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.

“[Wine, women and song] are three things which are essential characteristics of the New Covenant glory which the Church has done a bad job of affirming over the centuries, and are three things which are hated by Islam. Islam is the scourge of Christendom, and a mirror of Christendom. It’s as if all the mistakes the Church makes are magnified in Islam or in some way directly perverted in Islam. Then, there is a fourth characteristic of the New Creation order: holy war.

These are areas in which the church has continually failed to be what God intends, and so there must be something important these things. So, somebody must not want us to think about them.

We have failed to treat worship as liturgical warfare. Worship has been everything but liturgical warfare. The book of Revelation is seen as a bunch of fantasy predictions, or something else, but the last thing it is seen as is a training manual for liturgical warfare. The book describes a worship service in heaven in which warfare is going on, conducted by angels as a model for what the Church is supposed to do. A minute ago, we prayed, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Obviously, that means worship on earth as it is done in heaven. But when we look at worship in heaven, it doesn’t bear much resemblance to what we do in practice…

I don’t think we really believe that when we worship, demons are driven away. And the more closely we worship in the way the Bible describes, the more the principalities and powers will be cast down. The Church has operated much more by sight than by faith in this area.”

And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the Land. (Revelation 5:6)

The Bible is the story of the historic battle between the serpent-king and the servant king. Both sit on bloody thrones. Herod slaughters the innocents, and is then slaughtered by God. The innocent Christ is slaughtered, then sends His followers into the world as seven Spirits (Lampstand/Pentecost), but also as lambs among wolves.

What I love about the verse quoted above is that the Lamb is not only in the midst of the throne, but in the midst of His angelic government, surrounded by ministers in the wilderness.1 Later in the book we see Him surrounded again, but by a human government — the apostles as gates and walls, with the Lamb at the centre as Light. This could only occur if these saints themselves were slain as the Lamb was, which we see in Revelation 14.

Every week, the Spirit calls us in, and we gather around the slain Lamb. Then, as a glorified, Metal Man, He sends us out again into the world to expand the borders of the City, the frontiers of His Canaan conquest. Like the cherubim, we are both gates to the blood-covered repentants, and walls to the condemned sheeptraders.

There is blood at the centre, and blood at the border, the gospel miracle of 30AD and the miracles at the frontier. Between these there is the peace of New Jerusalem, which can only be maintained if the servant-kings go to war when they should (2 Sam. 11).

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1. The slain Lamb with seven eyes in the midst of the elders is a unification of the Table of Showbread, the Incense Altar and the Lampstand. Which means Christ’s defeat of Satan also destroys Satan’s Tabernacle.

All Christians recognise Christ’s fulfilment of Passover (crucifixion) and Firstfruits (ascension), followed by Pentecost. Futurists, who major on all things Jewish, recognise that Trumpets and Atonement follow, but they push them into the future.

At the Feast of Trumpets, Israelites were summoned before God, and they paid money for the privilege. Ten days later, following a time of mourning and fasting, was the Day of Atonement. Finally, the Feast of Tabernacles, or Booths, a celebration to which the world was invited.

Why do we not see these feasts in the events leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem? The church is summoned throughout the Book of Acts, and there is holy war. There is a symbolic “ten days” of testing (Revelation 2:10) and then the Day of Atonement, where the church ascends to God (the first resurrection – the first goat) and the Roman Beast and Herodian false prophet (and of course, Jezebel) are exiled as the second goat. The Marriage Supper of the Lamb fufils the Feast of Booths.

Pushing these last feasts into our future makes a long time between meals, but there is a good reason for the confusion: the entire Bible follows the same Feast pattern (from Leviticus 23). I have outlined the first century picture, but in the big picture it was the patriarchal era as Passover (the beginning of circumcision), the entire history of Israel as Firstfruits (the priesthood draws near). The life and ministry of Christ is the centre of history, the giving of the Law at Pentecost. He was both the Law-Word and our representative under the Law. The history of the first century church was Trumpets, the mustering of the holy army. With Jerusalem as Jericho, our own gospel era is Atonement, with the High Priest, totus Christus, representing the nations before God at the open door. The saints are dividing up the Land as their inheritance. And of course, the end of history brings the big fulfilment of the glorious Tabernacles, the feast where God lays on oxes and strong drink for all the redeemed.

