Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
For thousands of years, enlightened rulers have used dialogue and diplomacy to solve political problems. Then, if all else failed, they would use military force. The result: wars. Many sincere godly people have understood that the Bible supports the idea of a "just war." For example, the war against the Canaanites in the Promised Land. God told Israel that it was a "just war" because those people had rejected 400 years of God's continued efforts to give them repentance for their sins against humanity.
"Justice" in warfare today is elusive. Could the principles of the gospel help in such a crisis today? They are all but unknown:
(1) No personality, no race, no ethnic group, no nation, is of itself more "righteous" than another. The human race are all sinners "in Adam." "All" of whatever religion have participated in the murder of the Son of God who was sent here precisely for the purpose of saving this planet (Rom. 3:23). This is the world's corporate guilt. The truth must be recognized and believed.
(2) If there is such a thing as any "rightness" or "righteousness" in any "just war," its source is therefore the righteousness of Christ. No nation or race can claim it. It's always a gift of God's grace. Pride and arrogance immediately vanish.
(3) God laid that corporate guilt on Christ as the second Adam. The ultimate sin of mankind was His murder, and He forgave them for it (Luke 23:34).
(4) Thus He calls on us to forgive our enemies, personal and ... (did He mean it?) national (Matt. 5:43-48). Politicians will immediately say, That's impossible to do! Very well, then there's war, with all its attendant horrors. The ultimate result at the very end: Armageddon (Rev. 16:13-16).
In the meantime, is there any hope? Yes; proclaim Christ's beautiful truth of justification by faith. It will get through to some of "the kings of the earth" so angels can hold the four winds until the gospel commission can be finished in a time of relative peace (Rev. 7:1-4).
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 1, 1999.
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