Jeremy Myers has some words to say about Gregory Boyd’s and Walter Wink’s view that political power necessarily corrupts, even demonizes, the Church:

Is There Such A Thing As A Just War?

The “Just War” theory was originally developed by Augustine to defend the Empire’s actions of arresting and killing the Donatists, with whom Augustine was having a theological disagreement. He argued that in certain situations, a war is not wrong if it furthers the cause of Christ and advances the Kingdom of God on earth.

He taught that inflicting temporal pain on someone to help them avoid eternal pain was justified. Also, Augustine believed that since God sometimes uses terror for the good of humans (a questionable premise), the church may also use terror for the sake of the gospel (The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church p. 78).

Thanks to Augustine, Christians have been endorsing wars against “Christian enemies” ever since.

But does not the life of Jesus and the truth of the Gospel cry out against this? “Declaring a war just is simply a ruse to rid ourselves of guilt” (Engaging the Powers, p. 225). Such attempts to absolve ourselves from guilt in the murder of others have been around since the very beginning.

The killing of others began in the very first family, when Cain killed Abel.

Why did Cain commit the first murder?

The Bible is rather vague about Cain’s motives, but the root causes appear to be a mixture of jealousy, anger, and the desire for self-advancement. We rightfully condemn Cain for his actions, but when we look at the situation from Cain’s perspective, his murder of Abel was the very first “Just War” in history. Miroslav Volf points out that Cain’s murder of Abel was governed by faultless logic:

Premise 1: “If Abel is who God declared him to be, then I am not who I understand myself to be.” Premise 2: “I am who I understand myself to be.” Premise 3: “I cannot change God’s declaration about Abel.” Conclusion: “Therefore, Abel cannot continue to be” (Miroslav Volf, Exclusion & Embrace, p. 95).

From Cain’s perspective, he had the duty and obligation to protect himself by murdering Abel. If he had admitted that God’s preference for Abel’s sacrifice was correct, then Cain would have had to face his own faults. This he could not do, and so, in self-defense against the moral challenge from his brother, Cain engaged in “Just War” against Abel, and murdered him.

It has been argued that nearly all “Just Wars” in history are of this type. We engage others in a righteous battle, defending our freedoms and liberties, not because the others are necessarily evil and wrong (thought we paint them in this light), but because the only alternative to “Just War” is to admit our own wrongdoing and faults.

And since this is what we will not do, the others must die.

So ultimately, Just War theory is about one thing:

It is either us or them.

There has never been a war in history in which the warriors from both sides did not think their cause was just. In every battle, both sides cry out to their god for victory.

Can we really believe as Christians that since we serve the one true God, our cause is more just than the causes of those we are trying to kill?

Does it not rather seem that if we truly serve the one true God as revealed in Jesus Christ that there would be no cause whatsoever for killing?

When we seek the blood of our enemies, are we not abandoning and forsaking the truth of the shed blood of Jesus, who died for His enemies?

This question boils down to identifying the Biblical definition of justice, and understanding the difference between the God-given domains of Church and State.

The Church advises the state, as Nathan “advised” David. Joseph advised Pharaoh. Daniel advised King Nebuchadnezzar and Mordecai, after repenting, eventually advised Ahasuerus. Justice is a two-edged sword. It involves both vengeance and redemption. To separate one from the other leads to tyranny or anarchy, martial law or lawlessness. The sword of the prophets was the fiery tongue, the God-given Word. The Scriptures make it very clear that the metal swords of these mighty kings were also God-given. [1]

This explains the difference between murder and killing. Hatred is a crime committed within the domain of the Church. It is slain, mortified, by the Word of God. It leads out of this domain into the domain of the State—murder is  a crime punishable by the State, not the Church.

Israel could take up the sword against Canaan because 1) Israel was a Church State, and 2) the Canaanites had broken the “gospel” proclaimed to them by Abraham. This act wasn’t genocide. It was the exercise of the Covenant sanctions. The vengeance carried out under Joshua was a Church-State vengeance. God Himself exercised these same “Church-State” sanctions against Israel through Assyria and Babylon and Rome.

