The Christian War Machine

Ephesians 6: 13-17 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Lately it seems that the Christian War Machine is in full throated roar, raging against a secular America, gays, the absence of prayer in schools, evolution, contraceptives, abortion, even zoning laws. But is the church militant how we’re supposed to live in this world? “This can happen only after we have made a categorical refusal to kindness: to heretics, foreigners, enemies or any other group different from ourselves.”~Wendall Berry

One of the most quoted scripture phrases by the church militant crowd appears in Ephesians 6, “Put on the full armor of God” it says. Now there’s a call to war, right? But when you read the entire  passage that armour appears quite, dare I say, peaceable. Truth, righteousness, the Gospel of peace, faith, salvation, and the Word of God hardly sound like a “Death to the Enemy” rallying cry. Instead of going to war with unbelievers, scripture commands us to be their advocates. Isaiah 58:10  “and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.” And it is Light that will change others, not darkness or conflict. We are to seek spiritual solutions through love. We are commanded to change the world by attraction.

We need to stop hating on people who’s sins are different than ours, end condemnation by category, stop trying to force others to believe as we do through legislation rather than witness, to be in the world but not of the world. We seem to no longer trust that our God is all powerful, that He needs laws written by man or His will can not be done.