A Piece of My Mind: Christian Soldiers.

I consider myself a pacifist.  I honestly do, and I thought I'd start out by re-iterating that for you all.  Much to the chagrin of many other Christians,* I don't like the idea of Christians taking up a sword (or a gun, as things are nowadays,) and attacking the enemy.  I realize this is a pretty big statement, so please allow me the privilege of unpacking it a little for you.

I have several problems with the "onward, Christian soldiers, onward" mentality as it is perceived today.  They are as follows;

1.)  The "enemy."  To be both brief and blunt, I think a lot of Christians confuse who exactly the enemy is.  Believe it or not, the "enemy" is not the Christian persecutor.  The "enemy" is not the rapist.  The "enemy" is not the murderer or the drunk driver or the belligerent atheist.  They are not our enemies.  I think Donald Miller put it pretty well when he said;

"The problem is not a certain type of legislation or even a certain politician; the problem is always the same that it always has been.  I am the problem.  I think every conscious person, every person who is awake to the functioning principles within his reality, has a moment where he stops blaming the problems in the world on group think, on humanity and authority, and starts to face himself.  I hate this more than anything.  This is the hardest principle within Christian spirituality for me to deal with.  The problem is not out there: the problem is the needy beast of a thing that lives in my chest."**

I am the problem.  Doesn't that just send shivers down your spine?  It's not country music or the American Dream or rich people or ignorance.  It's me.  Say that out loud; "I am the problem."  To the Christians out there: I think that as followers of Christ, we delude ourselves into thinking that surely we are not the problem.  I mean, we are sooooo righteous and pious.  We are so knowledgeable about the Bible, about good and evil, about sin and salvation.  It can't be us.  Its them.  They are the problem.  They are the enemy.

I disagree with who Christians perceive as the enemy.  I have lied, I have stolen, I have used God's name in vein, and I have looked lustfully.  Therefore I am a liar, I am a thief, I am a blasphemer, and I am an adulterer.  I am, we are.

2.)  The "sword."  Let me preface this with a little Scripture.  It's out of 2 Corinthians chapter 10, and it's verses 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 powers 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."

Now then, about this sword.  I think the weapons we use to do justice are, quite frankly, a slap in the face to God.  A major issue I have with killing is this: who am I (or even who are you,) to play Judge, Jury, and Executioner?  Because last I checked, that was God's department.  Did God command the Israelites to wage war and massacre people in the Old Testament?  Of course He did.  But that's just it - He did.  Not the Israelites.  Not Moses or Joshua or David.  I have some big misgivings when we step into God's place and say, "you die, you die, you die, you can live, and you die."***  Call me crazy, but that just doesn't seem like our specialty.

So what is the sword, you might ask?  After all, Jesus Himself said, "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth.  I did not come to bring peace, but a sword (Matthew 10:34)."  As Christians we seek to imitate Christ.  And Christ had a freakin' sword, so why don't we?  I say that we do, we just suck at using it.

Our "sword" is not an M-16, a Glock, a grenade, or an M1-Abram tank.  I see these as an arrogant declaration of independence from God.  Shooting someone is like saying, "God, I know you can't really help me here, so I've got it covered.  Bang.  All taken care of.  Busy Yourself with something You're good at, like cooking up some thunderstorms."

Here's what got me thinking that: In Romans chapter 8, verses 9-11, the apostle Paul writes this, "You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.  And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.  But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.  And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you."  My initial thought was this: wait, what?  "the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you."  So I have that Spirit in me?

Again in 2 Timothy, we read "For God did not grant us a spirit of timidity, but a Spirit of love, power, and self-control (1:7)."  This leads me to ask a question of Christians: If we have within us the Spirit of God Almighty, Who keeps the universe spinning, Who built not only every star but also every molecule in our cells, why are using guns?

One day, Jesus was walking with His disciples and He told them this: "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, [Jesus had withered it by command] but you can also say to the mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done (Matthew 21:19)."  I have that Spirit, that power inside of me.  And I want to use a gun to defend myself?  I want to use a knife to protect others?

Our sword is not a sword at all.  Neither is it a gun.  It is the Spirit of the great I Am, the King of kings and Lord of lords.  That is the Christian's sword.  Is it even out of it's sheath?

A few concluding thoughts.  Realize that in no way am I saying that as Christians we should sit back and let things happen.  I believe that was Adam's first sin - inaction.**** If anything, we are the ones who should be blazing the trails for justice and peace in this world.  We should be on the front lines, we should be the first in and the last out.  But we need to be in this world and not of it.  We need to embrace the turmoil and injustice of the world without responding in a equally disastrous way.  We should boldly step forward to end poverty, to fight homelessness, to free slaves, to rescue trafficked women, and to defend the weak.  And we should do this by the Spirit and Power of God, recognizing that the enemy is not the terrorist or the communist, but the filthy nature within all of us, the slave master holding so many captive.  Maybe instead of aiming to kill the terrorist, we should be aiming to set him free as we have been set free.^

Thanks for reading,

-Daniel K

*Maybe not many Christians, but at least a good few.

**Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz.  Seriously... read it.

***I guess this brings up the issue of God's sovereignty.  God is completely sovereign, meaning nothing happens that trumps His will, right?  So technically, aren't we accomplishing God's will by killing them?  Because if it was against His will, He would stop it... divine intervention.  I think that here we apply the principle, "good is the enemy of the best."  God will have His will done, that we can be sure of.  But are we going to make it more and more convoluted or are we going to do everything we can to resonate with it?

****Honestly, if there are only two people on Earth, they're in perfect communion with God, they're the opposite gender and they're naked, do you think they'd be apart?  What the heck were you doing when the serpent was seducing your wife, Adam?!

^How do we do this?  How exactly do we harness this awesome power and use it to change the world?  To be honest, I have no idea.  I'm still working out how that works, and accordingly what my life should look like.  I'll keep you up-to-date on how that goes.