₦airaland Forum

You can only battle violence with violence and you're about to understand why and how

During the days of my Youth service in Ikere-Ekiti, I remember the story of the landlady of a fellow corper. A female.

This landlady was known to rear goats in her compound and was thriving in the business, until one day during my visit, I noticed that her goats weren't as as many as they used to be. I even took note of the absence of a pregnant goat. I got talking with my female corper friend about my observation and she made me realize that all of her landlady goats have been stolen. Even as I write this, I find that revelation difficult to believe, because "fool me once, shame on you, Fool me twice, shame on me"

Could it be possible for someone to steal another person's goats one after the other without such a person taking action, even if that action means selling the remainder of the unstolen goats?

But my surprise didn't end there. It continued after I asked what steps the landlady have taken to recover the stolen goats and or to stop a repeat of the theft and I was given an outstanding and emotionally triggering reply:
"Nothing. She has forgiven the thief"

Let that sink in. Lol

If you haven't let that sink in, I'll now stimulate you to understand the meaning of this story in the way I understand it.

By forgiving a thief that stole all your goats, even the pregnant ones, without catching such a thief, it means that the landlady has resolved that:

1) She'll never rear goats ever again in that compound with her mindset of forgiveness, because if she does, they'll only be stolen. Remember, the thief is still at large. Meaning a source of her landlady's livelihood (a means of cash and goat meat) have been eliminated because of "forgiveness"

2) It means she have subtly accepted the fact that she is a slave for the total gain of another, which in this case is the thief, the 'rightful owner' of her goats

3) She has an opportunity and responsibility to stop the misery of other goat owners who are likely to be stolen from.

All of this misery was brought about, which includes but isn't limited to, the wrong interpretation of a thoroughly edited Bible which not only seek to put powers in the hands of fraudsters in suits and microphones, but offers no spiritual graduation-- you still put your life on hold and run to your pastors to help you interpret a verse after decades, because your brain and spirit is in the backseat. How's can this unhealthy dependence be called growth?

Jesus taught that we should turn the other cheek when slapped, but how can you turn the other cheek when the first slap was powerful enough to take your life?
How can you turn the other cheek when you're already dead!?

If angels are turning the other cheek when demons attack them, do you think angels would still be existing?
You think they wouldn't have been destroyed and probably gone extinct?

It takes wisdom to discern when to receive love and when to give love. It also takes wisdom to say 'no" when offered that which isn't love

Back to the story ---
And when I offered a solution that this landlady was supposed to follow up the thief with juju-induced temporary madness or a "take broom and sweep the ground till I come" jazz, I was met with resistance like "Christ blood have eradicated the ways of the old...blah blah blah" and I just laughed. People truly perish because of lack of truth

How can you really forgive someone that have wronged you when that person hasn't faced justice or when justice isn't or won't be on the menu?
Imagine remembering an experience when you thought that you've forgiven someone, only to feel that emotional turbulence that immediately turns your mood sour? How's that forgiveness?

Imagine that you wrote an exam and submitted only for someone to cancel out your name and write theirs, claiming full ownership of your answer script which you spend countless "till-day-break" just to read and assimilate prior and write on

Now using the twisted teachings of Jesus on forgiveness by various conmen, let me guess what you'd do in that situation: You'll forgive the examination script thief with a smile on your angry face and wait till next semester to write the course again after an outstanding carryover that drags your GPA to the deepest pit. lol.

Well, goodluck with the misery you brought upon yourself.
Left to me, I'll battle violence with violence.
I'll report the examination thief to from the mid-level ranking to the highest ranking school authority. I'll challenge the script thief to a rewrite just so to prove my claim of script ownership, and after my claim has been found valid, I'll arrest the examination thief script and demand financial payment for the stress and negative emotional turbulence I went through. Only after this error have been justified, will I find the easiness to forgive.

NOW DO YOU SEE? Is that model of forgiveness up there based on stupidity or ass-licking?
Do you see how to properly fight violence with violence? Did you notice that violence doesn't mean bloodshed or jungle justice as most people often misinterpret?

But do not get carried away in the fight for justice that you forget the love of being merciful.
If I had charged #100,000 for damages to that examination script thief and he/she is behind bars after facing school suspension and public disgrace, as well as a carryover in that course, and I'm being approached by the family relatives or the parents to reduce my financial compensation to #40,000
I WILL ACCEPT.

Do you want to know why? First, my examination script is already in my name.
Secondly, I've also wrong a lot of people in this life and my past life that if every one of my creditor comes demanding today, I'll also plead with them to tamper their justice with mercy. I'll give to others what I want to receive from others.

