War and Peace

Then the Lord said to Joshua, "See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in." Joshua 6:2-5

"Put your sword back in its place," Jesus said to him, "for all who draw the sword will die by the sword." Matthew 26:52

Is it justified for a Christian to enter war and kill? Those that believe it is usually believe in the Just War Theory. Just War rest on four main conditions. 1)The damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain. 2)All other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective. 3)There must be serious prospects of success. 4)The use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.

I personally do not agree with the idea of a "just war". The first problem I see with this is that the four conditions can hardly ever be practically adhered to, and so are not. The second problem I have is that this is not a biblical idea. I'm sure some will say "but didn't God command Israel to completely destroy entire nations?" Yes, he did. But that does not mean that he commands us as Christians to go and kill. Actually he commands us the exact opposite, to love our enemies (Mt 5:44). So what's the difference between this and the Old Testament? God is the same in the OT and NT, but his intentions are not the same, atleast not exactly the same. You'll see the same God and same Spirit throughout the whole Bible, and you will see both grace and judgment in the OT and NT. The difference between the OT and NT is who the covenants are with. In the Old Testament God makes a covenant with his chosen nation, Israel. In the New Testament God makes a covenant with his chosen church, the Church of Christ. A nation and a church are not the same. A nation is a political entity, with political leaders, borders, citizens, and the ability to fight wars. The Church, on the other hand, is not political, does not have borders, it has spiritual citizens, and only fights spiritual wars. If a Christian in one nation were to fight a war, he might be required to kill another Christian in another nation. The Church is international, and therefore should not be involved in the wars of nations. That's why Jesus told Peter to put down his sword, and why he tells us to love our enemies. We are to fight our war, the spiritual war, with words and the Bible not with swords. And since our number one loyalty must be to Jesus, we should not waste our life and service by fighting in wars. If a nation, including the US, wants to go to war, they have that right. As Jesus said "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's" (Mt 22:21) and as Paul mentions in Romans 13, the government has a place and can bear the sword, but we must obey the Lord first. As Christians we should do all we can to avoid the wars of nations, they are not our wars to fight.