Ten Key Issues Relating to Iraq
Pastor Joe Fuiten, February 23-26, 3003
Preached in three parts,
Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday night.
The
trouble in Iraq is symptomatic of trouble in the world. It is only one country but the spiritual tentacles and
echoes of that country spread to every continent and touch all our lives. These will not be political sermons. These will be spiritual sermons that
intersect heavily with current events. I want to speak to a wide range of
issues surrounding the present conflict but in each point I want to understand
what God is up to and what he might be expecting from us.
Here are the ten key issues relating to Iraq asked as
questions.
- What are the prospects for spiritual or inner peace and a sense
of safety through Jesus even in the midst of war?
- How is the Peace of Jerusalem impacted by this Middle Eastern
conflict?
- The war has potential for many American casualties if weapons
of mass destruction are used. Can
we pray to restrain this evil?
- What is the role of an anti-Israel spirit in this conflict and
will those who have it subject themselves to serious devastation as a
result?
- If this is a spiritual battle, what spiritual strongholds must
come down?
- If America crushes Muslim armies and states will this create more
immediate hostility but long-term spiritual openness?
- If Iraq is devastated by American weapons and Saddam’s madness should
we then respond with charity and help as a Christian duty and for
strategic opportunities?
- In the aftermath of war, how should Government partnerships
with the Church help both to accomplish their goals?
- Can we know if this is a “Just War” using Christian
principles? Can a preventive attack
that reduces future harm and devastation qualify as a just war?
- Using the Byzantine’s diplomatic efforts of six centuries ago,
can we and should we buy off enemies?
I intend to cover
three or four of these issues this morning, a similar number tonight, and the
rest on Wednesday night. If you are
hearing this on the radio on the one-week delay, you can hear or read the subsequent messages on
our webpage at www.cedarpark.org/library.
1. What are the prospects for spiritual or inner
peace and a sense of safety through Jesus even in the midst of war?
There seems to be a new level
of anxiety in America since 9/11. We are suddenly aware that
terror can come to our shores as well. I
see it among Christians as well as the general civilian population. I cannot begin to image what it must be like
for the tens of thousands of soldiers massing in the desert thinking about the
hidden dangers of germ and chemical warfare. Certainly our nation is in a
heightened state of concern as well as alert from
Washington
State to
Washington DC.
The
Bible has many figures and passages that speak to people in times like these,
particularly in the Psalms. The 120th
Psalm seems to speak of a conflict with someone who cannot tell the truth. In dealing with Saddam Hussein, it is helpful
to remember that in Islam it is not a problem to lie when entering into a
treaty with an unbeliever. It is called
a treaty of Korah. In the Koran it tells
of Mohammed entering into this treaty when he was weak only to come back two
years later to kill those with whom he made a treaty of peace. How can we deal with such a person? David must have known the culture and
situation, because his Psalm sounds very up to date.
Psalm 120
“I call on the LORD in my distress, and he answers me. 2 Save me, O
LORD, from lying lips and from deceitful tongues. 3 What will he do to you, and
what more besides, O deceitful tongue? 4 He will punish you with a warrior's
sharp arrows, with burning coals of the broom tree. 5 Woe to me that I dwell in
Meshech, that I live among the tents of Kedar! 6 Too long have I lived among those
who hate peace. 7 I am a man of peace; but when I speak, they are for war.”
The
Psalm that immediately follows is obviously Psalm 121. It is one of the Psalms of ascent, recited as
Jews walked up to Jerusalem. It not only follows
immediately in the Bible, it follows in how it would have been spoken. The 121st Psalm is an answer to
Psalm 120.
“I
lift up my eyes to the hills-- where does my help come from? 2 My help comes
from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot
slip-- he who watches over you will not slumber; 4 indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD watches over you-- the LORD is your shade at your right hand; 6 the sun will not harm you by day, nor
the moon by night. 7 The LORD will keep you from all harm-- he will watch over
your life; 8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and
forevermore.”
This
Psalm is for us in times when we cannot trust other people to do right. It applies when those who lie and who wish us
harm threaten us. It is a Psalm that
shows us where our peace comes from. God
is watching over us and will be our help.
We can trust in him.
External Peace in the
time of War requires two parties
People who only
want peace in time of war will soon be dead.
In Lord of the Rings there is a great line. Just because you don’t have a sword doesn’t
mean you won’t die with one. In war, two
sides need to desire peace and there can only be peace when both sides have
it. You can declare war but you cannot
declare peace. You have to make peace
with another party.
