Satan's Opinion About the War With Iraq

"Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war." - Shakespeare

War brings its own special mindset and time for reflection. Those in combat see and think of death and dying every day. Civilians hear of body counts and watch war from their dens.

War carries with it a passion all its own. Television's pictures can both excite and inflame. In the heat of war's passion, comes homefront sacrifice. Tom Brokaw's greatest generation remembers the Meatless Tuesdays, Victory Gardens, and scrap metal drives of World War II.

The Christian and war. It can do strange things to us. In every war, we find Christians on both sides of the ideological fence. On one side are those Christians who'll join up fight, and support the troops. On the other side are Christians who disagree. They won't join up, fight, or observe Meatless Tuesdays. Good and decent Christians, looking at the same issue, coming to different conclusions, standing on opposite sides of the fence.

Embedded in the issue is a warning for those standing on both sides of the fence. For the sake of brevity, let's call one the Patriot and the other the Pacifist. (Simply labels, not to question the patriotism of the pacifist.)

There is a warning for both because both can come to value Christianity only for the excellent arguments it can produce regarding the war. When that occurs, both the Patriot and the Pacifist come to "use" Christianity to advance a worldly and temporal cause. Each makes the world their end. For both the Christian Patriot and the Christian Pacifist, the pamphlets, movements, crusades, and demonstrations become more important than prayer, fasting, evangelism, and discipleship. The "cause," not Christ rules.

In war, both the Patriot and the Pacifist find plagues in both their houses. The Christian Pacifist may not be reckoning with the force of Jeremiah 17:9 or the implications of Genesis 3. Human nature is evil and evil does exist. Ruthless rulers have caused more than their share of evil; both the Bible and the Holocaust say so. Man's depravity is total and sometimes that depravity goes international. The Christian Pacifist must look at Romans 13:1-4 where Paul says that the national government does have the power of the sword to defend its citizens from violence both foreign and domestic.

If the Christian Pacifist has some thinking to do, the Patriot has some soul-searching also. Television transforms everything into entertainment, including war. For those in battle, war has no entertainment value. Those at Normandy didn't hear "The Marines' Hymn" while fighting those valuable inches of the beach. But for the ones back home, war and popcorn go together as television works its magic of transformation. In so doing, war puts calluses on the soul as people die violently. War disrupts lives and sometimes ends them. All this and snack food, too.

The Christian Patriot must realize that some passages of the Bible are off limits for him to use during war. Although he can point to God's telling Israel to go to war against the Canaanites, his country isn't ancient Israel, and Joshua isn't his general with a listening ear to whom God speaks. The most he can say is that God does sanction war, but the criteria cannot be that someone heard God's voice either sanctioning a specific war or forbidding it. Justification, if it's to be had, must come from other means. America isn't Israel.

The Christian Patriot must be concerned about the Nebuchadnezzar syndrome of Daniel 4:30-33. This king of Babylon concluded that he was who he was, his country was what it was due to him and him alone. He concluded that he created the glory that was Babylon, and as he did, hubris ruled.

God holds no nation accountable for keeping the Mosaic Law other than ancient Israel (Deut. 4:7-8; 5:2-3). He holds gentile nations accountable to a different standard. Their standard is the value they place on human life and whether they are full of pride or not. Recently we've heard statements broadcast in which we say for the entire world to hear, "We are God," and "No one on this planet can defeat us." God has filled history's cemeteries with nations who've bragged like that, beginning with the Pharaoh at the Exodus. Such "patriotic" statements bleed over into blasphemy.

The touchstone is this, and in war fever, it's difficult to remember: the Christian isn't defined by his stance on war in general or a specific one. What defines a Christian is not his belief on social or political issues. He's defined by faith alone in Christ alone.

In war, Satan doesn't care one bit whether the Christian is a pacifist or a patriot. He can use both to sidetrack the Christian quite nicely. He knows (even if we forget) that the Christian's first concern is Christ's last command - "Go into all the world and make disciples . . ."

Evangelism and discipleship: both the Christian Patriot and the Christian Pacifist have the same cause.

Dr. Mike Halsey, Pastor
County Line Church