27 March 2023
I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place.
There is something I'd rather not talk about because I know some of you will invariably miss the point. Still, this is part of the Covenant truth and we must be fully aware of it. First, the background.
I've already explained how the Judaizers won and got the early church leaders distracted from their otherworldly mission. Jesus said, "My Kingdom is not of this world." Clearly, He is not competing with human political powers. The Covenant could in theory manifest as such, but it's not meant to do so. It holds up an impossible standard, and the history of Israel should make that clear.
God is not willing to turn us into androids, but because of the Curse of the Fall, anything short of Him doing so will not bring about a stable political institution based on His revelation. It's not a shortage of His power, but it's His patience in bringing us out of the Fall. He's not trying to fix the world, but to get us out of it, and to testify of His glory on the way out. We cannot afford to compromise with the world, so becoming a covenant community necessarily means we withdraw from human politics. The Judaizers managed to bury that understanding by tempting church leaders to use their untapped political influence to engage the pagan government of Rome.
But in order to understand how a covenant church should operate, we need to view things in terms of that theoretical political shape. Let's pretend for a moment that a valid Covenant community could become large enough, with the full implementation of Code boundaries, to justify forming a political presence. I've already discussed this before, but let's briefly review: You can use the Code as law. Our New Testament code is best understand in terms of Noah. Moses was one specific implementation of the more generic Code of Noah; Moses provides a contextual demonstration of the divine provision inherent in Noah. We learn a lot from the history of Israel and what God had to say about the various events. It's rather like a body of legal precedent.
Now, the particular part of that body of law that we need to look at today is how to live in a war time setting.
Keep the Covenant central. We are acting as a covenant nation in this theoretical scenario. Our Covenant is rooted in Hebrew intellectual traditions; that part is universal. It's mystical in orientation. On the one hand, there are generalities we can state. On the other hand, everything assumes that we have a valid covenant community, and that means there will be someone who can receive a Word from the Lord on behalf of the community about some decisions. This was quite consistent in the biblical record. In every mobilization of Israeli troops, there always had to be a Word from God about what He wanted from it.
The basic queries are well established. Shall we mobilize against our enemies? Any particular tactical plan from God? Should we expect to win, or should we do this on mere principle? Who among our enemies should be killed or spared, and on what grounds? What about plunder? Can we take any plunder, and if so, what? Any other specifics? There were some defaults for when God didn't address things: Mobilize a higher number of troops than you expect to face, if possible. Match the tactics to the context of terrain, weather and enemy forces. Expect God to give victory as long as you remain faithful to the Covenant. Kill the military force and plunder what they bring into battle. Deliver God's share (the best tenth) to the priests. Destroy pagan symbols according to the material it's made of: melt down or hammer out metals, burn wood, fabrics and hides. Keep anything not specifically devoted to pagan ritual, including livestock, crops, and other unprocessed natural products. Take slaves of women and children that might have come with the military force.
Meanwhile, those who surrender are regarded with some suspicion and watchfulness, as if they might be spies, but are otherwise offered kindness and care. We don't torture. As long as they do not threaten in any way, they are friends. Smile and give them food and drink. Let them go when the battle is over. It's not about hatred and anger; there's no personal animus. It's simply the issue that they transgressed the boundaries. Learn to use emotions as tools to enhance your faithfulness, not as drivers of decision.
Right away you can see one major shock: God does not care a whit about so-called "civilized" standards. Indeed, the whole thing is quite barbaric. What we think of as chivalry and civilized standards are a crock of nonsense ginned up by compromised church leaders heading into the Middle Ages. They are pagan. Under the Covenant, you are not bound by the modern Law of Land Warfare Treaty. Throw it in the trash.
Thus, as long as you avoid anything associated with pagan rituals, grisly execution of enemy troops is just fine. The idea is to make it fit the nature of their sins through symbolism. David didn't torture his enemies; he made sure they died as criminals who rebelled against his authority. He made sure their surviving families understood they were allowed to live only because of God's mercy. Furthermore, assassination of political leaders, as part of an act of war, was not a sin.
And when the Word from God said cleanse the land of the people, that meant no humans left alive. How many times did the Covenant nation fall under a curse of God's wrath because they shrank from a grisly duty? Look up Bochim. The fear of dying or killing, the reverence for human life, as if this existence is all we have, is a lie from Satan.
Don't try to read modern pagan values back into the Bible. It's not as if the Hebrews were brutes who didn't understand God's merciful nature. When they won in battle, it was because they carried out God's will. That divine will can include genocide. The point is that God decides, not mere men. Nor should you suggest that Jesus changed any of that war code. Rather, He made it clear that His Kingdom was not going to act like a human nation in some ways. A true Covenant community has no real interest in human politics; we mobilize and fight only when the Covenant is threatened. It's all about exercising the Lord's feudal dominion over what He has granted us. We are not attached to the mere physical manifestation of things, but the symbolism of His truth. Still, in case you are wondering, Jesus didn't roll back any of His Father's law about warfare. That body of legal precedent symbolizes how we fight sin in our own lives.
Do you understand that human civilization means nothing under the Covenant? If anything, it's a human attempt to escape reliance on God for your daily bread. We don't give a damn about what people consider civilized. The Kingdom of Heaven is quite barbaric, in that it rejects all standards but its own. Jesus cracked a whip in the Temple, and that was against folks who were supposed to be subject to the same Covenant Law as Himself. He did it on behalf of the Father's expressed divine will. Violence is not a sin in itself, but the context is what makes a difference for us.
Now, given that there is no way on this earth that this war engulfing our world will engage the Covenant directly, that means any service you render to a human government, or any rebellion against a human government, is as a mercenary. You might agree to be bound by some contract to do things a certain way, but if you feel the Lord calling you to engage in rebellion, you are under no restrictions such as binds western minds on warfare. Assassination, guerrilla warfare, terrorist acts, grisly slayings -- none of those are inherently sinful. It's all just a matter of tactical usefulness. You won't be doing it for fun; we don't relish human suffering. But we also don't shrink from doing whatever His Word and our convictions tell us we must do to carry out the mission.
And if you stand watching from the sidelines, do not condemn anything that works. We do not represent civilization; we represent the Kingdom of Heaven -- a kingdom not of this world. There are no "Christian" nations or political agendas. There is no human political entity under the Covenant; they are all pagan and controlled by demons. We know that, because of pagan influences and loyalties, there are no innocent civilians. Feudalism is written into Creation itself; it's how the Curse of the Fall dominates all humans. Human life itself is already forfeit under the Curse of the Fall. All the more so is life forfeited when dedicated to the will of Satan. Weep for the loss of those with whom you have a personal bond under the Covenant. Don't weep for those outside the Covenant.
If you do not shed your modern western sensibilities, you will end up in Satan's clutches.
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