{"id":76,"date":"2006-06-13T14:26:14","date_gmt":"2006-06-13T21:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=76"},"modified":"2009-09-02T13:08:04","modified_gmt":"2009-09-02T17:08:04","slug":"is-military-christian-an-oxymoron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2006\/06\/13\/is-military-christian-an-oxymoron\/","title":{"rendered":"Is “Military Christian” an Oxymoron?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.\u00a0 \u2013Psalm 144:1<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Before even considering the phrase “Christian fighter pilot,” many argue that “Christian” and “military” are mutually exclusive themselves.\u00a0 Particularly for new Christians who have recently been introduced to Christ’s teachings, or Christians who grew up in peaceful times and areas, the concepts of a “warring Christian” who is a child of the loving God can seem contradictory.\u00a0 There are many books and pamphlets written on the topic, and most categorize their analysis in two categories.\u00a0 The anti-war division centers on the uncontextual pacifist teachings of Jesus.\u00a0 The pro-war division centers on the Just War doctrine supported with Biblical citations.\u00a0 Well-researched books quote Augustine and Thomas Aquinas (generally credited with the formulation and articulation of the Just War theory) and cite lists of well-known theologians who opposed and supported Christian military service.\u00a0 Whole volumes analyze this subject from a much more learned position than I can.\u00a0 The objective of this section is to briefly address the question, “Is ‘Military Christian’ an Oxymoron?”<\/p>\n

Pacifist Theory<\/strong><\/p>\n

The controversy of Christian military service is not a modern notion.\u00a0 Throughout the ages, church leaders, theologians, and men of faith have dissented over the divine intent of the Christian and his relation to armed conflict.\u00a0 Many early church leaders actually prohibited Christians from participating in military service.\u00a0 There are, in truth, many arguments against Christians being in the armed forces. \u00a0While there are non-combat roles in military service, for the sake of brevity I will focus on the assertion that serving in the military requires the deliberate killing of another human being.\u00a0 Since God gives life, all human beings have a sacred right to life, and the pacifist view asserts that killing them denies them that divinely-given right. \u00a0Due to the warring nature of Israelite history, there are few pacifist phrases in the Old Testament, with two notable exceptions.\u00a0 The first and most obvious is the Sixth Commandment, in the King James: “Thou shalt not kill” (Deuteronomy 5:17).\u00a0 The second was Isaiah’s prophecy that the Messiah would be the “Prince of Peace” (9:6).\u00a0 Since the tone of the Old Testament is often brutal, many pacifist teachings focus on the New Testament as the culmination of the process of divine revelation.\u00a0 By arguing progressive revelation they minimize the Old Testament and assert that a Christian’s conclusions about war should be based primarily on New Testament theology.\u00a0 As Jesus is the crux of the New Testament, His teachings are used as the basis for pacifist doctrine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pacifist interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount implies that it should be a prescriptive instruction for Christian conduct, not just a descriptive attitude a Christian should have when faced with conflict.\u00a0 As a prescriptive doctrine, “blessed are the peacemakers” is a command for Christians to act in no ways but peaceful ones (Matthew 5:9).\u00a0 “Do not resist an evil person” and “if someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also,” are active directives that a Christian must not oppose evil or violence, even upon themselves (Matthew 5:39).\u00a0 Christians should not fight but are “to love [their] enemies [and] do good to those who hate [them]” (Luke 6:27-36).\u00a0 Probably the strongest pacifist Christian doctrine centers on the example of Christ himself.\u00a0 First, in one of the few interactions Jesus had with a weapon, he told Peter to “put [his] sword back in its place \u2026 for all who draw the sword will die by the sword” (Matthew 26:52).\u00a0 This directive of peace, even though it was Jesus himself that Peter was defending, is an exemplar of the attitude pacifists believe Christians should have.\u00a0 Finally, and most dramatically, since Jesus died as an innocent victim, then Christians, seeking to be like him, should be willing to suffer and die even in the face of injustice.<\/p>\n

