At this writing there is some discussion between persons of Christian faith, and those discounting at least part of that faith as represented in Scripture. The negative critical group argues that in several matters Scripture appears to approve of some negative human events – like warfare. Reasons for the current discussion relate to Christian reaction to terrorism from extremists in the Muslim community who have created upheaval in the world identified not only with Muslim versus Christian controversies, but also controversies mixed between entities that hold to the same religious and/or political cultures. Muslims are rebelling against some Muslim regimes. Dictator/Muslim Gadhafi, was killed by Muslims, with outside help perhaps including Americans, in Libya. The story is an ugly one for the publics of the World.
The point for this Page relates to the use of warfare as means to establish God’s will among nations. The issue relates largely to ancient cultures. The New Testament position is less physical in national affairs with counsel to Christians to cooperate in nations so to gain opening to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ. The only concession requested is to be permitted to communicate the gospel. All other matters become secondary in intercultural competition. At first, Christians did not fight back. They tended to accept persecution as part of their duty to God. Standard warfare in the ancient biblical context, in the secular (or non-Israel context), and the Israel context as well, can’t be denied. The major instance for Israel related to God’s directive to Moses for the destruction of the Canaanites, and the assumption of the property (the Promised Land) by the conquerors. Not only is warfare made the solution for Israel’s wanderings, but the warfare was to be total that would include whole families, including infants. Even the wealth of the enemy was not to be spared, or gain benefit to the conquering army. Much later, when Saul spared King Agag, and the choice of the domestic animals of the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:9-23), he was condemned by the prophet Samuel, and the end of Saul’s authority was announced for disobedience to God. It was the beginning of the end for Saul. Saul’s excuse, to use the choice animals for offering to God, did not hold up. It is vital to differentiate God’s judgments from human. Saul adopted the common cause of war, to gain benefit for the victor. God’s judgments are not sullied with any selfish factor so to help explain why God would use warfare to accomplish both the judgment upon the malefactor nations, and the purpose of God to make a way in the desert for his own purposes. Whatever God does, in the use of human programs under common grace, is a different sort than our understanding of the motives of warfare, or any other use of human procedures by God. That God has adapted to mankind’s warfare does not mean he approves it.
The program of God can never be fully explained in the context of nature, but it may be understood in the light of the ferocity of mankind. Reading about the inhumanity of mankind to mankind from every direction, including those who either are, or believe they are the children of God, is deploring. Even the history of Jerusalem with stories of bloodletting by all sides at various dates during the centuries becomes a story that offends righteous imagination. One Crusader wrote: Our men cut off the heads of their enemies, others shot them with arrows, others tortured them . . . piles of heads, hands and feet were to be seen on the streets. All sides were guilty of horrors, as they are in our time – with massive piles of dead bodies pushed into open graves. It is not beyond belief that God will use what humans can devise to manage his judgments. We are informed from archaeology of the depravity of the ancient peoples of the Near East, or the aborigines of South America, and commonly enough in nearly every era. Whether it is the ancients or moderns we perceive God’s judgments must occur and they will be righteous altogether. (Psalm 19:9) God approves and prefers peaceful solutions. If mankind insists on doing his best alone, in nature, without assistance from God, we can be sure that the world system will include warfare, and other measures that do not fit with God’s nature. David was rejected in building the house of God, because of warfare. Scripture focuses on various means for meeting problems, and sometimes stymies the efforts of nations to make war, as in the instance of the Egyptians racing to intercept the Israelites at the Red Sea. God’s preference is peace and righteousness, but God accommodates us and uses our system choices. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020