The one mental picture I
have of the last war with Saddam was one I saw on the evening news at
that time. It was the rubble of a little Christian church building
we had destroyed. I hope it was rebuilt. I hope we do not do
it again.
-------Original
Message-------
Date:
Monday, January 27, 2003 09:06:14
Subject: RE:
[TruthTalk] God and war
Hi Terry,
Sorry to
butt in here, but just had to add my 2 cents worth (if it's
worth
that!). I appreciate your sincere desire to follow the
teachings of Jesus.
But I think you are missing this: Jesus was
teaching us how to live as
individual followers of the Lord. National
governments are under a whole
different set of rules. God instituted
our government to protect the
governed from harm and to enforce civil
laws.
People get all confused about it not being right for the
government to put
murderers to death because Jesus taught us to
forgive our enemies. They are
confusing individual laws from
government laws. GOD is the one who said the
government (which used
to be carried out by the Jewish people in charge) is
to put certain
violators of the laws to death. GOD is the one who said there
were
times to kill enemies. At the time God laid down these rules,
His
people lived in a Theocracy. So the civil government laws and the
moral
individual laws were all mixed up together.
Today the
civil role of the government (no longer being a Theocracy, but
a
Democracy) is separate from our individual, moral, laws. I am to
forgive my
enemies. However, if my enemy has violated the government
laws, the
government has a responsibility to me and all the governed
to punish that
person. I, as an individual, am forbidden by Jesus to
avenge a murder
personally. However, the government has every right
to do that. The same
goes for wars: the government decides what is
best to protect our nation,
and godly men obey the government. Godly
men serve in the military, as well.
My son, Todd, is a graduate
of the US Air Force Academy, and a jet pilot.
(His wife, Shirley, is
a Naval Academy graduate, no longer enlisted.) We
have a US flag that
Todd gave us, which was in the cockpit with him when he
flew his 14th
mission over the Iraq "No-Fly" zone. We display it proudly. He
is now
in the Reserves, training new jet pilots. Todd and Shirley are
the
finest pair of Christians you would ever want to meet, and have
no doubts
about serving God in military.
I pray daily for our
President, and for everyone in our military services.
They are not
afraid that they are disobeying God in carrying out war; just
as our
Founding Fathers were not. God Bless them all. Were it not for
people
like them, you and I would not have our religious freedom, and
would not be
able to spread the gospel.
Look at the religion
you would be forced to live under if you were under the
authority of
Saddam Hussein today. Perhaps one side effect of this coming
war is
that God wants more freedom to spread the gospel to Arab
nations
before He returns.
I know I have babbled. Does anyone
else think this way? I wish I could find
someone smarter than I who
has written about these differences between
individual and government
laws and roles.
Izzy
-----Original Message-----
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
On Behalf Of Terry Clifton
Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 7:10
AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject:
Re: [TruthTalk] God and war
David:
Thanks for your
thoughts. What you suggest is obviously the most effective
way to
eliminate what we perceive to be a threat. I personally would
not
miss New York city but I suppose many people would. It seems,
however, that
following that logic, we would lock up everyone who
might steal, take the
licenses of those who might speed, and make
those who may divorce pay
alimony. Is this nation so Godly that we
can now tell others/force others
to do as we say? Can we see clearly
that this is what Jesus would have us
do? How do we justify our
behavior based on the Sermon on the mount? What
am I
missing?
Terry
----- Original Message -----
From:
"David Miller" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent:
Monday, January 27, 2003 1:08 AM
Subject: Re: [TruthTalk] God and
war
> Terry wrote:
> > Will someone who has
thought this
> > through please give me your
findings?
>
> Hi Terry.
>
> >From my
perspective, the options appear straight forward. Saddam
Hussein
is
> working toward obtaining nuclear weapons in a
secretive manner. Given the
> history he has had with invading
Kuwait, and given his history of
violations
> against the
weapons inspectors, and given his hatred for the U.S., and
>
remembering the 9/11 incident and his links to terrorism and support
for
it,
> it is very clear to me that if we don't deal with him
now, we will have to
> deal with him after he has nuked New York
city and perhaps other cities as
> well.
>
> >From
my perspective, it's kind of like a guy you know who is about
to
murder
> your family. As he is gathering his weapons
together to do the job, do
you
> passively sit by and watch him
kill your family, or do you shoot him down
>
first?
>
> Perhaps the peaceful solution would be for us to
elect Saddam as our
> President and let him lead our country. In
this case, maybe we would not
> have to worry about him nuking our
cities, but is that really the more
> peaceful
solution?
>
> Peace be with you.
> David Miller,
Beverly Hills, Florida USA
>
> ----------
> "Let your
speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may
know
how you ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6)
http://www.InnGlory.org
>
>
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>
----------
"Let your speech
be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know
how you
ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6)
http://www.InnGlory.org
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"Let your speech
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