“What’s a Christian Response to War?”
By Andrew Chan, senior pastor, PBC Vancouver
Oct.21, 2001
“ The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give life in all its fullness.”
John 10:10 (NLT)
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
John 14:6 (NKJV)
6“And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8“All these are the beginning of sorrows.
Matt.24:6-8 (NKJV)
A defense attorney was cross-examining a police officer during a felony trial. It went like this:
Q. Officer, did you see my client fleeing the scene?
A. No sir, but I subsequently observed a person matching the description of the offender running several blocks away.
Q. Officer, who provided this description?
A. The officer who responded to the scene.
Q. A fellow officer provided the description of this so-called offender. Do you trust your fellow officers?
A. Yes sir, with my life.
Q. With your life? Let me ask you this then officer - do you have a locker room in the police station - a room where you change your clothes in preparation for your daily duties?
A. Yes sir, we do.
Q. And do you have a locker in that room?
A. Yes sir, I do.
Q. And do you have a lock on your locker?
A. Yes sir.
Q. Now why is it, officer, if you trust your fellow officers with your life, that you find it necessary to lock your locker in a room you share with those same officers?
A. You see sir, we share the building with a court complex, and sometimes defense attorneys have been known to walk through that room.
With that, the courtroom erupted in laughter, and a prompt recess was called.
In this story we see a war between the lawyer, a defense attorney and a police officer. See them squaring-off. War happens everyday here, on our highways, homes, schools, turf-wars with gangs, workplace, drugs, boyfriend and girlfriend, hockey rinks (10 game suspension of Canuck, Bertuzzi) not only in faraway Afghanistan. Wherever there are humans in close contact, potential for conflict is there! How many hear the phrase WW 3 started just because someone got mad? But now, since Sept 11th armed conflict with biological weapons has heightened our awareness of this term called “war.” How can we think about it? What will be Christ-like way to handle this topic of ‘war”? What does the Bible has to say about the topic? Just about a couple of weeks ago we heard Osama Bin Laden say in a speech these rather chilling words,
“I tell them that these events have divided the world into two camps, the camp of the faithful and the camp of infidels. May God shield us and you from them.
Every Muslim must rise to defend his religion. The wind of faith is blowing and the wind of change is blowing to remove evil from the Peninsula of Mohammad, peace be upon him.
As to America, I say to it and its people a few words: I swear to God that America will not live in peace before peace reigns in Palestine, and before all the army of infidels depart the land of Mohammad, peace be upon him.”
Bin Laden is clearly declaring war on anyone who is not of the Islamic faith… He is not gonna relent : “I swear to God that America will not live in peace”. He intends on wreaking havoc here on this continent where we make our homes. Yes, Canadians too are affected by this, not just Americans. Do we not see in the news as more than a few anthrax attack hoaxes being perpetrated throughout several Canadian cities? Do we not see in the demand for antibiotics, as they are being bought like never before in Canada and the US? Is there not a likelihood, however remote it is, we could be targets, since Canada is not an Islamic nation, and part of the “camp of the infidels”, according to Bin Laden? We may be thankful, cos for now, it seems, we have been spared. You can be sure the reality of war has not hit some Canadian families, as they waved goodbye this past week to some our military personnel leaving on their ships and now steaming towards the Persian Gulf.
Any discussion re: “war” must begin with a central affirmation of the Bible.
God is for LIFE:
a) See this in Jesus’ understanding:
1“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2“In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4“And where I go you know, and the way you know.” 5Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” 6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. John 14:1-6 (NKJV)
In speaking of His impending violent death, His going away, Jesus affirms life. War raises the specter of death, doesn’t it? Thinking of the violence of the cross ahead of Him, Jesus points his disciples the way to God. If we have never thought of death and the way to God, to life, war reminds us we better start thinking about it. As C.S. Lewis once said:
War does do something to death. It forces us to remember it. The only reason why the cancer at 60 or the paralysis at 75 do not bother us is that we forget them. War makes death real to us: and that would have been regarded as one of its blessings by most of the Christians of the past. They thought it good for us to be always aware of our mortality. I am inclined to think they were right. All the animal life in us, all schemes of happiness that centered in this world, were always doomed to a final frustration. In ordinary times only a wise man can realize it.
