More war analysis

“Thou shalt not kill” is the most commonly misunderstood yet most commonly quoted verse of Scripture used to argue the Bible is against war.

 

The smug thinking is, “That just could not be any plainer,” but the reality is this Sixth Commandment has to do with murder—unjustified, willful, intended, premeditated homicide of another.

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Another favorite war-opposition verse, pulled out of context and not read for comprehension, is John 18:36: “Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.”

Jordan even recalls once seeing actor Martin Sheen and political pundit James Carville on a TV news talk show quoting John 18:36 as proof that “no Christian would want to go to war.”

He explains, “They think what Jesus is saying is, ‘If my kingdom was of this world my disciples wouldn’t let the Romans kill me and the Jews band together with them. They’d deliver me. But I’m not going to engage in armed conflict because my kingdom is not of this world.’

“Now, there’s a key word you miss when you read that verse like that; it’s the word but. Jesus says, ‘But now is my kingdom not from hence.’ Can that make a difference in the way you read the passage? Do you know the difference between the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ?

“There’s the verse in Zachariah that says, ‘Behold your king comes meek and lowly on a colt, the foal of an ass.’ That’s His first coming. He’s to be a Savior. But then there’s that thing over in Revelation 19:11 where the heaven opens and He’s sitting on a white horse.

“He comes back out of heaven with fire in His eyes to judge and make war and set up His kingdom on this planet, destroying His enemies and wiping out of His kingdom everything that offends. We call that the Second Coming.

“So what that passage is talking about is real easy for anybody who knows anything about the Bible. Jesus said, ‘Right now, it’s not time to fight’; He didn’t say, ‘I won’t fight at all,’ because He’s gonna!”

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In an old study Jordan gave around the time of the start of the Iraq War, he made reference to TV ads sponsored by the United Methodist Church (the same church George W. Bush is a member of), in which the denomination’s head bishop quoted Matthew 5:9 from the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”

“The argument was, ‘We’re called to be peacemakers,’ ”says Jordan, ‘but the question is how do you make peace? How do you make peace with people who don’t want peace?

“People will quote Jesus on turning the other cheek to say, ‘See, that’s a pacifist lifestyle,’ but what is He teaching His disciples in Matthew 5? Well, look back at chapter 4:17. It says, ‘From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’

“Verse 23 says Jesus went about Galilee ‘preaching the gospel of the kingdom.’ So in chapter 5, when He opens His mouth, what’s He gonna teach?! He’s gonna talk to them about His kingdom! And He’s going to describe the lifestyle of the citizens of His kingdom.

“In fact, you get to the end of the Sermon on the Mount and He’s sitting there like the king on His throne, describing the lifestyle; the living manner of the citizens of His kingdom.

“Matthew 5-7 is a description for kingdom living for Israel that will carry through the tribulation into the Second Coming of Christ in His kingdom. When somebody goes back to the Sermon on the Mount and tries to tell you that’s what you ought to be doing today, what are they doing? They’re in the wrong dispensation! They’re not even in the wrong pew in the right church; they’re in the wrong building! And they don’t do the passages anyway!

“I mean, in 5:28-30, He says if your ‘hand offend thee cut it off!’ Now, the Taliban do that and the Saudi Arabians do that and the Iraqis do that, but the bishop of the United Methodist Church doesn’t do that. You know why? He doesn’t want to go by what the passage says. He wants to make it what he wants it to be. Why? Not because the passage doesn’t mean what it says when it says it where it says it, but because they’re trying to take something that God isn’t doing today and make it work today.

“You’ll see the liberals and that crowd doing this kind of stuff all the time—quoting Scripture with no care at all about whether it’s the Word of God rightly divided.

“You’ll wind up in national disaster following people who don’t rightly divide the word of truth, because if you try to follow that passage into a life of pacifism and conscientious objecting you’re going to wind up in national slavery!”

