Quote:
Originally Posted by MFSxA
Jesus and the apostles, including Paul taught to persecute non-christians? Scriptural basis please. Taught to persecute to save souls or something like that? Scriptural basis please.
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That's not what he said... perhaps you should read it again.
"It's not like persecution can't be justified biblically..." is a very different statement. Put quotation marks around "justified" if you like...
The persecution and forced conversions of non-Christians began around the time the Roman Empire co-opted the religion for its own purposes. Prior to that, the Romans persecuted Christians for not affirming the godhood of the emperor or the supremacy of the state. You're right... there's little scriptural basis (other than the indirect example of the genocide of few "heathen" nations, okay because God directed it - as you say, not for saving because they weren't of the Chosen tribe anyway) for persecution, but interestingly, the fervent can usually find some text extract to support their actions against the "outsider". The persecutory/conversion nature carried on even after Rome fell through the acts of its descendant city-states (Spain, Portugal, France, England, etc) as a cultural weapon of war at the state level (convert or die) and a scapegoat mechanism at the local level (witch trials, etc).
Jesus himself is quite the anomaly in the book with his teaching (gentle almost buddhist-nature remarks if we can trust the texts). One can argue all day about what Paul's interpretation and packaging for Gentile ears did with the religion.
OTOH, its parent religion Judaism started out heavy on the "you're not a Chosen One, tough for you" and proceeded to mellow over the centuries. Islam (offshoot of the Judeo-Christian line) is more problematic when it comes to persecution of non-muslims, because as with the Bible, Koran scripts can be extracted to "justify" many unpleasant behaviors.