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IN RECENT searching winter supplies for my car, I came across internet dialogs about a topic that looms very large in public media and the social network maze. The alarming articles changed the subject of my searching. You see, the occurrence of Veterans’ Day this year had already set the calendar to inform me about recent atrocities. These again have been performed by terrorists and evil powers in the world. Highly publicized photos and videos rapidly radiate from the news about these events. They are visual records of such horror that public minds tremble and hearts hurt. The media stuns many of us who move in Christian faith; we who know our Lord as the “Prince of Peace.” Indeed we are those who know the wishes of the Savior who is intermediary between ourselves and our Creator's judgment. Therefore, we are caught in the midst of turmoil to be sure. The Church needs to have a position about warfare. We, as presenting the scriptural and historical mindset of God to the societies of the world around us… are often asked to give answer. Where should God’s people stand in the midst of this evil mess? |
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Just War or More? |
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The dialog I found online wrestled concisely with the issue that we call “just war”. The discussion wrapped around that topic about whether it is permissible for a Christian to participate in war. Can we participate to the point of taking the lives of other persons? The conversation first occurred for the U.S. in 1932, as the Japanese had invaded China. The Japanese forces were imposing evidential atrocities, as exemplified by the picture of a wailing child sitting in a bombed city. Thus it was important that two theologians, who are brothers in the flesh and Christian faith, argued the merits of a Christian action made possible. Reading the statements of each here, consider that though the modern evils done by terrorists today are just as horrid, they are not new. Such murderous barbarisms have been going on since the days of Cain and Abel. War has certainly been a near constant companion in our lives before the decades of WW1 and WW2, the Korean Conflict, and the Viet Nam war. Even yet the population of this nation winces from more recent war pains to the point |
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On a car from the era occurring just before the Second World War, the flames should be a reminder of a “just war struggle”. |
