Annual Sermons 18-19: Vol. 5: 1991
Bob Marcaurelle
THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF WAR
(2009 Condensed)
Copyright 2009 by Bob Marcaurelle
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Is war right? Is it moral? Can it be Christian or endorsed by God? If a Christian goes to war, should he go as a combatant, willing to kill if necessary? What about “Thou shalt not kill!” (Exodus 20)? What about Jesus’ commands to not resist not evil, to turn the other cheek and to put up the sword (Matthew 6:39-40; 25:52)?
What about the opposite - God commanding Israel to go to war (Deuteronomy 20, etc.) and going with them to give them victory (Psalm 18)? What about Jesus with a whip driving the dishonest money changers out of His Father’s temple (John 2:13 ff)? What about Paul commanding us to obey the government, which is His servant and agent of wrath (Romans 13:1-5)? What about Christ’s return as a military conqueror, who “makes war” and is followed by “the armies of heaven” ( Revelation 19:11/14)?
You can see how no easy or dogmatic answer can be given and how good Christians can and do differ over this. I agree with the basic teachings of the church through the centuries. (1) A Christian often can and should participate in a just war, if called upon by his country, even if it involves the awful necessity of taking another human life. (2) If a Christian cannot bring himself to kill another human being even in a just cause, he should serve his country in a role of mercy such as the medical corps or chaplaincy. (3) If he cannot bring himself to participate in any way he should quietly accept the punishment his nation imposes, just as the Apostles did in the Book of Acts (Acts 5:12-40). It is not the only position, but I believe it is the right one. I have strong emotions here against those who refuse to fight and let others pay dearly for their freedom. But I suspect these emotions spring more from my patriotism than from my Christianity. My prayer is that God will help me love and understand any Christian brother who cannot bring himself to kill even in war.
A. The Positions
The two positions of the church throughout history have been “non resistance” (pacifism) and “just warfare.” (In a just cause the evil of war is a lesser evil than the evil it seeks to defeat.)
a. Pacifism
Until AD 170 the church, because of its place in Roman society, was almost universally pacifist and there is no record of any church member serving in the Roman army. This was partly because they were not eligible for military service and had no voice in government; and also because Christians felt little allegiance to Rome and considered themselves primarily citizens of a kingdom, not of this world (John 18:36).
As soldiers were converted, the church battled over the issue. Great theologians like Tertullian (145-200 AD) and Origen (185-254 AD) taught pacifism either complete or partial (serving in some noncombatant roles). Pacifism lost its dominant position in the 300’s AD when Emperor Constantine made Christianity an acceptable religion and put the cross of Christ upon the shields of his soldiers. The pacifist position continues today in groups like the Quakers, Mennonites and Unitarians. Some, like the Quakers, carry pacifism to the point that they will not defend themselves or their families from attack. Like Tertullian they say, “The Lord / in disarming Peter, unbelted every soldier.”
The pacifist view is based mostly on the example and teachings of Jesus about resisting evil and turning the other cheek (Matthew 5:39-40). William Barclay says if the Christian’s country is overtaken, it will probably be better than the loss of life due to war. The Christian’s only weapon, he says, is love (Psalm 99-100). The Ten Commandments, Pgs. 99-100
b. Justifiable (Just) Warfare
The majority view of both Catholics and Protestants is that of “just war” developed by Augustine (400’s AD) and Thomas Aquinas (1200’s AD). War should have:
1. Just cause –
It is defensive and not aggressive.
2. Just intention -
The goal is peace for both sides.
3. Last resort -
It comes after every other means
has been exhausted.
4. Formal declaration –
It is an act of government, not individuals.
5. Limited objectives -
Peace as the goal forbids the rape and
destruction of the conquered nations’ resources.
6. Proportionate means -
The force used should be the force needed
to secure peace.
7. Noncombatant immunity -
Individuals not involved in fighting
(medical personnel, POW’s, civilians, etc.)
should be immune from attack.
8. Preventive aggression
These seven views, more or less standard
through the centuries, have been joined by
an eighth; primarily because of today’s nuclear
threat. In self defense, there may come a
need for a nation to strike first,
to prevent being destroyed itself.
Harold O. J. Brown says no sane person
would allow a criminal to shoot at his family
before taking steps to prevent it beforehand.
This position is based on God’s sanction of and participation in (Deuteronomy 20:18) Israel’s battles (See Numbers 1-4; 32:20-22; Deuteronomy 1:6-8; Joshua 6:2-3; Judges 5; 2 Samuel 15:2-3; 2 Chronicles 14:11-13; Psalm 18, 68, etc.). Conservatives reject the Liberal interpretation that these were Israel’s mistaken notions about God and adopt the view that this was a drastic necessity for creating a holy nation. But even so, it is hard to build a theology of war from the special Old Testament circumstances. There is no holy, special nation today. Christians are citizens within all nations. And even God in the Old Testament, by refusing to let David build His temple because he was a man of war (I Chronicles 22:8), showed that war was repugnant to Him. The bloody crusades were based on the Old Testament but few today see them as “Christian.”
The New Testament, written to citizens of all nations, is silent about war. Those who hold the “just war” position believe Jesus’ command to turn the other cheek refers primarily to our personal dealings and how we handle insults and minor injuries
Jesus resisted evil and did more than just turn the other cheek when He was slapped. He challenged the man who hit him to consider why he did it (John 18:23). Jesus goal was his salvation. The Bible says “Give to him who ask you...” (Matthew 5:42); but we would not give a drunk a drink; and Paul said of indiscriminate giving “that if a man does not work, he should not eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10). There is a huge difference between someone slapping my cheek and killing my children. To tell a nation or a person defending itself to turn the other cheek, goes far beyond the intention of Jesus.
