There are about 10 "doozies" or hard questions that I frequently get asked. I will post one below and I want you to give HONEST feedback....don't tell me what I want to here. Here we go:
Should Christians fight in war?
ooooooooo this should get interesting!!!
( click on the "comment" thingy below to respond and make sure and put your first name down so we know who made the comment)
if you don't like this topic or Rob Bryan's intimidates you with his big words (:
please comment on the topic below called "worry". Trent made a good comment last week on it.
God is Good,
Nate
13 comments:
A response to Mikkel's comment to keep the ball rolling:
Do you think that your religious freedoms would be in danger if we where to lose the "war" in the middle east right now? #2) is killing a person in battle "murder"? and if so....what about "thou shalt not murder"?
If you kill someone in battle, I think its pretty much self defense.
if you think about it many of those whom God favored in the old testament were in fact war heroes. it is not until the new testament when we get to the "love your enemy." I think that you can respect their beliefs and attempt diplomatic negotiations, but when the opposition is fighting a "holy war"(jihad) for the erradication of western society there is a point at which we must step in. By that meaning military intervention. With modern day Iraq we are attempting a peacekeeping operation right now while a sustainable government is being set in place. We are on the defensive being attacked and not outright murdering (except Haditha incident). So for a christian to fight in a war, or peacekeeping, is not neccesarrily wrong.
Would our religios freedoms be in danger if we lost the war in southeast asia? that question is not specific enough. if we lost iraq to insurgent forces yes it would become a theocratic state under muslim rule, and also be a home to many terrorists to train and live. It would in the long run there would be many more problems and those 2,000 soldiers would have died in vein. If by war in the middle east you are including Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, and other terrorist organizations that we are currently trying to reach peace with, without a doubt we would be endangering the world if there was to be an offensive lead by Iranians and we were to pull out. ill think of more stuff later but this should suffice for now.
Thanks for the responses Mick, Lauren and Rob-o!
i'm going to steer this question one more time and then we can hop onto a new topic.
In christian history there has been mainly 3 approaches to war. 1) Avoid it completley like the Quakers or Amish. 2) Being willing to fight and defend at any cost like the Crusades. 3) More of a middle ground that was coined by Augustine called "JUST WAR".
From a Christian perspective, what would you consider "just war". To rephrase it, do you think it's ok to kill or go to war when a certain line is crossed? and what is that line? What about Christ's message of "turning the other cheek"?
have at it!
Sorry, but I'm going to have to disagree with all of the people that said Christians should fight in war.
Sure, the Old Testament was filled with wars. However, Jesus brought with him the new covenant, and teachings of loving thy enemy, and like Nate said, turning the other cheek. No where in the New Testament is war condoned.
In the Old Testament, God approved of the Holy wars because it was needed to defend the His nation: the Isrealites. But that need washed away with the coming of the Savior, Jesus.
THE PLOT THICKENS!
As the "moderator" of these discussions I'm going to ask questions from both sides of the fence. We now have thoughts on either side of the fence.
My prayer is that you ALL search both sides of the fence to form your opinion.
And NEVER...I MEAN NEVER..consider anyone foolish or less of a person because they think differently than you!! Amen?
so... Caroline. What do you do if your church and other churches are being bombed and shot at? This is happening in Sudan to Christians. What do you do? Defend yourself? Sit down? run?
I'm against any sort of killing even if its in a war. I'm not saying individual christians cant go to war but personally i think them going is against our religion.
And to what Nate asked Caroline about i understand self-defense but i would rather not have it come to that so if everyone agreed that there should be no war and no killing this would all be non-existent but i'm afraid it will never happen. But if I were in the position or using either self-defense or being killed I would choose to defend myself, like United 93 when the passengers stood up against the terrorist to at first just to help themselves survive but in the end saved the people that were going to be killed if the plane had reached its target and died at that cause.
So in the end I think you can neither justify killing people nor not helping others/saving other people at you own cost. There is no good answer for this question one way go against the religion and the other puts you and others in harms way.
this is quite controversial...
I hate war, and i wish that we never had to fight in them. i think i really may just be indecisive about this one unfortuantely. i mean i think its so important that we defend ourselves (I mean, God DID give us life...we should live it to the fullest!) but at the same time...killing people is wrong. its a sin. so i agree with mikkel, in that we have such amazing lives, we should protect them. but also with caroline.
and gosh i know we are supposed to try and prove a point here...i dont think i succeded with this one. sorry guys, still love ya
Nate called me a wimp for not commenting. First I want to applaud you all for digging into the tough stuff. I would have to agree with Caroline and those who lean to the side of Christians staying out of war. I think that when Jesus died on a cross he ushered in a new politics, a new way to do things, He died to radically change things, and I think the gospels are clear on loving our enemies, and I don't think we are loving our enemies when we are dropping bombs on them. I don't think that we are being witnesses of Christ when we are in combat. yeah.. it is late so that is all for now
who made this last comment?
Whitney?
-nate
yes christians should be able to fight in a war, because in the Bible God helped some of the "good" guys in the Bible fight to win over the "bad" guys. example david and goliath
yes christians should fight in wars to protect christian principals, but if you are fighting for personal things like money or power it is wrong. in many parts of the bible it talks about God's people having to fight for their religion and/or freedom.
Will,
do you think this current war has anything to do with oil?
Is oil a reason to fight?
just keepin' the ball rollin!
nate
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