The current invasion of Ukraine by Russia raises questions of right and wrong. Most pundits have sided with Ukraine over Russia’s aggressive war. Some believe that Vladimir Putin has a just cause.
This essay consisting of excerpts from my Nordskog Publishing title Thy Will Be Done: When All Nations Call God Blessed addresses the underlying principles of a just war.
The Need for Civil Justice
In a fallen world, opportunistic bad guys will continue to target peaceful, decent, and hardworking people. The good guys will even sometimes succumb to sinful lapses and perpetrate evil toward their neighbors. The godly community answers the threat of evil by forming itself into a civil order ready to punish those who do evil to their neighbors. Godly moral law begins with the life-for-life commandment of Genesis 9:5-6 — the original establishment of civil government by God. Later, the Ten Commandments elaborate God’s intent to protect all relationships — those with Himself and those among men. The rest of the Scriptures expand the Biblical concept of morality in practice.
God’s Law governs everything from the protection of life and property (directly related to life itself), to the sanctity of marriage and the safety of guests. Without such civil rules, society itself remains in constant danger. The protection of one person’s rights — right treatment toward him — is ultimately the protection of everyone’s rights. The more evil actions of men undermine social order, the greater the peril for civilization in the future — morally, economically and politically. Conversely, the more effectively a community protects the individual, the more stable is that society now and toward the future. Paul the Apostle commanded Christians to “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1). Of course, his context was submission to slavish religious requirements. Nevertheless, religious tyranny and political tyranny are closely allied. Any political mainstream reflects the present mainstream morality. Paul also said, “You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men” (1 Corinthians 7:23).
Americans traditionally asserted the need to protect the rights of life, liberty, and property. They also frequently recited that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Biblically speaking, we would add vigilance is the eternal price of the sanctity of holiness. By this, we would mean protection from those things that tend to undermine morality — essentially profligate public sin and vice of all kinds. These include the so-called private vices that the practicing sinner loves to call victimless. Victimless sin does not exist. Such sin includes the undermining effect of pagan religions with their social orders. Sin never stays put, but influences all around it.
Beyond its positive religious, social, and economic benefits to the community, union in the form of civil community provides defensive strength not available to individuals. The solid front of godly civil government provides justice against any kind of bullying — social, political, or economic (Zechariah 7:10). The greater the community spirit and love appear — that is, the more individuals hold relationship in the community important — the greater will be the vigilance of the people to watch out for each other’s’ interests. To repeat, the good of one’s neighbor is also one’s own good. Institutional civil justice exercises its providential coercive force of justice only so far as necessary to correct the evil perpetrated by yet sinful men. In the accomplished Christian community, the civil authority exerts little coercive force. But while we remain in the fallen world of sinful men, civil justice must remain.
For the same reason, the Christian community must exercise defense against undermining or conquering forces from outside the community. All good earthly and moral things are a gift from God. They therefore are a holy stewardship. So that we do not become like the unworthy servant of Matthew 25 — cast out into uttermost darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth — we must exercise care of God’s gifts. Sometimes this means defensive warfare. Christians need not grasp after the goodness of liberty and prosperity, because God provides it in due season. Rather, Paul says to be content in the condition we find ourselves (1 Corinthians 7:17-22). Therefore, God does not countenance violent revolution — the overthrow of an existing order by force. However, the entirety of Scripture does indeed countenance defensive war. A just war is essentially an appeal to God to decide between contentious parties, as with Jephthah and the Amorites (Judges 11:27). Therefore, a defensive war requires faith, as God may decide in any direction. War tests the hearts. Nonetheless, God defends His own (2 Kings 19:32). As with Jephthah, God calls upon His people to participate in the defense, by faith, of that which He has given as a holy trust (Isaiah 1:16-17; 1 Samuel 17).
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War
We established that a godly war must be one that is strictly defensive. But as real life requires wisdom and faith, we must face certain additional war-related questions. Some of these, such as women serving as warriors must seem obvious in light of the Scriptures. Women participate in active warfare in only a handful of exceptions, and these incidentally upon the exigencies of the time, including the episodes involving Judge Deborah and Jael (Judges 4). Moreover, these came upon an arguably debased time when the Law of God had fallen on hard times. Suffice it to say here that the problem is not the women involved, but the men who are derelict in their duty and leadership, particularly with respect to protecting the women — daughters, sisters, wives, and mothers.