But after the exile, Israel was no longer an autonomous state, and this was by God’s design. Israel herself became the prophetic advisor. She was to be a nation of Nathans. The Church-State commissioned by God, set up under Daniel and decommissioned in AD70/Revelation was a Jew-Gentile one. The Jews could not execute criminals because they were to be a nation of priests. We see the beginnings of this in Ezra, where, all of a sudden, it is not only the genealogies of the priests that matter. By God’s command, they were to submit to their Gentile emperors, and if they did so, they would be exalted into government. [2] They founded synagogues right across the empire, and this bore fruit, as we see in Acts. But again, they desired a king before God’s time and ended up with a new Saul, the Herods. It took Herod and Pilate, Jew and Gentile, to execute Christ. It took Judah and Rome, Land Beast and Sea Beast, to execute the Firstfruits Church (Rev. 14).

The two-edged sword that the Christian Church wields is the gospel, a Good News which includes bad news, excommunication (which, biblically, is simply preaching of the gospel once again to apostates). This became distorted when the distinct roles of Church and State were conflated. The exaltation of the Church under Constantine was an exaltation by God for her faithfulness unto death. [3] However, heresy is never to be considered a crime against the State. The inquisitions were the result of a Church overstepping her prophetic demarcation.

So, it is not ungodly for a Christian nation to take up the sword against Muslim invaders, for instance. The question is whether that cause is just. I’m very thankful for the Crusades, and for WWII. And for the Cold War. Perhaps the wars since are more questionable because the West has systematically and institutionally “excommunicated” Christ, as the Herods did, and as the Roman Church did before the Reformation. The problem is not whether “Christian nations” can “Biblically” exist. The problem is Christian nations excluding Christ, forcing Him to knock on the door via His prophets and apostles to serve Covenant papers like a Nathan. [4]

When Christian Churches, and indeed Christian nations, apostatize, Jesus brings the hordes against them. Most Christians are totally ignorant of the fact that Jesus’ and the apostles’ warnings concerned the end of the Old Covenant in AD70. We can certainly apply these warnings today, but the bloodshed during the siege and destruction in Jerusalem, and indeed right across the entire empire, get overlooked as the actual interpretation. Jesus came again for His own, and poured out the curses of the Mosaic Law for the last time. Jesus and the apostles are portrayed as riding on white horses, with sword-mouths from heaven. That’s the Church power. Unbelieving Judah was being excommunicated from the people of God. And the nations are portrayed with actual swords. That’s State power. [5] Revelation dealt not only with the hateful hearts of the Jews, but with their “State-sponsored” murders of Christians. As in Joshua, Jeshua circumcised the Church, and the “swarms” marched around and circumcised the City-State of Herodian worship. [6] That’s what the Revelation is about—the cutting off of The Circumcision.

As in Canaan, the same sanctions executed upon the pagans-under-Covenant can be executed upon apostate Christians. Only, the Covenant territory is now longer limited to Canaan. Jesus rules the world.

The Gospel is the sword of the Church within its God-given domain, and if the Church is doing its job faithfully, it will be exalted as a prophetic advisor to the State, which will result in the State wielding a just sword within its God-given domain. The Gospel will always have State consequences, and to refuse to wield either sword justly is to hand the culture over to Satan.

The Church doesn’t war against flesh and blood. That is the job of the State. But Word inevitably becomes flesh. We must remember that fathers, pastors and soldiers are men who are willing to die for others in their given domains.

Nathan means “gift.” The flaming sword is a gift from God, whether prophetic or kingly. There is no Biblical debate over whether there should be swords, but whether or not those swords are just. The source of this justice is the cross, the bread and the wine, where men and women are slain and resurrected as wise governors in whatever domain God has given them.

The Words of the prophets always precede the swords of the soldiers. If a Christian nation is waging just war, she herself has been “slain.” But if she is waging an unjust war, it is because she is also waging war upon Christ. [7]

The fact that American troops are forbidden to hand out Bibles in Muslim nations is a dead giveaway. The fact that American troops find themselves hamstrung in conflict by bureaucratic restrictions upon their warfare is also a dead giveaway. A nation that has rejected the Bible understands neither justice nor mercy. When the State ignores the Church, that State is doomed.

