is self-defense vengeance?
For an answer to this, we do not go to the gun-grabbing liberal who despises individual liberty and sees personal defense as an affront to the nanny-state. To see if the divine operation of vengeance is equated with self-defense, we need merely read more Scripture. For example, if someone breaks into your home and you kill him while he is committing his crime, is that vengeance? “If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him.” -Exodus 22:2 Clearly, the answer is no: self-defense is not vengeance. But what if you wait a while, and go kill him after you found out what he did? Conveniently for us, the very next verse answers that: “If the sun be risen upon him, there shall be blood shed for him; for he should make full restitution; if he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.” -Exodus 22:3 These two verses lay out quite clearly the difference between self-defense and vengeance. In the first case, the thief was killed while co
