Reviewing Just War

If one makes even a cursory reading on war, one is immediately convinced of how dreadful it is. Whether one reads Josephus’ account of Rome’s war against Jerusalem in AD 70, or one reads of both Axis and Allied atrocities during WWII one learns quickly why someone once said “War is Hell.”

War brings not only death, but cruel death. Death by famine, pestilence, torture, and cannibalism. War brings death instantly and death to those who wish they had been blessed to die instantly.

War brings out the worst in man … envy, hatred, callousness, and selfishness.

Because this is so, War, for the Biblical Christian, has always been taught to be a matter of last resort. These Christians who believe that war is terrible but sometimes unavoidable have always embraced what is called “Just War teaching.” And we will be looking at that as we probe what Scripture has to say about when Christians fighting war is warranted.

Because war is so terrible, many Christians through the ages have taken a position that no Christian should ever be involved in violence against another person no matter what. This position has been called “pacifism.” It is a position often associated with the ana-baptist wing of thinking.

The reason we are taking this up, is because the War Drums are being beaten again, and as such I want us to be informed so that as Christians we can take up both our Christian duty and our civic duty. I will be giving the principles of Just War theory this morning and seeking to support those principles from Scripture. As tempting as it might be, I will not be telling people what to think about the current war call that is being advanced.

Before we get to the criteria for Just war I want to spend just a few minutes laying the groundwork to negate the idea that a Christian should never ever involve themselves in War because War, is ipso facto sinful. These brief 5 points are introduced in order to dismiss the idea of the Pacifists who teach that war is always wrong all the time.

1.) First, God repeatedly aligns and identify’s Himself with war and the warrior in Scripture. This is proof that war can be consistent with Christian involvement.

Isaiah 42:13 The Lord goes out like a mighty man,
like a man of war he stirs up his zeal;
he cries out, he shouts aloud,
he shows himself mighty against his foes.

In Revelation 19:11-12 we see the Messiah likewise being portrayed as a Warrior,

11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.

The point here is that if War were automatically evil in and of itself then God could never be spoken in Scripture as being as a Warrior. Just as God never refers to Himself as a liar, murderer or homosexual, because these behaviors are inherently evil, so God would never refer to Himself as a Warrior if War was inherently evil.

2.) Second, God commanded His people to engage in War. If War were inherently and intrinsically evil, then such a command would be inherently and intrinsically evil.

Judges 4:6-7

6 She sent and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, “Has not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded you, ‘Go, gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 from the people of Naphtali and the people of Zebulun. 7 And I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, to meet you by the river Kishon with his chariots and his troops, and I will give him into your hand’?”

3.) In Deuteronomy 20:1-20 God gave explicit words on how war is to be conducted. We looked at these carefully in a recent Evening Service series. The point is that if God gave explicit words on how war is to be conducted therefore it can not be the case that to be involved in war is always wrong all the time.

4.) Many of the Saints of the OT, bragged on in Hebrews 11:33-34 were men of war and are commended as Warriors.

Hebrews says of these Saints that they … “became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.”

God would never commend that which is intrinsically evil.

5.) Romans 13:1-4 explicitly says that the Magistrate, who is a minister of God, has been given the Sword.

for he is God’s servant … he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.

Explain the symbolism of the sword.

So, these five points dismiss the pacifist notion that War is always wrong all the time. There are times when War is just in God’s sight.

So, as we consider what constitutes Just War we say at the outset that if we lived in a world that was un-fallen there of course would never be war. War comes about because, as James 4 teaches,

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions[a] are at war within you?[b] 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.

So war is a result of bent passions and avaricious selfishness of the wicked. And just war is the means by which those bent passions and avaricious selfishness is halted. For a Christian Magistrate, war is where He uses the Sword, per Romans 13, to execute God’s justice against those who are terrorizing those who desire to live a peaceful and quite life that is godly in every way (I Tim. 2:2). The Christian magistrate like God is a warrior when he has needs to oppose the attempt of the wicked to tyrannize the righteous.

What I am about to give you in terms of Just War theory is not new with me. This teaching goes far back to chaps like Ambrose and Augustine in the 4th century and was elaborated upon by Aquinas in the 13th century, and has been refined over and over again through the centuries from that point forward. Some of these men spent more of their time anchoring just war theory in Scripture, while others sought to universalize just war theory by anchoring it in what they viewed as Natural Law.

We will give the several principles of Just war theory so you can see them gathered together.

1.) War can only be sanctioned and called for by the duly recognized authority.

Here we have an example of the jurisdictionalism which we bring out often here. The family has a sphere of jurisdiction, the church has a sphere of jurisdiction and the civil magistrate has a sphere of jurisdiction. Romans 13, which we cited earlier, clearly teaches that the Magistrate is a minister of God who wields the sword. War is a sword wielding event. In our own Constitution the sanctioning of War can only legally be called for by the US Congress, though this has been ignored often in our history with the Executive branch doing the sanctioning.

2.) War has to be waged because of a just cause. And of course the idea of “just” has to be defined consistent with God’s Scriptural revelation.

We return here to the idea of the Magistrates sword. The magistrate is only to use His sword in keeping with what God defines as “just.” “Just causes” we can imagine taking up the sword for would be to protect life (6th comm), protect property (8th commandment), avenging evil, etc. Obviously, if these kinds of evil could not be resisted, then we would live under the maxim that might makes right.

Also we must note here that consistent with God’s word, any war that is prosecuted against a judicially innocent people, inflicting upon them the penalty of war despite their innocence, would require that those prosecuting the unjust war be visited with the penalty of war that they were seeking to implement against the judicially innocent.

This is a principle gleaned from passages like,

Dt. 19:16 — If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, 17 then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. 18 The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother.

