The above phrase has been pressing heavy upon me for a time now, the Lord our God commands us in Exodus 20: 13 'Thou shalt not kill'.
Now I have not personally ever killed anyone, nor have I been part of any conspiracy to do so, but having read many writings by numerous men over the past few weeks I have come to an unambiguous conclusion, when God commands us not to kill, he may actually mean it!
If that is so, then wars such as Iraq and Afghanistan are not only foolish, they are immoral and anti-Christian! Would you want to lose your soul? Would you want to do the work of the Devil?
No, neither would I.
But opposing war is not something I have ever been passionate about, I was against the first Gulf War in 1991 when I was but a young lad, and I also opposed the Clintonite wars in the Balkans. Furthermore I opposed Blair's 'police action' in Sierra leone in 2000, but after reading what had happened, a part of me thought, 'Well done'.
In the following books God commands the Israelites to war against the Canaanites, to destroy them, he ordered what would nowadays be deemed 'genocide' by the International Criminal Court and the United Nations, so was that included in his command? I don't think it is, God commends some people for killing the sinful, he commends the 'mighty men' of David for winning great battles. But is this a temporary thing? Is this the way of Christ? Do we as Christians have any excuse to kill? Can we enlist in the armies of this world and go to the other side of the world to kill people in their homes? Can we swear an oath to an organisation that will willingly kill millions of by-standers if ordered? Can those of us who bear witness to the Christ, can we ever even support such a war? I seriously doubt it!
I have usually been against war because I did not think those United States had any business going round the world imposing 'peace' on others, the Balkans is a mess, the Serbs have been weakened and left humiliated, the Muslims have been empowered in both Bosnia and Kosovo.
Iraq is also a mess, so too Afghanistan, both wars I did not oppose, the only reason I can think of is, that at that time we were still living in the shadow of the September 11th attacks. But my former instincts proved to be correct once again. Now we have war with Iran in the pipeline, for what reason I can't tell, I'm sure oil and money are something to do with this, but I also think those United States are now literally run by maniacs, men who desire power above all else, men who realise power is achieved through violence and war, men who care little for the commands of the Almighty God.
For if that command is true, if it is as unambiguous as I fear, then what is happening in those places is for a Christian forbidden, we can not kill, we can't even hate, for Christ equated hatred with murder.
We may oppose foolishness and immorality, we can council, but we can't fight, we must not, for to do so is to serve the prince of this world, our adversary, Lucifer.
He says to us, "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you" (Matthew 5: 43-44)
And what you ask is love?
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs" (Corinthians 13: 4)
