So, I will write further about Rom. 13 and Rev. 19, but in our conversation on Friday night it seemed as though you ended up saying that since Christ gave the State authority, and Christ never specifically said don't kill, that Christians "have the right" to kill other people if they are in the military, even if it is not a "just war", since they are under the State's authority and when they do so they are being submissive to the State.
(For the sake of furthering discussion, I am going to assume in this next argument that "just war" is permissible, even though I do not believe that it is)
So here's my thoughts:
In Exodus 20, God gives the 10 commandments, the sixth of which says, "Thou shalt not kill (i.e. murder)."
And if my statement stands that when a war is not "just", it is not a "war" but is really just a group of people killing another group of people for their government, or to put it another way, it is just state sponsored terrorism.
And the Bible says do not murder, or kill people unjustly.
Then the Bible says we should not take part in an unjust war.
And so, this means (at the very least) that when Christ said love your enemies, He was echoing the earlier commandment of God not to murder people. So when the State tells Christians that they need to go to war to be good citizens, if the war is not just, then we should not go. And if we do go, then we are placing the State in a place of higher authority than that of Christ, and we are sinning against Him.
I think that this satisfies your "paradox" (of how do we obey Christ and love our enemies, while at the same time we stay in submission to the State when it tells us to kill their enemies). I don't believe it is a paradox. The OT tells us not to commit murder (while allowing the possibility of "just war"), and Christ tells us to love our enemies. So if the State tells us something different, then it is going against Christ and stepping over its authority, and so is not to be obeyed in this situation.
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2 comments:
I think I agree with you on one level. I agree that Christians have the right to forfeit their submission to the state if the state is acting in an unjust manner. However, if the state is acting in a just manner in entering into war and not just acting as a group of people killing another group of people, I see no problem with a Christian joining with the state in that just war.
I think the problem we have is with the fact that you believe that no war is just and is therefore is just one group of people killing another while I believe that it is possible for a war to be just.
So how about your next post being your terms for determining a "just war" and if you think a Christian can join the US's military when it means that they might be called upon to fight and kill in an unjust war.
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