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So according to your logic, if the US invades Syria (which it seems is quite possible) then Syrians are completely justified in combating the US, and they are doing God's service by doing so.
Same with Vietnam, Iraq, Libia.... sheesh, this is getting interesting.
Peace.
brian
There is justified warfare, and war that is not just. God uses justified warfare to judge nations which have become totally depraved. To fight for freedom is just. To fight for the purpose of opposing and destroying freedom is evil.
Many times in the Old Testament, God destroyed a nation through war to prevent its corruption from spreading, or to preserve His own people.
God sanctions justified warfare. You need only read the Old Testament to understand that.
There is justified warfare, and war that is not just. God uses justified warfare to judge nations which have become totally depraved. To fight for freedom is just. To fight for the purpose of opposing and destroying freedom is evil.
Many times in the Old Testament, God destroyed a nation through war to prevent its corruption from spreading, or to preserve His own people.
God sanctions justified warfare. You need only read the Old Testament to understand that.
Fortunately, the Old Testament has been superceeded. (My mother still doesn't grasp that though.)
So when Jesus said, "...but I tell you..." it means that there's something new to learn.
Everything else in your post is non-scriptural. The only "justified warfare" for a Christian is spiritual warfare. "Our weapons are not carnal, but spiritual." -Paul the apostle
So according to your logic (and Mike's), if a foreign country invades the US then you should respect their soldiers who take your homes and kill you, since they are doing God's service. In fact, both sides annihiliate each other doing God's service. Brilliant.
Sounds more like the devil's work to me. "The devil cometh not but to steal, to kill and to destroy.."
Actually, a Christian puts his/her faith (ideally) in God to save, rather than the sword. "He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword" was Jesus' word to those who thought that fighting was the way to get peace.
Jesus didn't call on the Jewish military (or whatever) to save him from Calvary.
(His) Peace.
brian
That gets down to judging the individual heart and I am not qualified to do that. Many a German were caught up in things beyond their control. All I would understand as a soldier is, kill or be killed.
One story in the Bible says that at certain time when God raised up an Army in Israel He told the pacifist to stay home and for the others to not treat them as second class citizens but share with them the spoils of war. So stay home but don't condemn those who do go.
Jesus mission at the time was to let evil have its way to prove two points and record them in Heaven and on the earth for all the world to see. Point one: Man without God is evil because they reject Christ. Point 2: God shows mercy through Christ.
Paul on the other hand was saved by an Army that God used to protect both him and the Gospel message he carried. He told others to buy swords. The Gospel is not spread with a sword but it does come in handy for self defense. There is a time and a place for all things. You can not put spiritual reality in a small box of human logic. The Word of God seems to many contradictory because of the smallness of human logic.
Fortunately, the Old Testament has been superceeded. (My mother still doesn't grasp that though.)
So when Jesus said, "...but I tell you..." it means that there's something new to learn.
Everything else in your post is non-scriptural. The only "justified warfare" for a Christian is spiritual warfare. "Our weapons are not carnal, but spiritual." -Paul the apostle
Peace.
brian
On the contrary. Everything I have said is scriptural. It is you who oppose God's word. You take Paul's words (2 Cor.10:4) out of context, for Paul was not speaking of national defense, but of the spread of the gospel. The spiritual weapons Paul used, the proclaimed word of God and prayer (Eph. 6:17-18), were able to 'destroy speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God...' (2 Cor. 10:5).
You are disoriented concerning the principles of divine establishment which are valid in all dispensations. God ordained nationalism, and the military to defend freedom from external enemies. Because there will be wars until Christ returns nations must be militarily prepared to defend themselves.
Justified warfare is from God.
1 Chronicles 5:22 For many fell down slain, because the war was of God...
The very first thing that Jesus is going to do when He returns to set up His Millennial kingdom is to destroy with the sword of His mouth (His spoken word), the armies of the Armageddon Campaign who were attacking Jerusalem (Revelation 10:14-21; Zechariah 14:3).
I am not going to spend the rest of the day going back and forth with you about this. Since you have a problem with justified warfare, take it up with God and try to straighten Him out.
If you support the troops in one country, then you have to support the troops in ALL countries.
I don't see why.
While not separate nationalities at war, the Mexican Marines have proved reliable, competent, and successful against the Mexican Cartels in violent engagements. The Mexican Marines has been less--if at all--corrupted than the Mexican Army and has not been bought off by Cartel money.
If Mexican police or Mexican Marines clash in a gun fight with Mexican Cartel does that mean I have to support both clashing sides?
I don't think so.
One is commanded to turn the other cheek and walk the extra mile. Yet, there are times one may have to pick up arms to fight, if not for self then for others that may not be capable of defending themselves (e.g., orphans, widows, disabled, the sick, the injured, those too weak in one form or another).
