Dead American

In Luke 6:27-38, Jesus makes some powerful statements. I won’t copy it all here. Look it up and read it sometime. That is where I will conclude this whole discussion.

A similar teaching in Matthew goes, “you’ve heard it said to love your neighbor and your enemies, but I tell you to love your enemies.” Christ goes into way more detail about what He means by that in Luke.

Read that passage in Luke and tell me … do you live up to that in every detail? I doubt any of us do.

To begin with, because most of us define ourselves as Americans, we believe we have enemies. The nation of America has enemies. If you decide to try to attain some utopia through a worldly, temporary government, I guess you could argue another point, but by its very nature as a worldly state, there will be enemies of that state.

The Body of Christ, however, has no enemies. America and the Body of Christ are two separate entities. One is an institution and the other is an organism. They are vastly different in scope and purpose, even though some in the Body of Christ reside in the United States. It is important to understand that the Church finds an enemy in no man.

This is clear throughout scripture, especially the New Testament. I know many people overlook the Old Testament as strict and harsh, but read sometime the laws pertaining to the treatment of foreigners and aliens. God was serious about being a blessing to other nations, which was part of the promise given to Abraham and a major failure of the nation of Israel, which most people don’t talk about.

As I’ve said before, fighting for what is right is admirable, but it is strictly biblical if it is at our own cost. This is the example of Jesus who did not die so that we wouldn’t have to, as many teach. He died so we could see how to give up our lives in order to truly find it, to take up our cross and really live.

The job of the Church, the worldwide body of believers filled with the Spirit and disciples of Christ, is to lay down our lives so that others can live and be changed through love, through the giving of our very lives. That is what it means to be like Jesus.

On one level, no one understands this level of self-sacrifice as a soldier can. In my intimate experience with those in the military, they live a life of self-sacrifice. In times of battle, only soldiers understand the feeling of reckless abandon for their own life in order save their brothers in arms. When the bullets start flying, country and cause abandon you. All you are left with is not a concern for your own life but a desperate concern for the lives of the guy next to you. What an amazing revelation for those who understand the Kingdom.

But I also believe there is a valid struggle with those who are soldiers and Christians. How am I loving my enemy when I am him in the face? This is an important question that must be addressed, I feel. Some would say that there is no way you can be a Christian in the midst of such a situation, being ordered or put in the situation to kill. Others would have different opinions.

This may disappoint you, but I don’t have a formulaic answer for every situation. I don’t even know if I believe in them. I will, however, give us some ideas to think about.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was an amazing Christian writer … and a noted pacifist. But when asked why he, a staunch pacifist, joined the underground movement to assassinate , Bonhoeffer responded with the following story: suppose a madman was walking down the street indiscriminately people with a machine gun and he alone had the power to stop him, but he had to kill him, using , in order to do it. He resigned himself that, given the situation, he had to stop that madman. Therefore, he participated in attempting to assassinate the dictator.

Most military members that I have met have a similar mindset, at least those who are disciples of Christ. Many believe they are making sacrifices (and believe me, they make tons of sacrifices even outside of battle situations) in order to protect their own families and loved ones. We may disagree with them on this point on some sort of philosophical level, but they really do connect their love and responsibility to protect their own family with their service in the military. They do not like to kill and most would be happy to never engage the enemy at all. But they are willing, if called upon, to make those difficult decisions like Bonhoeffer was faced with.

I have met other military members who do not have this mindset. Some of them hold to be Christians but their supposed “enemies” and seek to do . I believe this is inconsistent and hypocritical. Hussein was not my enemy. was not the enemy of the Church. This is challenging to many, but true.

It is not the Church’s job to necessarily support or resist a war. We need to be somewhat independent of these worldly concerns. It is definitely not the Church’s job to spend an inordinate amount of time pointing out our enemies and wishing their s. We are meant to bless them, not curse them, however they might curse us. We have to be really careful of our testimony before the world, our enemies included.

Our Kingdom is not of this world. It grieves God when we act in any way as if it is. Hebrews calls it the “good confession” before Pilate. “My Kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my people would fight. But it isn’t, so they don’t.” Strong statments, I believe. This coming from the man who told Peter to put his sword away and healed the centurion leading Him to His .