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[1] See Church and State.
[2] See An Excellent Plan and The Restoration Covenant. I highly recommend James Jordan’s commentary on Daniel, available here.
[3] See A Jew Gets Baptism.
[4] See The Torah in Revelation.
[5] See The Fall of Jerusalem [PDF]
[6] See Circumcision and Apocalypse.
[7] See The Exorcism of Christ.

“Churches that don’t practice church discipline, whether baptist or paedobaptist, have AIDS. They’ve got no way to fight off infection.”

The seven part series contains the following topics:
1. Introduction
2. Personal Piety
3. God’s End in Creation
4. The Church
5. The Trinity
6. Typology
7. Edwards and Lewis

YouTube Playlist of all 7 topics

Years ago, when those “spiritual gift” tests were in vogue, a pastor told he didn’t like them because Christians were using them as an excuse to be slack in the areas where they were not “gifted.”

From what I have seen, spirituals gifts tend to be giftings for definite tasks. Some people are natural pastors, or natural kings (administrators). I’m not, but I have learned a great deal from watching and working with men who are.

Certainly, our gifts differ, and we should delegate what we’re not good at, but our maturity must be well-rounded. I’m more “prophet/teacher,” but that doesn’t mean my ministry doesn’t require gentleness or competent organization.

It’s easy to be harsh on a blog, (I’m much more mild mannered in person!) and everything written here is pointy for good reason. But I’ve found the harshness flows straight out of the way I often “speak” to myself. If my speech is sharp in any way, it should only be because God has broken me first. Judgment surely begins at the house of God, but within the house of God, judgment must begin with the preacher.

This is exactly what we see in Israel’s prophets. Transcendence and Hierarchy always come before Ethics. God’s prophets have tempers, but God’s prophets are tempered. He cuts them into bread and wine. These men of God knew when to be harsh and when to deal gently. Behold the goodness and severity of Jesus.

Here’s the example that got me thinking, an excerpt from Dan Braga on re-planting a church:

The tri-perspectival arena is important for [church] replanters. I have a super dominant personality. That’s the way I lead. I’m a prophet—through the roof. But this is why the Lord called me to re-plant. In many ways I mocked the priestly arena—pastoral ministry. Priests were weak and wimpy. Mercy is something to be sung about. It doesn’t really exist. That was my mentality.

But I’ll tell you that there, in the pastoral realm, the priest, there is the ministry of Jesus. It took four little grandmas to change a young arrogant guy. I had been counseled to take the building, plant the church in it, and just bowl them over. But in my candidate phase, the Lord said to me very clearly, “You will pastor them until they come to be with me.”

In a church re-plant, you cannot back away from any of the three perspectives. In sick churches, you’ve got demonic strongholds, egregious sin, structures and systems that are not only fallible but have actually promoted the failure of the gospel. And it really does take a strong prophet to say, “Look, this is black, this is white. This is what the Bible says. This is the way it is and this is the way we’re going. Throw me into the dungeon. Pin me up on a cross. Strip me down naked and spit on me, I don’t care. This is how it’s going to happen. Float with us or get off the boat. And if you drown, fine. It’s your fault.” It often takes that attitude.

By complementing that you must have a priestly attitude. The prophet just told you to get off the boat. Fine. Follow up on that. “How are you doing out there in the water? Are you ready for a life raft?”

Re-planting A Church, 2010 Phoenix Boot Camp, Acts 29 podcast, 10 Nov, 2010.

Image: www.popartdecoration.com

or Calling Security

NOTE: THIS POST HAS BEEN REMIXED AND INCLUDED IN GOD’S KITCHEN.

Years ago, I remember a preacher listing for his audience all the sins that will make you prematurely old. I figured the second part of his sermon to us would be a list of all the benefits of Christian living that keep you young. Well, they are obvious. Don’t tick the boxes in list one. Very wisely, that’s not what he gave us. He listed all the things the Lord expects of us, things that also make us prematurely old. His point was, grow old doing good, not evil.

Tying this to Jordan’s Bread and Wine theology, we understand that bread is made to be broken. Proud young men and women (as we were when I heard that sermon on growing old) won’t stay that way. They will be broken. But one life offered can feed five thousand.