Internal
Peace only requires one party.
The
Psalmist knew of this kind of peace. So
did the Apostle Paul who wrote Philippians 4:6-7 “Do not be anxious about
anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present
your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all
understanding, will guard your
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Living in the Love of
God
In the New Testament era they knew
all kinds of difficulty and persecution.
They learned to return to the basics with an important question in
Romans 8:35 and
beyond: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or
hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is
written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as
sheep to be slaughtered." 37 No, in all these things we are more than
conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death
nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor
any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our
Lord.” Paul’s answer
to tragedy and threat is love.
In an earlier sermon I wrote about Paul’s response. Paul’s answer to trouble is
to curl up in the love of Jesus. He does
not ask why, he asks whom. “Who” will
separate us from the love of Christ? I
am loved, and it makes all the difference!
He
could think about the source
of the trouble or persecution. He could
have mentioned his persecutor Nero by name and hated him in his heart for his
anti-Christian spirit. He could have lamented
the injustice of the young lives cut short.
He could have cursed the demons or criticized the present. He could have lamented the dangers, and
lionized the sacrifices. Instead he focused on love, the love of God.
Not every question begs for
an answer. Sometimes the question begs
for a smile, a touch, a hug, and a presence.
It is not always with words that we answer “Why would a loving God…?
When
there is a tragedy, the devil is there to send a “Hellmark” card. His greeting card speaks of injustice and
demands to know why. The Lord also sends
cards carried in the hands of his people.
When there has been a tragic accident or sickness, when there is an
untimely death or an unrealized dream, it is the love of God that sustains
us. It does not mean that we are
unloved, but that his love will come streaming
in. He walks with us in the valley.
If
we will have inner peace and feel personal safety it is because we will choose
to trust in God. We will not be anxious
because he is watching over us. We will
feel secure knowing that he loves us even when we are in the midst of trouble,
if that should come. If you find
yourself being anxious, read Psalm 121.
2. How is the Peace of Jerusalem impacted by this
Middle Eastern conflict?
It
would seem that Jews in Jerusalem have been a problem for hostile Arabs for millennia of time. We have an example in Nehemiah 4:7-9 “But
when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the men of Ashdod
heard that the repairs to Jerusalem's walls had gone ahead and that the gaps
were being closed, they were very angry. 8 They all plotted together to come
and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. 9 But
we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.” Little has changed in the
last 2,500 years.
We should never lose site of the fact that at
the core of the current struggle is Jerusalem. It is a spiritual issue. In Moslem thought, once they militarily
capture a place, it should be forever theirs because Islam marches on. Since they once captured Jerusalem, they
think it should always be theirs. It is
more than a political or military issue.
There are spiritual forces at work as well.
1 This is the word of the LORD concerning Israel. The LORD, who
stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms
the spirit of man within him,
declares: 2 "I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends
all the surrounding
peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged
as well as Jerusalem. 3 On that day,
when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make
Jerusalem an immovable
rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. 4 On that day I
will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness," declares
the LORD. "I will keep a watchful eye over the house of Judah, but I will
blind all the horses of the nations. 5 Then the leaders of Judah will say in
their hearts, 'The people of Jerusalem are strong, because
the LORD Almighty is their God.' 6 "On that day I will make the leaders of
Judah like a firepot
in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume right and
left all the surrounding
peoples, but Jerusalem will remain
intact in her place. 7 "The LORD will save the dwellings of Judah first, so that
the honor of the house of David and of Jerusalem's inhabitants
may not be greater than that of Judah. 8 On that day
the LORD will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among
them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the
Angel of the LORD going before them. 9 On that day I will set out to destroy
all the nations that attack Jerusalem. 10 "And I
will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem a spirit of
grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and
they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly
for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. (NIV)
I
believe the Apostle John saw our day shaping up when he wrote in Revelation
16:13-14
“Then I saw three evil spirits that
looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth
of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14 They are spirits of demons
performing miraculous signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world,
to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.” One of the demonic
functions of the last day will be to gather the nations and leaders together to
fight against Israel and Jerusalem. You can already see the
agitation in the Moslem world and to an astounding degree in Europe itself.
I
see that the current Israeli leaders are not expecting an attack from Iraq this
time around. Personally, I would not be so sure about that.
3.
The war has potential for many American casualties if weapons of mass
destruction are used. Can we pray to
restrain this evil?
