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Wage the Good Warfare

by Brother Elliot Nesch

I. QUESTIONING WAR AND THE CHRISTIAN

Should a Christian go to war? Is there any biblical support for Christians participating in waging warfare on another country or people for any reason? My answer, and I believe the answer clearly stated in the Scriptures, is absolutely not under any circumstances whatsoever should a Christian engage in any sort of warfare. Unless it is spiritual warfare involving prayer and seeking the counsel and guidance of the Lord Jesus Christ, I don't believe the Christian has any place in war except for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the nations involved in these wars, ministering to the soldiers and victims of war.

Many churches today will not even address the issue of the War in Iraq but I believe it should be talked about. Churches won't address it because they don't want to offend by taking a stance of support or condemnation. These churches are run like businesses rather than the Body of Christ seeking to please their congregation or clientele. They are silent supporters of the War in Iraq. I say if you don't hold a specific position on this War in Iraq then you support it and innocent blood is on your hands! This issue needs to be talked about!

Soldiers are trained to kill and Christians are trained to save the lost. These roles are opposite, so how can a Christian be a soldier without conviction from the Holy Spirit? I would question whether soldiers that profess Jesus Christ were truly born again at all. Where are today's churches on this issue?

The Gospel is all encompassing and can be used to address all issues including war. If anyone is offended by the Gospel's message then they can reject it and go to hell. I don't believe churches should be catering this message to itching ears by watering it down. This method of presenting a lukewarm Gospel will only send supposed "Christians" to hell.

And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light.
-- Ephesians 5: 11 - 13

II. FROM WHERE DOES WAR COME?

Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
- James 4:1-4

America is driven by consumerism and covetousness waging war for what we want out of pleasure instead of relying on God for simple needs. The war in Iraq, for example, is being waged in another people's land for another people's resources: oil. Oil is a major factor in the War in Iraq and we are murdering innocent people every day to obtain it in our covetousness instead of asking the Lord who is faithful to give what we need (Matthew 7: 7).

This current warfare in the Middle East, like all war, is driven by theft and murder. We as a nation are taking what's not ours and innocent blood is on our hands. The Word of God commands us to abstain from both murder (Exodus 20: 13) and stealing (Exodus 20: 15) without excuse, no ifs, ands or buts. If we truly love Jesus Christ, then we will keep His commandments and walk as He walked (1 John 2: 3 - 6) striving to be pure, blameless and holy.

III. JESUS AND WAR

I've hear Christian leaders argue that because Jesus did not tell the Roman centurion to stop being a soldier in Matthew chapter 8, that makes it okay to be a soldier. I disagree. First of all, Jesus' ministry was for the lost sheep of Israel, the Jews, not the Gentiles. It wasn't until after His death, and resurrection that the Gentiles received salvation. When a Gentile woman approached Jesus asking Him to heal her daughter who was demon possessed He said, "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." He also said, "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs."

Secondly, the Bible says this which we can apply to all who are saved as soldiers, "But as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one, so let him walk. And so I ordain in all the churches. Was anyone called while circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Was anyone called while uncircumcised? Let him not become circumcised. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters. Let each one remain in the same calling in which he was called. Were you called while a slave? Do not be concerned about it; but if you can be made free, rather use it. For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's freedman. Likewise he who is called while free is Christ's slave. You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men. Brethren, let each one remain with God in that state in which he was called" (1 Corinthians 7: 17 - 24). If you are called as a soldier, remain in that state but obey the commands of God until this jeopardizes that role and you are discharged. Be a light, but do not continue in the ways of the flesh and carnal warfare.

Did Jesus wage war or participate in wars? Absolutely not and we are to walk as He walked. Jesus said, "Love your enemies, bless those who persecute you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you" (Matthew 5: 44). This, I believe, is what the question of war boils down to: love your enemies. I think this could be accurately translated today to mean, "Love the terrorists." Do not drop bombs on them! Pray for those who persecute you!

