No U.S. War Has Been a "Just War"

Most Americans don't take "Memorial Day" seriously. It's just the first day of summer. Unless you're on covid lockdown.

 Let's take Memorial Day seriously for just a few minutes. That's controversial because most people don't. Like Christmas, Memorial Day has lost its original significance, and now means going to the beach, firing up the bar-b-que, or maybe watching a parade. Here's the entry for "Memorial Day" from an online encyclopedia:

Memorial Day
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday that is observed on the last Monday of May. It was formerly known as Decoration Day. This holiday commemorates U.S. men and women who died in military service for their country. It began first to honor Union soldiers who died during the American Civil War. After World War I, it expanded to include those who died in any war or military action. One of the longest standing traditions is the running of the Indianapolis 500, which has been held in conjunction with Memorial Day since 1911. Nowadays most Americans use the date as merely marking the unofficial start of the summer vacationing season as many government parks and beaches start their summer schedule on the Friday before. Many outdoor community swimming pools also open on this day.

Many Veterans groups are trying to get the observance of Memorial Day shifted back to its original day, instead of being made a part of a "3-day weekend," which tends to focus people's attention on vacationing rather than observing Memorial Day.

There are two ways to take Memorial Day seriously.

• One way is to mourn the dead and weep with those who weep (Romans 12:15).
• The other way is to honor the dead.

The Bible says to mourn the death of soldiers, but never says to honor their choice to fight.

Imagine an immature teenager who sees one of those "extreme" television shows featuring "incredible" stupid stunts. He then tries the stunt at home and dies. We mourn the loss, and console his family. Do we honor his choice? No. We need to warn teenagers like him that it's a sin to endanger the life God gave you. We need to stop honoring people who risk their own lives to kill other lives.

This is an analogy, not a comparison. One can enlist in the armed services without engaging in a stupid stunt, but can be motivated by patriotism, loyalty, self-sacrifice, and other ideals which can be respected. But Nazis and Communists can also serve in their armed forces and be motivated by patriotism, self-sacrifice, love of the "Fatherland" or the "workers revolutionary paradise," and no matter how sincere and well-intentioned they were, we would say they were wrong. While we can mourn their deaths as human beings created in the Image of God, we cannot honor their choice. If the government catches an enemy soldier, it does not honor the passion of his patriotism, it imprisons him.

If a human being chooses to intentionally kill other human beings created in the image of God, does it matter in God's eyes which flag he waves?

If a person pushes a button or pulls a trigger that kills innocent non-combatant civilians, does it matter in God's eyes that the killer was wearing a government uniform?

On Memorial Day, Americans honor those Americans who were killed in uniform.
In other words, Americans honor those Americans who chose to fight in a war.

I say "chose" even though many were drafted (conscripted), as in the Vietnam conflict. But they had the power to refuse, even though they may have lost their status or even gone to jail. Jesus underwent worse forms of torture. Even those who are drafted have a choice, and can choose to "do violence to no man" (Luke 3:14), no matter what the penalties.

Would Jesus honor those who chose to fight (or did not choose not to fight)?

Didn't Jesus say "Blessed are the peacemakers"?

Jesus never said "Bless and honor the warmakers."

So our first controversial idea on this Memorial Day, is to take the holiday seriously, and effectively mourn those who died.

But we might also take steps to make sure no more die.

In his Presidential Radio Address of May 26, 2007, President Bush said the following:

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This Memorial Day weekend, Americans honor those who have given their lives in service to our Nation. As we pay tribute to the brave men and women who died for our freedom, we also honor those who are defending our liberties around the world today. On Memorial Day, we pay tribute to Americans from every generation who have given their lives for our freedom. From Valley Forge to Vietnam, from Kuwait to Kandahar, from Berlin to Baghdad, brave men and women have given up their own futures so that others might have a future of freedom. Because of their sacrifice, millions here and around the world enjoy the blessings of liberty. And wherever these patriots rest, we offer them the respect and gratitude of our Nation.