There is the example of Christ. He is far more than the peaceful carpenter from Galilee. In His return He will be the warrior king, followed by the armies of heaven (Revelation 19:11-21). There is the New Testament attitude toward soldiers. Its four references are all favorable (Matthew 8:5; Acts 10:1; 21:31; 27:1-6). The two times we find instructions they are not told to leave the military; but not to brutalize people by force to take their money (Luke 3:14). Would Christ have told a prostitute not to take too much money? He would have told her to leave her prostitution. The same principle applies to soldiers. If soldiering were a sin, soldiers would be told to leave if possible. You can be a Christian soldier but you cannot be a Christian prostitute.
The most powerful reason is the God given duty of the government (nation, state) to protect the innocent and punish the guilty. This is clearly stated in Romans 13:1-7. The state has been placed in society by God (13:1) and whoever opposes its authority opposes God (13:2). It is God’s servant and sword to punish evildoers and leave people free to have “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
We commend the dedication and bravery of those who, like our Lord on trial, would rather die than fight back or take a life. But this is not the full story. It is one thing for me to allow myself to be brutalized, but quite another for me to allow others to be brutalized while I stand by and do nothing. Thirty-nine people in New York watched a young girl being raped and beaten to death, from their windows, and did nothing to help. Is this right? Is this Christian? I cannot believe that it is.
When a young man climbed upon the tower of the University of Texas and began shooting, sixteen people fell dead and thirty were wounded. The slaughter ended quickly as an off duty policeman witnessed the scene, left his place of safety, risked his life and health, and took the young man’s life. Was this right? Was this God’s will at that moment in time? I cannot help but believe it was. It was a terrible necessity, but was the lesser of two evils.
B. Some Principles
Beyond the basic foundations of just war, we should never glorify or glamorize war. The hell of combat, where pieces of human body parts are spread over the landscape, is more horrible than we can imagine. We should never see ourselves as totally just and in the right. We must hate the evil but not the people of the nation. The Bible commands love towards the enemies (Proverbs 24:17; 25:21). An “army” is often no more responsible for the acts of all its evil soldiers any more than our church is responsible for the acts of all of its evil members.
Strangely and sadly, we must remember the insanity of war and the regrettable evil means we must sometime be forced to use, such as torture (a hot topic today) and the targeting of the innocent. If civilians were never under any circumstances targeted, nations would set up their armaments and war machines in population centers and would be invincible, being immune from attack.
In the minds of many, the greatest atrocity against the innocent was when the United States, in August of 1945, dropped two atomic bombs; one on Hiroshima and one on Nagasaki. In Hiroshima 71,139 people died. This however, was far from the worst bombing of WW II. In one day British and American bombers killed over 135,000 people in the German city of Dresden. (The allies claimed a kill of 200,000) Thankfully, leaflets warning of the bombing had been dropped on the city for several weeks beforehand.
Going back to the bomb, however, why did America do it? For one primary reason - to stop the war and to save lives. Military experts agree that more allied and Japanese lives would have been lost taking Japan with conventional weapons, than had been lost up until that time in the war. The Japanese soldiers, spread out and dug in, and the Japanese citizens (men, women and children), believing they were engaged in what they felt was a “holy” war, were prepared to fight to the death.
A Japanese pastor told Robertson McQuilkin, professor of ethics at Columbia Bible College here in South Carolina, that “the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved...perhaps millions of lives that would have been lost in the struggle of conventional war.” A cold, brutal fact of war is that innocent people die. Sometimes it is the result of a war crime that deserves punishment such as the trial and execution of the murderers of Jews and torturers of prisoners, after WW II. Sometimes it is a necessary but lesser evil to end war on aggression. Either way, the innocent will always suffer and die in any war.
Added to that is the death of countless soldiers, mostly young men and women with their lives ahead of them. In the revolutionary War, 4,435 American soldiers died. In the War of 1812, 2,260 died. In the Indian wars, 1,000 died. In the Mexican War, 13,000 died. In the Civil War, an estimated 600,000 died. In the Spanish American War 11,000 died. In World War I, 116,000 died. In World War II, 406,000 died. In the Korean War, 55,000 died. And in the Vietnam War, 45,937 died.
Remember also the terrible injuries to the living. The father of one of my high school friends never got out of bed and never quit coughing because of being gassed by the Germans. Right now V.A. Hospitals are receiving the blind, the maimed, the deaf and the insane. Think of this and pray for peace, work for peace and always see war for the hell it is.
Certainly we owe these and their families the highest possible debt of gratitude and honor. Thank God for the Vietnam Memorial with the names of the dead. As I placed my hand upon it, I could not help but weep and say “thank you” to every single one of them. At the Vietnam memorial you see all kinds of names: Anglo Saxon, French, Mexican, Jewish, African American, American Indian, etc.. And you see all kinds of people gathered, some weeping, some praying, but most simply staring in unbelief. As I remember my time there, I think of last year’s song of the year in country music, “More than a Name On a Wall.” It is about a mother who went there to look at her son’s name. She recalled the many beautiful events from his childhood years. Then she looked up to heaven and said, “Lord, please tell him, he was more than a name on a wall, for he meant the world to me.” That, my friends, is the brutal, ugly fact of war. One poet had these words going from the “Unknown Soldier” to the young people of the world.
Here I lie, the unknown soldier, wreaths of nations line my bed / Honors have been heaped upon me, but listen youngster, I am dead. / Somewhere in this land you love, someone is waiting for me still;/
Wonders could I be her loved one,
forever wonders, ever will.