The media sells us a lifestyle of security. This is not biblical prudence. It is paranoia, a worldview without faith, where God and His people cannot be counted on to come to the rescue. The Bible is full of leaders and institutions who pulled back from being broken. God has no pleasure in them. It is the Tabernacle of Lamech, the Temple of the Herods, a hoarded bread that God fills with worms. Bread is not eternal. It is expendable.

Worldly dreams will be shattered. Christ calls us beyond that, to an expectation that we will be broken and poured out. In fact, He calls us to look for opportunities to become prematurely old, to lay down our lives for the next generation. We understand this of parenting. Do we understand this of discipling others?

I’m not talking about pastor’s burnout. Paul knew how to disciple and delegate. Discipleship was a buffer against burnout. For sure, he had his failures, and he excommunicated them to bring about repentance. I’m talking about being a human shield, as Jesus was, standing between the curse and the cursed.

Adam’s sin, as a proud young man with faculties even our most gifted youths can only dream about, was believing that he wasn’t expendable. The single Law called him to be broken under it when tested. He seized a false security instead of becoming security. He was to be a priestly guard, a human firmament, a watchman, cut by the Word to create a safe place, a Holy Place. His failure made us into slaves. As Doug Jones observes, the next question for everyone who is redeemed, in every possible station of life known to human beings, is “Whose freedom are you?”

Calculated risks are the order of the day. As with the Christian life, we don’t set out to build a tower without adequate preparation and prudence. In parenting, in discipleship, we plant with an expectation, not a guarantee, of an increase. My point is that life in the flesh is expendable. Whatever we choose to spend it on, it will be spent. That is its very nature. It was never supposed to last, not even in Eden. The natural would become spiritual. But the path to glory, to security for others (those in the house) and spiritual offspring (bringing in those outside the house), is expensive.

As a perceptive pastor once said, “If you want to be a highway into the kingdom for other people, don’t be surprised when you get walked on.” And as my grandfather said, “The trials of life will make you bitter or better.” Either way, you are food.

“And I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls;
though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved.”
2 Cor 12:15

The world sells us on youth and security, the glory of fresh bread somehow kept in suspended animation. But the world doesn’t even believe the lie, not in the end, when the eulogies are read. When there is no reason to lie any more, even the world recognizes lives spent in such an honorable way.

“Cast your bread upon the waters, For you will find it after many days.”
Ecclesiastes 11:1

Amongst all the recent calls to be “radical,” security is actually good. That question, “Whose freedom are you?” helps us to discern between the guilt trips and the true calls to service. God doesn’t call us all to live on the edge. There’s nothing wrong with living a life of quiet faithfulness and nurturing of others. We all have different gifts. Sometimes it takes more courage and strength to be non-radical. [1] Whether it’s being radical, or just teaching your kids the Bible and being faithful at work, at home and at church, the goal is a legacy in history for God.

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[1] See A Tale of Two Brothers.

We moderns have not been trained in how to read texts, let alone ancient ones. Reading texts requires not only an understanding of what is said but an appreciation of how it is said. Consequently, the sacred texts are simply scanned for information that supports what we have already received or they are mishandled entirely. T. David Gordon asserts that this is the reason modern preaching is so disappointing and unengaging. See Why Johnny Can’t Preach and Threshing the Text. We won’t allow the Bible to say anything new.

At a church we used to attend, the mid-week home groups all committed to following a one-term study guide based on Nehemiah. It was intended to encourage us to imitate Nehemiah’s virtues and provide a blueprint for our own rebuilding of broken communities.

The last section of Nehemiah was not included in the study as it had nothing to contribute to this imposed objective. Besides being offensively politically incorrect, it wasn’t at all useful. Rather than throwing open this powerful book as a window to some transforming light, the author of the study used it as an opaque sounding board for his own agenda. When I pointed out that Nehemiah is actually more about church discipline, rebuilding a wall between God’s people and those outside, and that this study was not, in fact, engaging at all with the text or its place in redemptive history, it was like I rained on the parade.

Our academies and churches have capitulated so fully to the surrounding culture that they have replicated the very defense mechanisms built by that culture to avoid any transformation by the Bible. So, instead of casting out Tobiah we invite him to join the worship team.

See also:
How Not to Read Genesis
How to Read the Prophets
How to Read the New Testament