What would Jesus do if He was drafted into war? Would he drop bombs on people or kill enemies (or innocents) in Iraq if commanded by superior officers? I think not. Jesus came to give life and not to destroy it. If you call yourself a Christian, if you love Jesus, then you will obey His commands and follow in His footsteps. Jesus absorbed the violence of this world and he calls us to do the same if we love Him. We are not called to inflict the violence but the opposite: to recieve the world's violence in love. Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. And when His disciples, James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?" But He turned and rebuked them and said, "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them."
-- Luke 9: 51 - 56

Of what spirit are you, seeking to destroy life or to save life? Jesus was confrontational but never killed. His only weapon was the Word of God sharper and more powerful than any carnal weapons of this world. During the capture of Jesus, when Peter struck Malchus with his sword cutting off his ear, Jesus said, "Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword" (Matthew 26: 52). This could be translated into modern terms as, "For all who take the gun will die by the gun." The Lord will not consider the prayers of the wicked because any prayer contrary to the will of God is downright disobedience. "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayers of the upright is His delight" (Proverbs 15: 8). The Lord says, "When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood" (Isaiah 1: 15). As the Psalmist writes, "The LORD tests the righteous, But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates" (Psalm 11: 5).

If God hates the wicked and the one who loves violence, let us refrain from violence Christians. Let us be in the world but not of the world, and lay down our lives for the brethren, even for our enemies as Christ did for us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5: 8). Where is your faith Christian? Cease this fornication with the nations of the world. Repent if you are a Christian who supports war. Put your sword, your gun, your carnal weapon in its place. Repent from waging carnal and evil warfare, and wage the spiritual warfare, the good warfare.

IV. A SPIRITUAL WAR

For though we walk according to the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
- 2 Corinthians 10: 3 - 6

Jesus said, "Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?" (Luke 14: 31). I've heard one prominent Christian leader say this parable of Jesus means war is an honorable endeavor. I disagree. This parable is about counting the cost to forsake all and follow Jesus; it's about the spiritual war. Again, if we refer back to James 4, we will see that war is not honorable; it is, in fact, dishonoring to God as we saw with King David who couldn't build God's temple because he engaged in war.

A Christian's weapons are not guns and bombs. As a born again Christian, if the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, then what are our weapons? The Bible is clear:
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand in that evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints . . .
- Ephesians 6: 13 - 18

The only offensive weapon for the Christian is the sword, which is the Word of God. All the other armor of our battle here on earth is defensive: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of preparation of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation. Again, the only weapon we need while dwelling in these earthly tents is the sword, the Word of God. Hebrews 4: 12 states, "For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." In John's vision on the island of Patmos, Jesus says, "Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth" (Revelation 2: 16).

Our weapons are not physical and neither is our enemy, both are unseen. So why support or serve an earthly war which is of the enemy, the devil? I stand against Satan's kingdoms of this world and his wars. I don't support Iraq or the United States but I belong in the kingdom of heaven serving under the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Before Christ returns, the devil will be granted the power to overcome the saints through war. The enemy will overcome those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Christ (Revelation 13: 7).

I want Christ to return more than anything, but I also desire peace and justice, not war even though the Bible tells me it's inevitable. I pray for those in authority, including George Bush, to be born again believers in Jesus Christ, to repent and follow the Prince of Peace. I desire for as few Iraqis and Americans as possible to perish without the knowledge of their Lord and Savior because of war. I desire as few people as possible to die through war and go to hell for an eternity. I desire all men and women to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2: 4). I desire and pray for peace but I know war is inevitable because God's Word will come to pass. Just because I know there will be wars and rumors of wars doesn't mean I sit on the sidelines and silently support it. Being Christ-like isn't only departing from evil, but also doing good, seeking peace and pursuing peace (Psalm 34: 14).

Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God.
-- 1 John 11

Keep the faith and remember that this battle is unseen. We have eyes but do not see. When the King of Syria was making war against Israel, he sent horses and chariots and a great army to Elisha, the prophet. As the servant of Elisha arose and saw the army surrounding the city with horses and chariots, he said, "Alas, my master! What shall we do?" Elisha answered, "Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." And Elisha prayed, and said, "LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see." Then the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha (2 Kings 6: 15 -17). Pray for eyes to see the unseen chariots of fire that surround servants of God. Pray for faith from God that we may bring glory to His Name in this war.