Now the stupidest of us knows. We see unmistakably the sort of universe in which we have all along been living, and must come to terms with it. If we had foolish un-Christian hopes about human culture, they are now shattered. If we thought we were building up a heaven on earth, if we looked for something that would turn the present world from a place of pilgrimage into a permanent city satisfying the soul of man, we are disillusioned, and not a moment too soon.
Citation: C. S. Lewis, "Learning in War-Time," from a sermon preached in the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford, 1939.
If we have been pinning our hopes for heaven on earth, war shatters that dream. This is not heaven! Yet in the midst of death, Jesus spoke of LIFE, he spoke of life elsewhere in heaven, with God. Here we have nothing but trouble, war reminds us human life is horribly flawed. That Jesus shows us the way the life tells us God is for LIFE one hundred %.
How much clearer can this get: Jesus says “I am…the LIFE!”
b) See this in the very beginning of creation
i. Part of God’s blessing for people (before sin entered the world) was for life to flourish – “be fruitful and increase in number” Gen.1:27-28
ii. The package did not include death!
iii. Pronouncement of God’s Word can’t be missed: “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” Gen.1:31a (NIV)
iv. God has tremendous enjoyment and joy at the work of His hands, He even rested … and admired His work!
Again it rings loudly in God’s Word: John 10:10 (NLT) says: “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give life in all its fullness.”
a) Need to emphasize God’s will is not for death but to celebrate life and the fullness of it
b) To affirm death is to go the side of Satan, that’s his purpose.
Thief’s purpose – steal kill and destroy i.e. death destruction = WAR!
Hear once again why God send Jesus to be like one of us:
“We are people of flesh and blood. That is why Jesus became one of us. He died to destroy the devil, who had power over death. But he also died to rescue all of us who live each day in fear of dying.” Heb.2:14-15 (CEV)
Who has power over death??? “…he also died to rescue all of us who live each day in fear of dying” did u hear that?
Just to prove that God is for life, let me illustrate with these case studies from Scripture.
1. Case study in Cain and Abel story: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” asked Cain and God’s answer in YES… no
right to kill… to end life… to take away a life, life of a brother – this is not God’s intention
Even after this episode God did not right away execute Cain… though it would be consistent if law and not mercy and grace intervened.
“The Lord personally spared the original first-degree murderer. Would he then have ordered for all time the execution of anyone who kills, no matter how, in passion’s fury or with cool calculation?” Lewis Smedes in Mere Morality (1983,p.121).
2. Case study in Jonah: If God was for death He would not have sent Jonah, spend such energy and trouble to coax a reluctant prophet to persuade Nineveh to repent.
Jonah was eager to put people to death but not God! He was eager to show mercy to 120,000 (and animals too) who do not right from left (morally corrupt).
3. Case study in woman caught in adultery: Crowd eager for death but not Jesus (John 8:1-11).
4. Case study in Moses, David: If God was for death He would have ordered the death of Moses cause he too murdered and so did King David.
That is why we have hope:
“For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your godly one to rot in the grave. You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.” Ps.16:10-11(NLT)
We were not meant to rot in the grave, we were made for life, joy and the pleasures of God!
So don’t believe for a minute God is for death…. God is against it! Remember whose purpose it is to come and steal, kill and destroy, it is the devil! Jesus is for life! If He was for it, He would have snuffed out humans before they have a chance to be Hitlers, Attilas, Alexanders, Napoleons, Genghis Khans, Jeffery Dahmers, terrorists like Osama Bib Laden, you and me… . 2 Peter 3:9 says: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” According to God’s word, we all deserve to die for our sins, for all fall short of God’s glorious standard! Every time we point a finger, condemn someone like Bin Laden to death, or curse someone, there are always 3 more fingers pointing back!
We’ve gotta remember how Jesus was deeply troubled and bawled his eyes out at the sight of death….
John 11:25-44.
