It’s Monday and my inner ruminations runneth as I consider whether I, as a Christ-follower, can take up arms if required to do so either by my country or by the nature of a threat to myself or my family.
I take these reflections very seriously. I write about them openly because I’m aware that others, like me, are wrestling with these questions, given the sobering circumstances we find ourselves in. You may or may not agree with the conclusions I reach, but at least it gives you an argument to consider.
I’ve determined that at the very least, scripture does not forbid me to take up arms in the defense of my country, my neighborhood, or my family. However, the candid truth is that my conclusion implies that I’m willing to use lethal force against someone who is threatening me or my loved ones. The objection that many Christians will have is how it is possible for me to reconcile that possibility with the sixth commandment:
You shall not murder.
My conclusion is that there while there is no difference in the outcome—someone winds up dead—there is a difference between “murder” and killing someone in self-defense. I am not a language scholar, but I know of someone who is. Wayne Grudem, who taught at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School where I earned my M.Div., has written a book on politics called, Politics According to the Bible.
I took classes from him and have followed his writing on politics. While I don’t agree with every conclusion he draws, I do trust his knowledge of the original languages and I rely on his conclusions regarding this question. In his chapter on National Defense, he writes (p.389),
Sometimes people wonder how it can be consistent for the Ten Commandments to say, “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13), and then [for God to] also command that soldiers and armies go forth to kill the soldiers in an attacking army. Doesn’t this mean that soldiers who kill in combat are violating one of the Ten Commandments? No, it does not, because that is not what that verse means.
The Hebrew word translated “murder” in Exodus 20:13 is rātsakh, a word used forty-nine times in the Old Testament. It is never used to refer to killing in war (other Hebrew words are used for this). Rather, the word refers to what we would call “murder” in English today (the unlawful killing of another human being) and also “causing human death through carelessness or negligence” (as the ESV marginal note says at this verse). The command is not speaking about killing in war, and the original Hebrew readers would not have understood it to apply to soldiers who kill in combat.
He also notes that Jesus ministered to a Roman centurian (a commander of 100 soldiers) and never censured him for his occupation. Interestingly, Jesus also told his disciples as he went to his betrayal in Luke 22:36, “if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.” There’s a bit of controversy over what he meant by that, but he did command them to purchase a sword.
If the Lord does not prohibit the use of lethal force (other than murder), we can then add to that our Second Amendment rights under the Constitution (with my emphasis):
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Scripture allows for one to take up arms, and so does our national charter. In fact, here is what that might look like in practice these days:
We now live in a country where far left anarchists are allowed to roam freely through cities and suburbs while the police are told to stand down by civil authorities who, in some cases, have not only allowed the rioters to stampede, but have gone so far as to join them.
You may not be interested in BLM or Antifa, but they are interested in you. I strongly encourage you to figure out where you stand on the topic of self-defense. We don’t have much time to decide.
Thank you, Dave, for this cogent explanation of our right to defend our loved ones. We need to wake up as a society before it’s too late.
Thanks Don.