From: gideon@otago.ac.nz (Gideon King)
Subject: Should Christians fight? / Justifiable war
Organization: University of Otago
Lines: 144

I posted this a couple of weeks ago, and it doesn't seem to have appeared  
on the newsgroup, and I haven't had a reply from the moderator. We were  
having intermittent problems with our mail at the time. Please excuse me  
if you have seen this before...

Should Christians fight?

Last week Alastair posted some questions about fighting, and whether there  
are such things as "justifiable wars". I have started looking into these  
things and have jotted down my findings as I go. I haven't answered all  
his questions yet, and I know what I have here is on a slightly different  
tack, but possibly I'll be able to get into it more deeply later, and post  
some more info soon.

Our duty to our neighbour:

Do good to all men (Gal 6:10)
Love our neighbour as ourselves (Matt 22:39)

Act the part of the good Samaritan (Luke 10) toward any who may be in  
trouble. We will therefore render every possible assistance to an injured  
man, and therefore should not be part of any organisation which causes  
people harm (even medical corps of the army etc).

Christians are by faith "citizens of the commonwealth of Israel"  
(Ephesians 2:11-12), and also recognise that "God rules in the kingdoms of  
men", and therefore we should not be taking part in any of the struggles  
of those nations which we are not part of due to our faith.

We are to be "strangers and pilgrims" amongst the nations, so we are just  
passing through, and not part of any nation or any national aspirations  
(this can also be applied to politics etc, but that's another story). We  
are not supposed to "strive" or "resist evil" (even "suffer yourselves to  
be defrauded") it is therefore incosistent for us to strive to assist in  
preserving a state which Christ will destroy when he returns to set up  
God's kingdom.

Our duty to the state.

"Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's and unto God  
the things which be God's" (Luke 20:25).
"Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power  
but of God; the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever resisteth  
the power, resisteth the ordinance of God" (Rom 13:1-2).
"Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake; whether  
it be to king as supreme... for so is the will of God that with well doing  
ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men" (1 Pet 2:13-15)

These scriptures make it clear that submission to the powers that be is a  
divine command, but it is equally clear from Acts 5:19-29 that when any  
ordinance of man runs counter to God's law, we must refuse submission to  
it. The reason for this is that we are God's "bond servants" and His  
service is our life's task. An example of the type of thing is in Col  
3:22-23 where bondservants were to "work heartily as unto the Lord" - so  
also we should work as if our boss was God - i.e. "Pressed down, shaken  
together, and running over"... oops - a bit of a side track there...

In the contests between the nations, we are on God's side - a side that is  
not fighting in the battle, but is "testifying" to the truth.

When we believe in God and embrace His promises, we become "fellow  
citizens with the Saints and of the Household of God", and are no longer  
interested in associations of the world. Think of this in relation to  
unions etc as well. Paul tells us to "lay aside every weight" that we may  
run "the race that is set before us", and if we are wise, we will discard  
any association which would retard our progress - "Thou therefore endure  
hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth  
himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath  
chosen him to be a soldier" (2 Tim 2:3-4).

One of these entanglements he warns about is "be ye not unequally yoked  
together with unbelievers". One of the obvious applications of this is  
marriage with unbelievers, but it also covers things like business  
partnerships and any other position where we may form a close association  
with any person or persons not believing the truth about God (in this case  
the army). The principle comes from Deut 22:10 - remember that as well as  
them being different animals of different strengths, one was clean and one  
unclean under the law. These ideas are strongly stressed in 2 Cor 6:13-18  
- I suggest you read this. The yoking also has another aspect - that of  
servitude, and Jesus says "take my yoke upon you", so we are then yoked  
with Christ and cannot be yoked with unbelievers. We have already seen  
that we are bondservants of Christ, and Paul says "become not ye the  
bondservants of men (1 Cor 7:23 RV).

An example from the Old Testament: the question is asked in 2 Chr 19:2  
"Shouldest thou help the ungodly...?". The situation here is a good  
example of what happens when you are yoked together with unbelievers.  
Jehoshaphat was lucky to escape with his life. Here are the facts:
1. He had made an affinity with Ahab, who had "sold himself to work  
wickedness before the Lord" (1 Kings 21:25).
2. When asked by Ahab to form a military alliance, he had agreed and said  
"I am as thou art, my people as thy people" (1 Kings 22:4) - an unequal  
yoking.
3. He sttod firm in refusing the advice of the false prophets and insisted  
on hearing the prophet of the Lord (trying to do the right thing), he  
found that he was yoked and therefore couldn't break away from the evil  
association he had made.

God says to us "Come out from among them and be ye separate, and touch not  
the unclean thing, and I will receive you and ye shall be my sons and  
daughters" (2 Cor 6:17).

This is more or less what I have found out so far - I'm still looking into  
it, as I don't think I've answered all the questions raised by Alastair  
yet. Heres a summary and a few things to think about:

The Christian in under command. Obedience to this command is an essential  
factor in his relationship with Christ (John 15:10,14).

Total dedication to this course of action is required (Romans 12:1-2).

Disobedience compromises the close relationship between Christ and his  
followers (1 Pet 2:7-8).

We are to be separated to God (Rom 6:4). This involves a master-servant  
relationship (Rom 6:12,16).

No man can serve two masters (Matt 6:24,13,14).

All that is in the 'Kosmos' is lust and pride - quite opposed to Gos (1  
John 2:16). Christs kingdom is not of this world (i.e. not worldly in  
nature) - if it was, his servants would fight to deliver him. If Christ is  
our master and he was not delivered by his servants because his kingdom  
was not of this world, then his servants cannot possibly fight for another  
master.

Strangers and pilgrims have no rights, and we cannot swear allegiance to  
anyone but God.

The servant of the Lord must not war but be gentle to all (2 Tim 2:24) -  
this does not just apply to war, but also to avoiding strife throughout  
our lives. There is a war to be waged, not with man's weapons (2 Cor  
10:3-4), but with God's armour (Eph6:13-20).

I'll probably post some more when I've had time to look into things a bit  
further.

--
Gideon King                         | Phone +64-3-479 8347
University of Otago                 | Fax   +64-3-479 8529
Department of Computer Science      | e-mail gideon@farli.otago.ac.nz
P.O. Box 56                         |
Dunedin                             | NeXT mail preferred!
New Zealand                         |