War is divinely delegated to government.
Somebody once asked Jean-Paul Sartre, the French philosopher, "Where was God when the Nazis were about to overrun Europe?" Sartre replied, "Where was man?" He seems to have been asking, 'Why did we delay?' What if we had acted sooner? And, once we did react, was the attack not justified? Was it not right to overthrow Hitler's attempt at genocide? Was justice not served in the liberation of the American slaves? Would we be better off if we had ignored the tactics of Mussolini or dismissed the attack of Japan in 1941?

Unpunished evil is, itself, evil.
But what of the teachings of Jesus? What about a passage like Luke 6:27-31:
"But if you are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for the happiness of those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn the other cheek. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also. Give what you have to anyone who asks you for it; and when things are taken away from you, don't try to get them back. Do for others as you would like them to do for you."(Luke 6:27-31)

Have we stumbled upon an inconsistency? Do we find God calling for war one time and "cheek-turning" another? Is this a double standard? I don't think so. The government is called to turn the other cheek. We call this diplomacy, negotiation, and compromise. If such efforts prove fruitless, and if the leaders feel their constituency is under threat, they can then take steps to protect the innocent.

Consider this truth from a personal standpoint. If someone criticizes me, I am called to "turn the other cheek." I forgive. But what if they criticize my wife and daughters. What if they threaten them? What if a perpetrator tells me he is coming after my family? What do I do?

Simple, I protect the innocent. I take steps to insure their safety.

But, Max. aren't you called to love your enemies? Absolutely. And I will love him in jail.

Why? Because, to leave my family unprotected would be to abdicate my responsibility as family leader. It is a higher evil to let evil go unpunished than to punish those who would harm innocents.

Has the United States reached such a point with Saddam Hussein? Only the authorities of a nation can answer that question. But if they perceive a real and present danger, their godly response is to protect the country.

I agree with the view of C.S. Lewis.
Does loving your enemy mean not punishing him? No, for loving myself does not mean that I ought not to subject myself to punishment-even to death. If you had committed a murder, the right Christian thing to do would be to give yourself up to the police and be hanged. It is, therefore, in my opinion, perfectly right for a Christian judge to sentence a man to death or a Christian soldier to kill an enemy. I always have thought so, ever since I became a Christian, and long before the war, and I still think so now that we are at peace. It is no good quoting 'Thou shalt not kill.' There are two Greek words: the ordinary word to kill and the word to murder. And when Christ quotes that commandment he uses the murder one in all three accounts, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And I am told there is the same distinction in Hebrew. All killing is not murder any more than all sexual intercourse is adultery. When soldiers came to St. John the Baptist asking what to do, he never remotely suggested that they ought to leave the army: nor did Christ when he met a Roman sergeant-major-what they called a centurion. The idea of the knight-the Christian in arms for the defence of a good cause-is one of the great Christian ideas. War is a dreadful thing, and I can respect an honest pacifist, though I think he is entirely mistaken.

Again, the purpose of war is to punish the wicked and protect the innocent. Where does that leave us? That leaves us on our knees.

"I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. As you make your requests, plead for God's mercy upon them, and give thanks. Pray this way for kings and all others who are in authority, so that we can live in peace and quietness, in godliness and dignity ...So wherever you assemble, I want men to pray with holy hands lifted up to God, free from anger and controversy." (1 Tim. 2:1-2, 8)

If ever we need to trust the promise of Romans 8:28, it is times like these:
"And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them." (Romans 8:28)

Remember these key thoughts:
1. War is always dreadful--while never God's ideal, war has been God's idea.
2. War is justifiable only when other alternatives to protect the innocent have been exhausted. War is God's righteous last resort.
3. War is divinely delegated to the government, God's ministers who are called to protect the innocent and punish the evil.
4. A moral war is limited, not universal; national, not personal; defensive, not aggressive.
The role of a Christian, in such a time, is prayer: "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." (Eph. 6:12)

Let us pray for our President and those in authority. Let us give thanks for our President who begins his day on his knees with an open Bible in his lap. And, let us pray for a speedy end to this conflict.

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