This is the manner of love we are to exhibit as Christians. We are not to be violent people, not wishing or on anyone, willing to suffer ourselves for the revelation of Christ to be clear to others. Those who are against war for these reasons, I commend you and I think its an honorable position to take personally. I only question reflecting those ideals on a sinful world that will only be fully redeemed when consumed in fire at the judgment.

I have known Christians who run the gamut on these issues. Some are completely convicted about the violent nature and choose not to support or participate in such things as they can. Some have joined the military to serve in a non-violent way as medics or to have administrative duties. Others feel a deep call to lay down their lives in battle. I believe all are equally called by God to be a witness in a myriad of situations.

Taking the example of Christ and the words of the scripture, I still hold that Christians who are called to be soldiers are given a special grace and anointing for such a job. They have a specific role within the world that is divinely given and appointed by God, despite our temporal outlook. Even holding families together under extremely stressful circumstances is a miracle at times for those who serve in the armed forces.

But at some point, Christians in the armed forces, especially if faced with battle situations, will have to confront their testimony of self-sacrificial love in regards to the human beings across the battle lines. This is why To End All Wars was so impactful to me. Extrapolating on the counsel given by John the Baptist to soldiers, this has implications with prisoners of war and wounded on the battlefield and those who are torturing you.

I don’t believe there is a formula that can really answer these questions or serve in every situation (i.e. wars are always right or always wrong or whatever). I do believe, though, that there is a balance between the role of the Church as the expression of grace, love, faith, and self sacrifice and the biblical mandate upon worldly governments to protect their citizens and administer justice, sometimes even in violent ways.

These ideas seem to be contradictory to some, but when we understand worldly roles and the principles of the Kingdom, we can more easily seek God about how we are to behave and what we are to do. The Bible is full of contradictions on the surface that many times must be taken by faith until our understanding is enlightened. It is part of the test.

For those who actually read to the end, thank you! I felt many of these things needed to be said. Thank you for your patience.

Peace.

In Luke chapter 3, John the Baptist has a very interesting encounter. After giving his message of repentance, what the scripture calls the gospel, people came to him and asked him, what shall we do? Two specific groups wanted his counsel, tax collectors and soldiers.

It is very interesting to me what he tells them to do. For tax collectors? “Collect no more than what is appointed to you.” For the soldiers? “Don’t extort money or accuse falsely, and be satisfied with your wages.”

Tax collectors and soldiers worked for the government. Tax collectors were notorious for cheating people, collecting more than they were supposed to for personal gain. Soldiers were notorious for instilling fear and taking advantage of people with their position, too.

Notice John, who had no reason or motivation to be politically correct, did not even suggest that tax collectors stop working for and supporting an oppressive regime or that soldiers should quit their jobs or not kill anyone in their line of duty. In other words, John did not question their job choices, only how they carried out those jobs.

Here we have soldiers travelling to the wilderness to seek God through a man who preached repentance of sins and a return to righteousness. John was preparing the way for the Lord Himself, the Messiah promised to all.

Let’s reflect upon how Jesus treated those in the military. Remember the centurion who had a dying servant? Jesus’ commentary on him? “I have not found faith like this in all of Israel.” Roman centurions were notorious for raping and pillaging, mind you. Who knows how this particular one behaved, but his faith impressed God. Of course, we can’t forget the soldiers killing the only truly innocent man in all of creation, Jesus. Jesus looked down at them and forgave them in their ignorance. He didn’t rebuke their occupation. He forgave them because they were just doing their job, unknowingly killing the Son of God, and He did not want them judged for that.

Paul also uses a soldier as an analogy for the Christian life. If being a soldier was such a horrible job, why would Paul so quickly use it as an example of how a believer should live? He also used a farmer and a runner.

Remember, the soldiers of that time served pagan governments that were extremely power hungry and historically violent. This wasn’t fighting for the establishment of Israel under the Old Covenant. This was fighting on behalf of worldly governments with worldly ambitions.

