balls are just that. Spies able to open a gate for their own evil companions to come in to the city to wreak havoc. A Buhddist friend of mine, who told me that tarot cards were not considered irrelevant to their beliefs, said there was a time where she sat down to have her fortune told by a tarot card reader. She said that despite her not being a Catholic, she felt the dark presence at that time her cards were placed in front of her, even though the fortune teller said all positive things about her future. She said she was overwhelmed with sadness and fear for weeks after that event and vowed never to touch them again. For a buhddist to tell me that, and for someone who isn’t Catholic to acknowledge this, then surely there’s some weight to the Holy See’s ruling on the occult devices such as tarot cards.
I know teachers of martial arts who fill their home with weapons, like knives and blades and have them hidden around their home. They are of the belief they’re preparing for an invading force, should it happen. While I don’t necessarily agree with it from a practical standpoint, the idea behind it is sound. They are preparing for the worst to happen to their “city”. They know the sound of the trumpet and what it means. They have a degree of training which enables them to be ready for an invading force.
I don’t believe you should have to live in fear of an attack that will never come, but I do believe in being prepared. Spiritually and physically. One cannot work well without the other.
Action plan for Catholic Conquerors: Meditate on 2 Kings 19:34 and...
1 Be aware of your actions and thoughts. When you find yourself thinking about evil thoughts, you need to stop and take a break. People find meditation and prayer helps during these times of stress. We aren’t evil, but sometimes evil things crawl into our minds which prevent us from allowing the good into our lives.
2 Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. It’s an old saying, but rings true. It’s a metaphor for knowing your enemy well. Know them well so you can identify them and make the contrast between good and evil. Soldiers are trained to identify enemy forces before engaging.
3 Students of martial arts would be aware of practices in typical classes which involve acknowledgement or respect paid to some sort of spiritual component. For example, patches on uniforms may have dragons on them or occult features. Ask the school owner or head teacher what they mean and why they are there. Contrast them to your own beliefs. You may be stepping into something not right for you.
Chapter 2: Listen to your teacher
War councils are needed to determine the fate of their soldiers.
Designs are strengthened by counsels: and wars are to be managed by governments. (Proverbs 20:18 DRC1725)
What does this mean for the average person? It means we should talk about going to war, and then discuss it again before doing so. Or rather, a reasonable person will think things through before succumbing to the lust for blood drawn from fighting. That's what any reasonable person would think, and rightly so.
The "reasonable person" test is a universal principle which assumes an average person would come to believe a certain thing by way of rational thought. That is, in a court of law, especially here in Australia, and in New South Wales particularly, the "reasonable person" test is how an intelligent person in a specific situation would likely react or what a reasonable person would do. In other words, only a fool would rush into a fight.
But what does this verse mean to the student of a martial discipline? It means that under the tutelage of the right teacher, in the science that is right for war, a student would not resort to war unless counseled into it. And even then, we are counseled on how to wage that war. Consider the seriousness of the matter. To get a graphic definition, just Google the word “war” and look at the images that come up. What you will see isn’t pretty. It’s a lot of misery and heartache.
War is the big brother of fighting. I believe wars should be committed to and engaged in to the very end. I believe no one, of any faith, can engage in any war unless they're mentally and spiritually prepared for it or else they can expect to fail to the worst degree. The gravity of the situation demands this in the most part Idiots start wars without thinking things through. Only foolish people commit to war “just because.” Pride may be at the root of some fights. Perhaps “his great-great grand-uncle’s goat ate my great-great grandmother’s washing one day, so for that my enemy needs to die.” Is the type of thinking I don’t think we as a society need to resort to any longer. We’re beyond the neanderthal ways of hundreds of years ago. We have to, otherwise we’re just knuckle dragging cavemen with access to Netflix.
Wars are started and finished for much more valuable reasons, such as salvation, such as freedom, such as things that are really worth fighting and dying for. Sometimes, the biggest scale of war, is when groups of countries throw all their capital at building an army of machines and men ready to wipe out another nation. And sometimes the war can be as small as one person fighting their way out of the hands of someone who’s ready to kill.
Self-defence is the science of protecting oneself and others nearby. Suppose I am walking home late at night from the train station. I am targeted and pushed into a position where I have to fight my way out of it. As it's the only option in this scenario, I consider it to be war, especially because I’ve deduced that my well-being is seriously threatened. So I’m now going to fight for my right to breathe. If I have taken all the necessary steps to de-escalate the conflict or to escape without physical engagement, then I will do what I must do to survive. In other words, yes, taking my attacker’s eye from his skull and delivering pain is what I am trained to do. It's what I was "Counseled" to do before the "war." I would not resort to these tactics if I didn't believe in myself, did not believe in my purpose, and did not believe my God would deliver me from evil.
I'm not saying war is self-defence. I'm saying self-defence, in an extreme circumstance, can be war and that a person must be spiritually, mentally and physically prepared for it. There may be a scenario in which a student of a martial discipline would need to deploy tactics sufficient to survive, even if it cost the attacker some serious injury. Let's face it, war means casualties. A casualty can be the loss of a limb (yours or your attacker’s) or the loss of life (yours or your attacker’s). What type of person would engage in a war for a stupid small immature reason? A stupid, immature person who isn’t aware of the risks.
But how do you prepare for war? I believe it’s in the following way. A person needs to believe in something. Beliefs come from values, values come from faith, faith comes from divinity, and divinity comes from none other than God. If that chain of reasoning is distorted or broken, there may still be a war, but it would be short lived, expensive, and probably pointless. I’ll liken it to this example. St Joan of Arc. Joan claimed to have received visions of the Archangel Michael, Saint Margaret, and Saint Catherine of Alexandria instructing her to support Charles VII and recover France from English domination late in the Hundred Years' War. For Joan, there was belief as she didn’t dismiss her vision of the saints as just hallucination. There was faith, as she had faith in God and herself. She had a belief in her values, and her values included love of country. There was divinity as we know that the saints don’t come from the devil, and there was God, in which the divinity came from. In this case, we can see the legitimate case for war. Remember, Joan was a girl in the early 1400’s, she didn’t enjoy the rights that women have today, she would have had to receive counsel from someone in authority like her priest and bishop. There was no way she could just pick up a sword and go to war.
A war between countries is done with counsel, and wise counsel wins the war. Many advisers come together to work