Pacifism Answered, Briefly<\/strong><\/p>\n

History does show that early church fathers prohibited Christians from military service; the social context, though, was that Roman soldiers had to swear allegiance to the emperor as a god (Driver p31).\u00a0 Two things occurred that changed the culture of those times: one, Constantine came to power and ended the persecutions of Christians; two, Christians were derided for enjoying the benefits of Roman society without bearing any of the responsibility for it (Driver p38).\u00a0 The result was that church leaders began to allow and even encourage Christian military service.\u00a0 Examination of God’s word in its entirety\u2014including the Old Testament\u2014allows great insight into God’s perspective on war.\u00a0 There is no arguing that life is sacred: \u00a0God created man in His own image (Genesis 1:26-27). \u00a0However, man is fallen, and war is a direct result of his sinful nature (Psalms 51:5; James 4:1-3). \u00a0Pacifists have made much of the Sixth Commandment; but those who adamantly proclaim “thou shalt not kill” are unable to reconcile God’s own directives in the very next chapter that death be the punishment for criminal offenses.\u00a0 First, the source text for kill in the commandment is more accurately translated murder, which is how the majority of modern translations scribe the verse (Eckman).\u00a0 Murder is never permitted in the Bible, while killing is not only occasionally allowed but often divinely commanded.\u00a0 Second, God’s command that death be a judicial punishment indicates that there are just reasons for taking a life; therefore, killing is not inconsistent with the character of God.\u00a0 Finally, while it is true that the Messiah was predicted to be named the Prince of Peace, He was also called a Jealous God, a Judge, and Warrior (Exodus 15:3, 34:14, Genesis 18:25). \u00a0The God of peace was also the God of war.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Does the Bible require the Christian peacemaker to obtain peace at any cost?\u00a0 Do the commands to not resist evil and to turn the other cheek mean Christians should surrender, even if evil prevails?\u00a0 Are Christians commanded to accept peace, even if it is the peace of a “slave camp or cemetery?” (Boettner)\u00a0 Does “loving our enemies” mean Christians should love the evil they represent?\u00a0 As has been said, peace is not merely the absence of war, but the securing of justice, law, and order.\u00a0 In an active sense, a “peacemaker” does not simply avoid conflict but restores and maintains the peace.\u00a0 Romans 12:18 says that Christians are to live in peace “if it is possible,” indicating that there may be times when it is not feasible to do so.\u00a0 Christians should work for peace, and, by humbly turning the other cheek, should give an offender every opportunity to accept that peace.\u00a0 When the antagonist refuses peace, a Christian is not commanded to surrender.\u00a0 He is to love his enemies, but just as a parent has conflict with a child they love, the love he has for his enemies does not mean he will not fight them.\u00a0 The love he has for his enemies will inevitably conflict with the love he has for those whom his enemies would threaten.\u00a0 A Christian is not commanded to sit idly by and watch as his wife, children, or parents are ravaged in the name of his Christ-like peace\u2014to do so would actually violate a Biblical command to provide for one’s family (1 Timothy 5:8).<\/p>\n

Allowing an act of aggression, rather than defending against it, does not equal peace, love, or righteousness.\u00a0 On the contrary, tolerance toward such conduct often encourages it, whether it is the case of a “school-yard bully or Adolf Hitler.”\u00a0 As Augustine and Aquinas argued when they formulated what would become the Just War doctrine, there are righteous reasons for war:\u00a0 generally, the attainment of good or the elimination of evil.\u00a0 Augustine himself maintained that “war is waged to serve the peace” (Driver p81).\u00a0 While some deride war for wanton loss of life, in some cases war is necessary to preserve life; just as a medical professional may amputate to protect the body, a military professional may engage in combat to preserve the nation or even greater humanity (Grace).\u00a0<\/p>\n

As for Peter’s violent protection of Jesus at His betrayal, Jesus’ response is immensely enlightening when He says that if it was the will of God, He could call down angels to rescue Him (Matthew 26:53).\u00a0 His reprimand to Peter was not that violence was wrong (after all, He told Peter to put his sword away, not get rid of it), but that Jesus’ betrayal and sacrifice had to continue to fulfill God’s will.\u00a0 Jesus did not die because He refused violent opposition; He died because He chose to.\u00a0 Also, Jesus did have powers that man does not; when the crowds of Nazareth wanted to throw Him off a cliff, He calmly walked through the crowd and away (Luke 4:29-30).\u00a0 He did not fight back, but because it was not yet His time, He was able to supernaturally “resist” and simply walk away.\u00a0 There is also more to the argument of those that say Christians are to follow Jesus’ sacrificial example:\u00a0 Jesus was innocent.\u00a0 Human beings are sinners and far from innocent.\u00a0 Jesus’ death had an objective: the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of man.\u00a0 Even though He struggled with His divine calling, He had to die for the salvation of the world (Luke 22:42). \u00a0Moreover, as Jesus prepared to leave His disciples on the earth, He told them to sell their clothes to buy a sword (Luke 22:35-38).\u00a0 Finally, the same Jesus that some would describe as “peaceful unto death” fashioned a whip of cords and drove the money changers out of the temple court, overturning their tables and running their animals out of His Father’s house (John 2:15).\u00a0 While Jesus’ indignation had a level of righteousness that a Christian could never attain, His example shows that His love for the Father exceeded His love for the actions of those that would profane Him, and that peace does not mean submission at any cost.<\/p>\n

