“For there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists (governmental) authority resists the ordinance of God…for civil authorities are not a source of fear (for people) of good conduct, but (for those) who do evil.” Romans 13:1-3
First, all authorities are under God. All of them. Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin. If an authority or person exists in a “neutral zone” that God can’t touch, then Jesus Christ isn’t actually Lord. If there’s a power outside of God that limits Him, then that power is a god and we aren’t Christians anymore. If we believe that, then we’re polytheists at best or, if we believe the state has god-like powers, we commit idolatry.
This central fact is the one at the bottom of it all. God is absolutely sovereign and His perfect moral law governs everyone. He is the God of Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Caesar, and any other ruler. All attempts to ignore this are attempts to overthrow Him. Christians should reject the temptation to start our reasoning about world affairs, politics and ethics on anything but Scripture. The separation of church and state is that God has given the church the “sword” of the gospel. It preaches the good news about Christ to sinners. In the New Testament era, the gospel goes out to all the earth and everyone is called to repent. Scripture says,
“Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead. (Acts 17:30-31).”
As we see in Romans 13, the civil magistrate is given the sword – that is, the right to use force against evil. The church preaches and the state punishes. That, in a nutshell, is the separation of church and state. The state doesn’t have the power to define its role. That’s God’s job. To any ruler who tells God not to trespass on his/her pretend authority Scripture says:
“Now therefore, O Kings, show discernment; take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, lest be become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him (Psalm 2:10-12)!”
It’s been my experience that most Christians have been hoodwinked by the lies of humanism and think that separation of church and state means that God may not tread in the halls of Washington, the local courts, or the polling places. On the contrary, no man, ruler, official, president, judge or anyone else in all creation, may presume to be a law unto himself. All moral law is the Lord’s and from the Lord.
Second, with this straight in our minds, we can rightly say that no one may initiate violence against their neighbor. The only moral use of force is in self-defense, and only against those who have immorally initiated it. The government, being God’s avenger (Romans 13:4) can only use its sword to punish those who have violated God’s moral commandment and done evil to their neighbor. In this way, the state is a form of God’s common grace to all – believers and nonbelievers alike. This means that no state may initiate violence against a neighbor either. The only moral use of force is self-defense. The only moral law is the law applied to self-defense. Any law that exists, to be a law, is backed up by the sword. Therefore, for any law to be moral it must be grounded in God’s decree of self-defense. The basis of all judicial law is Genesis 9:6. Any law outside of this principle is a sin.
So, in the case of Russia, it has clearly violated the law of God by invading Ukraine. We pause to note that the only reason there are separate nations, speaking various languages in the first place is because of God’s curse upon humanism (see Genesis 11 and the Tower of Babel). Man’s sin problem has set all this in motion. Russia is wrong to invade its neighbor and Christians, knowing the biblical basis for this, should call for Russia’s leaders to repent. A solution outside of Christ is just another humanistic delusion.
Should American Christians clamor for war with Russia because of this? God forbid!
The self-defense principle still governs our nation too, regardless of what Russia has done. Our civil magistrate is doing a good many things that are sinful. Our civil magistrate is guilty of a dreadful messiah-complex from which it must be called to repent. Its proper role as God’s avenger is rejected and we can use this opportunity to preach the truth about God and state like Paul did in Acts 17. Because only Christians have the logic of self-defense right, we should explain that our country may only use its sword if American lives/liberty are directly imperiled. George Washington understood this principle when he counseled against “entangling alliances.” The principle of the use of force is: violence can only be used as self-defense. Since America is not under attack, and the American government represents American citizens, from whom it collects taxes, and not the Ukrainian people, it may not use violence unless American citizens are under attack. There is no biblical mandate for America’s civil government to use its sword to protect another country’s citizens.
This truth does not sit well with interventionists, be sure. But again, authority – all authority – comes from God. Sin is the usurpation of God’s authority. Unless America is attacked, or an attack on her is imminent, she must not initiate conflict with another nation.
A thing to note is that she may (America) use lethal force against foreign enemies who are preparing to attack her insofar as the evidence is clear.
Consider the case with the military strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian commander of the Quds Force that was operating terrorist military operations against America in Iraq. Things got muddy because American forces were “sort of in” Iraq, a “sort of” sovereign nation. But there were attacks against American forces and interests by Soleimani and it was for this reason that the U.S. attacked him. Some critics said the strike was “state terrorism” while supporters applauded it.
Which would the Bible say it was? Well, the answer to that would come down to who was the righteous authority in Iraq. Was it America, Iraq or Iran? The weight of the evidence was that Iran was clearly a hostile force although U.S. involvement and occupation of Iraq was morally questionable to start with. Whatever the case, sin complicates things. Whenever we arrive at exceedingly complex ethical conundrums, be sure that it was sin that caused us to blunder in there to start with.
We recall that America invaded Iraq in 2003 due to fear that former leader, Saddam Hussein, was planning to use weapons of mass destruction against her. We see a more logically consistent example, however, in Israel’s attack on Iraqi and Iranian nuclear facilities. Fearing nuclear aggression from those who swore to destroy her, Israel had moral right to obliterate their offensive capacity. By bombing the nuclear facilities of Iraq in the 1980’s, but not invading, Israel stood upon the sound principle of moral war – that is, self-defense. By taking out the nuclear facilities of an enemy, but not escalating past that point, Israel stayed within the moral guidelines of state force.
Contrary to this was America’s involvement in the Second World War. Was America justified in fighting Japan and Germany? The answer lies in the Bible’s self-defense principle and the answer is yes. She was attacked and needed to fight or else reject her role to protect her citizens from evil. Dropping two atomic bombs (and thousands of lesser bombs for that matter) on enemy civilians was horrific and regrettable yet, in the context of that war, America had no obligation to put its military at greater risk by protecting foreign citizens. An invasion of Japan would have cost the U.S. hundreds of thousands of casualties. The nature and context of that war was “total war” and America was unquestionably correct in waging such a war in self-defense.
So, by leaning upon the principles of Scripture (self-defense and the civil magistrate) we learn that that U.S. should resist direct involvement in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Unless we act upon clear principles, we may not use force. God’s moral law governs and constrains all use of force – from individuals to nations. Only God’s moral law gives men and nations the right to use violence. Thus, America, on the grounds of self-defense, may not enter the Russian-Ukrainian war. We pray for the defeat of the aggressor and, if done with wisdom, we should lend support to Ukraine. But, again, this must be done wisely. Getting drawn into a war with Russia is a real possibility that can’t be ignored.
The biblical principle is clear. The application of self-defense in the real world, regarding nations, on the other hand – especially sinful nations – can be difficult. For that reason, we should do everything we possibly can to live peacefully with our neighbors. We pray for wisdom.
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