Some American
military leaders are privately saying that as many as 20,000 American
casualties are possible. American forces
have already begun destroying missile launchers that are within range of our
troops massing in Kuwait. If germ or chemical warfare
is unleashed in that concentration of troops, the devastation could be
enormous. Once Hussein knows that the
options are exhausted and war is inevitable, I would expect him to launch the
first strike to get it in while he can.
My friend David
Dolan thinks that God could well use this conflict to punish America
and Britain for supporting a Palestinian State. Next time he comes, we will
see what he says, but I doubt that.
Nonetheless, this is an evil day and evil forces are at work. It is always the devil’s work to rob, kill,
and destroy. The devil will find
pleasure in Iraq’s destruction. He would find
equal pleasure in our destruction.
Killing is his business.
In the Lord’s
Prayer we have learned to pray to be delivered from evil. In Isaiah’s prophecy against Damascus he spoke of such a
situation. (Isaiah 17:12-14) Oh, the raging of many nations-- they rage like
the raging sea! Oh, the uproar of the peoples-- they roar like the roaring of
great waters! 13 Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters,
when he rebukes them they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on
the hills, like tumbleweed before a gale. 14 In the evening, sudden terror!
Before the morning, they are gone! This is the portion of those who loot us,
the lot of those who plunder us. (NIV)
If God wishes to
spare us, he can spare us. I really
believe we should be praying more than we are for God to spare our nation and
our young soldiers.
4.
What is the role of an anti-Israel spirit in this conflict and will those who
have it subject themselves to serious devastation as a result?
The Muslim world
in particular seems to hold a vengeful view toward Israel. There is an undying hatred and a long-term
commitment toward Israel’s destruction. Saddam
Hussein’s government sends money (I think it is $25,000 for each family) to the
families of suicide bombers.
This is God’s
prophecy against Seir, the land south of the Dead Sea and to the East. It is the region around where
Petra is, the southern part of Jordan. I am not saying this particular prophecy
applies to Jordan, but I would like to suggest that God’s response to the people of
Mount
Seir would apply
to Iraq and the regimes around him.
We have it is Ezekiel 35:1-9
”The word of the LORD came to me: 2
"Son of man, set your face against Mount
Seir;
prophesy against it 3 and say: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am
against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand against you and make you a desolate
waste. 4 I will turn your towns into ruins and you will be desolate. Then you
will know that I am the LORD. 5 "'Because you harbored an ancient
hostility and delivered the Israelites over to the sword at the time of their calamity, the time their punishment reached
its climax, 6 therefore as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I
will give you over to bloodshed and it will pursue you. Since you did not
hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you. 7 I will make
Mount
Seir a
desolate waste and cut off from it all who come and go. 8 I will fill your
mountains with the slain; those killed by the sword will fall
on your hills and in your valleys and in all your ravines. 9 I will make you
desolate forever; your towns will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I
am the LORD.”
In fact, this whole region has been consumed in bloodshed. It has not been against Israel
alone but also against each other.
Bloodshed is pursuing them
5. If this is a spiritual
battle, what spiritual strongholds must come down?
In these issues
surrounding Iraq, we need to read beyond the newspaper headlines to what is
happening spiritually. I think Paul
would say something to us comparable to what he said in 2 Corinthians
10:3-5 “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world
does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the
contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish
arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of
God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
The primary stronghold is the
anti-Christ spirit. The Koran is full of anti-Christ material. First let me read you a few quotations from
the Koran and then from the words of the Apostle John.
- "They denied the truth and uttered a monstrous falsehood
against Mary. They declared: 'We have put to death the Messiah, Jesus
the son of Mary, the apostle of Allah.' They did not kill him, nor
did they crucify him, but they thought they did." p372
- "Jesus was no more than a mortal whom we favored and made
an example to the Israelites." p149.
- "Say (to the Christians):
'If the Lord of Mercy had a son, I would be the first to worship him.'"
p.150.
- "Never has Allah begotten a son, nor is there any other
god beside Him. Were this
otherwise, each god would govern his own creation, each holding himself
above the other. Exalted be Allah
above their falsehoods!" p220
- "They say: 'The
Merciful has begotten children.' Allah forbid! They are but His honored
servants." p291
- "And of the woman who kept her chastity. We breathed into her of our spirit, and
made her and her son a sign to all men.