Biblical Militarism<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many men of old and renown have been soldiers and still been faithful men of God, and nowhere was their military service questioned.\u00a0 Abraham, whom God selected to bless as the father of His chosen nation, was one of the earliest “generals” (Genesis 14:14-15).\u00a0 Moses and Joshua both led the Israelites in countless battles.\u00a0 God Himself ordered the Israelites to battle, and commanded His own army, for that matter (2 Kings 6:17).\u00a0 To claim that all war is evil is to say not only that God enjoined Israel to sin but that He did so himself, which is inconsistent with the very character of God (James 1:13) (Harrison).\u00a0 David, a “man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14), said that God “trained his hands for battle” (Psalm 18:34).\u00a0 David not only fought in war but also participated in some of the most brutal acts of slaughter recorded in the Bible (for example, when he arbitrarily killed every two lengths of the defeated Moabites (2 Samuel 8 )). \u00a0In the military tradition of “praise the Lord and pass the ammunition,” Nehemiah “prayed to\u2026God and posted a guard,” and told the leaders of Jerusalem to “remember the Lord\u2026, and fight” (4:9, 14).\u00a0 There are countless other military references in the Bible.\u00a0 Some speak of military service neutrally, neither condemning it nor advocating it; others are full of praise for military conquest.\u00a0 Proverbs, hailed as the book of wisdom, contains advice for military preparation\u2014”for waging war you need guidance, and for victory many advisers” (24:6).\u00a0 In Judges, a town was cursed for not participating in war in support of Israel (5:23).\u00a0 In the New Testament, the writer of Hebrews didn’t have enough time to fully list the heroes of faith who “conquered kingdoms” and “became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies” (11:32-34).\u00a0 While trying to teach the crowds about counting the cost of following Him, Jesus used a warfare example without passing judgment on the subjects of His story:<\/p>\n

Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? \u00a0If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace (Luke 14:31, 32).\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Three individual soldiers are specifically mentioned in the New Testament, all members of the Roman army; nowhere is their profession criticized, nor are they directed to leave the service.\u00a0 First, at the foot of the cross one soldier acknowledged the crucified Christ as God (Matthew 27:54).\u00a0 The second one asked Jesus to heal his servant, and even told Jesus to simply “say the word,” because he was unworthy to have Jesus come to his house (8:5-13).\u00a0 Jesus was “astonished,” and said He had not seen so great a faith in all of Israel\u2014but He didn’t direct the soldier to abandon the military (v10).\u00a0 The third and most famous New Testament soldier was Cornelius, a God-fearing Roman centurion.\u00a0 Not only did an angel of God appear to him and acknowledge his faithfulness, but he was also used as an object lesson for Peter that resulted in the expansion of Christ’s message to the Gentiles.\u00a0 Neither the angel nor Peter commanded Cornelius to leave the military, nor was it a part of the important lesson taught.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Paul was not judgmental when he used an example of military service (2 Timothy 2:4), and he also described his friends as “good soldiers” (Philemon 2:25).\u00a0 When John the Baptist told those who approached him to “bear fruit” or be thrown into the fire, soldiers asked what they should do; he told them not to extort money or falsely accuse people, but to be content with their pay\u2014he didn’t take the perfect opportunity to tell them to quit (Luke 3:14).\u00a0 Paul spent years with soldiers in his travels to and imprisonment in Rome. \u00a0In none of these cases were the soldiers encouraged to leave their profession.\u00a0 On the contrary, in his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul says that “each one should remain in the situation which he was in when God called him” (7:20). \u00a0(It is interesting to note that while no one in the Bible directed soldiers to forsake their profession, Jesus did tell one man to abandon all his worldly possessions (Matthew 19:21); many people advocate following the former, which is not in the Bible, while few follow the latter that is!)\u00a0<\/p>\n

