I don't think you believe that God is not the same God before and after His Son's life on Earth. So I'm not sure how you can interpret "before Jesus" to mean such a preposterous assertion.

But our world after Jesus is different. Did we not receive His gifts of Salvation and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit? Did he not teach us a new way of living so that we not lose those gifts? Weren't His warnings to the Jewish cities where He preached and was rejected clearly stating that God's favor follows accepting the new gospel and believing in Him?

Grafting the new gospel onto the old is a maladaptation of old wine skin. Jesus taught from the Scriptures -- He built upon select scriptures as a foundation. He enlightened the meaning of Moses, of Job, of the many Prophets sent before Him. It was not hyperbole when He claimed John the Baptist as the greatest man ever to have lived up to the time of the new gospel.

And so in consideration of when and how to use violence, why wouldn't you look forward for your most advance 'arms' rather than backward to instruments who served you as best as possible given what was available at that time?

Our Founders were surely "clothed with power from on high" when they claimed the Kingdom of God is greater than the Kingdom of George. They did not declare war but independence. We are the stewards of that Liberty -- Liberty under God, and have a duty to uphold and defend against the tyranny of Man.

For what it's worth, I was raised Quaker, not Catholic. But Jesus requires unity in spirit, not uniformity in thought, so you do you.