Returning then to the theme of “just cause,” we would note that Augustine here offered that war can be waged justly as a defense against aggression and for the protection of life and liberty. Augustine also held that war, on certain occasions, could be fought because of wrongs inflicted on a nation through economic or other means. Thus, war should only be waged to vindicate justice. The goal of war, taught Augustine, was the restoration of international peace.

Let me give you just a hint of what we will find on this matter. With some exceptions, Just war is defensive war. Now, defensive wars can have offensive movements in them, but the war itself, in just war theory, is most commonly Defensive war. Wars of aggression, or wars to build Empire, are by definition, not just wars and so need to be opposed by all Christians.

Southern Theologian R. L. Dabney offered, “Defensive war is, then, righteous, and only a defensive war.”

3.) The war is waged with right intention.

This one is added so that War is advertised with the just cause while the real reason is for some other selfish purpose such as the desire for territory, or some advantaged gained in seizing significant trade routes, or by seizing some Natural resource that is needed.

Mosely contends that “a just war cannot be considered to be just if reasons of national interest are paramount or overwhelm the pretext of fighting aggression.”

Here we must note that a State almost never beats the war drums without insisting that the cause is humanitarian or noble. States do not say … “we are going to war in order to seize oil reserves, or in order to protect the American dollar against those who are seeking to set up other International economies that would destroy us …” Remember the maxim that the first casualty of War is the truth.

States always sell War by telling their people that their cause is just, true and right. It is up to the citizenry then to do the best they can to ferret out the truth. As in all things, but especially in War, we should follow the Maxim, “Let the buyer beware.”

Here we need to insert Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler’s observation that “War is a Racket.” It is incumbent upon us as Christians, when determining whether or not to support a war or to speak out against it, to “follow the money.” It would be naive of us to not look at the economic equation behind war pursued. Butler, in his short book just mentioned, suggested that even when he was being used as a Mercenary (turn of the 20th century) for big Corporate interests, the wars of his nation were always about money, or turning a profit for the Corporatists. It is not Just war to fight to enrich the Oligarchs, the Cartels, and the Corporatists who advance their position by blood.

4.) War can only be justified once all other avenues of recourse are exhausted. This is consistent with a principle we find in Matthew 18

15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

Here we see reconciliation is exhaustively pursued before sanctions are levied.

One of the early Reformed writers on this subject Johannes Althusisus could write on this score,

Althusius stated: “Just cause for waging war occurs when all other remedies have first been exhausted and peace and justice cannot otherwise be obtained.”

And again,

This authority to undertake war ought not to be employed by the magistrate unless all other remedies have failed, and there is no other way to repel an attack upon his subjects, to avoid and vindicate injustice to them, or to obtain peace and tranquillity in the realm….But before undertaking war a magistrate should check his own judgment and reasoning, and offer prayers to God to arouse and direct the spirit and mind of his subjects and himself to the well-being, utility, and necessity of the church and community, and to avoid all rashness and injustice….

5.) The War waged can be a War successfully prosecuted.

This is consistent with what we find in Luke 14:28-32,

28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.

On this score, we have to keep in mind that war is so terrible and the consequences so grave that it should not be prosecuted if there is no hope of winning. To wage a war that can’t be won would be nothing less then murder of the citizenry by the Magistrate.

Exceptions noted

1.) Exception for National or people group survival
2.) Exception to avoid enslavement

6.) The End must envision a better state of affairs then the end envisioned if war is not prosecuted. The overall destruction that will come should be weighed against by the good that is aimed at.

7.) War is principally fought by soldiers that are male.

Numbers 1 and Numbers 26 both have God telling the leadership,

“List all the men twenty years old or older who are able to go to war.”

War that is fought with women would make a war unjust. Again, national survival might be an exception, but any people who use their women as combatants is a people who are already lost to the God of the Bible.

8.) War is not total. Distinction between soldier and civilians maintained.

This Biblical principle found in Dt. 20 was largely followed by the civilized West and was only reversed on a grand scale in the 19th century in the States. Ever since then though it has been largely the way we conduct war.

Wars that typically abide under these maxims are generally defensive wars. Wars that are protecting hearth and home. Exceptions may exist for that but those exceptions are very constrained.

In Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos (A Defense of Liberty Against Tyrants) we find language that speaks of fighting wars that are not strictly in defense of hearth and home. It asks the question “Whether neighbor princes may, or are bound by law to aid the subjects of other princes“. The answer is a qualified yes; providing some very strict criterion are met. For example, the oppression must be grievous, the chances of defeating the tyrant must be reasonable, the aid must be done with no objective of personal gain, and we are most obligated to aid those closest to us in terms of blood, religion, and geography. In other words, a ruler being a “bad guy” is nowhere near enough justification. This fits very well with the Christian Just War Theory and was doubtless influenced by just war categories.

So, there may be times when just War is pursued besides defense of home and hearth but in general just war has typically found that War is only just when it is defensive.

E. J. Carnell sums it up nicely,

Defensive warfare is simply the use of a national police force to destroy gangsterism on an international scale. The soldier is in exactly the same position as the civil officer at the scene of a bank robbery. Each must put down perversity with force. War is the last expedient to which a nation can turn when its survival is threatened by those bent on world domination and the lust for power. There is no doubt but that war is a terrible thing, almost too awful to speak of without tears in our voices. But the consequence of not matching force with force within the collective ego is infinitely less bearable. We will destroy the very securities within which men can preach and hear the Word of Life; we will betray all of the forms that guarantee our basic freedoms; and, worst of all, we will commit a sin against the very God who has ordained that Christian citizens be subject to those who have been placed in civil office as a praise to the good and a terror to the evil.