{"id":186,"date":"2008-10-14T14:42:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-14T14:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2008\/10\/wars-wisdom.html"},"modified":"2008-10-14T14:42:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-14T14:42:00","slug":"wars-wisdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/10\/wars-wisdom.html","title":{"rendered":"War’s Wisdom"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

WAR\u2019S WISDOM
They say there is no wisdom
They say it isn\u2019t so,
They stir up rainy weather
But then it starts to snow.<\/p>\n

Poor prognosticators
Pungent pundits too
They trust their own predictions
But don\u2019t know what to do.<\/p>\n

The politics of fear,
And self protection reign
As if killing all our foes
Was possible and sane.<\/p>\n

We alienate our allies
We say we\u2019ll go alone
We ignore prevailing wisdom
And enter a war zone.<\/p>\n

And no one\u2019s even asking
What would the Master say
We sing our patriotic songs
When things go wrong we pray.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s right to ask for sacrifice
Whene\u2019er the cause is just
Whenever truth is being served
When God\u2019s the one we trust.<\/p>\n

Vengeance is no solution.
Observe the Holy Land
Sick cycles of destruction
Bad blood flows in the sand.<\/p>\n

There surely is a wisdom
It\u2019s spoken in God\u2019s Word
It speaks of holy sacrifice
Not one that is absurd.<\/p>\n

It calls for love of enemy
And giving lives for friends
It calls for taking up the cross
Through suffering, violence ends.<\/p>\n

Lamech called for vengeance
Seventy-seven fold,
Jesus said forgive that much
Before the night grows cold.<\/p>\n

\u201cVengeance is surely mine\u201d
Thus speaks a sovereign Lord,
And when we try to play God\u2019s role
We violate his Word.<\/p>\n

An \u2018eye for an eye\u2019s myopic
Or else it leaves both blind.
Endless reciprocity
Leaves humanity behind.<\/p>\n

Someday the lion will lie down
Next to the harmless lamb.
Someday the swords will be retooled
For plowing up the land.<\/p>\n

Someday we\u2019ll see that \u2018just wars\u2019
Are never just enough
Someday we\u2019ll realize the kingdom\u2019s for
The meek, not for the tough.<\/p>\n

Until that day we all must pray
For forgiveness for what we\u2019ve done
For those who live just by the sword
Lose, even when they\u2019ve won.<\/p>\n

Somewhere there is an endgame
Without the sound of taps
A plan to play a different role
Blessed peacemakers perhaps.<\/p>\n

BW3<\/p>\n

This is a poem that some Americans will have a hard time stomaching. I understand this, but I am a pacifist because I believe that is exactly what Christ demands of me in the Sermon on the Mount and what Paul says as well in Rom. 12\u201314. Of course I do not think that Christ was trying to make public policy when he taught his disciples to turn the other cheek and love one\u2019s enemies, but I do think he was offering an ethic that he expected his own followers to embrace. Jesus believed in suffering for, and even at the hands of his enemies. He did not believe in killing them. <\/p>\n

Jesus it will be remembered even stopped to heal the ear of the high priest\u2019s slave as he was being carted off to trial, and told his disciple to stop the violence. Jesus it will be remembered even forgave his executioners who had wrongly nailed him to the cross saying with his dying breath \u201cFather forgive them . . . \u201d<\/p>\n

What this all means for me is that while I certainly pray for our troops safety and that they may come home unharmed, I find that I have a Christian duty to oppose war which overrides any patriotic duty to support it. I am well aware that other equally sincere Christians think differently about this matter, though for the life of me I don\u2019t see how they get around the obligation for Christians to follow the example of Christ when it comes to the matter of non-violence, the obligation to embrace personally the ethic of the Sermon on the Mount.<\/p>\n

Yes, I am well aware of Romans 13, which suggests that governments have the right to bear some kinds of arms for some sorts of defensive purposes. I do not dispute this, but what I do dispute is that Christians have any obligation to serve their country in capacities that involve violence. This means for me, that I could never be any kind of soldier, except of course the Christian sort spoken of in the familiar hymn or in Ephesians 5. I suppose it also means I could never be some kinds of law enforcement officers either.<\/p>\n

I believe there is a place for this opinion not merely in a democracy like America, but especially in the body of Christ, though it surely is a minority opinion, I realize. Sometimes people point to the OT for justification for fighting wars. Sometimes they even talk about wars sponsored or endorsed by God. I understand this, but I think it involves a misreading of several things. <\/p>\n

In the first place, those texts are about God\u2019s chosen people and their taking of the Holy Land. Americans, though they may like to think otherwise, are not God\u2019s chosen people anymore than any other modern nation state is. According to the NT God\u2019s people at this juncture are \u201cJew and Gentile united in Christ\u201d (Gal. 3.28), an ethnically and racially and nationally diverse group that comprises a world-wide fellowship of Christ. In other words, those texts provide no justification for secular governments of any sort going to war. Modern wars are not holy wars, no matter who\u2019s fighting them.<\/p>\n

Secondly, Christians are under the new covenant, not any forms of the old covenant, and there are decided differences between the new covenant Jesus inaugurated and the old covenants. One of the most obvious differences has to do precisely with this matter of non-violence. Jesus believed he was bringing in the Dominion of God upon the earth, the eschatological state of affairs. He believed he was bringing in the state which Isaiah spoke of when he talking about the lion lying down with the lamb. This among other things is why we have a blessing on peacemakers as one of the inaugural beatitudes.<\/p>\n

The already-not yet nature of the coming of this kingdom of course makes our ethical situation not always clear, but what is clear to me is that if I am going to err, I should err on the side of love not hate, peace not war, forgiveness not vengeance, because at the end of the day it is those qualities which will endure and prevail one day when the kingdom has fully come on earth. <\/p>\n

I think it is high time for all Christians, perhaps especially American ones, to have a more adequate theology of peacemaking, rather than seeking justification for participating in more wars. I may be wrong about this, but if so, I want to err on the side that I see the Savior, took for he is the one who believed that there were many things worth dying for, but nothing worth killing for. Indeed, he believed that killing violated the values that were worth dying for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WAR\u2019S WISDOMThey say there is no wisdomThey say it isn\u2019t so,They stir up rainy weatherBut then it starts to snow. Poor prognosticatorsPungent pundits tooThey trust their own predictionsBut don\u2019t know what to do. The politics of fear,And self protection reignAs if killing all our foesWas possible and sane. We alienate our alliesWe say we\u2019ll go…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nWar's Wisdom - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/10\/wars-wisdom.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"War's Wisdom - The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"WAR\u2019S WISDOMThey say there is no wisdomThey say it isn\u2019t so,They stir up rainy weatherBut then it starts to snow. 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A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}