Inevitably when someone is defending a pro-war stance biblically, they immediately go to the Old Testament stories of Israel attacking everyone in sight. They do this for two reasons: 1)It's easy, because the OT is full of wars and, 2)You can't even begin to make a convincing argument for war and violence based on the NT, so they avoid it.
The OT is full of war. Anyone has to concede that. In fact, I still haven't completely reconciled all of the violence and how it fits in with the picture of God we receive from Jesus. The OT is the written history of one country, Israel. Despite the best efforts of the religious right to convince people, America is not the new Israel, so let's stop using that argument right there. There is nothing in Scripture to support this idea. I say this because all of the wars were fought in a particular time and place, with a particular country, Israel. So when an American tries to use an argument along the lines of, "God told the Israelites to attack the Canaanites," I will look at them with glassy eyes and say, "And your point is...?"
The OT was written thousands of years ago and it chronicles the life and history of people who lived thousands of years ago. The culture was different, the people were different. The entire nature of civilizations at the time was one of war and violence. If God is trying to get people to understand the fact that he is the only God, he can't just come out and say, "Cease all war and violence" to a culture who is steeped in war and violence. They would immediately reject him and we can wave bye bye to monotheism. The Bible speaks of progressive revelation. Here's what I mean by that.
On a number of issues, the Bible works from front to back in a progressive series of steps which lead toward an ultimate social (and godly) ethic. To give an example, let's look at women's issues. In the OT, there is a passage which states that women can be taken as spoils of war, but they must be treated fairly and with respect. In our day and age, that sounds totally barbaric, but in ancient times, this was nothing short of revolutionary. It was saying that women had certain rights, something that wasn't the case in ancient cultures. Jesus continued working toward a broader social ethic of women being treated as equals when he had women followers of his ministry, we call these followers "disciples." In first century Judaism, rabbis did not have women followers, Jesus (who was a Jewish rabbi) did. The rest of the NT speaks of women having leadership roles in the Church, leading house churches. Paul then says that in Christ, "there is no male or female," in other words, we're all equal.
Did you notice the progression? Instead of going from a barbaric custom straight to having a woman president, the Bible works toward the ultimate goal of equality in a series of steps. I argue that the same applies to war and violence. The OT may be full of violence and war, but there is no mention of God's people engaging in it in the NT. If we are to call ourselves "New Testament Christians," then we have to refrain from violence and be against all war. Next week we'll look at what Jesus and the New Testament writers have to say to their culture (and by application, ours) about violence.
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