Just War? Is it ever right for Christians to take up arms? Does God permit us to use weapons to take the lives of other human beings? A few days ago I met a furniture removalist in Eastwood. Just war? Romans 12:17 13:7 He spoke with an accent I didn t recognize. Turns out he was an Iraqi, from Mosul, the headquarters of ISIL in Iraq. He is one of tens of thousands of Christians who have either been killed, or who have fled for their lives from that country. His own uncle was recently murdered there. Morning Services St Stephens, Belrose 2015-04-19 Would my new-australian, Christian removalist friend be justified in joining the war against ISIL? Fly to Turkey, cross the border and join the Kurdish forces there? Over the last 100 years, thousands of Australian Christians have taken up arms.
They have fought and died in major and minor theatres of war across the world. Were they right to do so? Today we re reflecting on Christians and war. Would you please turn to Romans chapter 12: 1 Peacemakers: The first point I want to highlight is in vs 17-18: God calls us to be peace-makers. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Professor Hauerwas is Professor of Theological Ethics in the US. He points out that for the first 400 years of the church, Christians were largely pacifists. But in 312 AD, the Roman emperor Constantine became a follower of Jesus. As Christianity first of all became a lawful religion in the empire, then as Christians moved closer to the centre of world power, the idea of a just war, an ethical war, became prominent, and has remained so for the last 1600 years. You can find Prof Hauerwas on the CPX website and he is well worth watching. Pacifist doves at one extreme War-mongering hawks at the others. And, in between, those who believe in a just war, and others who are conscientious objectors, either because they are pacifists, or because they believe a particular war is not just. A friend of mine went to prison in 1972 because he objected to the Vietnam War and burned his conscription papers. Three months later Gough Whitlam became PM, and set my friend free. We have an interesting member of our own church who was a pacifist when he signed up for the Army Reserve, at the age of 20.
Brian Dunbar, why did you do this? Which part of the army did you serve in? Did you stop being a pacifist? If you had been called to use arms, would you have done so? 2 God, king and country: There are three common reasons Christians give for taking up arms. 100 years ago it was common to refer to God, king and country. Are God, king and country valid reasons for taking up arms? Let s think about this in the light of our Bible passage. Romans 12 again, and verse 19: 19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God s wrath, for it is written: It is mine to avenge; I will repay, says the Lord. a) Note first of all that it is God s job to right wrongs. It is his responsibility to punish evil. This rules out unilateral action on my part, and, in most cases, would rule out my joining a vigilante group. I m not free to take the law into my own hands. It is God s job to right wrongs and to punish evil. Not mine. And the Bible teaches that he will finish this job when the Lord Jesus returns. b) But, secondly, God doesn t sit on his hands until then He begins the job of righting wrongs and punishing evil right now. How? Paul tells us in Chapter 13. 13:1 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. Which particular governing authority is Paul talking about? A benign democracy somewhere in the ancient world?
No, he s talking about the emperor Nero A conqueror And no friend of Christians. Nero was a thoroughly evil man who will one day face the Lord Jesus and tremble in fear. But unbeknown to Nero, he was God s servant in at least this one respect: God delegated to Nero, as he does to all civil authorities, the responsibility to maintain law and order and to punish evil: 3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. 4 For the one in authority is God s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience. Who carried swords in the Roman empire? Soldiers. Were any of those soldiers Christians? We read about a God-fearing Roman Centurion who approached Jesus for help. Jesus commended his stand-out faith, his obedience, his deep trust in God which put others to shame. And it was a Roman Centurion called Cornelius who was one the first non-jewish believers in the book of Acts. Was it permissible for Christians to bear arms in the Roman empire? I think Romans 13 allows that. Here is the line of authority: Soldiers serve under the authority of the king, who sits under the authority of God in administering justice and maintaining law and order. Margy and I were in a situation once where law and order broke down completely, in Kenya on the 2 nd of August 1982.