Your religion is but one religion, and I am your only Lord. Therefore serve me. Men have divided themselves into
schisms, but to Us they shall all return." p295
- "The Jews say Ezra is the son of Allah, while
the Christians say the Messiah is the son of Allah. Such are their assertions, by which they
imitate the infidels of old. Allah confound them! How perverse they are!" p315
- "The Jews and the Christians say: 'We are the children of Allah and his
loved ones.' Say": Why then
does He punish you for your sins?" p378
- “Unbelievers are those who declare: 'Allah is the Messiah, the son of Mary.' Say" 'Who could prevent Allah from
destroying the Messiah, the son of Mary, together with his mother and all the people of the
earth?" p379
- "Then Allah will say:
'Jesus, son of Mary, did you ever say to mankind: "Worship me
and my mother as gods beside Allah?"
'Glory to you', he will answer, 'how could I say that to which I
have no right? If I had ever said
so, you would have surely known it. You know
what is in my mind, but I cannot tell what is in yours. You alone know what is hidden. I spoke to them of nothing except what
you bade me. I said: Serve Allah, my Lord and your
Lord."...They (the people) are your bondsmen: it is for you to punish or to forgive
them. You are the Mighty, the Wise
One.'" p389
They not only have such words in their
Koran, but their practice is brutal. Just look at Saudi
Arabia,
the country where fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 killer were from. This is
where Islam began and is modeled each day. Its holiest sites,
Mecca
and Medina,
are there. What is life in Saudi
Arabia?
What would it be like in the entire world if Islam could take over, as Muslims
believe it must? No Jew can set foot in Saudi
Arabia.
Only a Muslim can be a citizen. There is no freedom of conscience, due process,
no freedom of the press, or of religion, or free elections. No non-Muslim place
of worship can be built. If a Muslim converts to any other religion, the
penalty is death!
These
words from the Koran have to be read in the light of the Bible with their
actual practice in mind. The Apostle
John faced this same spirit many times. He is very
clear about the anti-Christ spirit when he writes in I John 2:18-23 “Dear
children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is
coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last
hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if
they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going
showed that none of them belonged to us. 20 But you have an anointing from the
Holy One, and all of you know the truth. 21 I do not write to you because you
do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from
the truth. 22 Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the
Christ. Such a man is the antichrist-- he denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the
Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
6.
If America crushes Muslim armies and states will this
create more immediate hostility but long-term spiritual openness?
One of the fears that people have
in confronting the Iraqi situation is that it will unleash a new wave of terror
around the world. I have no doubt that
it will be so.
Appeasement is always easier in the short run. However, I do believe a successful effort
will result in spiritual openness in the long run.
In the Moslem world, they view this
as a contest between Allah and Jesus.
You recall the comments that were made about the space shuttle. They saw that as the judgment of Allah upon America for threatening to
attack Iraq.
There are two elements to
this. First, because they have made it a
contest between Allah and God, we have a right to pray for success. Second, if we are successful, they will
feel that their religion has failed. I would
like to take those two points in order.
The
present situation with Iraq is somewhat like the attacks of the Aramean King Ben-Hadad upon Israel
recorded in I Kings 20:27-28. The
Arameans are the ancestral people of the modern Syrians.
27 When the Israelites
were also mustered and given provisions, they marched out to meet them. The
Israelites camped opposite them like two small flocks of goats, while the
Arameans covered the countryside. 28 The man of God came up and told the king
of Israel, "This is what the LORD says: 'Because the Arameans think
the LORD is a god of the hills and not a god of the valleys, I will deliver
this vast army into your hands, and you will know that I am the LORD.'"
This second point is what leads me
to believe it is time for a new missionary effort inside Islam. It leads me to the 7th issue in
this Iraq conflict.
7.
If Iraq is devastated by American weapons and
Saddam’s madness, should we then respond with charity and help as a Christian
duty and for strategic opportunities?
We phrase it in the form of a question, but I
believe it should be a positive statement. The
post-war Iraq should be met with a spiritual Marshal
Plan.
Isaiah 21:11-17 asks the right question and offers
the right response.
“An oracle concerning Dumah: Someone calls to me from Seir, "Watchman,
what is left of the night? Watchman, what is left of the night?" 12 The
watchman replies, "Morning is coming, but also the night. If you would
ask, then ask; and come back yet again." 13 An oracle concerning Arabia:
You caravans of Dedanites, who camp in the thickets of Arabia, 14 bring water
for the thirsty; you who live in Tema, bring food for the fugitives. 15 They
flee from the sword, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow and from the heat of
battle. 16 This is what the Lord says to me: "Within one year, as a
servant bound by contract would count it, all the pomp of Kedar will come to an
end. 17 The survivors of the bowmen, the warriors of Kedar, will be few."
The LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken. (NIV)
This conflict may well reach
historic proportions in its devastation.
There are possibilities that the greatest damage will come at the hands
of Saddam Hussein. He has threatened to
ignite the oil fields and burst the dams on the Euphrates. If that happens, and if chemical and germ
warfare erupts, what will happen to the people of that land? These descendents of Ishmael will ask,
‘Watchman what is left of the night?’
The answer for them will be yet more night, but morning is also coming. There will be both good and bad for them.
The oracle for Arabia is send food and
water. I am not trying to make the case
that these prophesies are finding their ultimate fulfillment in this
situation. However, it does speak to my
heart. Uncontaminated drinking water and
food will become essentials in Iraq
following a devastating war. If the oil
wells go up in smoke at Hussein’s hand, it may well take a year to put them
out. Already, Christians in one of the
Arab lands are stockpiling food and supplies.
They want to be ready to care for the refugees that come out of Iraq.
I have been in
contact with these people. We have been
encouraging the people resources we have to be ready to come to the aid of the
Iraqi people. I have said I would be willing
to be a part of it. I hope our church
will want to be a part of it as well. If
you have an interest in helping, please let me know so that I can share more
personally what is going on and how you can help.
8. In the aftermath of war,
how should Government partnerships with the Church help both to accomplish
their goals?
If the war goes forward as seems
likely as of this writing (February 26, 2003), it will most
likely end with great devastation necessitating the help envisioned in issue seven. Many Christians will respond at point seven
and many will fail to help. Probably
even fewer will have an interest in issue eight. America
and our allied nations will surely feel an obligation to see that a new
government emerges and that the country gets back on a stable footing. If we are bold and oil producing capacity
remains, we may crank up the flow of oil to help pay for the rebuilding. Even in that best-case scenario, a great amount
of American and allied aid will flow into Iraq. I doubt we will want American soldiers to
distribute the aid because of residual backlash. The task will fall to other groups. I would like to see the Church in an open
partnership with the government to give assistance to Iraq in
the rebuilding phase. Especially in the
Evangelical world where we have minimal experience in this area and an open
hostility to the idea of cooperating with the government, this idea may be
difficult. Even so, there is no
inherently strong reason we should not work with the government on this.
We have a large number of Arabic speaking Americans and people of
other countries who could be involved. We should unite their local
language capacity with hundreds of volunteers from America
and around the world to get involved one-on-one with the Iraqi people. The government provides the aid, we provide
the love. The government achieves its
goal of rebuilding the nation, we achieve our goal of strengthening the work of
God in those lands. I would like to see
people with experience in working with the government to step forward to help
make these arrangements now, before the war has even begun. It will be over very quickly and the need
will appear before we are ready unless we begin to act now.
The President said
today (Wednesday February 26th) “If we must use force, the United States and our coalition
stand ready to help the citizens of a liberated Iraq. We will deliver
medicine to the sick, and we are now moving into
place nearly 3 million emergency rations to feed the hungry. We'll make sure that Iraq's 55,000 food distribution sites, operating under the Oil For Food
program, are stocked and open as soon as possible. The United States and Great
Britain are
providing tens of millions of dollars to the U.N. High Commission on Refugees,
and to such groups as the World Food Program and UNICEF, to provide emergency
aid to the Iraqi people.”
This is the right sentiment. I only wish he were saying that the church
would be involved.
9.
Can we know if this is a “Just War” using Christian principles? Can a preventive attack that reduces future
harm and devastation qualify as a just war?
(This
section is adapted from a previous Wednesday night teaching that I did right
after 9/11. The original is located at http://www.cedarpark.org/cedarparkftp/terrorism.htm)
Nothing
is more common to human life than killing.
Of the first two people born in human history, one killed the
other. Humans started badly and have
deteriorated since then.
With
the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing has been taken to a new level. Apart from the two nuclear bombs of World War
II, there have been very few battles that have caused a greater amount of
killing, at any one time, than what occurred on September 11, 2001.
In
response, President George Bush has declared that a protracted war has
begun. While we did not begin it, he
pledges to finish it. Across the
country, including at Cedar Park, there have been sustained prayers for the success of our nation in
this conflict. Admittedly, we have
responded to this situation as Americans.
