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Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Episode 8 :: Question 5 on God's Thought About Wars and Christian Soldiers

Pastor Chris Oyakhilome

Question 5 – Phelark (USA): Dear Pastor Chris, I live in a country that prides and is deeply engaged in wars against other nations. What is God’s thought about wars in this time and dispensation? What is the fate of a born again child of God, who is enrolled in the military, faced with the challenge of killing people at war, either offensively or defensively?

Answer 5: Well, the first thing we have to understand is, if you join the military you have pledged yourself to defend your country, military-wise. So, that’s why you went in there. We understand the military is not for games. So, if you went into the military, that’s what you’ve pledged yourself to do. That means you believe in your country; you believe in the ideology of your nation and you stand for it. So, you’re not only defending its territorial integrity, you’re also defending its ideology. And, that’s why you’re fighting. So that’s important! Remember, you pledged yourself by joining the military to defend your nation’s ideology and territorial integrity. And, as far as that is concerned, when there’s war, when there’s a threat against the territory or your ideology somehow, you may be asked to go to war and if you truly believe in what your nation stands for, there’s nothing wrong with going to war, because the Bible calls God a “God of War.” And, He did lead his children in war for those two things: to protect their territorial integrity and also to defend their ideology and in fact, sometimes to establish it in other places. So, there’s nothing wrong with that at all.

But, if you don’t believe…and that’s why we pray for leaders and nations because leaders can make us, as a nation, follow the wrong ideology and even annex lands that we shouldn’t. In such cases, we’ve got to pray, so that we’re not used to accomplish the wrong purposes. That’s why we must pray; that’s why the Bible says that we should pray for leaders because they make decisions that affect a lot of us. So, you’ve got to pray. Of course, that also goes for those who are forced into the army; we call them ‘forced conscriptions’ or maybe at a time of war they say “all the young men must join the army.” Well, when you’re forced to join, it goes back to the same thing - do you believe in the ideology of your nation, because that’s what matters and the purpose.

Now, I know that it’s not as easy as individual belief, for example when there’s a war, you don’t say “I believe in this war” or “I don’t believe in this war”. The point is not believing in a particular war; the point is believing in the ideology of your nation. That’s what we call the broader picture – whether a particular war is right or wrong can be decided by the broader picture rather than by individuals who like it or don’t like it. So, always remember that.


Watch the full episode 8 [July 14, 2009] video here!

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