He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. It is written: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors’; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.†The disciples said, “See, Lord, here are two swords.†“That’s enough!†he replied.
—Gospel of Luke 22:36-38, NIV
Fortunately, the Old Testament has been superceeded. (My mother still doesn't grasp that though.)
So when Jesus said, "...but I tell you..." it means that there's something new to learn.
Everything else in your post is non-scriptural. The only "justified warfare" for a Christian is spiritual warfare. "Our weapons are not carnal, but spiritual." -Paul the apostle
Peace.
brian
This whole thing about "but I tell you" is taken out of context. Jesus said that in response to those who distorted what was written and therefor said "You have heard it said [not what the writ meant] but I say to you----", to balance peoples thinking concerning the fullness of truth. As an example: There is a time for the punishment to fit the crime and the State has power to do [eye for an eye] but also a time to show mercy and especially an individual is not to take matters into their own hands.
And here is another example: A misunderstanding of that Scripture that says God visits the sin of the father upon the children. But that meant inheriting the sinful nature even as we all did from Adam but they did not take into account that if the children turned to God by faith they would justified.
EZEK 18:2-4 "What mean you, that you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge? As I live, says the Lord GOD, you shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel. Behold, all souls are Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sins, it shall die."
So according to your logic, if the US invades Syria (which it seems is quite possible) then Syrians are completely justified in combating the US, and they are doing God's service by doing so.
Same with Vietnam, Iraq, Libia.... sheesh, this is getting interesting. One country's tit is another country's tat. If you encroach on one, the other is then "justified" in retaliating. In that way, both countries are doing nothing other than defending themselves.
And both countries are doing God service, men killing each other for God. Amazing what a bit of theology can do.
Peace.
brian
A U.S. attack on Syria may be an injustice. I don't know enough about the situation to make a judgement. But I think if one is Christian they are supposed to use a Christian conception of morality to analyze which side they should support or to what degree they should oppose a military action, war, or promote peace negotiations in its place.
I don't find any moral reason why the U.S. should intervene militarily in Syria but not in African nations like the Sudan or Rwanda when genocide erupted.
The U.S. is not always right when it conspires or decides to use military action. I think it was right to have entered WWII and probably wrong to have entered into The Vietnam War.
One difficulty of course, is that the average citizen is not a political scientist. The Protestant Anglican C.S. Lewis touched upon this when commenting on whether soldiers should obey their nation and fight in war. If memory serves me correct C.S. Lewis was a WWI veteran. I believe he concluded the average citizen is too ignorant of politics and therefore should obey the leaders of their nation and go to war.
Personally, I think wars would be greatly reduced if labor laws where extended to the military profession and such labor laws were regarded as human rights issues. This would greatly impede corporations and government war mongers ability to create wars for their own benefits. Currently, a regular enlisted military person can not simply quit their job, without being thrown in prison, given a felony, or even executed.
Severely impede governments and corporations ability to create wars and they'll have to try very hard to persuade their citizens that the war they want to initiate is justifiable and perhaps needed. Otherwise, they'll be forced to use peaceful means of negotiation.
(Although, I'm not sure how "peaceful" the modern day form of siege warfare is in the form of economic blockade.)
I forget the exact term (It's not Total War), but its a term that means completely obliterating the enemy, with all rules chucked out the window, just fighting for total destruction. But that does not exist today. The genocide in Rwanda probably came closes to it in recent times. Other than wars today--and mostly in the past as well--had the objective of making leaders of another nation cede to the demands of one or more other nations. Sometimes this involved "Total War" by modern nation-states as in the case of WWII where the whole nation was mobilized in one form or another to fight the war. In the case of military air strike on Syria this would be--if more or less confined to that--a "Limited War."
My point here is that rarely is a war initiated to destroy (kill) all the people in another nation. Generally the opponents on each side want to inflict enough punishment to make the other side bow.
But that's at the level of strategy. At the level of the grunt tactics are principle and the tactics used are to destroy (kill) the enemy combatant (not non-combatant). But in the case of an NGO like Al Qaida or in some strategic targets like Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Tokyo, actually about half of Japan, and the City of Dresden in Germany, the non-combatant civilians are targeted by the opposing military.
C'mon people, please try to have more of a heart, and a lil compassion, here...the OP's brother honestly and genuinely served out of a noble and very just sense of trying to help, protect, and defend people He served because he cares, about his fellow civilians. Please, try to be a lil kinder, to the OP's family...remember, he protected and defended *you* and *me*, from those who would otherwise seek to harm us...
The people who are bashing and flaming the OP's family here should truly be ashamed of themselves...
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He served because he cares, about his fellow civilians. Please, try to be a lil kinder, to the OP's family...remember, he protected and defended *you* and *me*, from those who would otherwise seek to harm us... 