The question is, have we also responded as Christians? Is our present attitude the right one? Upon what basis can we know what is right?
As
Pentecostals, we are first committed to being biblical in our viewpoint. We certainly know that God sometimes ordered
war as the best remedy for particularly evil people who came against Israel. We have this in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, Jesus praised a Roman
military commander, the Centurion, for his great faith.
One at least one occasion, Jesus himself used physical force when he overturned
the tables of the crooked moneychangers. Luke referred to another Centurion,
Cornelius, as a devout and God-fearing man.
God himself confirmed that assessment by pouring out the Holy Spirit upon
him. He was the first Gentile to receive
this experience. In addition, the
writer of Hebrews refers to several soldiers as having great faith.
Indeed, neither Jesus nor John the Baptist commanded soldiers to abandon their
profession. To the question ‘What shall we do to enter into the
kingdom of
God?’, John
simply urged the soldiers to avoid extortion and to be satisfied with their
wages.
From these passages it does not seem that the life of the soldier is something
objectionable.
On
the other hand, we have the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus
urged us to be peacemakers and to turn the other cheek when we are struck. He also said "the meek shall inherit the
earth.” "One of Jesus’ followers pulled out a
sword. He struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. But Jesus said to
him, ‘Put your sword away. Anyone who lives by fighting will die by
fighting’" There
has always been something of a conflict in the minds of Christians as they have
weighed these seemingly conflicting viewpoints.
It is very evident that honest and devout Christians can come to
different conclusions on the matter and we must always respect individual
conscience in this area.
The
mainstream of Christian thought has been shaped by a few people who have
written on this subject over the centuries.
Foremost among these was Augustine.
His thoughts are still relevant today to help us think about this new war in a spiritual
and Christ-honoring way.
For
Augustine, the only reason that justified war was a desire to achieve peace.
"Peace is not sought in order to provide war, but war is waged in order to
attain peace." This had to be the motive for war. Even revenge was inadequate. Further, in waging war one must only do what
is necessary to obtain the peace and nothing more.
If personally called upon to kill
in war, it must only be done out of necessity and not as a matter of personal
will. If war can only include the
necessary, then prisoners and conquered people must be shown mercy if they are
no longer a threat to the peace. The
personal act of the will was critical to his aligning his ideas to the teaching
of scripture. He said the heart
determined the rightness or wrongness of an action. "What is here required is not a bodily
action, but an inward disposition. The
sacred seat of virtue is the
heart."
To show the importance of the heart,
as opposed to the action itself, Augustine posed a situation of two men. One man was hitting a boy while another man
was caressing a boy. In the first case
it seemed bad to be hitting a boy but if it were a father lovingly disciplining
his son within appropriate bounds then that would be good and not bad. Conversely, if the second man who was
caressing a boy was a child molester, then that would be bad. As a conclusion he said, "We find a
man by charity made fierce; and by iniquity made winningly gentle." So, war in a just cause might be good, while
peace-making, if it turns out to be a Chamberlain type appeasement, might end
up being evil. This is my personal
concern with the “peace” movement that is present today and at the time of
virtually every war.
God judges the heart. In the end, the will and intent of the person
is highly influential in how God sees it.
If we act out of pure motives, with proper justification, then God
blesses an action. On the other hand,
what is seemingly a good action, done with hatred or vengeance, would be sinful.
Augustine
also emphasized lawful authority. Only
the state, as properly constituted authority, has the authority to
declare and wage war. Even they must
only do so to ensure the common good. We
have urged people to avoid private acts of vengeance against Moslems, Mosques or
Arabs. These kinds of acts would always
be sinful as well as a violation of American values.
Since
Augustine, thinkers such as St. Thomas Aquinas have further refined and
developed Augustine’s ideas. Even to
this day, however, Augustine continues to shape both religious and secular
thought on the subject. With each war or
conflict Christians go through the process of assessing the war to determine
its legitimacy according to accepted Christian standards. While there will always be a variety of
opinions, there are standards that have stood the test of the centuries.
The Pope does not believe the war against Iraq
meets the historic tests of a just war.
Let’s consider this war for ourselves in light of Christian thinking.
In
the 1995 IVP New Dictionary of Christian Ethics and Pastoral Theology we have
the following list of elements that generally characterize a “just war:”
First, there must be a Just Cause.
A just cause is mainly a
defense against violent (and unjustified) aggression against the state, or against a
neighbor state unable to defend itself.
