How Should Christians Respond When Their Families and Communities Are Under Persistent Physical Terrorist Attack?
1) Direct Answer
Christians must stand without hatred. Pray, watch, and act wisely. Do not take vengeance. Protect innocent life committed to your care, cooperate with rightful authority, be ready to flee if needed, and keep a clean testimony—loving enemies while refusing evil.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- Pray and trust: “Call upon Me in the day of trouble” (Psalm 50:15). The church prayed under threat and God answered (Acts 12:5). We are told to pray for all in authority “that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life” (1 Timothy 2:1-2).
- No private revenge: “Avenge not yourselves… overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:19-21). Jesus said love your enemies and pray for them (Matthew 5:44).
- Lawful protection and order: God ordains civil authority as “a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil” (Romans 13:1-4). We may work with rightful authorities for the safety of our families and neighbors.
- Guard and build: Under persistent attack, God’s people watched, prayed, and secured their families while continuing the work (Nehemiah 4:7-18). “They which builded… every one had his sword girded.” They did not launch vengeance; they guarded and kept building.
- Flee if necessary: “When they persecute you in this city, flee into another” (Matthew 10:23). Paul escaped plots rather than answer violence with violence (Acts 9:23-25).
- Spiritual warfare first: “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal” (2 Corinthians 10:4). Put on the whole armor of God—truth, righteousness, faith, the Word, prayer (Ephesians 6:10-18).
- Wisdom and prudence: “A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself” (Proverbs 22:3). Joseph prepared in advance to preserve life (Genesis 41).
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- Personal insult? Turn the other cheek. Immediate threat to innocent life? Love protects. Restraining or stopping an attacker to prevent murder is not vengeance; it is stewardship of the lives God placed under your care. But the heart must stay free of hatred and bloodlust; judgment belongs to God and to lawful authority, not to private revenge.
- Those who say “retaliate and repay” contradict Jesus and Romans 12—no private vengeance.
- Those who say “never defend” overlook Nehemiah’s watchfulness and the duty of love to shield the weak. Love does no harm, and love also prevents harm to those entrusted to you.
- If staying means certain ruin for your family, Scripture gives liberty to flee. If staying is required, stand watchfully, pray fervently, and keep your spirit clean.
4) Reinforcing Statement
Now notice, the Bible’s path is narrow but clear: pray much, keep your heart right, cooperate with rightful authority, protect life without revenge, be ready to flee, and overcome evil with good while trusting God to fight for you.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 6:E-13
Though the messenger to the Thyatirean Age was Saint Columba, I want to dwell a little on the life of Saint Patrick as an example to us and also to give the lie to Rome's claim that Saint Patrick was any more one of her than was Joan of Arc. Patrick was born to the sister of Saint Martin in the little town of Bonavern on the banks of the river Clyde. One day while playing on the shoreline with his two sisters, pirates approached and kidnapped all three. Where the sisters went, no one knows, but Patrick (his name wa...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 4:E-23
Here is where you have to believe again in the love, and goodness and wisdom of God. This, too, is needful. Remember He admonished, "Take no thought for the morrow, what ye shall eat or what ye shall put on. Your Father knoweth the things ye have need of. He Who clothes the lily and feeds the sparrow shall do much more for you. These physical things are not the true basic necessities of your life, for a man's life consisteth not of the things he possesses. But rather seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteo...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 2:E-6
"I was in the Spirit." Isn't that just beautiful? My, I love that. You could just call those words, "The whole of the Christian life." If we are going to live as Christians, we have to be in HIS Spirit. John was not talking about being in his own spirit. That would not have brought these visions. It had to be the Spirit of God. It has to be the Spirit of God with us, too, or all our efforts are in vain. Paul said, "I will pray in the Spirit, I will sing in the Spirit, I will live in the Spirit." If there is anythin...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 8:E-84
What does He mean by the "word of His patience?" Hebrews 6:13-15. "For when God made promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater, He sware by Himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise." You see the Spirit is speaking about the Word of God which is given to us. To wait for the fulfillment of that Word required patience even as it did in the case of Abraham. He endured as seeing Him Who is invi...
Perseverance
62-0218 §32
Jesus said over there, "The works that I do shall you do also. A little while and the world, cosmos, sees Me no more." That's the world order, "They see Me no more." Many church members, fine people going to church, living under that thought that they're all right. Why, you're not all right as a church member. You're a citizen. You might try to do right, but, friend, let me tell you, you must be borned again. You don't come into the church, you don't come in the church by shaking hands, you don't come in the church...