25 Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die like everyone else, will live again. 26 They are given eternal life for believing in me and will never perish. Do you believe this, Martha?”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.” 28 Then she left him and returned to Mary. She called Mary aside from the mourners and told her, “The Teacher is here and wants to see you.” 29 So Mary immediately went to him.
30 Now Jesus had stayed outside the village, at the place where Martha met him. 31 When the people who were at the house trying to console Mary saw her leave so hastily, they assumed she was going to Lazarus’s grave to weep. So they followed her there. 32 When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell down at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, he was moved with indignation and was deeply troubled. 34 “Where have you put him?” he asked them.
They told him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Then Jesus wept. 36 The people who were standing nearby said, “See how much he loved him.” 37 But some said, “This man healed a blind man. Why couldn’t he keep Lazarus from dying?”
38 And again Jesus was deeply troubled. Then they came to the grave. It was a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. 39 “Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them.
But Martha, the dead man’s sister, said, “Lord, by now the smell will be terrible because he has been dead for four days.”
40 Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that you will see God’s glory if you believe?” 41 So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me. 42 You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so they will believe you sent me.” 43 Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 And Lazarus came out, bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!”
Oh how God wants to unwrap us and let us go! Jesus is the resurrection and for LIFE, not war, not death! He is mad at death (see John 11:33)… He is troubled by it! He calls Himself with this name: the Prince of Peace! Not the Prince of Death or Carnage, or the headless horseman! I believe today God is truly saddened over the hatred spawned by twisted thinking that this world can be utopia. He grieves over those who died on Sept.11th and those who are dying now in Afghanistan.
Scripture twisting will say God want people to die, but God is for life and for maximum enjoyment and pleasure within His rule and kingdom! Or else Jesus would not have come and died for us.
So far, I believe, we can come to at least Three tentative Conclusions:
1. We should be deeply troubled by death like Jesus was.
2. God’s will is for life to flourish:
3. God opposes death… see that most clearly it His victory over it, the Resurrection! It is not the divine will for death to occur.
Now what about all the commands for war in OT? Gotta remember that was based on the fact that at that time Israel was a theocratic state, i.e. they were clearly under the rule of the One God they believed in. They received direct orders from God, but today no nation is directed by God like that, every nation is ruled by people. Repeat. Today, there are no theocratic states, we live in a democracy, or in dictatorships or communism in many parts of the world. It is nonsense to believe any nation today is under God. Bible tells us there is no one who seeks after God, not even one! Not even the most heart felt singing of “God bless America” is turning the US into God followers. There is ample evidence, that on this continent people are still following their own ways. See abortion, see the openly sexually deviant who proclaim their ways are not sinful but an alternate lifestyle, see the call for prayer to be outlawed, see the name of Christ being used as a curse word, see women are abused, see victims of violence abound. Do you really believe that God is sanctioning a million-dollar US made bomb dropped into a $10 tent in Afghanistan when there is hunger and famine victims waiting to be fed, when there is injustice and unrighteousness in North America?
What can we learn from the NT about war?
1. God’s take on war is He accepts it: 6“And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8“All these are the beginning of sorrows. Matt.24:6-8 (NKJV) With the world as it is, full of people pursuing their own ways, there will be wars, part of humanity, it is the human legacy, the sad human story! Indeed, “these things must come to pass” We just can’t take peace and make it work for us. Sad commentary on us! But once again, war points us, humans have no real lasting solutions for peace.
Reality is war is here to stay. Because of that Christians have thought about and came up with the "just war theory" —the only sort of war a Christian may wage— to save lives of innocent victims of future attacks and bringing peace. As someone has noted, it is significant that when Thomas Aquinas discussed just war in the Summa Theologica, he did not do so in the section about justice. Instead, it is in the section about love, specifically the love of God. Hence the only motivation that is clear regarding war if Christians have to fight a war is LOVE, giving up your life for your brother.
John 15:12-17 (NIV)
12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 GREATER LOVE HAS NO ONE THAN THIS, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command. 15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--FRUIT THAT WILL LAST. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17This is my command: Love each other.
