A refutation of Matthew Slick's Should a Christian go to war?
We begin:
This question has caused a lot of division in the body of Christ. Should a Christian go to war where he might kill other people when the Bible says to "turn the other cheek" (Luke 6:28)? Is it right to do war against others or does the Bible forbid it?
One of the most interesting things about Slick's little article, is that he begins by quoting the words of Christ, but never actually returns to discuss them. He makes no attempt to reconcile Christ's teachings with the main body of his thesis.
This is a problem, and it remains unsolved.
War is a state of declared, open, and armed conflict between two or more nations. It is sometimes undertaken in self defense as when the U.S. entered WWII as a result of Japan attacking Pearl Harbor. Other times, however, nations unjustly go to war to take spoils from other countries. Murder, on the other hand, is an unlawful taking of life and is always wrong. When nations go to war, it is declared lawful by the countries going to war -- sometimes for moral reasons and other times for immoral reasons. Therefore, and immoral war could be considered a form of murder where a moral war could be in self defense. But not all war is wrong.
This merely a brief discussion of what war is, and the circumstances under which it is pursued. With theology absent from the equation, there is nothing to debate here.
It is difficult to determine when war would be a righteous endeavor given that leaders of nations are not Christian and could easily have ungodly reasons for going to war. Nevertheless, war is an unfortunate reality in this world and it causes great destruction, misery, and loss of life.
Agreed.
It should be avoided if possible and undertaken only as a last resort.
If Slick is addressing Christians here, then I disagree. On this side of the 1,000-year reign, the quote above can only have relevance to secular society. It has no relevance to a Christian.
The Bible teaches that we have the right to self defense
*snip*
Here Slick rashly quotes from the Law of Moses - a law which Christ's teachings clearly transcended. His OT proof texts have a great deal of relevance to OT Jews, but absolutely no applicability to modern Christians.
Furthermore, Christians are instructed to be in subjection to the governing authorities whose establishment is from God.
I agree with this.
This establishment has the right to declare war and to punish its citizenry, even by capital punishment.
False. Nowhere does the Bible say that "This establishment has the right to declare war and to punish its citizenry, even by capital punishment." All it tells us is that this is what the secular establishment
does. References to "rights" (itself a concept borrowed from the Enlightenment), are notable by absence.
The language of the Bible is
not the language of
rights, but of
responsibilities. Things such as "human rights" exist only in our minds; they are secular human constructs, with absolutely no tangible correlation in objective reality.
"1Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. 2Therefore he who resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. 3For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same; 4for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil," (Rom. 13:1-4).
"Submit yourselves for the Lords sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, 14or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right," (1 Peter 2:13).
I agree with all of this - but it has no bearing on the topic at hand. Nowhere are we told here that it is a Christian's duty to bear arms on behalf of a secular (or religious!) government. In fact, the message of the NT is a message of uncompromising disestablishmentarianism - a message that was constantly reaffirmed by the earliest Christians themselves, both in principle and practice.
Finally, notice that when some soldiers approached John the Baptist and inquired about repentance. John did not tell them to stop being soldiers, but to do their jobs properly, honestly.
*snip*
Slick might have a point if the soldiers were Christians. Unfortunately for him, they were not.
From all of this, we can see that going to war is not wrong it itself and that a Christian can go to war under the right circumstances.
In fact, we see nothing of the kind.
