Wars and Rumors of War
Matthew 24:6-7
Once again we come to a time in history when the sabers of battle are rattling around us. And once again we are faced with widespread opinion concerning the need for war, the ethics of it, the wisdom of it, etc.—everyone’s got an opinion, including myself.
My purpose with this message is not to address whether or not this particular confrontation is warranted in the worldly sense, or otherwise, but to look to the larger questions that it raises; particularly, the question of the church’s relationship to the state.
It seems to me that at times like these it is very easy for us to lose our focus and to forget some very basic things.
The Normality of War
First of all, whenever the sables of war rattle, we seem to forget that in the political systems of our world, this is normal and expected.
Three words from Jesus help me focus this. First
Matthew 24:6-7
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
These words remind me that the war talk around the Iraqi situation is no surprise to God.
We should not be surprised that conflicts emerge in this world—there will be wars and rumors of wars, and then the end will come.
This is not to say that we should simply throw up our hands in blind acquiescence. Of course not! War is a bad thing and ought to be avoided whenever possible. However, the reality of life in this world is that conflicts will emerge until the end of time.
The Conflict of Two Opposing Kingdoms
A second word from Jesus that informs me during times like these is John 18:36
Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."
My kingdom is not of this world.
We live during an age of human history when there are kingdoms in conflict and I do not mean, the kingdoms of Iraq and the USA. I have in mind a much more significant conflict—the conflict between the kingdoms of this world and the kingdom of heaven.
Our nation, as good and fair and just as we think it is, in the final analysis, is a part of the realm that God calls the kingdoms of this world.
Jesus, on the other hand, has come to establish a new kingdom.
The kingdoms of this world are marked by national boundaries (which must be defended and protected) in which its citizens are encouraged to live lives that benefit the collective society (and if they do not, they are held in check by the threat of force, including incarceration) and which has as its primary objective the peaceful and prosperous advancement of the collective group.
The kingdom that Jesus began is not a physical one marked by national boundaries. Rather it is a spiritual kingdom that resides in the heart of all those who believe in him. All persons who follow him become citizens, as it were, of his kingdom, while they also need to live, physically, within the boundaries of some nation, some worldly kingdom somewhere.
Christians hold, as it were, dual citizenship. As people of faith in God we are members of his kingdom, a society not of this world. In other words, the heavenly kingdom does not live by the same rules and goals as the kingdoms of this world.
However, we are also citizens of the various nations in which we live.
It is this dual citizenship that causes us to struggle over what part we should play in the kingdoms of this world. We know that worldly kingdoms are just that—worldly. They will not last forever, they will not teach us the principles of God, they cannot, by their very nature, live according to the deepest truths that God has revealed.
Unfortunately, the degree to which Christians align with the nation of the world in which they live is often governed by how that nation has treated them as Christians.
For example:
For the first 300 years of the Christian Church, Christianity was not among the recognized religions of Rome. Consequently, from time to time, Roman emperors would levy persecution against the Christians. Naturally, in a government like that, when as a Christian you were told that you must join the army and help defend and even expand the boundaries of this nation which routinely persecuted the church—naturally you declined.
Much of that changed in 313 A.D. when the emperor Constantine declared himself a Christian and eventually not only legalized Christianity, but began to promote it. Now Christians openly and feely worshiped and their attitude toward the state changed. Consequently Christians joined the Army in droves.
Likewise our Brethren forbears lived under political systems that made it illegal to worship as one pleased. To be legal, you had to be a part of one of the legally recognized Christian churches. Because our forbears lived under such threat, they naturally were led to the passages in the Bible that spoke of peace and against violence. They refused to join the military, which would have placed them in a position of defending a political system that was bent against them.
Brethren practice changed radically here in the new world. Gradually as our nation developed, life here was good for us. As time went on the government honed out ways for us to live peaceably, and gave allowances for our peaceable convictions. As a result, Brethren began to engage in the kingdom of the USA in fuller ways. Where once there were no Brethren attorneys, or police officers or elected government officials, now there are many who serve their communities in these ways.
As the kingdom in which we were living became more hospitable to us, our attitude toward it changed. This is also seen in our participation in the military. The early Brethren refused to fight in the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. However, by World War II, well over 80% of Brethren men joined the military as full combatants.
In a 1985 survey of Brethren of all ages (and presumably including older people who might be expected to have more pacifist leanings) found that "...only a third of the membership (32%) agreees with the old Dunker premise that it is wrong to help in any war by fighting."
(Emphasis in the original). Bowman, Carl F., Brethren Society The Cultural Transformation of a "Peculiar People, 1995, p. 391
I share this to say that when our nation is good to us, it becomes easy for us to forget that we live as dual citizens of two kingdoms. It becomes easy for us to forget that these two kingdoms are usually in conflict with each other, as to their values and goals. This forgetfulness plays out in many other ways, as well.