In addition, a pre-emptive defense may be possible so long as it did not
violate other principles. An economic
boycott or harm would not generally be
sufficient cause unless the survival of the people
or the state were so threatened as to warrant the injustice being classed as violent
aggression.
In the case of the attack
upon the World Trade Center and Pentagon, there has clearly been violent aggression against the
United States. We have been attacked
before along these same lines at our overseas bases, embassies and ships. Even the WTC has been attacked before. Further, there is every anticipation that it
will occur again. In fact, the
prevention of future terror attacks is precisely why we are going after
Hussein. He apparently possesses, and
has shown the willingness to use, weapons of mass destruction. We honestly believe he would use them against
America or Israel if he had the chance. We are
concerned that he will share these weapons with terrorists who would use them
here. In the first case, this war is
just because it is mainly a defense against violent aggression against us.
Second, there must be a Just Intention on the part of the state going to war.
The goal must be limited to
a desire for the peace of us and of our foes.
There must be no motive of revenge or retribution. Just intention
demands also proper conduct, avoiding any tendency to hatred or brutality. Part of our just intention is to restore
peace to Iraq. The idea of freeing the
Iraqi people from repression and threat of violence is actually a significant
feature of the just war thinking.
Third, war must be the measure of Last Resort.
The use of military force
must be a last resort after every other effort to resolve the situation including
international negotiations has been exhausted, and has failed. This is the primary area of difference that America
has with Germany and France. They seem to believe that
we can remove the threat posed by his weapons by giving the weapons inspectors
more time to find now hidden weapons.
However, a hundred people searching an area the size of California for weapons that they have had years to hide does not have a good
chance for success. We have determined
that Hussein has no intention of relinquishing his weapons. If he will not give them up as required by
the United Nations, then he must be hanging on to them with the intention of
using them.
I suppose one could argue
that more time, especially a very long time, could result in all the weapons
being found and destroyed. There is also
the danger that Hussein will perfect means of delivering his weapons to their
targets and great harm will result. Our
leaders believe that only a rather immediate war will remove this risk. In this sense, an immediate war is the
measure of last resort. After 17 UN
resolutions and 12 years, the other approach has run its course. We have come to the last, last, last
opportunity for disarmament and now we have come to the means of last resort.
Fourth, the war must be conducted under Proper Authority.
The decision to go to war
must be made by the highest lawful government or supra-government authority,
and should be marked by an official declaration of war. Osama bin Laden violates this rule. Terrorism in general violates this rule. Terrorists are usually not a government and
have no actual legal standing. Iraq is a
legal authority and has the right to declare war. This principle is what prevents individual
people from taking private actions of revenge.
The American Congress has
authorized the President to move on this war.
The President has consistently argued that resolution 1441 calls for
Hussein’s disarmament and threatens serious consequence if he does not. The American position is that proper
authority has spoken and that individual states have the right to enforce the
resolutions of the United Nations. If America
goes to war, it would be doing so under the proper authority of its own legal
procedures and with what we believe in the proper authority of the UN as
well. The many nations that will be
joining with us also constitute a certain level of proper authority.
Fifth, the goals of the war must have Limited Ends.
A general war to crush
Islam would not be just since that would go way beyond what was necessary to
secure the peace. Not every Moslem is
out to destroy America, even though many are. We do
not have the moral right to go after those who are not coming against us. The same would be true for
the simple desire to unseat someone like Saddam Hussein. Even though we might not like those people, a
war must be waged for limited ends only -- sufficient to repel aggression, to
redress its injustice, and to secure the peace.
In the case of Hussein, it has now become necessary to replace him, not
just for the sake of replacing an evil person that we do not like, but also for
the limited end of securing our own peace.
As long as he is the leader in Iraq,
there is a threat to Israel and to America and its people. Therefore we
are justified in eliminating him as the most prudent means to secure the peace.
Sixth, the war must have some sense of Proportionality to its cause.
The means used to wage the
war must be proportional to the offence and necessary to achieve the end
intended. The evils of the war, in its conduct and in its aftermath, must not
exceed the evils of the cause. We
cannot say that because we lost over 3,000 souls in 9/11 that we are going to
destroy 600,000 souls in Iraq. Nor can we say that we are
justified in dropping a nuclear bomb on Baghdad or turning
them into “toast.” On the other hand,
the President has said that we would not rule out the use of nuclear
weapons. Many were stunned when he said that. However, if Iraq uses
weapons of mass destruction upon us, we would be justified in doing the same.