We must challenge the President on every one of these wars. The world was not made a better place by fighting these wars, and Americans should have chosen not to fight them:

"War will exist until the distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige as the warrior does today." -- John F. Kennedy The calculated indifference of the [Clinton] administration to national defense has forced thousands of our most experienced and patriotic warriors to leave the military. We [Republicans] will once again make wearing the uniform the object of national pride. -- Republican National Platform, 2000

During the 20th century, an average of 10,000 people were murdered each and every single day. These people were not murdered by people who are usually called "murderers." That's because the people who did the killing all wore uniforms of the various governments on earth. In the United States, 16,110 people were murdered during all of the year 2002 by "murderers," that is, private enterprise murderers not wearing an official government uniform, whose killings were not officially approved by the government. The government's justification for its own existence is protecting the world from killers. This is a lie.  During the last 15 years, during the Bush I/Clinton/Bush II years, the United States has killed approximately 2,000,000 men, women, and children in Iraq during various Gulf "wars," "operations," and embargoes. That's more than 100,000 per year, almost ten times the number of "private" murders committed per year. On the CBS News program "60 Minutes," on May 12, 1996, Lesley Stahl asked Madeleine Albright, later Secretary of State under Bill Clinton:

Stahl: We have heard that a half million children have died [in Iraq]. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?
Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price--we think the price is worth it.

This is a "cost-benefit" question. To evaluate whether the cost was "worth it," you have to ask, "What benefit did we get for the price?"

• The price in the 20th century: 10,000 killed per day, on average, every day for 100 years.
• The price in Iraq in the last 15 years: 8,600 children over five years of age die every month while the number did not exceed 1,600 before "the gulf crisis."

What did these deaths bring us?

• Benefit: Communist enslavement of more than a billion people
• Benefit: an Islamic Theocracy in Iraq, where previously Christians had freedom.

And throughout the world during the 20th century, hundreds of millions of people have been subjugated under atheistic and socialistic tyranny with the aid of the nation that was supposed to be "a city upon a hill": the U.S.of A.

What causes us to honor those who wore a uniform for the world's largest killing machine? Why do we not honor those who refused to fight, and chose peace? How should the Christian react to "Memorial Day?"

I believe Christians should be outraged, and should vigorously protest the killing. Those who voluntarily don a uniform to kill for money, for college tuition, for "job training," or for kicks, should be excommunicated. As it is, in churches across America, the killers are honored.

With the exception of an occasional sociopath, all the killers in the 20th century believed they were doing good. Germans who killed Jews were protecting "the fatherland," preserving the "national security of Germany," or were just honorably "following orders." For Muslims, killing infidels is a matter of sincere religious duty. Russians who shot Ukrainian farmers carried out "the will of the People." Americans napalmed South Vietnamese villages because "It became necessary to destroy the village in order to save it." Save them from Communism, of course, which Americans believe is a fate worse than death by napalm. 10,000 murders a day requires a lot of people wearing uniforms, and all of them believed they were doing their patriotic duty. None of them thought of themselves as doing "evil" just because they were killing human beings or engaging in violent destruction of property.

I want to think about Memorial Day with a view to creating a plan that will get hundreds of millions of people to think that killing is evil. Given the billions of people who believe killing is justified if ordered by the government or a false religion, this is a huge undertaking.

I can't recall ever hearing a Memorial Day sermon in which the preacher did not dutifully remind the congregation that "Jesus was not a pacifist." But Jesus clearly was a pacifist. He died because He did not defend Himself against evil aggressors, even though He was perfectly innocent. If Jesus was not a pacifist, His followers would have fought to keep Him from being delivered up to death (John 18:36). But He told them, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword" (Matthew 26:52). Here are dozens of verses which strongly suggest that the Bible advocates pacifism (which comes from the Latin word for "peace.").

In fact, the Bible is so strongly pro-peace that we offer you this controversial suggestion: On Memorial Day, let us not honor the dead. Let us mourn and help their widows, but let's not honor their choice to fight. In fact, let's make the suggestion even more controversial:

Wow, that's pretty crazy, huh?

I'm not interested in debating the details of church discipline, excommunicating people, or anything like that, I'm interested in provoking some serious thought about war and peace. If you think it's ridiculous to claim that "Christians should be against war," please keep reading, and I'll wager you won't think the claim is quite so ridiculous when you're finished reading. I'm confident that if you work through this website, focus, pray, take a break halfway through and get a second wind, then continue asking tough questions, you'll be a different person than you are right now.