It seems to me, especially at times like these, we should prayerfully consider what our role should be as dual citizens—members of the kingdom of heaven and members of the nation we call the USA.
Excurses
Let me do a bit of an aside before I share the third word from Jesus that shapes my thinking today.
One simple mistake we Brethren have made Brethren in recent years is the assumption that our government can live by the teachings of Jesus. We do this particularly with our concern for peace.
We have read the message of Jesus and have understood it to call us to live peaceful, nonviolent lives. And we have then taken this and assumed that our nation can also live a peaceful and nonviolent life.
This is both not possible from a spiritual standpoint and not possible from a practical one.
It is not practical to expect the nations of this world to live by the Christian principles that we are called to live as members of the heavenly kingdom. Scripture tells us that God ordained the state—that is, the nations of this world, to keep order, and if necessary, to use force and violence. The classic passage for this is Romans 13, where the State is called “God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.“ (vs. 4)
While it may not be (depending on how you read Scripture) within our prerogative to personally use violence in our daily lives, it is fully within the right of the state to do so.
Consequently, we should never say to our government, you must not go to war. It is within its full God-given authority to do so.
Now we may, and certainly should, serve as a conscience for our nation. We may, and certainly should, raise questions about ethics, motive, clarity of purpose, protection of innocents, etc.
Lew Bowman shared with me an account describing when Chuck Colson did this very thing with Pentagon leaders regarding the war in Afghanistan.
As citizens of our land we may even challenge the government concerning its decision to go to war—we may fully decide that we cannot participate.
But what we cannot do is tell our nation that it must never go to war. To do so, is to violate God’s order of society.
It is clear from the Old Testament and from modern history that God uses the might of one nation to suppress the evil in another. He does this without respect of persons. That is, even when his own people, the Israelites, practiced evil he brought the might of the Assyrians and the Babylonians against them.
If we in this great nation continue to fall away from God’s principles and persist in living in ways that mock him, he may very well levy the might of some other nation against us bringing about our downfall. This is God, and it is his world.
It is God who oversees the rise and the fall of the nations, as confirmed by the prophet Isaiah in 40:15-24.
There is no reason to believe that God does not use nations in the same way today. War is sometimes in his plans for the kingdoms of this world.
The Answer is Jesus
There is also a spiritual reason we cannot expect the kingdoms of this world to live by the teachings of Jesus, and it brings me to the third word from Jesus that shapes my thinking today.
John 16:33
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
We speak of peace. We want peace. Certainly, any war is a horrible event. Peace is always preferred.
However, war and peace are not really the result of political ideologies in conflict. Violence in our world today, whether locally or globally, is the result of the evil that lies in the human heart.
James says it well:
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? (James 4:1)
The only answer to the condition of the human heart is transformation.
Education will not change the condition of the heart.
Cultural advancement will not change the heart.
Political negotiation will not change the heart.
Even religion will not remove the evil from the human heart.
There is only one remedy; only one means of heart transformation.
The only answer for the condition of the heart is Jesus.
Only Jesus can overcome the world.
And he does this,
Not by the reform of political systems,
Not by the realignment of world power,
Not by the suave maneuvering of special interest groups—
Jesus overcomes the world one heart at a time.
But you will say, you said religion is not the answer. You heard me correctly. Religion is not the answer; the only means of transformation for the heart is through a relationship with Jesus.
Even a religion about Jesus is not enough. Transformation occurs through a relationship with Jesus. That relationship comes by grace through faith.
As long as human hearts are estranged from God there will be evil, war and violence in our world.
As long as there are kingdoms of this world along side of the kingdom of God, there will be wars and rumors of war.
With all this said, it remains for us as dual citizens of the kingdom of heaven and of the USA to discern our role in the pending conflict with Iraq.
I call upon you to exercise your right as a citizen to voice your opinions, whether of concern or support. I encourage you to prayerfully search the scriptures; to come to a position in your own heart. I challenge you to allow Jesus to shape your life, and not to allow your heart to be shaped by the principalities of this world.
But most of all I call upon you to not forfeit your obligations to the kingdom of God and blindly follow the paths offered by the kingdoms of this world. Don’t confuse the kingdom of heaven with the worldly kingdoms in which we are destined to live.
Don’t assume that whatever happens in Iraq will change much at all on the world stage—there will be wars and rumors of war.
Instead, pledge yourself to sharing a message—the Gospel of Jesus Christ—the only message that can bring lasting peace to the most troubled region of the world—the human heart.