The Christian who is a soldier must be bound by the sacrifical love of Christ to defend the innocent, WITH THE HOPE OF FUTURE FRUIT, that other would live to respond to the love and grace of God. That could be costly, for it may require us to resort to deadly force as the last resort. And so deadly force was applied to Jesus as He gave His life for the world.
2. Jesus did not condemn soldiers who were his followers. Acts 10 tells story of Cornelius, roman solider and a ranking officer, never was he told to resigned or leave his duty as a soldier, never was he told he was not to kill in war. Therefore we should not be quick to condemn our soldiers, who may be our brothers and sisters.
3. God did not condemn the government who carries the sword.
The teaching from Romans 13 (NKJV) is clear:
1Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 2Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. 3For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. 4For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. 5Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake. 6For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. 7Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.
God has put the government here for our protection, it’s His will, so obey the govt. God knows what He is doing. But note it does not say support their policies, just be subject to them as they will be used by God for protection. In other words, Christians are to pay taxes so that we can be protected.
4. Jesus is clear He is not for fighting wars here on earth.
36 Then Jesus answered, “I am not an earthly king. If I were, my followers would have fought when I was arrested by the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.” John 18:6 (NLT) He even scolded when his disciples decided to use violence as the authorities came to arrest Jesus in Garden of Gethsemane.
51 One of the men with Jesus pulled out a sword and slashed off an ear of the high priest’s servant.
52 “Put away your sword,” Jesus told him. “Those who use the sword will be killed by the sword. 53 Don’t you realize that I could ask my Father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly? Matt.26:51-53 (NLT)
If only more people will put away the sword. Let me tell you a true story from the beginning of last century, an amazing story about the power of the Christ to change the world. The year was 1914.
In that year, total war came to the European stage. Christmas time arrived in the trenches where the men were fighting. The length of the war was a total surprise to the soldiers who were there. None of them expected to be there at all. None thought that it would last as long as it did. Most who had gone over were of the conviction that this would be three weeks to maybe two months or so. No one had expected that this would turn into a battle of trenches and inches and feet won and lost at the expense of their friends and family. Already, many of them had seen their friends die right beside them. Most of them were sick of death and dying, of guns gas, smoke and rats in their sleeping bags. And they were missing their homes at Christmas. A Christmas Eve and Christmas Day truce had been arranged between the warring parties, so none of them would have to fight on that holy day. But they were all heart sick and lonely. They were weary of war. One of those lonely soldiers, sitting in his trench had had enough of grief. The longing for home and hearth in him was so deep, so profound, that he started to sing out a German Christmas Carol. The carol was well known to all, for it had been translated and used around the world. "Shtill nacht." We know it as "Silent Night."
His song drifted out over the no mans land, lonely, and filled with a longing for home and normalcy. Silence fell over the no man’s land, when one of the French soldiers began to sing "Noel". The English replied with a carol of their own, and soon the music of Christmas from all the language groups of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and the English, and the French was flowing back and forth across the trenches. An anonymous soldier decided to take a risk. He got out of his trench, found an evergreen tree, cut it down and carried it right in the center of the fighting area, the "no man’s land" where everyone got shot. It could have been perceived as an act of war, a tricky move to take land. But instead no one fired on the man. Troops came out of their trenches and together they made little decorations, and dressed the tree. They exchanged little gifts with each other—tins of food, pieces of chocolate, pieces of cheese, whatever they had. They began to show each other pictures of their families. Both sides knew that a babe had been born to die for them, had identified with them, and they could not fight on the eve or the day of his birth. And all this began because a lonely German soldier sang "Silent Night."
Well, the truce was to officially end on the morning of Dec 26, but none of the troops could bring themselves to fire across the trench. They knew that they were brothers now, and not enemies. How could they shoot at one for whom Christ was born to save, some 1900 years before? How could they kill one for whom Christ died? And so no shots were fired on Dec 26. Nor were they on Dec 27 or 28, 29 or 30. No shots were fired on Dec 31 either. They were family. They were friends. They were loved of God and Christmas was in their hearts.
