Bastille Day is the French equivalent of Independence Day. It commemorates the anniversary of Storming of the Bastille on July 14th, 1789, the start of the French Revolution. The Bastille had long been a symbol of tyranny as a place for the imprisonment of people without trial, but when it was stormed it only contained seven prisoners.
One was a deranged Irishman who believed himself to be both God and Julius Caesar. In addition, there was another so-called ‘lunatic’, four forgers, and the Comte de Solages – an aristocrat who had been imprisoned at the request of his own family for allegedly committing incest. While the cry was for freedom, the Bastille was not attacked in order to free these prisoners. It had much more to do with the gunpowder from the Bastille’s stores to use in the 28,000 muskets they had taken earlier that day[1]
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Today, there are those that cry for Christian to arms. It may be to rally around a political leader because of his stance on a moral issue. It may be to join an attack on an institution for its ‘unchristian’ policy. It might be a cry to remove leaders for their ‘unscriptural’ actions. All these cries might be linked to important and real issues, but we need to be careful that we are not joining a cause that really has nothing to do with those issues.
“promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.”
2nd Peter 2:19
The result of these rallies led to the release of some very negative things. Animosity, anger, bitterness, confusion, division, mistruth, and murmuring. Instead of the cause of Christ being lifted up, we are dragged into the muck. In our desire to stand for the right, we don’t end up behaving very right.
We have to pick our battles wisely and remember who the real war is with (Ephesians 6:11, 1st Corinthian 10:3 6). Standing for truth doesn’t always entail attacking others.
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