Another thing I hear in Memorial Day sermons every year is the de rigueur citation of James 4, which says,

1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

This text, like many others in the New Testament, seems to move us to oppose war. But on Memorial Day, the preacher virtually pooh-poohs the verse and goes on to claim that there are some noble reasons to go to war, though there are never any verses quoted which say the ultimate cause of war is holiness and righteousness and following the Prince of Peace.

Consider this controversial claim:

If I can prove this claim, your attitude towards the teachings of Jesus will be radically transformed. If you're like most people, you've been taught that Jesus was at least sort of a pacifist, He said a lot of things about peace that are good for our private lives, but are completely out of place in "the real world." But "the real world" would be a much better place if we followed Jesus literally and became pacifists.

"But aren't some wars justified? Isn't it a positive good to fight in some wars?"

If you believe this, you should take a year to study America's wars. Take an hour a day. Treat it like a college class. In lieu of that large undertaking, let's take a half-hour to quickly review America's wars. Were any justified? Did any have the long-term effect of making the world a better place? Really? Let's look at these wars:

• America's War for Independence - 108,000 deaths
  • What would Samuel Adams and Thomas Jefferson think about George W. Bush and Barack Obama? Better than King George III? Did thousands of Americans die in vain?
• The "Civil War" - nearly 700,000 deaths
  • What would William Wilberforce think about the way blacks are treated in Federal Housing Projects, inner city public schools, and rap music? Better than a southern plantation?
  • Is the Constitution observed more faithfully today than it was before Lincoln?
• World War II - (1937-45): as many as 84,609,000 deaths
  • The United States consigned a billion people to communism. Better than fascism?
• Iraq - 1980-2007 - a minimum of 2,000,000 deaths attributable to U.S. sanctions, military aid, and military intervention in Iraq/Iran
  • Christians had freedom under Saddam Hussein. Today most Iraqi Christians are dead or homeless, and Iraq is an Islamic Theocracy. An improvement that would please Jesus Christ? "Worth the cost?"

Admittedly, I have cited the highest estimated casualties in these wars. If you find this objectionable, I would ask you to cite the lowest number of causalities which you believe are both (1) accurate and (2) morally acceptable to Jesus.

America's War for Independence

Let's start with the first war in America's history (though I don't intend to examine each and every one of the over 100 "wars," "conflicts," "police actions," etc. that America has been involved in since 1776). That would be the war that gave birth to the United States of America, the "War for Independence."

What would Jesus say about those who chose to take up arms against "the Redcoats?"

I have created a website that goes into this question in greater detail:

www.Would Jesus Celebrate Independence Day.com

I heard a Memorial Day sermon in which the preacher asked, "Is it ever right to fight?" He said, "We are free because our Founding Fathers fought." Are we free? Should they have fought?

Consider this parable and a few Bible passages:

Date: April 19, 1775   Imagine a young man about 23 years old. As an agent of the British Empire, he wears a red coat. He believes that the colonies face a situation of "anarchy" and chaos. For generations, the British government has maintained law and order, and he has been told that social stability is threatened by lawless hordes of colonists who vandalize tax-paying merchants while dressed as Indians. Based on reports of a large cache of arms in Lexington and threats of armed revolution, he has been sent away from his family in Liverpool to help maintain order in the colonies.
       As a good Christian, this young man believes that God has ordained government to preserve peace and good order. He believes armed revolution against the government is a violation of Romans 13. He's proud to serve in His Majesty's armed services.
       Oh dear. This nice young man has just had a large part of his face and shoulders blown away by the musket fire of an outraged tax-resister. The colonist (and others like him) apparently believed that this young British soldier evinced "a design to reduce them under absolute despotism." As the officer lies dying in a pool of his own blood, the revolutionary "minute-man" rejoices in his victory over this red-coat's objective of the "establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states." (Quotes from the Declaration of Independence)
       Is this a loving (1 Corinthians 13:5-7) or righteous (John 7:24; Exodus 23:2; Prov. 24:21) judgment of this young human being? Was this soldier a budding Adolph Hitler, or a "good Christian family man"?

Was this revolutionary killing the beginning, or the end, of a Christian nation?

