Psalm 44
I think that God got out of the war business.
While I can't deny that there are passages of scripture that declare that God told the people of Israel to go to war with group X or Y, there are also passages like this Psalm that talks about God not being with the people in battle. Then, of course, once we get to the 2nd Testament the focus has shifted to battles of the heart, mind, and soul. But, following biblical times there were, and are, those who claimed that God was on their side, that their side was righteous and the other was evil. Constantine became a Christian, by truth or for opportunity we won't know this side of the grave, and believed that no army that was led by a cross could be defeated, until it was of course. Still today there are those, think the KKK or ISIS, who claim that God is on their side of whatever moral crusade they declare against people unlike themselves. But, I think that God got out of the war business.
I think this because a) we stopped caring what God wanted in our lives b) we stopped fighting wars only when we had to c) we got way to good at killing people.
a) You have to begin at the beginning, there's no other choice and it starts at us deciding that we knew the way forward better than God did. You see this in the story of the Adam and Eve, you see this in Abraham, and Moses, and David, and the disciples, and so on and so forth. Over and over again we tell God that we should be in control, that we should get what we want, that we trust ourselves more than we trust God.
b) The people of Israel only began making war in the 1st Testament when God told them to, but it wasn't too long before the Bible speaks about David being at home during the time when kings were supposed to be out with their armies. Do you realize what that at base means? There began to be a time when what we did was war, as if it was right to decide that we needed this land or we didn't like this people. It was no longer a need, but a desire and when we desire war, God calls for peace.
c) The first death was by bare hands, or perhaps a rock. Through the ages we used sticks and swords and bows and cannons and guns and missiles and atomic bombs. We used to have to look someone in the eye before we ended their lives, now we can do it on a computer screen from the other side of the world. War has become to easy to wage, we can have our troops anywhere on the planet in a matter of hours and we do.
Those are the main, but not only, reasons that I believe that God got out of the war business.
+ How do you read the First Testament accounts of war?
+ Do you believe that God is still in the war business?
I certainly think that Israel needed to go to war because they were a small nation and God told them to totally plunder the place and take all the spoil. I, like you, believe there was a shift and by the time we arrive at the Gospel, Jesus speaks of peace and loving our enemies and our neighbors. Well, it's hard when we are being threatened but I am a pacifist because I believe that is what Jesus would want.
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