I have read through both parts of your article. It is necessary to point out that the article fails to state what is the Christian's relationship to the State. It seems to suppose somewhat naively that the Christian exists in a kind of separated spiritual realm and therefore any allegiance to the State is voluntary. The fact is that every human being is born into a society and bears social responsibility. When a person becomes a Christian he is not taken out of the world but is required to live and participate in it. He is to show loyalty to his fellow man and engage in all the activities of life which preserve and promote the wellbeing of human society. Resistance of tyranny and oppression is required throughout the Bible as an act of justice and love. It would be irresponsible and selfish to relinquish the duty to resist oppression and simply leave it to others to perform on our behalf. If Christians ceased serving in this capacity it would create a realm of civil justice which was completely void of Christian light and life, and this would be contrary to Christ's teaching to shine our light that our good works might be seen of men and our Father in heaven glorified thereby.
Hi again,
I'll list my thoughts in order.
(above) In my article I thought I made it clear that Christians are citizens of heaven first, the state second. I then said that "Now some have made the argument that we have certain duties to the state, that include going to war in defence of that state. This argument is based on verses that call for Christians to obey the laws of the land; what some have called “being good citizens.” However, unless compelled by a military draft that allows no conscientious objection or position of non-combatancy, joining a military unit is a choice, made by the person." I then looked at what military service requires and compared it to a form of slavery; voluntarily enslaving oneself even to the state is not Biblical, neither is being yoked with unbelievers and I don't think anyone here is going to accuse the State of being Christian.
Christians are certainly called to actions of social justice; but most of them don't kill people.
And finally, II Corinthians 10:3-5 “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
2) I admit that I do not follow the Westminster standards on this issue as I do not ever see a case for lawful "just" warfare in today's world. And Christians can serve in positions of non-combatancy if they do believe a war is just. There is no requirement to pull any triggers.
3) Early church history: I put a link with a much better history by Cadoux on the first part of my article. It's so much clearer than my article (and Vance's, no offense).
4) God, and Jesus specifically, is a warrior. With what sword? His WORD.
5) I covered John the Baptist's instructions in my article so I won't rewrite that, you're free to read it there. And Jesus mentioning that a strong man guards his house is not exactly Jesus telling us to go out and get a gun to defend our houses!!! He's talking spiritually here! We are to engage in warfare, SPIRITUAL warfare, which is exactly what Jesus is talking about since the "strong man" here is Satan - do you really wanna be copying that particular person in the metaphor?!??
Please understand, I'm not saying that serving your country is bad. This is how I ended my article:
This is not to say that we cannot serve our country of residence; if we truly live as Jesus did, we would be such a blessing to others that God would be mightily glorified! Let us be true soldiers of God in the short time we have here. Let us finish with Ephesians 5:15: “Be very careful, then, how you live - not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.”
Can anyone find some verses that show that the ones I've used are wrong or misguided? Other than John the Baptist, unless you think my response to that itself was misguided.
Thank you,