In a Bible study my preacher, Richard
Jordan, gave some time after the start of the Iraq War, he delineated the ins
and outs of war from a biblical standpoint, emphasizing not only war’s
legitimacy in Scripture when waged by a government against evil, but how a country
need not wait until it’s been attacked—a pre-emptive strike is wholly
acceptable.
“Peace propaganda is
actually a weapon of warfare designed to defeat and demoralize people so they
won’t go to war,” says Jordan. “It’s trying to take away from individuals the
courage of the battle and is designed to put a psychology in the populace’s thinking
of, ‘Wouldn’t we all rather have peace than war?’
“Sure, but when Ecclesiastes says
‘There’s a time for peace and a time for war’. . . Psalm 55 is probably the greatest example of
peace propaganda in the Bible. Talking about the Antichrist, the passage says, ‘He
hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him: he hath broken
his covenant. The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in
his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.’
“He had all the propaganda of ‘peace,
peace, peace’ until he got the people doing what he wanted and then the enemy
came in like a flood. Peace can never be
achieved by co-existence; by appeasement.”
*****
While people endlessly debate whether war is
morally right or wrong; biblically the debate is simply, ‘Are we, as a nation,
going to war against a real evil?’
“To secure justice and protect the
freedom of a nation; that’s the only legitimate reason for a war,” says Jordan.
“Personal and political aggrandizement is not a motive for war.
“You have to understand, when (Solomon)
talks about ‘a time for peace and a time for war’ it isn’t that some leader
just wakes up one morning and decides, ‘Well, it’s time to go over there and
knock them dudes out!’
“It’s not the selfish exercise of power
for political or personal gain. It’s to oppose evil, and when the enforcement
of justice against evil—that has priority over non-violence.
“The only just way to gain real peace
is by the defeat of the enemy of justice. The
objective of war is the decisive defeat of the enemy, knowing that’s the only
way to assure peace. When war’s the only path to gaining true justice, then
it has precedence over non-violence.”
*****
Out of 10 headings Jordan gave for his
study on war, No. 1 was, “War will always exist in time; until the new heaven
and earth there’s going to be war on Planet Earth—wars and rumors of war.”
Going back to early Genesis, war first
came on the scene shortly after the Flood with God’s establishment of the
institution of nationalism into the human race.
As Jordan explains, “Nations didn’t
exist in the earth prior to the Flood and that was one of the basic elements,
socially and structurally, that allowed the corruption of man to permeate the
earth—there were no boundaries to hold in corruption and protect freedom from
the corrupting influence of sin.
“Genesis 9 and 10 is the first time
nations appear in the Bible, and in chapter 11, the satanic counterfeit or
counterplot of internationalism, or globalism, comes into play.
“In chapter 12, God gives up the
nations of the earth and calls out Abraham and establishes Abraham as His
nation in the earth, and in chapter 14, you see a war break out.
“I mean, He just established the
nations in 9 and 10 and by the time you get to 14—only three chapters later—what’s
happening?!
“Those nations are at war against each
other. They’re not just nations either; they’ve got a league of nations, taking
these other nations and making them subject to them. Genesis 14:3 talks about
how they were amalgamated together as a kingdom by military force.”
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