As it turned out, commanding officers who had been on Christmas leave returned to those trenches. They ordered the men to shoot, and when they would not, the troops were replaced. And the ones who were not there that magic night when a lonely soldier sang of Christ across the trenches fired a round of bullets. Someone died, and the war resumed January 1, 1915.
Prince of Peace. Yes he is. That He wants life, He is the Life, yes! He stopped a war once. And when time comes to an end, he will stop war altogether, forever and ever. He identified with us with his life and death on the cross and with His resurrection He is offering us hope for an everlasting peace that’s out of this world. All that it would have taken was for more of those soldiers on the battlefield to identify with Jesus, and this last century would have been a very different place altogether.
All that it takes today, if wars were to cease, is more of the same. When people to come to know this Prince of Peace, whose aim is to give life, life in all its fullness, abundant life, then peace has a chance, then the shooting can stop! So it starts here with each individual deciding for life, by claiming the God’s way, His truth, His Life!
Let me summarized what we have learnt today:
1. God is for life which means He is against war, violence of any sort. He is the Prince of Peace, the resurrection and the Life! He is for life! Not death! So we should work hard at what Christ told us to do: Make disciples, build people up in Him, so that one by one the Prince of Peace is known, so that more would come to know Him as the Life. Matt.18:14 (NLT) says “it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.” Do we hear the father’s will? Come together and pray this Wed nite or in your small groups- Ask God to change hearts, starting with you then, your friends and neighbors. If we are left to ourselves to solve the problems of this world, we will make war, as history has shown us! All of us need to desperately get to know God, His ways, His character better. The thief’s m.o. of steal kill and destroy is not God’s. Violence only begats more violence. The US, the Afghans, the Osamas, we all need God to teach us peace, how to live with each other. John 3:16 reminds us of His will for life eternal, that none should perish!
2. Humans are rebellious, we insist on solving problems our own ways, at the core we are selfish, with a keen interest in self-protection and that has caused more wars, violence, the fruit of Cain, the fruit of own evil desires James 4:1-2 (NLT) says: What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Isn’t it the whole army of evil desires at war within you? 2 You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous for what others have, and you can’t possess it, so you fight and quarrel to take it away from them. And yet the reason you don’t have what you want is that you don’t ask God for it. Hence, we need to take a good look inside and confess our rebellion against God. All of us need to grow more dependent on God. Do we solve our conflicts, with Rambo as our spiritual leader with a “shoot first ask questions later” method or do we go with Jesus Christ as our sp. Leader? Through God’s Word, prayer, the help of the church? Where do we go for help in conflict, how about Matt.18:15 ff. gives some guidelines.
15 “If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the fault. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. 16 But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. 17 If that person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. If the church decides you are right, but the other person won’t accept it, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector. 18 I tell you this: Whatever you prohibit on earth is prohibited in heaven, and whatever you allow on earth is allowed in heaven.
19 “I also tell you this: If two of you agree down here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you. 20 For where two or three gather together because they are mine, I am there among them.”
21 Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”
22 “No!” Jesus replied, “seventy times seven!
Forgiveness is to be given liberally, just as much as Christ forgave us when He died for our sins! Peace begins here with forgiveness!
3. We should be troubled by death like Jesus was, not desensitized.
God’s will is for life to flourish: It is not the divine will for death to occur.
God opposes death… see that most clearly it His victory over it, the Resurrection!
4. We should pray like we did today, publicly for our governments under tremendous stress so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives. 1 Tim 2:1-3.
Is your heart troubled? Give your life to Christ so you will be eternally secure of life. Today I call on you to identify with Jesus Christ, will you? Will you seek with all your heart to learn from the Prince of Peace, to work for peace, pray for peace? When violence, death do visit us, the Bible tells me if I am prepared for it through faith in God, Jesus will escort me personally to the many rooms of heaven, do you believe God is for life and wills for you to live at peace with Him forever?
I believe the Christian response to War, is to trust God at all times, He really just wants us to live in peace forever! Praise to the Prince of Peace!