Pre-emptive military strikes against known enemies is another issue. In an act of perhaps questionable wisdom, the United States persuaded Saddam Hussein to commit Iraq to an international treaty. Saddam then violated that treaty. This gave George W. Bush apparently legal grounds to invade Iraq in the Gulf War in a preemptive strike. However, America’s invasion came quite apart from a direct Iraqi offensive against us. Such actions raise the question: What does the Bible say about pre-emptive strikes? Is it legitimate to destroy an atomic fuel plant as Israel did in Iran, knowing that the Iranians vow to destroy the nation of Israel? Or should a godly nation wait to be struck before it acts in its defense? Israel in its Canaanitish campaigns, practiced restraint. Mere proximity tempted their enemies to attack. Israel then responded in defense with its own attacks (e.g., Judges 11:27). Suffice it to suggest that obvious warlike movement may appear as probable cause for defensive, pre-emptive action, but initiating such action incurs a grave responsibility to take every measure to ensure a just war before God. He will determine the outcome.
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Defense Is Much More Than Armies
The basic issue we face is American defense against the wily hatred concentrated against us in the world. Non-believers will hate Christians (Luke 6:22). The larceny in men’s hearts will covet wealth. We must defend ourselves in order to be stewards of God’s holy trust of life and resources to us.
However, God promises to be our sword and shield (Deuteronomy 33:29). The battle belongs to the Lord. If we are increasingly vulnerable to outside forces, it may be that we have abandoned the faith of our fathers. Christians must realize that the perils of modern history do not have merely material or humanistic causes, but rather have deep, underlying spiritual roots.
We now live in an extremely dangerous age. Koran-guided Muslims seek to replace the existing order with worldwide Islam including its own social, civil, and legal requirements. They use every means available to them including violence, but also by overwhelming communities through the impact of their numbers. World communism, though nominally adopting elements of capitalism in order to survive and maintain economic strength, continues its strategic march against Western-style liberty. Ideological communism requires worldwide establishment. Immigrants seeking a better material life threaten to overwhelm America’s fundamental way of life with foreign thinking and character, sometimes apparently with a mere rapine of our wealth. American’s themselves have largely forgotten what it means to be American. In other words, our defensive battles are against external threats, but also internal threats. The internal threats are primarily a matter of character. Character is the product of either a predominance of sin in the collective life of the individuals in a community, or a predominance of the Holy Spirit’s influence in those individuals and hence into the community.
Yes, sometimes God does call upon us to defend the resources and blessings He has given us. We must protect the innocent from tyranny and murder. Theft removes capital from Christ’s Kingdom. However, the Bible indicates that our common weal depends more upon our relationship to God than in any defensive strength we can muster.
One thing ought to be clear: Whether it is in the maintenance of the civil order through the family, education, civil involvement or civil defense, civil welfare is not essentially the job of civil authority, particularly at the highest levels. Rather, societal good is every individual’s responsibility for faithful living and action (Exodus 23:20-33; Deuteronomy 28; 2 Chronicles 7:14). Mere dependence upon civil government for our welfare is the surest invitation to tyranny and the destruction of God’s Kingdom among men, because it makes man his own savior. The mature Christian community will commonly accept such covenantal duty upon the common understanding of the necessary tension between community and individuality, liberty, and responsibility, the great and the small, the majority and minority. Godly wisdom will prevail. These things are indeed only possible with the absolute dependence upon Christ the Scriptures require. The just shall live by faith.
These excerpts come from Ron Kirk’s Nordskog Publishing’s 2013 title Thy Will Be Done: When All Nations Call God Blessed.
- The law requiring a rooftop patio parapet-wall exemplifies all negligence law (Deuteronomy 22:8).
- See for example, the Freedom Keys web page http://freedomkeys.com/vigil.htm.
- Thus Deuteronomy 17:2-5 provides for a harsh punishment for those guilty of undermining godly faith.
- Note that even the original taking of Canaan resulted from attacks initiated by the preemptive aggression of the native inhabitants. Thus, properly speaking, the Canaanite wars of ancient Israel were defensive on the part of God’s people.
- A due apology of this proposition is beyond the scope of this chapter. [Few treat it Biblically. Note that God in His Providence provided for the eventuality of war (Numbers 10:9).] Suffice it for now to mention that the Scriptures portray the necessity of warfare throughout. Jesus said he came to bring a sword to the world (Matthew 10:34). He even commanded His disciples to buy a sword (Luke 22:35-36), although Peter used it precipitously and prematurely (John 18:10). Just, defensive warfare has long been the position of the historic church. Much more could be written on this topic.
Nordskog Publishing offers my book Thy Will Be Done: When All Nations Call God Blessed, with its collected and systematized Biblical and historical wisdom. Also see my website for Get Wisdom! Making Christian Heroes of Ordinary People(free download) as good places to start learning the historic Biblical tools for living all of life for Christ.
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