Question:
God’s Word says, “Thou shalt not kill.” As war involves the taking of human life, is it any more justifiable to do wholesale killing under federal or state orders than to kill an individual? In case one should refuse to fight, he presumably would be tried and shot. Now, should we walk up bravely and be shot rather than go and shoot others?
Answer:
In ancient times, God directed His people to fight; but He Himself ruled. His people were His agents. Yet there are instances in His Word that clearly show that God would have interposed and preserved His people from war if they had but trusted in Him. An example is the taking of Jericho, as recorded in the first chapters of Joshua. All that God called His children to do was to march around that city and blow trumpets. The army of heaven threw down the walls and conquered the people. When Jehoshaphat was besieged by the enemy—Moab and Ammon and others—he proclaimed a fast and sought God, and word came from the prophet that they should not be afraid because of the great multitude that had come against them, “for the battle is not yours, but God’s”— that they had no need to fight, but should simply stand still, and see the salvation of God. And thus they went forth, with singers in the forefront of the battle, praising God; the Ammonites, the Moabites, and the Edomites destroyed one another, and God’s children were saved. See 2 Chronicles 20. That was in the olden times.
The one example we have these days is Christ Jesus our Lord. He did not resist. He reproved His ardent disciple when he drew the sword (Matthew 26:51, 52). He healed the wound that Peter made (Luke 22:51, 52). He has told Christians that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, yet they are mighty through God in pulling down strongholds that no earthly army can overthrow—the fortresses of sin within the heart (2 Corinthians 10:4, 5).
Christian nations, surely, ought not to be at war, and the fact that they are at war shows that Christianity is wanting. On the other hand, those who are carnal will fight; and all the nations of the earth are carnal. They will live by carnal laws. And God has ordained civil government because He could have no other among carnal men and because the civil government cannot administer spiritual law. In these great struggles, God often overrules. He casts down one and sets up another. He gives the kingdoms of the earth to whom He will. He makes the wrath of man to praise Him; and that which cannot be used in that way, He restrains to His own glory.
As to what the duty of an individual would be, each individual must decide for himself. If one goes to the army under his government’s command, he is not obliged to kill anyone. He can act as a nurse caring for the sick and the wounded. He may be able to do wonderful missionary work with the men around him, yet he causes no loss of life. The one motive which should animate the Christian should be the motive that actuated our Lord Jesus Christ, “For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”
