Important Questions (5 & 6) A

September 15, 2009, 8:02 am by dc-agape.

I have received a Christian response to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq:

I don’t believe that YHWH’s will is as simple as does he endorse the war or not. I am not His messenger on which wars He feels are just nor which he sees as unjust. If He reveals this to me then I will let you know.

Notice that Christians believe that a just war can exist…even though it is contrary to the teachings of Jesus.  One of my non-Christian commenters pointed me to the Catholic Catechism on this topic.  It would seem that Christians (not YHWH or Jesus) have changed the rules.

Sorry to point this out to those have been taught a Tradition of Man…but nowhere in Jesus’ teachings does he say that under these conditions is it OK to kill.  In fact, he his quite clear on his (and we hope YHWH’s) opinion on the subject.

Mark 7:20-23 He went on: “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean’.  For form within, out of men’s hearts, comes evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly.  All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’”

You see to Jesus murder makes one unclean.  Even the thought of murder is enough.  Yet that is the basis of war…you cannot have a war without murder.  Usually wars also include greed, deceit, arrogance, and folly.  The War in Iraq has certainly included all of these things that make a human ‘unclean’.  So how can there ever be a “just war”?  By Christian standards even the American Revolution and the Civil War could not have been “just wars”. 

How can an Atheist say this?  Simple the act of war includes (and requires) anger!    War also includes greed, theft, deceit, and envy.  The Revolution was about taxes and freedom.  Is not the concern over taxation not a form of greed?  Did not Jesus actually say this?

Mark 12:17-18 Then Jesus said unto them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”  And the people were amazed at him.

And what was the freedom that the Revolutionist wanted?  They wanted freedom from oppressive religion.  Anytime religion gets into politics an oppressive religion is created.  Look at England during the Revolutionary War, look at Sharia Law, and remember how Iraq was controlled by the Baath party.  Under these conditions hatred and deceit are common which both make humans ‘unclean’.

And was not the same passage about taxation to an oppressive government?  Jesus also said that murder and anger were on equal footing:

Mark 5:21-22 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder’, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.  But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.

Has there ever been a war that was not initiated by anger or at least perpetuated by anger?  The North (Yankees) claimed that the Civil War was about slavery…but where in the Bible does YHWH or Jesus say that slavery was wrong?  No, in fact, the Civil War was about something completely different. Anger and greed prompted this particular war.  Economics were the final blow that forced South Carolina to secede from the Union.  I will not get into the details but one must read “The Impending Crisis: 1848 – 1861” by David M Potter to understand the motivations of both the Southern Rebels and the Northern Yankees.  To say the least slavery and even states rights were a minor part of the beginning of that war.   The anger and hatred created by this war exists to this day!

Finally, I want to end with this verse:

Matt 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in Hell.

Is not Jesus directly telling his followers that worrying about this human body and what the “enemy” attempts to do to it is immaterial?  So the defense of life and property is complete unjustified for war by Christian standards, at least those who follow Jesus and not the Traditions of Men.

Personal opinion:  The world today would be a much different place without the Revolutionary War or the Civil War.  From a humanistic perspective the Revolutionary War was justified by the fact that democracy was formed from the final actions.  But do the means always justify the ends?  Oddly enough most of the English colonies now have the same freedoms that the Revolutionary War provided the USA with.  Was the War required?

As concerning the Civil War:  how much damage was created, and still not corrected due to the evasion of the South by the aggressors from the North?  Would three nations in North America be much different than just two?  Would not slavery ended anyway?  Neither cotton nor tobacco are now the major crops of the South.  Would the South have been able to survive economically by itself? 

There was nothing Christian about either war.  Each of these two major wars were not initiated by a just YHWH.  The reasons for both wars were purely “unclean” in Jesus’ and YHWH’s definition.  So even though the outcomes were positive, supernatural instigation was not involved in the creation of these wars.  To claim divine intervention for these wars would be to say that YHWH created evil to create good.  Is that not contradictory in and of itself?

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