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Yet another verse crammed down people’s throats to try and prove Jesus Christ taught, “No more war, just peace,” is Matthew 26:52: “Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.”

Jordan says, “People reason, ‘See, if you make war you’re going to die by war,’ but you better look at that verse again. He didn’t say, ‘Go throw the sword away’; ‘Disarm!’ He said, ‘Put it in its proper place.’

“What’s Peter doing in the passage? He’s drawing the sword and going out personally trying to decapitate a guy looking to take Jesus captive. I mean, the only way you can cut a guy’s ear off is if he’s ducking.

“You swing like this and he ducks, you get his ear. Pete’s going for the guy’s jugular. The guy ducks and it just gets his ear and Christ heals it and says, ‘Pete, put the sword in its place; it’s not your job to execute capital punishment.’

“Whose job was it? It’s the government’s. That verse is talking about crime and capital punishment of first-degree homicide. That verse hasn’t got anything to do with military activity! It’s talking about a person taking a sword and killing somebody on his own.

“Romans 13:4 says, ‘For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.’

“It’s the prerogative of the government that shouldn’t be taken over by an individual. Romans 12:17 says, ‘Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.’ The government has the responsibility of restraining evil and there isn’t but one way that’s done—it’s war.”

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Biblically, there are three instances when killing is authorized: self-defense, capital punishment and military action authorized by a government against the enemy in the battle for the preservation of national freedom.

“A just war against a real evil; that kind of warfare is from God; He authorizes that,” says Jordan. “Now, if you’ll get that in your mind as a premise, you’ll never have a question about being a conscientious objector.”

Numbers 32 presents a perfect case study in the Bible demonstrating the sinfulness of not going to war when it’s time to do so.

As Jordan explains, “Israel is going to go across into Canaan and they’re instructed to wage war on the people there illegitimately and throw them out. Now, two tribes—Reuben and Gad—find they like it on the eastern side of the Jordan River and tell Moses, ‘We’ll take this territory over here as our inheritance.’

“Moses responds, ‘It’s not right for you not to have to go and help fight to get the land—the Promised Land. Don’t start this pacifism stuff about how you’re not going to go fight; you’re gonna stay over there. The battle’s over here, guys! That’s the land God gave us.’

“You know what Moses’ saying? ‘If you don’t go to war when it’s time to war, it’s sinful.’ In Numbers 32:23, he says, ‘But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.’

“Now, you’ve heard that verse preached by preachers for ages—how your sin will find you out—and they talk about your drunkenness, adultery, lying, stealing. They use the verse, pull it out of its context and preach against the things they don’t like, but that verse is talking about cowardice! It’s talking about the sin of not going to war when it’s time to go to war!

“Moses said, ‘Look guys, if you’ll go and fight with the other tribes and win the war and get the thing over with, then it will be okay for you to have this land over here. But if don’t, you can be sure your sin of cowardice—and refusal to war when it’s time to go to war—will find you out.’

“People, when it’s time to do something and go to war, it’s wrong not to. That’s very clear.”

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Another key Bible principle of war is a nation need not wait until the enemy attacks before striking back.

“The big hullabaloo was made (before the Iraq War) that you got to find a reason to link (Iraq) with Al Qaeda so you can prove they attacked us,” Jordan says, “But the verses say, ‘No, no, no.’ One of the ‘just war’ doctrines of Augustine was that you never attack first. That isn’t bible.

“Numbers 32:32 says, ‘We will pass over armed before the LORD into the land of Canaan, that the possession of our inheritance on this side Jordan may be ours.’ That’s saying, ‘We’ll go over there and fight so that our land on this side over here, where we’re not fighting, is secure.’ You see, in the Bible, a preemptive strike is not out of the question. You don’t have to wait till the enemy hits you before you hit him.

“There are times, and this is an example, where God required the aggressive action without an enemy striking first. Why? Because the enemy was in the wrong place and it was time to get him out of there.”