This is where Seebs and I differ a bit. He is a Quaker and a pacifist. My background is Mennonite, and I lean more toward nonresistance.
I think God does ordain governments to use the power of the sword as a check on evil, especially violence. Therefore, although I am not in favor of the death penalty for other reasons, I acknowledge that it is within the range of power a government might legitimately exercise. Just as I think theoretically a government could justly impose and execute capital punishment, I think theoretically a just war might be possible, but even so, Christians would be called not to participate in it. I think just wars and just capital punishment are theories that are rarely, if ever, realized, and may be impossible in our modern world. So in practical terms, I may act like a pacifist, although I would not go so far as Seebs and say wars are never justified because God calls Christians not to use violence in self-defense. I do not believe that commandment of Jesus was meant for governments. Of course, my Anabaptist ancestors realized the full implication of this was that a Christian then could never be a magistrate, soldier, judge or police officer.
To the degree that I do participate in a democratic or representative government and am able to petition the government peacefully, I think it is quite appropriate to speak out against unjust wars. If I ever saw a just war, though, my theological and ethical tradition would tell me not to protest it, but also not to participate in it.
Do I live perfectly in accordance with my own principles of nonresistance? No. Philippians 3:12-1612 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. 13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. 16 Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.
This part of the Mosaic Law had the purpose of curbing evil and especially violence. It anticipated that there would be violations of the 6th commandment, and that therefore there must be a "Plan B" to deal with the disruption to society these violations would cause, as well as to curb temptation by adding negative consequences to a violation. However, compared to other law codes of the time and general geographic area, such as the Code of Hammurabi, the Mosaic Law was less severe and more direct. Other law codes allowed revenge to exceed the offense. The Mosaic Law limited it to the exact measure of the offense.
I see the need for a "Plan B" of negative consequences in a society where all people do not follow God's law. Christians, one would expect, would not commit murder just because God told them not to. But since no society is Christian, God also ordained governments as a "Plan B."
