What does the Bible say about war?
We may not be in a world war, but today we are a world at war.
Over the past few years, we have seen more armed conflict than at any time since the end of 1945. In the shared secular consciousness, the instinct is often to look at religion as the cause behind this increase in conflict around the world.
As Victor Stenger said, “Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings.”
But is religion really to blame for the major conflicts of our world?
When you open, say, a Christian Bible, there do seem to be mixed messages. Are Christians meant to love their enemies and turn the other cheek, or should they take up the sword to defend the weak and constrain evil? How does the Christian story speak to the violence all around us? What does the Bible say about war?
To start, let’s deal with whether religion is to blame for the major conflicts around our world.
Leaving aside the complication that, for about 50 years now, the academy has had no universal way of even defining religion, it is certainly the case that religious beliefs and ideas have served as a pretext for war and violence throughout human history. Even then, however, the number is nowhere near as high as we might think.
Take the Encyclopedia of Wars. This three-volume set, published in 2008, catalogued more than 1,763 wars across 10,000 years of human history. How many of these were classified as religious? Only 121.
That is just under seven per cent of all wars, accounting for less than two per cent of all the people killed in the history of warfare. Of this seven per cent, 3.75 per cent—just over half of all religious wars—were waged by Islam.
So, is religion to blame for all the major conflicts of our world? No. The numbers simply do not support that conclusion.
War is not a specifically religious problem; it is a universal human problem. As historian Karen Armstrong writes, it is simply not true that religion is always aggressive. Sometimes, it actually puts the brake on violence.
There is no doubt that the history of Christianity is marred by heinous violence, with Christians justifying their actions by invoking the name of God. The important question for you and me to ask, however, is whether these actions can be justified in light of the teachings of Jesus—or only in spite of them.
What does the Bible actually say about war?
The answer is: a great deal. Some of it can be quite confronting. Broadly speaking, however, the Bible says three things about war.
1. War Is the Fallout of Human Sin
Beginning with a seemingly trivial act of disobedience in Eden, things escalate rapidly—from sibling homicide to the tools of war becoming a trade. By Genesis 14, we encounter the first recorded military conflict in the great Battle of the Kings.
War is a fallen reality. It was not part of God’s good design.
2. God’s People Should Strive for Peace and Justice
Because war is the fallout of human sin, God’s people should strive for peace and justice.
Time and again, the prophets of old called God’s people to act justly, to take up the cause of the fatherless and to plead the case of the widow. Jesus said things such as, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” and the Apostle Paul described our vocation as Christians as being ministers of reconciliation.
God’s idea of peace—shalom—is not simply the absence of conflict, calling only for passivity on our part. It is a practical directive that all believers should actively pursue as we live east of Eden in a fallen world.
3. Wars Will One Day Cease
Finally, the Bible says that wars will one day cease.
A day is coming when the Prince of Peace will return to Earth and set everything right, smithing weapons of conflict into tools of cultivation as he restores all things to the way they were always meant to be.
Most Christians tend to agree with the first and third points: war is the fallout of human sin, and wars will one day cease.
That leaves us with the second point: God’s people should strive for peace and justice.
How are we to do that? Is it possible to strive for peace and justice without engaging in violence?
That is the issue that tears the Christian conscience apart—not whether war is ever acceptable, but whether it is, in all cases, entirely avoidable.
How do we wage war against war, so to speak?
The Bible’s broad teachings on the moral dilemmas of war have contributed significantly to two predominant ethical theories about the place of war in our world: pacifism and just war theory.
Pacifism
Pacifism is the general view that it is not right to participate in war and that disputes should be settled by nonviolent means, at least wherever possible.
Christians who adopt a pacifist stance appeal to various themes in Scripture to justify their position.
First, they point to Jesus’ teaching about nonviolence and unconditional love—even towards our enemies—as exemplified in his Sermon on the Mount.
Second, they appeal to the concept of trust in God’s divine providence. The supreme example is the cross of Christ, where it appeared that evil had triumphed violently over good, but God’s power reversed that defeat through Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. This demonstrated how evil could be swallowed up by love.
Third, they appeal to the reality that Christians are citizens of God’s kingdom. Although some pacifists recognise the right of the state to go to war, they believe Christians should conscientiously object because we are primarily representatives of God’s spiritual kingdom.
Just War Theory
On the other side of the table sits just war theory. This is the view that, although war is undesirable, it can be morally justifiable under certain conditions.
Importantly, just war theory does not attempt to justify war as something good in itself. Instead, it seeks to bring justice to the inescapable reality of war by advocating such things as just reasons for entering a war, just conduct during a war and just outcomes following a war.
Like pacifism, just war theory is held by many Christians who argue for their view from the contours of Scripture.
First, they point to the moral distinction involved in killing. The same God who commanded, “You shall not murder,” also sanctioned capital punishment for certain crimes. Therefore, although all murder is killing, evidently not all killing is murder.
Second, they appeal to pragmatic necessity. This involves the messy situational ethics found throughout Scripture, where there appears to be precedent for choosing the lesser of two evils in pursuit of a higher good—especially when protecting the weak and innocent.
A third reason just war theorists offer is governmental authority. They point specifically to the apostles’ teaching about the distinction between church and state, as well as the role of government in bearing the sword to bring about justice.
As ethical theories, both pacifism and just war theory have strengths and weaknesses. But which one is right? Which one does the Bible support?
It is complicated.
As we have seen, both positions can be supported by what the Bible says. This is why Christianity does not openly endorse or outright reject going to war. Instead, it offers a framework for discernment that acknowledges a host of moral complexities.
Those of us who are privileged with enough peace to think about war should therefore do so while respecting both biblical fidelity and individual conscience.
What Christianity clearly advocates, however, is the towering figure of Jesus. He puts a check on our violent impulses, teaches us to love our enemies and inspires our moral imagination to find unique ways of striving for peace—even when doing so comes at great cost to ourselves.
In the meantime, as we wait for him—Jesus—to return, and as wars continue to tear apart those whom God loves around the world, Christians are called to engage in the prophetic act of lament. We are to express the practical love of God by serving those affected by the brutal realities of war, all the while longing for the day when swords will be hammered into ploughshares.
Dan here, from Questioning Christianity. Thanks so much for checking us out.
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