How do we achieve victory in this unseen battle? How is our war won? Lay down your life! Follow the Lord, our Commander-in-Chief, who said, "As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep" (John 10: 15). "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15: 13). Don't take the life of your enemy but lay yours down for them that they might see the love of God, this is God's command to you who call yourself Christian. "By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (1 John 3: 16).

V. WARS AND RUMORS OF WARS

And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginnings of sorrows.
- Matthew 24: 6 - 8

Does war trouble me? No, I am ready to die for my Lord and I am ready for Messiah to return. However, I am troubled by thousands of innocent people dieing in Iraq without the knowledge of Jesus Christ. So why do most evangelicals support the War in Iraq? Honestly, I don't know because the Scriptures tell me otherwise, to make peace and not war.

Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God" (Matthew 5: 9). Elsewhere, Paul states that the fruit of the Spirit is, "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Galatians 5: 22 - 23). Paul also says, "Pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart" (2 Timothy 2: 22). And Hebrews 12: 14, "Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. As I said earlier, wars are an inevitable part of this passing world but that doesn't mean the Christian is to support them.

Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.
- Romans 13: 1 - 4

Does this Scripture suggest that we blindly follow our leaders sending our young men into another country to kill and be killed? No, we must be careful because you could end up following the devil instead of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, the devil is the ruler of this world (Matthew 4: 9, John 14: 30). A friend of the world is an enemy of God (James 4: 4). Satan, is the ruler of all nations, and he comes in signs and lying wonders (2 Thessalonians 2: 9) seeking to kill, steal and destroy (John 10: 10). The devil rules all nations making wars.

Stop taking sides because the devil rules both! If you claim to be a Christian, you are a citizen of heaven. Being a Christian is a political statement in itself. We are neither Republican nor Democrat, right nor left. Jesus Christ is our representative, not any nation. We are called to love those in America and in Iraq amidst these nations' wars. Stop picking and choosing Scriptures that appeal to your flesh and follow the fullness of the Gospel rather than the devil.

Romans 13 immediately prompts several questions. Would you have obeyed Hitler in the genocide of Jews during WWII? Hitler was the ruling authority to be obeyed. What makes America's authority as a country more authoritative than Iraq's authority as a country? Both countries torture and kill innocent people. America put Saddam Hussein into power and sold him the weapons with which he killed people. Hussein murdered people but America has murdered far more people in Iraq. What makes Iraq's murder unjust and America's murder just? Nothing. This is an unjust and racist war!

Iraq never invaded or attacked America, so why does America claim authority over Iraq launching a pre-emptive and offensive, not defensive, war on this country? If all countries followed a just war philosophy of attacking only in self-defense, there would never be any wars. We are not at war for self-defense; Iraq possessed no weapons of mass destruction and was not invading or threatening us. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. And what about Iraqi Christians now, are they to obey the American authorities or Iraqis authorities? What if Iraq invaded our country today as we are invading theirs, would you obey them? I conclude that we must obey the authorities until they command us to disobey God, the ultimate authority. As Peter was on trial for preaching the Word of God, he said, "We ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts 5: 29).

Daniel, Shadrach, Meshac, and Abed-Nego obeyed Nebuchadnezzar until he told them to worship the golden image and serve his gods (Daniel 3: 12) but that would be breaking the first and second commandments: "You shall have no other gods before Me (Exodus 20: 3) . . . you shall not bow down to them or serve them" (Exodus 20: 5). Jesus said, "He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me" (John 14: 21).

Romans 13 tells me I can not be against wars, in general, as a Christian because God uses them to judge nations. It very well may be that God is using America to judge Iraq and other Islamic nations. God also used Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to judge Israel, His people, (2 Kings 24 - 25) and then Babylon was judged as well and turned into a heap of ruins (Jeremiah 51) as it remains today in Iraq. Just as America may be being used by God to judge Iraq, America's judgment is coming unless we repent! 9/11 was a warning of God's coming ultimate judgment on this nation. I side with neither America nor Iraq but I call both peoples to repent and believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then there may be peace but the nation that forgets the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as Iraq did and America is doing, will be destroyed and turned into hell (Psalm 9: 17).