Also, be careful not to allow our quest for justice to slip into revenge. There's no point in beating a dead man.
So, after collecting whatever financial compensation that I can and my examination script is already in my name, there's no need to stalk the examination script thief in a bid to carry out any physical harm on them. There's no point. That'll only be revenge.

...to be continued.
Next I'll explain how people think by kneeling in front of statues or a "Reverend father" during confession automatically gives them a pass to paradise after reciting "10 hail Mary, a prayer for Nigeria in distress and paying their tithe"

Contd:

Since it has been established that forgiveness isn't justice, then we can as well throw that "death bed confession and prayer for forgiveness out the window"

With an understanding of this post, you'll also come to realize that no amount of laying hands on your head by any pastor or prophet can separate you from the consequences of your actions.

It's a natural process for the consequences of the action of a man to always meet up with such a man, if not in this life, then in his next life because it'll be unjust for someone else to reap the fruits of your labor
This natural process also explains why no pastor can save you: they're helpless!

If they can help you overcome a natural process of separating you from the consequences of your actions, then they should also help themselves from overcoming old age, which also is a natural process.
So before any pastor or prophet or 'spiritual leader' promise you paradise or to overcome the consequences of your actions, take a peek at their partially bald or grey hairs and ask them to reverse it to black or its natural color. If they can't, then you just encountered a scammer. lol

The justice and forgiveness of the divine cannot be explained without the mercy of reincarnation. Those who made millions to suffer by virtue of the position they held will be made to come back as an oppressed individual so that they can experience first hand what they made other people go through. Some will be born as an almajiri, a crippled, blind, or with terminal diseases that'll be too many to name here.
And if you ask me on what authority I type this here, you have to understand that they ways of God which is needed for our growth can be learnt but we humans, contrary to what you were taught that "the ways of God isn't the ways of man". Predictability is a form of showing love to yourself and to others and God, who is love, has predictable and orderly ways, and it's with the authority linked to predictability of love that I type this here.

Justice isn't only limited to the capacity of the divine. It's also something we humans can dish out, when unbiased and free from the past or supposed future that we hope to gain from.

A mother who punishes her child with no supper because he refused to wash the plate has become a judge and executioner. Did she do a bad thing by teaching a child the consequences of his actions? Will the judgement she meted out lead to any long-term negative consequences on the child physical and mental health? No. So where's the wrong in this mother's judgement?

Do you now begin to see that as we humans grow spiritually in love (law of reciprocity: Do unto others as you'd want to be done unto you), we become better judges and better lovers?

"Thou shall not judge" was written because we don't have enough information about a person's past life and current life to understand why they are they way we meet them, and also because we judge using the lens of the past and what we hope to gain from the future. Imagine the category of igbos still blaming the Hausas and Yorubas for the civil war and the deaths it brought upon their people that they refuse to rent their house or shops to Yorubas or Hausas. How can theses category of people become a good judge when they're still so emotionally bonded to the past that they refuse to grow in love towards their neighbors. As one grow in love, free from the past and future, their ability to judge properly also grows.

we should only turn the other cheek for situations that won't take our lives or for situation that if we don't turn the other cheek, we stop growing in love and die.

What do I mean by this?
Because I suffered a heartbreak doesn't mean that I'll close my heart from relationship with the opposite sex.
No. By closing my heart in such manner, that's equal to me being dead, so I'll turn the other cheek with wisdom, by learning the lessons from my previous relationships and going into the new one with experience.

Do you see. That experience did not take my life, neither does it hold any possibility to do so, so I turn the other cheek

Because someone gossiped about me after helping them doesn't mean I'll stop helping people forever. No. I'll attempt to learn what detachment means by giving what I can afford to lose, so that I can become a better giver. I'll turn the other cheek

Jesus being given a choice to renounce his teachings or face death, choosed not to renounce his teachings because renouncing his teachings defeats his purpose of choosing to come to earth. Love isn't living like a coward and denying what you stand for
It is necessary for one to turn the other cheek if one is fighting for love, regardless if in this fight, such a person may lose their life. It doesn't mean that they consented to their death or that they came to 'die for the sins of the world'

If you as a person who believe in the value of human lives was given a gun to shoot down a pregnant woman or be shot dead, does that mean you consented to your death by refusing to shoot that pregnant woman?

By standing for what one believes in, does that mean that such a person came to commit suicide for our sins?