The hyperpreterists, however, confuse the first century pattern with the big Bible pattern. So they think AD70 was the consummation, when it was only the end of the first century pattern. In the big picture, the final party is yet to come, and the noise will split the ground (1 Kings 1:40).

However I think he misunderstands the account of Achan’s sin, or misconstrues it support his argument:1

Sabbath means that there’s enough bread, that we don’t have to hustle every day of our lives. There’s no record that Pharaoh ever took a day off. People who think their lives consist of struggling to get more and more can never slow down because they won’t ever have enough.

When the people of Israel cross the Jordan River into the promised land the manna stops coming. Now they can and will have to grow their food. Very soon Israel suffers a terrible defeat in battle and Joshua conducts an investigation to find out who or what undermined the war effort. He finally traces their defeat to a man called A’chan, who stole some of the spoils of battle and withheld them from the community. Possessing land, property and wealth makes people covetous, the Bible warns.

His interpretation of Achan’s sin is incorrect, because they were allowed to plunder in later conquests. Jericho was ‘holy war’ – a firstfruits that was devoted entirely to God. This is more complex than just plain old greed. Achan wasn’t covetous. He was impatient like Adam, which put Israel on the wrong side of the angelic swords. Obedience comes before glory.

The goal of faithful service is dominion. Misunderstand this and we fall prey to the guilt manipulators who want to spread the poverty around.

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1 I think he treats the Egyptian famine in the same way. The dream was sent by God, and Pharaoh’s reaction to it was actually wise, not greedy. Jordan is right when he says that using the Old Testament to moralise results in a lot of misinterpretation. There’s a lot more going on in these narratives than is immediately apparent.

Bread and wine administered separate from a meal and in meagre doses portrays God as stingy. Besides this fact, the Biblical image of abundant wine as liquid fire is important for war. Peter Leithart, commenting on Zechariah 9:15, writes:

“In this context of warfare and triumph, food and drink play an important role. Yahweh’s people, His weapons, would “devour” their enemies, drink wine, and become boisterous—as filled with wine as the basin at the foot of the altar was filled with blood, filled with wine like the blood-caked “corners of the altar” (9:15). What Israel would find exhilarating was partly the “wine-blood” of her enemies, who had been slaughtered before her. But the passage pictures Israel drunk with another kind of wine: filled with the wine of Yahweh’s Spirit, Israel would be bold, wild, untamed, boisterous in battle. This suggests one dimension of the symbolism of wine in the Lord’s Supper: it loosens our inhibitions so that we will fight the Lord’s battles in a kind of drunken frenzy. If this sounds impious, how much more Psalm 78:65, where the Divine Warrior Himself is described as a mighty man overcome with wine? Yahweh fights like Samson, but far more ferociously than Samson. He fights like a drunken Samson! Grape juice, it must be said, simply does not carry the same punch. Deprived of wine at the Lord’s table, it is no wonder that we fight our battles so timidly, no wonder we stay so nerdy and are constantly plagued by bullies.”1

1 Peter J. Leithart, Blessed Are The Hungry, p. 110-111. WEPOW

The sign of the Covenant has progressed from the removal of Adam’s sin (Passover) to Eve’s removal from sin (Atonement).

Circumcision was only for males, because Israel’s history concerned the coming of the Adam. Baptism, however, is for both males and females, imaging the resurrection for war of a corporate Eve—the body (Trumpets).

Circumcision brought near those who could not stand on their own (Isaac). Baptism brings near the mature (Esther), who present themselves before God’s ministers as plunder from the nations, submitting to church government to be enrobed, washed, and seated in the royal priesthood.

Obeying the gospel identified us with Greater Adam (circumcision – death), a circumcision “made without hands” (Colossians 2:11).

Submitting to baptism, however, identifies us with Greater Eve and her government over us—the Saturnine sword of the Covenant (resurrection).

Circumcision and Passover looked forward to Christ’s death. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are Covenant memorials, but also look forward to the final Conquest cleansing and resurrection.