Consider these Bible passages, which have been slightly altered to fit the context. (Don't just read them, but prayerfully ask yourself, if these are the commands of Christ, how can a follower of Christ justify killing government officials?):

Romans 12-13 {1} I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
         {2} And be not conformed to the world of the Scottish Enlightenment: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
         {3} For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
         {10} Be kindly affectioned one to the British with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;
         {11} Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
         {12} Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;
         {13} Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitable quartering of troops. (cf. 3rd Amendment of the Bill of Rights.)
         {14} Bless the "Red Coats" which persecute you: bless, and curse not.
         {16} Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.
         {17} Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
         {18} If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with the British.
         {19} Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
         {20} Therefore if an enemy soldier hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
         {21} Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
         {13:1} Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are set in place by God.
         {2} Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, throwing tea into the harbor, or firing muskets upon them from behind trees, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
         {3} For archist red coats are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:
         {4} For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
         {5} Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.
         {6} For for this cause pay ye taxes without representation: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.
         {7} Render therefore to all their dues: taxes to whom taxes are due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.
         {8} Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
         {9} For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
         {10} Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

1 Peter 2:11-24 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
         {12} Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
         {13} Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to king George III, as supreme;
         {14} Or unto parliament, as unto them that are sent by Him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.
         {15} For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:
         {16} As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.
         {17} Honour all the British. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.
         {18} Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.
         {19} For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.
         {20} For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.
         {21} For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps:
         {22} Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth:
         {23} Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously:
         {24} Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by Whose stripes ye were healed.

Matthew 5:38-48 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
         {39} But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
         {40} And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.
         {41} And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
         {42} Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
         {43} Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
         {44} But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
         {45} That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
         {46} For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
         {47} And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
         {48} Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Proverbs 24:21 My son, fear the LORD and the king; Do not associate with those given to change; for their calamity will rise suddenly, and who knows the ruin those two can bring?

Exodus 23:2 Thou shalt not follow a crowd to do evil.

These verses make obvious what every conservative Christian fears: Jesus was a pacifist. Jesus died a pacifist, telling his followers not to take up arms to defend Him, even though He was sinlessly innocent, and His imminent arrest was totally unlawful and immoral. If His murder isn't a case for justifiable defense, nothing is. But Jesus prohibited it, and then we are told to "follow in His steps" on precisely this issue. The Bible teaches pacifism. The follower of Christ seeks peace. Click here for a few more verses to prove this (they might still be visible in the column at right, depending on your browser and font size).

And history teaches that war is unjustified. Again, something conservatives fear, but don't want to think about it.

The American Revolution would be considered the most "American" of all wars, and no patriotic love-it-or-leave-it American would suggest that the War for Independence was immoral and unChristian. But I would. It was immoral, unChristian, and an obvious violation of Romans 13, which was originally written to Christians living under violent military occupation by the barbaric and pagan Roman Empire, and surely applies to Christians living under a more benevolent government like eighteenth-century England.

If we should not spend Memorial Day celebrating the willingness of Americans to take up arms in the War for Independence, what does it say about Americans who celebrate the "Fourth of July?" Do we expect to impress America's Founding Fathers by honoring their military efforts? They risked "our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor" to rebel against an essentially Christian nation. What are we willing to risk against a secular regime many times more tyrannical?

The war that gave birth to America was not justified, but those that rebelled had more integrity than we do, since we do very little against an empire far more tyrannical. 

We'll discuss the 20th century and how we can reverse the damage done by America, but let's first consider our most recent disaster, Iraq.

The War in Iraq

On the left is some information about early America. On the right is some information about the government created in Iraq by the new and improved secularized United States at a projected cost of nearly a trillion dollars and too many human casualties to count:

Every single person who signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution would be outraged at the fact that the United States

• has a huge standing army,
• which is being used to kill thousands, if not millions,
• of innocent non-combatant civilians,
• with no constitutionally-declared war,
• in order to establish an Islamic Theocracy.

The more you know about America's Founding Fathers, the more you know all this to be true. They would be outraged.

The Civil War

The USMemorialDay.org website gets us thinking about another of America's disastrous wars. It says:

Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868....

General Order 11 begins:

Why should the South have not been allowed to secede from the union? Was it really necessary for 700,000 Americans to die to impose by force a compulsory union on a supposedly "free" people? Were blacks less free on a Christian plantation in the South than they are in a drug- and gang-infested Christ-free federal housing project in Chicago, without skills or good character, chronically unemployable, without known father or grandfather, unable even to imagine success for any out-of-wedlock children they may conceive but will never parent, making up for the fact that the federal government is father to their children by joining gangs and puncturing society with acts of violence? The Civil War was completely unjustified.

