(ThyBlackMan.com) The news that is sure to captivate a global audience broke late on yesterday evening: Osama Bin Laden is dead. To be more specific – Osama Bin Laden has been killed. To humanize it: Osama Bin Laden has been murdered.
And though it would seem that the ecclesiastically old age of “a time to kill” is fitting, a message has already come from the Vatican instructing Christians not to rejoice over the killing of human being. But in the shadow 
of the Salem Witch Trials and Spanish Inquisition, it would seem that Catholicism should be the last to speak up against murder. What about the Christian zealots who seemed to condone the heinous acts of Loughner – the crazed young man that, amongst the other murders he committed, managed to gain national attention for shooting Gabrielle Giffords? They proclaimed that he was sent by the Lord to exact punishment for the political stances she took.
But Christianity isn’t just marred by the bloodstains on the hands of a few of its own madmen – the Lord Himself called the Israelites to mass murder entire nations as they entered into the Promise Land to claim that which He had given them in the name of Kingdom expansion. They received the green light to kill men, women and children in such a way that no remnant of their lifestyle (primarily the customs of their religious worship) could intermingle with and corrupt the worship of the ONE TRUE GOD.
So who is right? Why would a God of love condone killing at all? This is the quiet war that I believe many Christians struggle with in accepting the Biblical accounts of both the life of the New Testament and the death of the Old Testament. And while this is a rationality that I have struggled with personally, I feel as though I have found an answer regarding how the slaughter of entire nations of peoples in the Old Testament is justifiable by the command of the Lord.
As I’ve come to understand and embrace the spiritual warfare that is going on around us every day and the role that Christians play within it, the answer has been revealed to me. In actively seeking out deliverance for myself, and both my earthly and Christian families – I now understand. When I speak of “deliverance,” I speak plainly of exorcisms: casting out demons/unclean spirits just as Jesus and His disciples did and as He instructed us to do in Mark 16:15-18.
You see, the Old Testament very often and frequently provided a set up for what was to happen in the New Testament. Rather, the things that the law attempted to show the Israelites (aside for their sins) was how to live as a chosen people – holy and pure unto the Lord. This holiness is the righteousness that Christians inherit and are charged to maintain through the Lordship of Jesus Christ: our risen Lord and Savior. As Hebrews 10:1 states:
‘The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming – not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.’ (New International Version)
As we walk in the light of Christ and come out of our former darkness, one of the good things that has come is the release of prisoners: those who are spiritually bound by generational bonds to unclean spirits. For if Christ is the Light of the world and the devil and his crew are the darkness within it, then we must believe the physics and spiritual truth of 1 John 1:5:
‘This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.’
Physics says that same matter cannot occupy the same space at the same time. But likewise, how possible is it to have light and darkness exist in the same exact space? It is impossible. In casting out demons from ourselves, our loved ones and our fellow heirs in Christ, we are separating the darkness from the light. We are to be diligent and vigilant in what is spiritual warfare. We are to take no prisoners. We are to destroy these squatters – these usurpers of what is the Lord’s. We are His temples and instruments used to exact this separation.
~
The Light Knight
Vigilant watchers
Must kill demonic squatters
With due diligence.~
The previous haiku plays on the Dark Knight: the Batman. However, while his one law as a vigilante is to preserve life, we are meant to assist in actively destroying that which is in direct opposition to God.
To help us understand the extent to which we are to pursue this, I believe God, in His infinite wisdom and foresight, had the Israelites utterly destroy peoples that were opposed to Him and in many instances, were doing so by serving gods that were the very principalities (high ranking fallen angels) that preside over the demonic activity we are battling today. There is to be no mercy for them as they are in the last throes of a battle that has already been won.
Any parts of our lives that we have intentionally and unintentionally set up altars to their service – any part of our lives where we have tolerated their existence and welcomed them as customs and traditions must be annihilated in the presence of a righteous and jealous God.
That is why this is the time for me to speak out against the pagan symbols of Easter. That is why this is the time to throw out my seemingly harmless Hip Hop music. That is why this is the time for me to actively cast out rebellious spirits in my son. That is why this is the time, as the head of my household, I confess my sins to my wife so that we can pray for one another and cast out the old and potentially new spiritual strongholds in our lives on a daily basis. That is why this is the time to highlight and get rid of the traditions within the Church that are choking the life and Spirit out of His people. And that is why the time to kill the spiritual impurity is now.
~
You’re Killin’ Me!
a.k.a.
A Righteous KillTo build righteousness
Within, a time to kill guilds
Of flesh must commence.~
‘To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.’ – Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
SELAH
Staff Writer; Reggie Legend
Can find more about this writer over at; http://www.steelwaterspoetry.com
Also available as a Keynote Speaker – Book him Today; Speakerwiki – Reggie Legend