The New Testament says the state is created to maintain justice and is thus granted the right of force (Romans 13:4, 1 Peter 2:13, 14). \u00a0John Calvin, one of the most prolific contributors to the modern Protestant church, agreed that governments have been given the authority to use force to protect their national interests just as they can rightfully protect their citizens from criminals (Boettner 46). \u00a0Both a military and a police force are necessary to ensure the security of the nation.\u00a0 American police and the American military differ only in geography and lethality; to say that the military violates Christian ethics is to say the same for the police.\u00a0 Even those trained to fight wars do not desire them; crusade is no more correct than capitulation.\u00a0 The military exists because of war; war does not exist because of the military.\u00a0 To assert the latter is equivalent to saying that crime exists because of the police (Harrison).\u00a0 There are some that accept the need for a military but not the need for aggressive actions: instead they believe that the military should only be used for defense.\u00a0 While that desire is admirable, it displays naivety about military strategy.\u00a0 There is no progress in defense; just as a football team needs its offensive line to march down the field and score, the military will need to execute offensively to end a conflict.\u00a0 “Defensive” military action may be best executed in offense.\u00a0 Once the conflict begins often only the decisive defeat of the enemy will bring a secure and lasting conclusion; offense will be required to achieve a peaceful end.\u00a0 This also means that war must be fought in the place that it presents itself; whether it is defending US borders, protecting citizens abroad, or asserting justice to protect the innocent, the conflict must be joined where it occurs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The military profession has actually helped spread the cause of Christ.\u00a0 Throughout history, members of faith within the military have been responsible for the transmission of Christianity around the globe.\u00a0 Paul’s interaction with the Roman centurions undoubtedly led to the spread of faith throughout the Roman Empire, which at that time was the greater part of the known world.\u00a0 The US military itself has probably been one of the greatest missionary causes in history, from the earliest parts of the 1700s to the Korean and Vietnam Wars. \u00a0<\/p>\n

For those trying to understand the relationship between God, the military, and war, there is one important fact to remember.\u00a0 God does not change\u2014the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are one and the same (Malachi 3:6; James 1:17).\u00a0 Nowhere does God claim that He desires war, death, and destruction, but there are many places where He acknowledges the necessity of it.\u00a0 The same God who directed human armies and commanded a superhuman one spoke of loving mankind and desiring peace.\u00a0 Nowhere does God command that a Christian avoid or leave the military, nor does He demand that he allow himself to be walked upon.\u00a0 A Christian is to act in love and peace as much as possible, but when the opposition will not accept it, God does not say that a Christian must let evil, injustice, or brutality prevail.\u00a0 Because this is a fallen world, wars will never cease.\u00a0 So long as wars are sure to come, there will be a need for a military. \u00a0One day Jesus will return in glory and Christians will participate in the “war to end all wars” that will establish His kingdom and complete the victory He has already won.\u00a0 Until that day, Christians must live as best they can in this present world.<\/p>\n

Return to<\/em> God and Country<\/a>.
\nGo to<\/em> ChristianFighterPilot.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

Driver, John.\u00a0 How Christians Made Peace with War<\/em>.\u00a0 Herald Press, Scottdale, PA, 1988.<\/p>\n

Boettner, Loraine.\u00a0 The Christian Attitude Toward War<\/em>.\u00a0 Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, New Jersey 1985.\u00a0 Though in some parts a treatise against communism, this book contains interesting research on the Christian and war from Biblical, historical, and philosophical perspectives.<\/p>\n

Harrison, William K. Jr.\u00a0 Lt Gen, US Army, ret.\u00a0 May a Christian Serve in the Military?<\/a><\/em> OCF of the USA.\u00a0 The pamphlet is undated.\u00a0 LtGen Harrison passed away in 1987.<\/p>\n

A Christian Perspective on War<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0 Grace Chapel, as published on the OCF website, 13 April 2003.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.\u00a0 \u2013Psalm 144:1 Before even considering the phrase “Christian fighter pilot,” many argue that “Christian” and “military” are mutually exclusive themselves.\u00a0 Particularly for new Christians who have recently been introduced to Christ’s teachings, or Christians who grew up in peaceful times and areas, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-76","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-living","tag-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}