"But we couldn't allow the South to get away with slavery," some would say. Slavery was legal in all 13 of the original American colonies, and if the North was justified in preventing the South from seceding because they permitted slavery, then Britain was justified in keeping the colonies from their rebellion. Britain abolished slavery decades before the United States, without firing a shot. New York had slaves into the 1850's, and New Jersey did not end slavery until 1865. The first "emancipation proclamation" was Lord Dunmore’s, the Royal Governor of Virginia, in 1775, promising freedom to slaves who would defect against the colonial rebels.

More from General Order No. 11:

Why are the soldiers of the North called "defenders" when they were the aggressors? The South just wanted to secede, not take over the North.

Once again we have to ask, "Was the cost worth it?" Why was it so much better to kill 700,000 human beings, most of them professing Christians, than to have a "United States of America" and a "Confederate States of America?" At the end of World War II the Allies divided the German Republic into East and West. Why did so many Americans have to die to prevent the U.S. from being divided into North and South?

One could argue that both the South and the North dishonored the flag. But was the North justified in creating widows and orphans in the South? Would Jesus honor them for their killings? It is not surprising to learn that

The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war). (USMemorialDay.org)

But that was the result of WWII. Eastern Europe was given to Soviet Communism, and much of Asia was given to Chinese Communism. And when the federal government had a chance before 1945 to rescue Jews, it refused to do so. One example: a boat full of Jews escaping Hitler came to the U.S., but Roosevelt prohibited the ship to dock on U.S. soil. The story | The details | More about WWII.

Ask the same question about every war: "Was it worth the cost?" The "cost" is easy to determine, in lives lost and property destroyed. But when we ask "Was it worth the cost," the "it" is usually harder to define. Was it "a war to end all wars?" Was it "to make the world safe for democracy?" Usually none of the stated goals of the war actually were achieved. So what were the actual results of the war, and were these results worth the cost? Not once, I would argue. Not a single time. Click here for a list of all U.S. wars since 1776, compiled by the U.S. Naval Historical Center. Not one of them was worth the cost. Jesus would not have commanded His followers to kill human beings in order to achieve the promised results of these wars, much less the actual results of these wars. And we shouldn't honor those who refuse to follow Christ.

Though if by and large we ignore the debt we owe to those who fell at Saratoga, Antietam, the Marne, the Pointe du Hoc, and a thousand other places and more, our lives and everything we value are the ledger in which it is indelibly recorded.

Does Helprin think that all of America’s wars have been necessary to American freedom? True, he doesn’t allude to any of our wars since World War II in his list of hallowed places. But he does mention the Second Battle of the Marne, the great turning point of World War I and the first battle in which Americans started experiencing the enormous casualties that Europeans had been facing for nearly four years. The problem is that World War I was a catastrophe, a foolish and unnecessary war, a war of European potentates that both England and the United States could have stayed out of but that became indeed a World War, the Great War. In our own country the war gave us economic planning, conscription, nationalization of the railroads, a sedition act, confiscatory income tax rates, and prohibition. Internationally World War I and its conclusion led directly to the Bolshevik revolution, the rise of National Socialism, World War II, and the Cold War. World War I was the worst mistake of the 20th century, the mistake that set in motion all the tragedies of the century. The deaths of those who fell at the Marne are all the more tragic when we reflect that they did not in fact serve to protect our lives and all that we value.

It look like a lot fewer people would have died if the United States had followed Jesus and not gone to war in all of the wars the U.S. was involved in.

But suppose for a minute that if we hadn't turned China over to the Communists, and the Japanese had taken over China -- and also invaded the United States, and the tiny island of Japan took control of the entire United States. Would the result have been worse that what the Communists did to the Chinese? (tens of millions of Chinese killed by Mao)

One of the most common objections to following Jesus is this: "If we don't defend ourselves by killing millions of innocent people over whom the bad guy (Saddam, Hirohito, Hitler, etc.) claims jurisdiction, those people will enslave us. This objection is answered here:

"National Defense" is a Sin

Would Jesus Celebrate Memorial Day?

Obviously, nobody would even ask this question if they didn't think the answer was NO.
People who "support the troops" don't believe that the opinions of Jesus matter when it comes to foreign policy and military strategy. Please keep your Jesus "down in your heart" and away from the government.

