How can a believer of god support any war ?

Question

Thou shalt not kill . Is a commandment not a scripture . Abortion is bad but war is good ? Sanitary land fill . The bible is full of love . I think god would never approve of any war . There can allways be a peaceful solution. Too many people read the words yet do not get the meaning .

It is my understanding when god was involved with any war or killing . He did it himself or sent an angel . It is not mans place to take a life . This is gods place .

Answer 1

J D,

You have asked a question that should keep every so-called "Christian" awake at night. How is it, that the same God, who in the New Testament, says to love, bless, do good to, and pray for your enemies, sends His people the Israelites to utterly destroy those who had done them no harm? God says, "I do not change". How do we explain this contradiction in values? Here is my guess. I think that the teachings of Jesus, more accurately reflect the true nature of God's values. I just don't think that God ever intended for us to slaughter each other, and sent Jesus to reaffirm the point, when He said, "Do not resist evil". You may or may not know about the Council of Nicea, in 325 A.D. It was then, and there, that the Roman Emperor Constantine, created the system of belief we call "Christianity". He gathered all the religious leaders who were alive throughout the Empire, along with all known copies of the scriptures. He forged an orthodox faith, which would reunite his crumbling empire. It was designed to allow even pagans, to belong, and justified any action he wished to take as Emperor. Many of the scriptures were rewritten by men called "correctores". This is where the book we know as the Bible, came from. Any scriptures which disproved the new "faith", were destroyed. Any church leaders who disagreed with it, were banished, or worse. Needless to say, it is no longer an accurate reflection of God's word. Even knowing this, with careful reflection, and spriritual guidance, you can still glean the truth from it's pages. You just have to seperate the wheat, from the chaff. God says in Isaiah, "Come, let us reason together". If you think about it carefully, why would God want His children to destroy each other? Except in the Old Testament, where do we see God ordering His people to destroy anything, except pagan places of worship? I do not think that a person who is filled with the Spirit of God, is going to put on a uniform, and go out to kill a bunch of strangers for political reasons. Whether or not we should make a stand to defend our homes and families, is quite another matter. My personal belief, is that God takes care of those who love Him. If we do His Will in our lives at all times, and seek to follow the Path of Love, and keep His Commandments, I believe He puts a hedge of protection around us, just like Job. I think that some very clever politicians, have learned a lesson from Constantine. They are using the system of belief he created, for the very same purposes. If everyone who claims to be a follower of Jesus, truly was one, we would have a very small army indeed, don't you think?

Answer 2

The point has already been made - the bible says "thou shalt not murder"

Would God approve of me watching somebody kill you? What if I had the power to stop the killing? What if I had to kill somebody to stop them from killing you?

The Bible is full of love - and violence, and war, and murder, and deception and sex and lies. The Bible had no problem with David slaying Goliath. You have a very naive belief in the bible - if you believe anything in there at all.

The bible says "a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace."

It also says in Psalms Blessed be the LORD my Rock, Who trains my hands for war, And my fingers for battle.'

St Augustine (not in the Bible, but his writings were important in shaping the early Christian church) wrote of a just war. The six principles for a just war are:

1. JUST WAR can only be waged by legitimate authorities.
2. JUST WAR must exhaust all non-violent options first.
3. JUST WAR must have a reasonable chance to succeed.
4. JUST WAR must be fought with right intentions.
5. JUST WAR must discriminate between combative enemies and non-combative civilians (Death of civilians is considered justifiable only if unavoidable).
6. JUST WAR's ultimate goal should be to re-establish peace.

I have no doubt that God loves peace more than war. But God knows that due to man's imperfections, war exists, and that it is sometimes necessary.

Answer 3

I do not serve a god, I serve God.

King David Praises God for teaching his hands to war. Solomon writes that there is a time for all things under heaven. A time for peace and a time for war.

We are called to love one another and love our neighbor as ourselves.

We are also called to be the voice for those that have no voice.

Yes, there can be peaceful solutions. When dealing with rational people, who seek peaceful solutions. That does not include Hezbollah, who kidnapped 2 soldiers and killed 8 others on Israeli soil. That does not include terrorist organizations who seek to wipe you off the face of the earth. And neither does that mean standing back while a dictator and his sons beat, torture, and murder, their own people because they can.

Do I support war, yes, when all other alternatives have failed.

Answer 4

When God said thou shalt not kill he was talking about when you kill in anger or for another reason like when Cain killed Abel...he did it for gain with his brother out of the way his sacrifice was better looking...God did actually approve of lots of wars...he had his people at war with the philistines, the Pharohs, etc...He was there in the battle of Jericho, also God flooded the Earth to rid it of all the horid people that refused to obey..God doesnt contradict himself you can not take one peace of the Bible and say well it says this...instead you need to read its entire content and see what God did for his people before the ten commandments....remember he sent out the angel of death to kill all the first born in Egypt and the Pharohs son was killed....God did it as a consiquence to Pharohs not letting his people go....

Answer 5

Thank you for that EXCELLENT statement.

Christians (and other religious people) ignore this. There is a Christian President who ignored the United Nations and started a big war in Iraq. This same man claims to pray daily and he goes to church every Sunday, and he consults regularly with religious leaders.

Yet, the war rages on and countless numbers of people are being killed.

Now, the same man is letting Israel and Lebanon destroy that part of the world.

What does the love of God and his commandments and teachings of Jesus have to do with any of this?

NOTHING !!

But yet, Christians vote for these idiots and then the entire world pays the price!

Answer 6

"Too many people read the words yet do not get the meaning."

Yet you have read the words and do not get the meaning. The original text is clear that what is being spoken of is murder. While certainly countries should not go to war on a whim, the Bible allows for warfar under appropriate guidelines. There are even rules for warfare given in the Bible.

Answer 7

I beleve in, and love God but, I support a just war to protect our way of life. I don't like war but , I couldn't lie down and let people or dictatetors walk on me either. In the Bible God did support some wars.

Answer 8

Consider what happened in 70 AD because of what had been done to Jesus.

Mat 21:37 "But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.'
Mat 21:38 "But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, 'This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and seize his inheritance.'
Mat 21:39 "And they took him, and threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
Mat 21:40 "Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?"
Mat 21:41 They said^ to Him, "He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers, who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons."

His army came, and bought down-- so that a stone was not left on another. 70 AD it happened.
What army? The Roman army.
When did Jesus get crucified? About 33 AD.
I believe God condones war at certain times.
By the way, was it thou shalt not kill, or was it thou shalt not murder?

Answer 9

I'm with you and my reading of the texts runs along similar tracks as yours. However, I'm afraid that in the psychology of the believer there's a interplay between having intimate access to truth and being powerful. By believing in God many feel that they now enjoy inside knowledge of what is good and wrong. Being on the right side they feel commanded to go out on crusades in order to restore order. This happens to Christians and Muslims alike (not to count other religions).

Answer 10

A fair question.

A typical example of how religious scriptures are just interpreted by people to suit their own personal beliefs.

Of course war is bad. I am not religious and I don't want to see people dying every day for either no reason or selfish reasons.

A good person is a good person. Good beliefs are good beliefs, religion is irrelevant.