And it was very frightening. Even corrupt law-and-order is better than no law-and-order. Romans 13 does not provide us with justification for military conquest: going and taking charge of other countries by force. Romans 13 is not a licence for powerful Christians to bring people under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ by force, as the Crusaders tried to do in the Middle Ages. If we do serve in the military we re doing so as God s servants to resist evil and to evildoers to account. We re not fighting to defend Jesus. Listen to what Paul says in 2 Cor 10 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. We persuade people by sharing the good news of Jesus and by promoting the good news of Jesus Not by pointing guns, poking with swords or throwing spears at them. Those are some thoughts about God and king. Romans 13, it seems to me, allows Christians to join the full-time defence forces, or the army reserve, to prepare to serve in a just war. God and king What about country? There was an interesting documentary on the ABC programme Four Corners last Monday, comparing the ANZAC soldiers at Gallipoli in 2015 with the ANZAC soldiers in Afghanistan 100 years later. Brendon Nelson, who is in charge of developing the National War Memorial in Canberra made this comment: Soldiers leave Australia to serve their country But on the battlefield they end up fighting and dying for their mates. That s a cause worth fighting for: laying down their lives for their fellow soldiers.
In reality, on the battlefield, country is not necessarily uppermost in soldier s minds. Warning: There are times, it seems to me, when war is necessary. The Lord Jesus sounds a warning, if we do take up arms. Wars are dangerous. Those who live by the sword, die by the sword. a) Physical danger: In the First World War the average life expectancy for a fighter pilot was three weeks. Wars can be dangerous to your health! b) Spiritual dangers: If we join the armed forces the government decides whom we will kill, when we will kill them and how we will kill them. That is no longer my decision. It is someone else s decision. And it opens us up to the possibility of engaging in evil and injustice. c) Emotional danger: All these dangers are interwoven. If you re in constant physical danger you might end up having crippling nightmares for the rest of your life. We are easily damaged. More recently, however, the Australian authorities have recognised that many members of the armed forces return with what is called moral injury. They ve done things they would never normally do. They find it difficult to live with that. It is a major cause of suicide amongst returning soldiers. E.g. my friend s dad taking life of Japanese general in hand-tohand combat. The way forward is forgiveness. Who specialises in forgiveness? The chaplains. A psychologist friend of mine, Tim Dyer has been engaged by the Australian armed forces to train the army, navy and air force chaplains in how to deal with moral injury.
If this issue is not recognised and dealt with My last point, under the heading of country (or should I say, countries) is this: Despite the cost, as Christians we are called to be otherperson-centred. In the Bible, God urges us to oppose injustice, and doing all we can to relieve the suffering of the oppressed and marginalised Not just for citizens of our own nation, but for any who are being hounded by evildoers. In my mind it was entirely justified for the Australian military to join forces with other nations to rescue the ethnic Yazidis besieged by ISIS on Iraq s Sinjar Mountain. That was by far the lesser of two evils. The alternative was genocide. Our middle daughter, Heather, went to Rwanda in 2004. She was on a mission with Michael Cassidy from African Enterprise, seeking to bring reconciliation between Hutus and Tutsis. Heather gave her testimony in a jail where many of the worst perpetrators of genocide were being held. And, as she spoke, she felt moved by God to apologise, on behalf of all western nations, for not intervening and stopping the genocide. Many of those prisoners were in tears, and they thanked her for saying sorry. Our shy daughter, who was always afraid to say anything in public did a great job that day. To summarise: God calls us to be peacemakers. God uses violence to overcome evil and punish evildoers. He begins that job now, through governing authorities. It is in that context that I believe Christians may from time to time bear arms. If my Iraqi Christian friend wants to do that as a new Australian citizen, he should join the army.
As ANZAC day draws near, I think it is fitting that we recognize those who have laid down their lives so that we can enjoy our freedom and security And that we begin by recognising the sacrifice that Jesus made for. For he took up our cause and won a great battle against sin, death and evil, on the cross and through his resurrection. It is also right for us to pray for those who are serving in the Middle East, including the 300 military advisors who are heading back to Iraq. Questions?