Those who celebrate Memorial Day but still want to get credit for following the Bible have an answer, and it goes something like this:

"God commanded the armies of Israel in 1451 B.C. to wipe out the Canaanites."

Somehow this premise leads to the conclusion that the United States military in 2020 A.D. should kill, maim, or make homeless hundreds of thousands of Christians in Iraq (which had the largest population of Christians of any nation in the Arab world), who enjoyed freedom of religion under a secular government which prosecuted Islamic terrorists, and convert that Christian-tolerant government into an Islamic Theocracy under Shariah law. Same for the secular government of Syria in 2018.

Yeah, that's seems logical.

Sure, that's what the Bible is saying!

Those who celebrate Memorial Day but do not care about what the Bible says on such subject respond more pragmatically: "If we do not respond to the communists (or the "terrorists," or the enemy du jour) with 'shock and awe' and overwhelming military force, then the communists (or the Jihadists, or the enemy of the day) will enslave us."

In other words, not being "enslaved" is more important than taking Jesus seriously on issues of government policy.

Because not only does Jesus command His followers to beat their "swords into plowshares," Jesus commands us to be willing to be slaves. We can't afford to risk our national security on the babblings of a pacifist Jesus.

We have the account of the disciples arguing over who would be greatest in the coming Kingdom:

Luke 22:24  Now there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest.

We might guess that one wanted to be a Four-Star General, and another wanted to be "Secretary of Defense." (They didn't really understand the nature of Christ's Kingdom.)

Matthew 20:20     the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons [James and John], kneeling down and asking, “Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom.”
Mark 10:41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be greatly displeased with James and John. ⁴² But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. ⁴³ Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your slave. ⁴⁴ And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. ⁴⁵ For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

The word translated "rulers" in Mark 10:42 is the Greek word from which we derive the English word "anarchist," which means "not an archist." An archist is someone who believes he has the moral right to impose his own will on others by force or threats of violence. "The kings of the gentiles" imposed their will on entire nations by military invasion, subjugation, and occupation. They imposed their will on individuals by fines, imprisonment, torture, and execution. This is what archists do. That's their "job." (Today's archists can drop bombs and kill far more people and destroy far more hospitals than archists in the past.)

Jesus says, very plainly, it is better to be a slave than to be an archist.

Memorial Day is a celebration of dead archists.

The willingness to love, pray for, and serve our enemies is the best defense against being enslaved by our enemies.

It's a paradox.

"Slavery" really is freedom.

It is a common saying among capitalists that "The Customer is King." That means capitalists serve the consumers. The poor benefit from the work of rich capitalists like Rockefeller. If Americans would be even more willing to serve communists, Muslims, and other "bad guys," and if Americans would place a high value on continuing lifelong learning and increasing job skills, America would lead the world in productivity and invention, the "bad guys" would be hooked on our consumer goods and the rising standard of living we provide, and would be less inclined to invade, conquer, and destroy the goose that lays the golden eggs. Free trade prevents war. But we must have something to trade, and that means work, and that means serving consumers around the world, and that means "slavery."

Suppose that instead of killing off 50,000 Americans in a senseless war in Vietnam, we simply enslaved them for the benefit of the Vietnamese people. We send them this letter:

---

Dear Vietnamese:

We have enslaved 50,000 Americans just to prove how much better capitalism is than communism. These 50,000 people will now be working for YOU. Because we have capital (factories, machines, computers, phone lines, etc.), these 50,000 Americans will be far more productive than one million communists who hate capitalism. In addition, instead of spending billions of dollars on bombs to "protect" you in the South from Communists in the North (by destroying your villages in order to "save" them from Communists), we are going to just pass that money on to you. Every man, woman, and child in South Vietnam will receive a check for $10,000 from capitalists in America.

Ask your local communist if he can beat that deal.

Sincerely,

America, a Christian and Capitalist nation

---

Do you think South Vietnam would go communist with this kind of an "invasion" of American ideals?

But instead of doing this, we bombed the snot out of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, and sent 50,000 Americans to their graves. See how much more "practical" and "realistic" our politicians are when they don't allow the "spiritual" teachings of Jesus to influence their policy-making?

