It should always be a last resort and a tragic necessity for the sake of restoring peace. War should never be pursued for its own sake. The fact of the matter is that war is a tragic consequence of the fall of mankind. In 2 Peter 3:9 we read, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” God does not rejoice in the condemnation of “another Godless jihadist to the lake of fire.” Instead, he is grieved that such a one never came to faith in Christ alone for salvation. The problem here is that God does not rejoice in the death and judgment of those who do not trust in him. Invoking the praise of the master from Jesus’ parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14–30), Starnes states that Kyle must have received a hero’s welcome in heaven upon his untimely death. The problem is that Starnes missed the point of the passage he quoted. In his attempt to rush to Kyle’s defense, Starnes crosses the line by declaring that God is pleased with the fact that Kyle ushered unbelievers into a fiery judgment. Thus, his actions seem to fall within the scope of the authority granted to government in Romans 13. From the best we know, he only engaged enemy combatants in his role as a sniper. In Chris Kyle’s situation, he was acting as an agent of the government in an official capacity as a soldier. This authority is granted to the government by God. This passage has typically been interpreted to include a government’s right to take up arms and defend its citizens and the innocent. But if you do what is evil, be afraid for it does not bear the sword for nothing for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same for it is a minister of God to you for good. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. In Romans 13:1–4, Paul writes:Įvery person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. On that question, the text of Scripture speaks fairly clearly. However, Moore should be asking whether or not a legitimate government has the biblical authority to participate in war. We have no record that he did and no reason to even speculate about it. Would Jesus have participated in a war during his 30+ years on earth? Probably not. I think Moore is asking the wrong questions for the most part. However, in this case I think they both missed the point about Jesus. I’m probably going to line up with Starnes about 80–85% politically (although I often have problems with his rhetoric). In stark contrast to the thoughts of Moore, Starnes concludes that Jesus would actually applaud Kyle for his work in the war and welcome him to heaven on the basis that he had personally ensured Islamic jihadists would end up in hell.įrom a political perspective, I’d really have to hunt for a while to find much of anything to agree with Moore about.
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