 7:3-5) (James et al., 2019). After the fall of Israel to the Assyrian rule, the Samaritans began getting married to the Assyrians. This was the primary cause of hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans. Secondly, the much antagonism was further fueled by the claim that the Samaritans were the tribe that had an original copy of the law of God referred to us the Pentateuch.

The Jews, however, profoundly rejected this claim as the Samaritans rejected all the other poetry and prophesied books. The second reason the Jews underground terrorist group was due to the proposed settlement project, which aimed at bringing two ethnic groups closer, led to the emergence of new hostilities among the two communities. The Jewish underground was regarded as the most violent anti-Arab terrorist who acted based on terror against terror. The other prolific that used the Bible to back up their acts of terror is the Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of God's family.

Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of God (CSA)

Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of God (CSA), was a terrorist group in the United States headed by a white supremacist known as James Ellison. The Covenant, the Sword, and the arm of God were a terrorist group that identified itself as a Christian identity. Christian identity as a religion made of racist Individuals who believe to be the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; hence they firmly believe to be the descendants of the ancient tribe of Israelites. The CSA led to the formation of a Christian denomination group, which found that the ancient Europeans as the chosen people or generation. Christian identity denomination also viewed the Jews as the cursed generation and referred to them as the descendants of Cain.

The white supremacist interprets the Christian denomination owning that the non-white when it comes to the kingdom of heaven will be enslaved to serve the white people under the leadership of Jesus Christ. They further believe that only the white race will be able to see the paradise, and the mercy of salvation is upon their race. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigations, 2016, the Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of God paramilitary members involved in criminal actives in the united states soil such as illegal smuggling of weapons, circulation of hate speech literature which was intended to trigger chaos and induce hostility among the society members and they were also involved in other criminal activities.

The CSA often plotted their terrorist attacks on government officials. This was initiated after the death of one of their paramilitary member Golden Kahl who died in a federal raid performed in 1983 after he assassinated two United States marshals. As a result, the CSA members targeted government officials, especially those involved in the death of Kahl (Ahmed, 2018). However, the attacks on the Government officials never happened; instead, they attacked a church by setting fires in a homosexual congregation and Jewish centers. The group also initiated a bombing strategy on a natural- gas pipeline.

The Order

The third terrorist group was "The Order," which is situated in the United States of America. It is also known as The Ryan Resistance Movement, which made of white supremacists. They believed that they had been designated by God to be used as weapons for war, according to Jeremiah 51: 20. Most of their finance was from robbery. Some of the successful things they have done included selling pornographic videos and robberies on armored cars.

The order revolted against the United States Government of the Zionist occupation government (ZOG) with the intent of establishing of homeland in the North West Pacific (Ahmed, 2018). The battle plan of the order was entirely detailed in a book, and it conducted its various assassination. Afterward, the leader died in a fire outbreak, which was caused the crossfires encounters by The Order paramilitaries who resisted surrender. As a result of this, the members got involved in a terrific crossfire between them and the federal bureau intelligence authorities, and Robert Mathews lost his life (Merutiu, 2017). Members of the order believed that Jesus Christ was an Aryan and not a Semite .furthermore, the tribes of Israel who were lost are not comprised of Jews. They claimed that the white Anglo-Saxons are indeed the truly chosen generation, making the United States the Promised Land. In their context, the order viewed the Jews as importers and regarded the Jews as the children of Satan who opt to be eliminated.

Terrorist's Use of the Bible

Terrorists use then Bible to carry out battles on other countries or other individuals. For instance, the Covenant, The Sword, and The Arm of God plotted a revenge assassination on the government officials involved in a raid operation that got one of the CSA members killed Gordon Kahl. Gordon Kahl is a supremacist who killed two United States Marshals in a gun shoot out (Wright, 2012). As opposed to the Bible, however, Religion is a crucial tool for these acts as it gives a motive for justifications about the killing and sometimes gives the image to the terrorist and create confidence in them that they are doing it for spiritual matters a scenario called 'religious violence.' Political and social issues are, however, the most causes of terrorist attacks.

Conclusion

In conclusion, continuity of the use of Bible to escalate war has resulted to increase in loss of life within the society. The same ha also resulted in the emergence of repellant groups that advocate for peace regardless of Religion. The continuity of the use of Bible to support for the terrorism actions has directly resulted in the loss of hope and faith in the Bible, this has directly rendered the strong faithful under dilemma between the efficacy of the Bible and its newly perceived terrorist role. This has highly contributed to the increase in the number of religions and Christianity backslide. To improve the situation emphasizes, it should be laid to clean the erosion occurring within the Christians and other groups that are using the Bible to escalate the war and restore the faith in the work the Bible is designated to perform.

References

Ahmed, R. (2018). Terrorist ideologies and target selection. Journal of applied security research, 13(3), 376-390.

Chermak, S. M., Freilich, J. D., Parkin, W. S., & Lynch, J. P. (2012). American terrorism and extremist crime data sources and selectivity bias: An investigation focusing on homicide events committed by far-right extremists. Journal of quantitative criminology, 28(1), 191-218.

Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2016).The Covenant, the Sword, the Arm of the Lord, File: 100-HQ-487200" Memo from 20 May 1985". FBI Vault.

Hoffman, B. (2016). Inside terrorism. Columbia university press.

James, K., Wire, N., Bradfield, J. D., & Moore, S. (2019). The Holy Bible (p. 15). World Publishing Company.

Merutiu, M. (2017). RELIGIOUS JUSTIFICATIONS FOR TERRORISM. Redefining Community in Intercultural Context, 6(1), 199-203.

MacArthur, J. (2017). Terrorism, Jihad, and the Bible. Harper Collins.

Wright, W. C. (2012). Relational leadership: A biblical model for influence and service. InterVarsity Press.