This is leftover from the other blog....
Quote:
<b>warch</b> Tuesday Jul 8 07:55 PM
I feel compelled to pop in ...
So what about "Thou shall not kill"
I'm curious JD, about your thoughts, your personal beliefs and biblical interpretation of recent events like 9/11 or the long violence in the middle east. Is God angry and trying smite us all or something? You've stressed your faith in the absolute truth of biblical God, salvation in heaven; so can a soldier that kills another human be a true Christian? Can a leader that orders others to kill be a Christian? Could you ever imagine a time when you, as a Christian, would be justified by God in killing another human?
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God justifies the justifiable actions of civil authorities. Under the Old Testament law, the community leaders were sanctioned with the authority to judge communal affairs and carry out the punishments deemed. The death penalty was the designated penalty for certain crimes, primarily for murder. If there was a case of accidental manslaughter, the killer could run to certain pre-designated cities (cities of refuge) and seek refuge until his case could be cleared and his life saved. In the Old Testament, God also commanded the Israelites to slaughter entire cities full of enemies. These were pagan people who had sacrificed their children to idols and were known for blatant evil. If you read the OT, you will note that most of the Israelites were not holy-rolling angels themselves. They had plenty of problems and were by no means inherently qualified to serve as the purgers of humanity. That was not the point. God used them as a tool (1) to bring punishment to nations who had rejected him, (2) to prevent those nations from turning on them and (3) to prevent those nations from corrupting his people spiritually.
We do not live under a theocracy today. I do believe God is ultimately in control, that he is overseeing current events, that he is acting in a manner consistent with his own character when he does witness such events. No, God did not prevent that plane crash in the Sudan, nor did he prevent those plane crashes on 9/11. I can't explain his purposes for allowing those things to happen. I can tell you I would NOT be so presumptuous (as certain "spiritual" leaders have) to say that 9/11 was God's judgment on an America that has neglected him. Certainly those suicide bombers' actions were condemnable. They will be held accountable for taking "innocent" lives. Did God sanction their attacks? No. Was God there? Yes. Is God using those attacks in the lives of people today? Yes. Will we ever know the answers to all our WHYs when it comes to 9/11? I seriously doubt it. But God is not the creator of evil simply because men carry out evil.
God's Word is clear, both in the OT and NT, that he ordains civil authorities, whether they like it or not and whether we like it or not. Romans chapter 13 (NT) is a clear layout of God's view of civil authorities. I'm not "for" war when it is avoidable. And the preeminent purpose of the Bible is certainly not to lend credence to a warmongering people. But even in the book of Ecclesiastes it says "there is a time to kill." Wartime country-defense, wartime noble-cause-defense, home-/family-/self-defense, legislated capital punishment--all of these are justifiable instances where killing is not condemned biblically.
That being said, I would personally do my dead-level best (no pun intended) to avoid killing in all circumstances. As someone with some assurance about the afterlife, I would hesitate greatly before making the decision to send another person there. And God does not promise a fair life for the Christian. We are to expect opposition, maybe even persecution to death. If someone held a gun to my head and told me to kill someone else for no apparently just reason, I would rather die--and I would.