I believe that there is a grace upon soldiers and policemen who must use violent means at times to protect and serve worldly governments. Perhaps they are even ordered to do it. That is part of their job, and the scripture views it as an honorable occupation when done righteously.

Answer this question. Do you lock your doors when you leave your house? Do you lock the doors of your car when you park somewhere? Most of us do. Why? Because we hope to deter others from stealing our stuff. It is partly good stewardship. We also lock doors to protect our families from people who would wish to do them harm.

Soldiers and policemen and other enforcement personnel are deterrents in order to protect citizens, to fight for worldly protection. They have a mandate from God to do so. We should respect and honor them for such. They are extensions of the authority God has given to governments that He has established to punish evil and reward the good.

Have you ever checked your speed when passing a cop on a road? Of course you have. His very presence helped to ensure your obedience to the law because of the consequences he is authorized to levy.

In this world, sometimes wars occur. Worldly governments have the sovereign right to participate in them. While any good government fulfilling its biblical mandate desires peace above all else, sometimes war is the means to peace. Compromising certain aspects of a government’s responsibility (such as justice and self-protection) is not peace. In this world, without consequences, evil will flourish.

So we’ve detailed the biblical mandate for worldly governments, but how are Christians supposed to interact with all this? To begin with, Christians should really understand the different roles of worldly governments and the Church. Once this understanding is established, Christians can be soldiers and policemen or other agents of the government. Even public school teachers! But they are also to be a witness of Christ within those jobs, realizing their identity is not within the job they hold during the day but the Spirit within them that is eternal.

Just because they have a God-given authority, it does not mean that these governments do not abuse their authority. Of course they do. Standing for what is right within those abusive situations can cost you, but the reward is worth it. God is with you if the motivation is truth and you are willing to fight at your own personal cost.

This may feel like a conclusion, but it’s not. One more important principle to go.

Peace.

This could easily be included in the last one, but I’m trying to break things up a little here.

Along with our ministry to the poor, the people of God have a mandate through the whole scripture to minister to all oppressed people, even fight to relieve them if necessary. This naturally puts Christians in direct confrontation with political policy and interpretation.

Of course, again, we do not have any examples in the New Testament of someone fighting a political battle for an oppressed people. Paul even tells slaves to be good slaves, although slavery in that time was significantly different from what Americans perceive it to be. It was still slavery, though.

We do have examples of people fighting for change at the expense of their own life. Paul is a great example of this. On the surface, especially with our American democratic filters, we could easily interpret Paul’s story as one who was fighting for his own rights. That is not totally true. As a Roman citizen, he declared his rights to love those who were punishing him. If it got out that they had punished a Roman citizen in such an illegal way, those representatives of the empire could have been in big trouble. He let them know to keep them out of trouble. But upon the choice to be set free, he instead used his rights to be further persecuted. Why? Because he wanted to bring the gospel to Rome itself, even to the emperor! He knew it might cost him his life. Prophets told him it would lead to his incarceration.

The problem with fighting political battles is that we quickly desire political power for ourselves instead of being witnesses of a people unconcerned with their lives on this earth. It is also easy to see the oppressors as our enemies, of which we are supposed to have none on this earth.

This is what I call the spirit of Absalom. Remember him? He was the son of King David who stopped people at the gate, convinced them they were not going to be heard by the King, and he ended up gathering power to himself out of rebellion towards his father. Too many Christians in the political realms are busy convincing others that they’re oppressed only to gather power unto themselves as leaders or little messiahs. Socialists are notorious for this. Their whole existence is dependent upon it.

It is a different witness altogether to fight for the freedom of others through self-sacrifice. This is the example we have in the scripture to follow, not rebellious power hungry people who claim Christ and create oppression for their own ends.

More tomorrow.

Peace.

Now that we have the proper perspective of the separation of Church and state, let’s discuss the Christian’s responsibility towards the state.

The whole Bible, including the New Testament, makes it clear that worldly governments have a divine purpose. They have been instituted by God to punish evil and reward what is good. That is the biblical mandate for any government of the world.

This requires an understanding of two biblical principles. First, all who are not in Christ are under the Law. In dealing with sinful humanity, a law that punishes evil is necessary to instill fear and levy just consequences. Second, God is sovereign and raises nations and brings them down based on their fulfillment of that mandate.

