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What Does Scripture Say About War?

© John L. Hoh, Jr.

Last week's article was rather "un-Lutheran." I quoted Luther and Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. Not very commendable of a disciple of the theologian whose motto was "sola scriptura" ("by Scripture alone"). And well we ought to look at Scripture and what it says of war.

This debate might be unnecessary if proper Biblical study were applied. All too often, Christians focus on Isaiah 9 and Luke 2 and see the emphasis on peace. But what peace is this?

King Solomon himself, generally considered a peaceful king, writes in Ecclesiastes 3:8 "a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace." Hmmm, Holy Scripture stating a "time for war"--without setting conditions for war!

God also prescribed war for the cleansing of the Holy Land. While many see this as an unloving God destroying a people who didn't know better, a Jewish jihad, as it were, in actuality God had told Abraham some 450 or so years earlier:

You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure." (Genesis 15:15-16)

How many of us would wait 45 days before taking vengeance and exacting punishment? God waits 450 years. Think of that the next time you're quick to label God a blood-thirsty murderer in setting the Israelites loose on the Canaanites.

Sadly, archaeology is discovering how depraved Canaanite culture was in the days between Abraham and Joshua. Perverse sexuality was not only evident in pockets of society but was a key component of temple worship! They thought nothing of sacrificing their children to a god named Molech.

The words of Jesus are also interesting:

"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn "`a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law--a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.' (Matthew 10:34-36; a reading of Matthew 10 is of interest)

And in Revelation God speaks of war. One of the horsemen is war. War is waged by the forces of evil upon the believers. Christ wins the entire war and saves us for all eternity. And there are the words of Jesus quoted by Matthew and Mark to describe the end times: There will be war and rumors of war. (Matthew 24:6; Mark 13:7)

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