But there'd also come a time when you'll be limited in carrying out justice yourself, and that's when you leave all that cannot be resolved to He which sees all and knows all: God

They say "Heaven helps those who help themselves" but nobody stopped to ask "what about those who genuinely cannot help themselves, who'll help them?"

For instance, here in Nigeria, I've unsuspectingly received torn/damaged money given to me by bus conductors as my balance
I'd only realize this after the fact, and at that time, there was nothing I could do that I felt would be worth it. So I let it go and learned to thoroughly investigate the money being given to me by these bus conductors especially.

That's me surrendering that which I cannot resolve myself to the spiritual laws which cannot age, neither can it be bribed or threatened.

Other examples of battling violence with violence:

1) If a big company tries to sue a small business owner into bankruptcy to steal their idea, the owner shouldn't just send a polite email asking them to stop. The owner "takes the gloves off" by hiring the best lawyer possible to countersue for twice the amount. They are matching the "violence" of the lawsuit with a "violence" of their own in court to ensure the bully never tries it again.


2) The "Ambassador" vs. The "Army"

Jesus is described here as an Ambassador of Love. An ambassador’s job is to represent a higher kingdom, even if they are mistreated.

Practical Example: Imagine a Peace Negotiator sent to a war zone. If a soldier on the front lines spits on the negotiator, the negotiator doesn't pull out a gun and start shooting. Why? Because their mission is peace. If they start shooting, they become just another soldier, and the "Peace Mission" dies.

The Application: Jesus allowed the murder not because he was weak, but because his "Mission" was to prove that there is a power (Love) that even death cannot destroy. He stayed out of the "gutter" to keep the Mission pure.

3) The "Poisoned Well" (Breaking the Spell)

Practical Example: Imagine your neighbor is upstream from you and is dumping poison into the stream that feeds your cattle.

Passive Approach: You pray that your cattle don't die, or you "forgive" the neighbor while your cows continue to drink the poison.

The "Violence" Approach: You march upstream and build a massive stone dam to block the poison, or you legally force the neighbor to stop.

The Lesson: You aren't being "mean" to the neighbor; you are breaking the mechanism of destruction. In spiritual terms, if someone has placed a "spell" (a cycle of bad luck or depression) on you, "turning the cheek" won't stop the poison. You must "break" the connection with the same intensity it was sent

4) The "Legal Mercy" Scenario

The Problem: An employee or a relative has stolen a large sum of money from you.

Applying Love (The Personal Heart): You do not wish for them to starve or for their children to suffer. You don't call them names or try to ruin their reputation out of spite.

Applying Justice (The Holy Spirit Tool): You still file a police report or a lawsuit. Why? Because the "Universe of Justice" requires that the "leak" be plugged. If you don't hold them accountable, they will steal from the next person.

The Balance: You tell them, "I forgive you personally, but the law must take its course to restore what was taken." You have protected your "estate" without descending into the "gutter" of hatred.

5) The "Forceful Boundary" Scenario

The Problem: A toxic family member is constantly verbally abusing you, making you feel suicidal or deeply depressed.

Applying Love: You understand they may have had a hard childhood. You don't "hit back" by insulting them or bringing up their past failures.

Applying Justice: You cut off communication entirely. You block their number and refuse to attend events where they are present.

The Balance: If they ask why, you state it clearly: "I love you, but I will not permit you to destroy the life the Creator gave me." This is "battling violence with violence"—you are using the violence of a total boundary to stop their violence of abuse.

Credit: Google's Gemini for creating these scenarios

2)https://www.nairaland.com/6437452/battle-violence-violence#99482905

Cc: OAM4J

Reverseng:
You can only battle violence with violence and you're about to understand why and how...

Your basis is wrong!

It is not the only option.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” — Martin Luther King.

Yes, forgiveness is not always just is however it is just is, in many other circumstances eg When the person being forgiven has himself also forgiven another. That is just is being served

You did not read this writeup to understand. You only read to compare notes. Kindly read again

Dtruthspeaker:
Your basis is wrong!

It is not the only option.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” — Martin Luther King.

Yes, forgiveness is not always just is however it is just is, in many other circumstances eg When the person being forgiven has himself also forgiven another. That is just is being served

Reverseng:
You did not read this writeup to understand. You only read to compare notes. Kindly read again

Now I have reread it and it is clear that you have several issues arising from your disagreement of "turn the other cheek" which has even led you to make even more wrong pronouncements such as the point i am contesting. And it seems you would not take kindly to my opposition.