War & Christianity – Killing Other Men

Contrary to popular belief, war, killing and Christianity are intertwined.

“The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name.”

Exodus 15:3

“A time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.”

Ecclesiastes 3:8

“You are my hammer and weapon of war: with you I break nations in pieces; with you I destroy kingdoms;”

Jeremiah 51:20

““When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people and shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies: let not your heart faint. Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.”

Deuteronomy 20:1-4

As long as man has existed in imperfection, war has existed.

Blood has filled the earth since the days of Adam. Therefore, it is absurd to think that war would just vanish over time. War is in the nature of man. Every beauty pageant model who states that she wants world peace reveals how stupid and naïve she is about the world and the way it works, and she unveils a complete lack of understanding about how war is irrevocably intertwined with man’s DNA. If men cannot wage war on themselves and on their weaknesses or imperfections, then they turn to literal war. And men should feel no regret or remorse while doing so.

The church does not like to admit the fact that men have killing instilled in their very nature.

Men have the will to kill and to be killed built into them. They are machines of war if  and when they need to be. They are programmed to be able to compartmentalize civility and exchange it for savagery in order to destroy and kill all foes. God knows this because He made us, and He has led His people through wars for hundreds of years.

The conquest of Canaan and the wars against the inhabitants of Canaan during the period of the kings and the period of the judges are evidence of this fact. God used His people to purge Canaan of wicked men. Over and over again God told his people to utterly destroy people from the face of the earth. That old-school, wrath of God content of the Old testament is one of the reasons why more masculine men gravitate towards the Old testament and conservatism, while more effeminate men gravitate towards the “less strict” New testament and religious liberalism. Have you ever met a masculine man attending the local “Jesus, Jeans & Java” meeting?

Most of us will never have to use our warlike instinct.

For most men, desire for war has shriveled up due to lack of use. This is unfortunate because that same energy that is used to destroy other men in war can also be used to destroy our own weaknesses. Many of us would not be able to handle physical war, because even though we desire it we still cannot stomach it. We would be sick and disgusted at killing other human beings because we are too soft and weak. We would break under the pressure of the high level training, or we would develop psychological trauma from prolonged exposure to death and violence. 

Make no mistake: by no means do I suggest that we all could handle war. Most of us do not have the strength to handle it. However, that does not mean we do not have some level of desire for war or violence built into us. We can see this from boys at the youngest stages of life. They love to destroy and break toys. They are extremely violent against one another. Boys will hit, bite and steal the properties of their neighbors. They are what man is in his raw state, before he is “civilized”, or before his mother and school teachers teach him how to be a good little girl. Make no mistake about it, however, He is a man of war instilled with the warrior spirit from his birth.

Key: If wars have been started and led by God, then we know that wars cannot be morally wrong. 

Most wars of the Old Testament were examples of God using His selected nation to execute His judgement on the heathen nations in order to eradicate evil. In the modern age, it is likely that God uses the highest power nation that follows Him to eradicate evil in more providential ways, though any discussion on providence is purely speculative.

America has been fighting against assorted evils for years, more recently against the products of radical Islam, which is a vile and evil religion that deserves to be eliminated from the face of the earth like the cancer it is. The US has been destroying the evil, radical muslims who chronically rape and torture women. And this destruction of evil for the sake of the good is what draws more men into war. Men feel an obligation or duty to go to war for a cause greater than themselves. War is Biblical, justified and is programmed in your very being. 

Many people hate war, they are even opposed to it. Make no mistake, I am not saying we should always dive head first into bloodshed. War should be the last resort we use against evil, but it should still be used. We should not be so merciful and peaceful that we become unwilling or unable to use violence to impose our will on others. War costs lives on both sides, so we must be absolutely sure that we are combating evil itself before we embark. Anti-war advocates are somewhat justified in their hatred of war, for war is still wretched and vile, but it is a tool that is necessary and has been used for thousands of years. There is no end to it.  War is a tool to eliminate incurable evil. 

Mantra

War is a tool of the righteous to eliminate evil.

Application

There is not a real application to this principle unless you want to go to war. It is commonly called “serving the country”, but make no mistake, you are also serving your desire for war. There are different types of men who go to war. In the 1943 book “The Psychology of the Fighting Man”, Edwin Boring lists out the types of men who generally join the army: 

Some join just because it is a Job. 

Some join out of a sense of Duty. 

Others join because they recognize within themselves a murderous instinct that they need to exercise in a way that is morally appropriate. 

The church wants to avoid and repress this warlike nature of man, but you need to examine yourself and find out if you have this desire to kill other men. If so, the military is a great opportunity for you to use your personal psychology in the best possible way: to eliminate evil men from the face of the planet through warfare. You are not murdering the enemy, you are killing the enemy. The word “murder” implies that there is an innocent party involved. Extreme evil is not innocent. Radical muslim men ar enot innocent. You are killing men as if you were killing animals, because those evil men have behaved in such a way that they have relinquished their rights to be treated like humans, so they must therefore be eliminated like the cancer they are. 

Conduct yourselves like men.