The Bible spells out that one day there will be a new heaven and earth under complete governance of Jesus. Until that day, the Church is the example of that. No earthly government can hope to fulfill that. We should not expect the state to fulfill what the Church has been destined to be. That is futility and vanity.

So the mandate of the Church is to be the witness of righteousness by faith and the Life of the Spirit to a world under the death of the Old Covenant. We obey the laws of the rulers God has placed over us. We express grace and mercy through acts of kindness and other good works. There is no law against the fruit of the Spirit.

A small note here: If the Bible is true, and God has placed our leaders over us, then we should be careful what we say about them, whether it’s Bill Clinton or George Bush. Too many people who profess Christ tear down leaders with their words, calling them idiots or other crude names because we don’t agree with their political policies or actions. This is dangerous if God has placed them there, first of all. Second, they are worthy of our grace and love, not derision and hate. Standing for God-given convictions is never wrong, nor is expressing them in a loving fashion. But to slander others isn’t love. We should be careful whom we consider to be an enemy.

But there is a balance here, as well. To the degree that there are nations led by sinful men, there can be unjust laws. When obedience to God and worldly law come into conflict, the Church must obey God, especially in the preaching of the person of Christ, all the while willfully submitting to the authority and suffering whatever punishment they decide, even death. Everyone from Jesus, Peter, James, Paul and others in the New Testament were examples of this.

They did not protest or lead boycotts or lobby representatives in order to change the laws. They obeyed God and suffered the consequences because they knew there would be a greater reward for doing so. And they also understood that those leaders would stand before God for their actions, seeing the eternal nature of the situation, and they took the opportunity to love and suffer, pitying them instead of hating them.

What does all this have to do with Christians and war? Don’t worry. I’ll get there soon.

Peace.

Been thinking about this a lot lately, for several reasons. One of them being the movie I recently watched, To End All Wars. Based on others who are better bloggers than me, I’ll try to break this up into a few different parts. Feel free to comment, but realize I haven’t revealed everything quite yet.

First, before we begin a more in depth discussion, we need to look at some facts based on biblical principles relating to our nationality. Initially we should understand that if we are Christians, then we are citizens of another country. We are aliens in this world. We have no home here. We are dead and our true lives are hidden in Christ at the right hand of God. This eternal home is our true country, our true nation.

This is not hyperbole or analogy. This is the basis for how we live our whole lives here on this earth. Although we can never fully understand our heavenly inheritance while in this skin, some revelation through faith, a taste, is necessary to set our minds there in hope. It can’t just be words on a page if it is to give us hope. Hope in the eternal will never disappoint.

You are not more or less Christian because you are an American. Or the citizen of any other nation, for that matter, but for the sake of discussion we will use the United States as our example. Too often, because of the media and even Christian teaching, we see ourselves as Americans who happen to be Christians. That is a worldly way of thinking. We are Christians first who just happen to be Christians.

America is not a Christian nation. There is only one Christian nation on this earth and it consists of the Church, the Bride, the Body of Christ, the collective whole of those who have repented and can boast only in the cross and resurrection for the reality of the indwelling Spirit as a downpayment of their heavenly home.

While America may have been founded on some Christian principles, primarily the morality behind the law, the basic structure is actually pagan. Republican ideas, representative democracy, comes from the Greco-Roman culture, Athens and Rome especially, which were polytheistic, pagan cultures. While the historian in me sees the earthly benefits, the system is not biblical or inherently Christian at all.

My point in this first part is to ensure that we have a distinction between the nation of America and the nation of Christ. One is temporal and will pass away at some point. You cannot put your hope in it because it will disappoint you. The other is eternal and will never let us down. Those of us confessing Christ with our very lives belong to the eternal nation of Christ, even though we may be from different tribes and tongues and earthly nations and cultures. Our common bond is more important because of its eternal nature.

Hopefully you can see and appreciate the distinction. This is a major theme of the New Testament. Our Kingdom is not of this world.

So, then, how are Christians meant to live with this reality in mind?

Stay tuned for part 2.

Peace.