A New Covenant believer’s baptism is a knighthood, or “Nazirite-hood.” One mature enough to publicly testify to his faith bows before his Captain and is symbolically beheaded by the sword of Conquest, smashed by the rod of iron—the church. We must be dominated before we can dominate. He rises and stands on the Laver (“Arise a knight!”) – the Jordan, picturing the crystal sea before the Throne. After access to the “marriage feast” he rides into battle as an authorised emissary. Only he who has submitted to the sword is enabled to carry it. As an image it certainly communicates the gravity of the responsibility.

As far as the world is concerned, the Christian has hoisted the Jolly Roger. As far as Christ is concerned, he has nailed the colours of Eve to the mast and deliberately, publicly, joined the brotherhood.

Infant baptism dims the glory of this New Covenant sacrament of corporate maturity.

Israelite males presented themselves before God at Passover/Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits and Booths. (Exodus 23:14-17) picturing the death, resurrection and marriage of the “bridegroom.” Trumpets summoned the people to prepare for Atonement, making ready the “bride.”

Sabbath - God’s Word initiates the pattern in Adam

000Passover - Adam is summoned and dies (Israel’s circumcision – Red Sea)

000000Firstfruits - Adam is resurrected

000000000Pentecost - Eve is tested in the wilderness

000000Trumpets - Eve is summoned and dies

000Atonement - Eve is resurrected (Christian baptism – Jordan)

Booths - Marriage feast of the Lamb
WEPOW

“Can it really be so simple?” That is the feeling we have about the church. She has been given a mission of global conquest. As Rudolf Schnackenburg has explained, “Through the Church, Christ wins increasingly his dominion over all things and draws them ever more powerfully and completely beneath himself as head… the Church’s mission is necessary and willed by Christ to bring the world of men and with this the whole of creation under his rule.” One cannot conceive of a more astounding project. And yet, as we examine the tools the church has been given to accomplish this mission, we are prompted to ask, “Is that all there is to it?” Surely there has to be more to the church’s arsenal of weapons for world conquest than worship, baptism and the Lord’s supper, church discipline, preaching the gospel, teaching, prayer and service. Surely God expects the church to be doing more in the real world than that! We are inclined to think that God has provided us with a sharp rock for a construction project that requires power tools. We seem to have been given muzzle-loaders in a war that demands nuclear capability. The church is a mystery.

Though she is an “institution,” she is more than an institution. She is the assembly of the Father, body of Christ, the temple of the Spirit. Because the church is a mystery, she is grasped only by faith.

Likewise, the church undertakes her mission, and fulfills her mission, only by faith. In ways that we cannot fully understand, the mere presence of the church affects the world for good or ill. In mysterious ways, the public worship and feast of the assembly of God bring nearer the consummation of the kingdom of God. In ways that go beyond human comprehension, the preaching of the gospel has creative power. If we cannot understand precisely how this takes place, it is not because it does not take place. It is because the church, even in her mission of world conquest, is required to walk by faith, not by sight.

Peter J. Leithart, The Kingdom and the Power, p. 193-194.

[I should note after my posts on baptism and quoting Jordan and Leithart either side of them, that they do practice infant baptism, and present a compelling case for it.] WEPOW

In Judges and 1 Samuel, the weapons used to defeat the enemy reflect the ordinary people who used them: a tent peg, an ox goad, a millstone, an ass’s jawbone, a slingshot. It was Saul who started throwing spears like a Gentile, like Goliath.

Our weapons are not of this world, but many of them are still physical weapons: bread, wine, water, oil, bended knees, soundwaves, books, gifts, open ears, hospitality, open or closed church doors. These physical things capture people’s thoughts and make them obey Christ.

We live in this world, but we don’t act like its people or fight our battles with the weapons of this world. Instead, we use God’s power that can destroy fortresses. We destroy arguments and every bit of pride that keeps anyone from knowing God. We capture people’s thoughts and make them obey Christ. And when you completely obey him, we will punish anyone who refuses to obey.” 2 Cor 10:3-6 [CEV]

WEPOW

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12

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

I thought for many years that the phrase “joints and marrow” in this verse was very strange. I guess this is a testimony to the artificial division of the Old Testament from the New by Bible teachers. It refers to the sword of the priest cutting up the sacrifice.

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