On Resistance to Evil by Force is one of my favorites. Ivan Ilyin was a Russian who was imprisoned and then exiled during the Russian Revolution. He wrote this book in 1925, during the Revolution, as a response to the writings of fellow Russian Leo Tolstoy, who was exorting Russian Christian men to be pacifists in the face of the Communist revolt. Tolstoy was more of an anarchist than a Communist, but he felt that Christ led everyone to always be pacifist because the use of force always led to one party subjugating the other. I find that this argument is exactly what's wrong with the modern church as we struggle with our own Communist revolution. Ilyin wrote this book to present the case that Christians must resist evil, even by force.
Every few days, I'll post my thoughts on a couple of chapters. You all can put your thoughts in the comments and hopefully we'll all learn a few things from each other's ideas. I'll leave the first chapter open to non-members to try and encourage others to become supporters.
It's just as important to train and instruct our minds and moral framework as it is to train our physical bodies on new skills and gear.
Chapter 1 - Introduction
In this chapter, he is basically explaining why he's writing the book. I get the general impression early on that he really doesn't like Tolstoy, but by the end of Chapter 2, I realized that he had immense respect for Tolstoy's faith, but he despised Tolstoy's ridiculous interpretation of Scripture. I concur.
Right off the bat, Ilyin lays out this great line: "Ignorance leads him to trials and torments, and through agony the soul is purified and sees, through a clear-sighted gaze, the source of wisdom is given in the form of clarity." This rings true for all of us. We make a mistake, we deal with the fallout of the mistake, and then we see what the clear path was. Hey, wisdom isn't cheap.
As we face a Communist Revolution here, his commentary on the Russian Revolution seems especially relevant: "It is the first time a genuine evil has been given to the human spirit with such frankness." Yep - Communism is the enablement of greed, theft, and abuse on our fellow man. Pure evil.
One of the best gems in the introduction is the idea that we shouldn't allow anyone else's condemnation of our faith penetrate to our hearts. He pointed out that the Bolsheiveks used Christianity as a club to beat people into submission, much like we are seeing now. His point was to not let them change your mind under any circumstances. They call it backwards? Ignore them - they're ones who are wrong.
Another point he illustrated that has parallels in the modern day is that heroes were treated as villains and the weak or timid are treated as virtuous. The idea is to break down rugged individualism in favor of collectivism (I'm looking at you, Mamdani). At the time, they vilified anyone who stood up against the Communists and treated as heroes those who gave up and stepped out of the way. That leads nowhere good, and it's what we're seeing in our society.
The final great point in the introduction: "....imparting a counterfeit facade to the spirit of Christ's teaching poisoned Russian religious and political culture." False teachers are out there today doing this same thing. Lesbian pastors, "All are welcome here", and "Jesus is my boyfriend" churches are all preaching pacifist and liberation theology that have absolutely no basis in the Bible. No, Jesus was not a Socialist ("even when we were with you, we had this one rule, he who does not work does not eat"). Helping the poor and welcoming the traveler does NOT mean give handouts or let people trample your homeland demanding things.