VI. OLD COVENANT WARFARE

So, can Old Covenant warfare justify warfare today, as many Christians claim? Absolutely not! These "Christians" have somewhere lost the crux message of the Gospel. This argument is foolishness and I tell these people to stop arguing and study their Bible. Old Covenant warfare is not justification for warfare today because we live under the New Covenant through the blood of Jesus Christ of which the Old Covenant was a shadow.

Under the Old Covenant, the Hebrews or the nation of Israel was God's chosen people as He said, "I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people (Leviticus 26: 12). Today, there is not a nation that can claim to be God's chosen people, a separate and holy nation chosen by God. There is no nation that receives a direct command from God to conquer nations and peoples. To my knowledge, George Bush certainly was not commanded by God to make war with Afghanistan and Iraq.

Anyhow, Old Covenant warfare differs from today's warfare. Under the Old Covenant God was leading the nation of Israel, His chosen people, into the promised land to be holy and separate from the demonic idol-worshiping pagans that possessed the land before them. If we were to follow Old Covenant warfare practice today (which we cannot because we are not God's chosen nation nor commanded by God to do so), we would have to totally destroy the people and culture we were conquering as the Israelites did to the Canaanites.

When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them.
- Deuteronomy 7: 1 - 2

People like to use the Old Covenant to justify Christian participation in war today. But just as they pick and choose Scriptures to form this false New Covenant warfare doctrine, they pick and choose Old Covenant Scriptures concerning warfare as well to fit their argument for today's warfare. For example, if we were to go to war based on the Old Covenant, we would have to utterly destroy our enemy as Hitler did to the Jews. Why not? Because we're not commanded by God. Even most warmongers today find genocide an unacceptable practice, so they dismiss this condition of God's Old Covenant warfare but cling to the rest while neglecting all the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Also unique to Old Covenant warfare, most of these battles were won by the Israelites through miracles of God. The Israelites were many times outnumbered or possessed no weapons to defend themselves. The Lord split the Red Sea at the hands of Moses so the Israelites could cross and the waters returned over the Egyptians drowning Pharaoh's army behind them (Exodus 14). The Lord used Gideon and only three hundred men to defeat the Midianites and Amalekites who were as numerous as locusts (Judges 7). Saul and Jonathan defeated the Philistines without swords or spears because the Lord threw the enemy into confusion (1 Samuel 13 - 14). God's people always had to rely on the Lord for victory and not themselves.

The Old Covenant cannot be used today to justify wars. Christ is the Mediator of the New Covenant, of which the Old Covenant was only a shadow. Today, God's gift of salvation is for Jew and Gentile (Romans 1: 16). Christ is High Priest over all (Hebrews 9: 11).

For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law; who serve the copy and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, "See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain." But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry; inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, He says, "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah- . . . It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience - concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation. But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
- Hebrews 8: 4 - 8, 9: 9 - 12

Today, we live in the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6: 2) and Jesus is the Captain of that salvation (Hebrews 2: 10). We do not war against flesh and blood and the weapons of our warfare are not carnal As Christians, we must endure hardship as a good soldier for Jesus (2 Timothy 2: 3). 2 Timothy 2: 4 states, "No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier." This is referring to the spiritual battle in which we engage daily. We are not citizens of this earth but citizens of heaven for Philippians 3: 20 states, "For our citizenship is in heaven, form which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." We have no king but the King eternal, immortal and invisible (1 Timothy 1: 17). Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13: 8). God says, "For I am the Lord, I change not" (Malachi 3: 6). The God of the New Testament is the same God of the Old, He does not change like a rock.

Even in the Old Testament God had a disposition against bloodshed. Do you remember why King David couldn't build the temple, but passed the task to his son Solomon? Because of his bloodshed and war 1 Chronicles 22: 7 - 8, "And David said to Solomon: 'My son, as for me, it was in my mind to build a house to the name of the Lord my God; but the word of the Lord came to me saying, 'You have shed much blood and have made great wars; you shall not build a house for My name, because you have shed much blood on earth in My sight." Again in 1 Chronicles 28: 3, God said to David, "You shall not build a house for My name, because you have been a man of war and have shed blood." So, we see here God's favor over Solomon to build the temple, this distinction is made strictly because David was a man of war.