Nations claim His banner, but Jesus offered a different weapon—love.
by Charles Mills
Bible-preaching Christians tend to maintain the seemingly off-the-wall concept that God will fight their wars for them. They may have developed this idea from verses such as:
“The Lord will fight for you: you need only to be still.”
(Exodus 14:14, NIV)
Or they may chant this hopeful quote:
“If God is for us, who can be against us?”
(Romans 8:31, NIV)
Well, apparently, a whole lot of people can be against us.
Knowing that “the Lord your God is He who fights for you” (Joshua 23:10), why did our self-proclaimed “Christian nation,”—the United States of America—become involved in so many world wars? When did “under God” become “over there?”
The answer is found, not so much in the mighty hand of God, but in the foolish heart of humanity. Many maintain that the God of love they worship isn’t the surrogate soldier He says He is. Instead, they view Him as their personal drill sergeant whose duty it is to transform them into super heroes, capable of defeating enemies using their very own mighty hand.
Each feels perfectly OK with the concept that, with God’s blessings, he or she can freely kill in the name of love.
That’s exactly what we as a nation do, repeatedly, in different locations and for many different reasons. We fly in with weapons, drones, and smart bombs designed to wipe out our enemies. Then we attempt to reconcile the collateral damage inflicted by concentrating on the greater good.
Once our conscience is clear, we move on to the next conflict with blood on our hands and praises on our lips. We glory in the fact that we’re fighting for God, not the other way around.
Have we stumbled upon the perfect prescription for partnering with the Lord of the Universe against those who would do us harm?
Perhaps we need to stop and ask ourselves the question a popular TV shrink frequently put to his patients:
“How’s that working for you?”
If we’re totally honest, we’d have to answer, “Not so good!”
Why We Fight
“Can war ever be moral?” we may ask.
“How about if it’s for a good cause?”
“How about if it’s in the name of God?”
“How about if fighting this war ends another, more egregious one?”
The Roman Catholic Church, the major theological powerhouse during the Medieval Period, came up with an actual formula for war that, in their opinion, laid the groundwork for making conflicts both moral and just.
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) laid out the three conditions under which war could be justified (Just war theory). If these conditions were met, faithful followers could fight guilt-free. In today’s language, he insisted:
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A just war must be waged by a properly instituted authority such as the state.
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War must occur for a good and just purpose rather than for self-gain, or as an exercise of power.
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Peace must be a central motive, even in the midst of violence.
Sounded great! People of that time loved these conditions because it provided a practical formula for dealing with the unthinkable. But time has unmasked the devil in the details.
Long before Rome had risen to become the religious juggernaut that dominated Europe for centuries, God had watched Satan carve deep inroads into the minds of the very people group He’d lovingly created. The Bible records His sad conclusion:
“The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.”
(Genesis 6:5, NIV)
That natural inclination of human hearts remains the same today, even when you have countries filled with “good” people deciding to act violently against countries filled with “bad” people, or vice versa.
Conflicts tend to be all about self-justification, self-interest, corporate gain, and wealth. The “good and just purpose” that motivates men and women to fight often has its roots buried in far less than altruistic soil.
“Properly instituted authority?” Any state can boast that. Louis XIV, monarch of the House of Bourbon and King of France from 1643 to 1715, announced with confidence:
“I am the state.”
Most of his subjects obediently agreed.
And when it comes to peace serving as the goal for violent actions, more often than not, battlefields fall silent only when there’s no one left to fight back. History has proven time and time again that wars lay the generational groundwork for never-ending hatred—even in the aftermath of conflicts.
Something else happens in a war that planners and supporters tend to overlook or ignore.
According to data released in 2021 by the Department of Veterans Affairs, in 2019, 17.2 veterans committed suicide nationwide each day.
That’s almost the same number of lives that were taken since 9/11 on the battlegrounds of American-involved wars (Brown University Costs of War Project).
Seems the killing fields stretched all the way home for over 6,261 soldiers that year.
Just Wars
These days, religions that center their worship on the God of the Bible tend to adopt one of three views on the topic of just wars.
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Pacifist standard. No such thing as a just war. Violence and killing are simply wrong. That’s why Desmond Doss, the subject of Hacksaw Ridge, served as a non-combatant medic, refusing to kill. His weapons of choice? Field dressings and morphine.
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Old Testament standard. God leads His people into battle. Miraculous victories are proof the Almighty sanctions war. But these stories take place within a theocracy. At best, humans were carrying out God’s will directly. At worst, they were misinterpreting that will and praising God when things went well.
This “doing the will of God” mindset motivates men and women to strap on explosives and walk into crowded markets. It drove the deadly attacks of 2001 and fuels an endless stream of atrocities today.
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Holy-only standard. A holy war can only be sanctified by someone who is holy. That leaves out everyone but God. Sinful human beings, by their very nature, cannot instigate or participate in a holy war.
Whichever view a person takes depends on where they were born, how they were raised, and what their concept of God’s character happens to be.
But does God Himself have anything to say on the subject? I believe He does.
MOAB
It weighs 21,600 pounds, is 30 feet long, and costs taxpayers 16 million dollars a pop (BBC). In flat areas, it can create a blast radius a mile wide. Anything organic in that area vanishes.
The military calls it the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast. Others call it the “Mother of All Bombs.” Unlike precision weapons often used in combat, MOAB is the hail Mary of the non-nuclear armed response. There really is nowhere to hide.
Is God like that with His enemies? What exactly is His response to those who rise up against Him?
Ask the devil. He rebelled against God before the earth became a garden. He gathered as many as one-third of the angels around him (Revelation 12:4, Isaiah 14:12-14).
The Almighty’s response?
“Satan and his unhappy comrades were cast out of heaven and placed, alive and kicking, on this earth.”
(Revelation 12:9, KJV)
Ask Adam and Eve. They chose to live outside of God’s protection, believing the devil’s lies. Heaven’s response?
“God drove out Adam and Eve from Eden.”
(Genesis 3:23-24, KJV)
How different is God’s reaction to enemy forces compared to man’s. We don’t cast out or drive out. We annihilate!
Then along comes Jesus with His message of love and peace. They wanted fire and brimstone. Instead, they got:
“Blessed are…”
“Neither do I condemn you.”
And a brand-new spiritual MOAB:
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
(John 13:34, NIV)
The reach of this incredible, made-in-heaven ordnance is global.
Two Standards
There seem to be two standards from which to choose: God’s and man’s.
God’s standard marches to the “casting out,” “going before,” and “blessed are” beat. His banner over us is LOVE.
Man’s standard—even when battling in the name of the God of love—is all about kill or be killed, survival of the fittest, an eye for an eye.
Jesus addressed this rationale directly:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’
But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also…
If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.”
(Matthew 5:38-42, NIV)
Bottom line: If you’re going to war in the name of man—country, cause, principles—you fight by human rules of engagement. But if your engagement is in the name of God, there’s a very different set of rules.
God goes before you, working His wonders, bypassing conflict, removing the enemy in ways that are both humane and long-lasting. The spiritual, love-armed MOAB can do what no earthly ordnance can—alter the course of human history without firing a shot.
Every person, every nation, every Christian must choose their leader and live with the consequences of that choice.
The problem comes when forces from the first camp insist they are faithful members of the second. They expect victory because theirs is a “moral” cause. They fight guilt-free because “God is with us.” They willingly kill in the name of love.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Someday—and I hope it’s soon—the God of love has promised to return to end all wars. After sin has run its course, the peace that passes all understanding will reign in every thankful heart.
Until then, each of us has to decide who is the captain of our lives. I pray we all choose wisely, because so much is riding on our decision.