In World War II, American
intelligence believed that we would have a million casualties if we had to
attack the island of Japan as we had other islands in the Pacific. Because of that, we were justified in
dropping two nuclear bombs. Even though
the devastation was enormous upon Japan, it
was proportional to the loss we would have experienced.
The same is true in this
contemplated Iraqi war. We may kill
thousands of Iraqis in this essentially preemptive war. However, such losses are just when compared
to the potential threat of a nuclear weapon detonated in
Washington DC or
New York or
Seattle. Since Hussein already possesses chemical and
germ weapons and has actively pursued nuclear weapons, the level of
proportional force is fairly high. It is
not necessary to suffer the losses ourselves before we act to prevent a
reasonable threat.
Seventh, there must be Protection of
Non-Combatants.
Violence must only be
directed against enemy combatants. Non-combatants must be protected from direct
or intentional attack. Their targeting
of civilians without distinction is immoral.
Their Islam lacks such moral refinement to distinguish between
combatants and non-combatants. In war,
civilians cannot always be protected.
There are often unintended results.
However, every effort should be made to protect the innocent. On the other hand, people who intentionally
put themselves in the way of war, the so-called “human shields”, do not deserve protection as
non-combatants. Their deaths would not
be a violation of this principle, in my view.
Eighth, the war must have a Reasonable Chance
of Success.
The chance of success is measured by achieving peace. If a just peace cannot be achieved, the
additional suffering caused by the war would serve no purpose. It would only result in more suffering. In the case of this war, we must know that it
is possible to greatly diminish the ultimate threat of terror and to greatly
reduce the risk of future exposure to weapons of mass destruction.
If enough military force is
brought to bear on Iraq their current leaders will either be killed or realize they have no
hope of winning by confrontation or use of weapons. As a result, they may continue to dislike us
but will back off of attempts to destroy America
and Israel by war and violence.
The whole concept of a just
war, justly conducted presumes that there is a God that watches over the
affairs of human beings. Conducting
ourselves in a Godly way will result in God’s blessing and help. Unlike the Pope, I do believe America
would be fighting a just war if we go to war in the way that I have heard
discussed by our leaders.
10. Using the Byzantine’s
diplomatic efforts of six centuries ago, can we and should we buy off enemies?
In the centuries
leading up to 1453 and the fall of Constantinople to the Moslems,
the Eastern Roman Empire was very rich. The trade of the east passed through their
capital and result in the accumulation of great wealth, making it easily the
richest city in the world. In times of
attack, and that attack lasted from the 622 through 1453, they could resort to
army to army conflict which they often did.
Their high-tech weapons such as the “Greek fire” of their ships gave
them great superiority. They also used
diplomacy and money to buy themselves success.
For a very long time, they were able to use that combination of power
and money to survive.
There is a
particular irony in the present situation in Turkey. For centuries, when Turkey was a Christian
land, the Christians paid the Moslems to go away. Now that Turkey is a Moslem land
primarily through war against the Christians, we are paying them to go away
again. Who knows the actual payment they
will receive. If the public numbers are
correct, we will pay them an amount equal to the entire budget of the State of
Washington for an entire
year. Of course, Turkey is a member of
NATO and therefore an ally of the United States. With the new elections, they are acting less
like friends all the time.
The lesson of the
Byzantines is that money will only take you so far. In the end, you have to face your enemies and
live with the consequences of the outcome.
We give billions a year to Egypt and they do not
stand with us. We will give many
billions to Turkey this year. It will be interesting to see what the future
holds in our relationship with them.
There are many hopeful signs with Turkey. There have been many positive and high-level
contacts between Israel and Turkey over the last
couple of years. The relationship has
been amazingly friendly between those two nations. With a new, more Islamic government in Turkey, the future is
very much up for grabs.
It will take
enormous wisdom on the part of our leaders to know how much to work together
with the regimes of the Muslim work, and how much to require them to act
differently. Certainly in the case of Saudi Arabia, who
successfully uses the method of buying off enemies, we have a country that is
not our friend in the ultimate sense. Their values are so contrary to
ours; all the oil on the peninsula cannot cover over the differences. I
appreciated what the President’s said today about the impact of military
success in Iraq: “The passing of Saddam Hussein's regime will deprive
terrorist networks of a wealthy patron that pays for terrorist training, and
offers rewards to families of suicide bombers. And other regimes will be given
a clear warning that support for terror will not be tolerated.”