The U.S. has spent trillions of dollars in its stupid "war on terrorism." There are one billion Muslims in the world. Suppose we divided up those trillions of dollars and "enslaved" ourselves to the Muslims and sent this money to Muslims around the world, with this letter:

---

Dear Muslims,

In 1892 the United States Supreme Court acknowledged that America was a "Christian nation." We believe in the "Protestant Work Ethic." We believe in capitalism. We believe in loving non-Christians and serving them. Rather than bombing your nations "back to the Stone Age," we have decided to send every Muslim man, woman, and child in the world a check for $4,000 and a copy of the Bible with a study guide showing you how to make your nation a Christian nation so you can have checks to send to people poorer than you.

Sincerely,

America, a Christian and Capitalist nation

---

You went to a government-run atheistic school, so you can't do math. Four Trillion dollars in war spending divided by one Billion Muslims = a check for $4,000 for every Muslim man, woman and child in the world. Which do you think is a better evangelistic program: "slavery" or armed military archism, murder and destruction? Which program do you think is more likely to receive God's blessing? Should we be celebrating ArchistMemorialDay?

The Apostle Peter said "We must obey God rather than man" (Acts 5:28). The Apostle Paul said "If anyone doesn’t take care of his own relatives, especially his immediate family, he has denied the Christian faith and is worse than an infidel" (1 Timothy 5:8). The object of our attention on Memorial Day is those who died because they did not refuse to obey a government that was acting contrary to Christ, and left their wives widows, their children fatherless, and their mothers deprived of their sons.

Would Jesus honor that choice?

It is true, to be sure, that many who have died while killing on behalf of governments and their special interests believed they were doing God's will. German soldiers had "Gott mit uns" as a motto ("God With Us"). These people sincerely believed they are doing something good. Nazis, ISIS, and the Marines all believed they are doing something good, just like Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses and Baal-worshippers all believed they had the truth. "The government" is a cult. "The Armed Forces" are an idol. One of the most interesting capacities of human beings is our ability to deceive ourselves into sincerely and truly believing things we know deep down are not true (self-deception).

The United States is a nation where public school teachers are prohibited from teaching students that God says "Thou shalt not kill." Any government that puts its own laws ahead of God's Law and refuses to be a government "under God" is a government that thinks it  is  God. The United States is a false god.

Would Jesus honor their willingness to go to war?

No. Any Christian who willingly kills or dies for an atheistic government should be excommunicated. Better to be in prison with "the least of these" than to kill "the least of these" in an unChristian war. Better to be in prison for 5 years than leave your wife a permanent widow and your children fatherless. The fact that churches don't excommunicate soldiers explains why most Christians lack the discernment and knowledge of the facts to make the right decision. Church-goers are not taught to put God ahead of government, and peace ahead of the military-industrial complex.

Since I was born, two significant things have happened.

• The Bible and voluntary prayer were banned from government-run "public" schools by the United States Federal Government
• The military of the United States Federal Government killed, crippled, or made homeless tens of millions of innocent non-combatant non-Caucasian civilians around the world, including:
  • A million killed in Vietnam
  • 800,000 bombed to death in Laos
  • Ditto in Cambodia
  • A million casualties in Iraq
  • In 2018, the U.S. military has "boots on the ground" in 14 countries around the world, none of whom are a threat anywhere in America, "from sea to shining sea."

As a result of being banned from public schools, nobody takes the Bible -- and Jesus the executed pacifist -- seriously.

As a result of not taking the Bible seriously, the United States has become the most evil and the most dangerous government on planet earth.

Is this something Jesus would celebrate?

No.

Jesus said His teachings were in perfect harmony with "the Law and the Prophets" (the Old Testament - Matthew 5:17-20). So how would Moses and the Prophets judge our honoring those who died while killing people for the government of the United States?

The Law

"Thou shalt not kill." Exodus 20:13

The Prophets

Beat swords into plowshares and do not learn war anymore. Micah 4:1-5, Isaiah 2

I suggest that any person who is a member of a Christian church and joins the U.S. military should be excommunicated by that church as being guilty of idolatry, as well as whatever crimes were committed while on duty, such as murdering people, destroying their property, rape, etc. I would like to suggest to you that the military is an idol, and people who join or support the military commit idolatry.

That sounds crazy, I know.

So let me propose a little online "wager."

I'll bet you $1,000.00 (One Thousand Dollars) that I can persuade you that the Bible requires you to become a "pacifist," and condemns the military as an idol. For purposes of this "wager," being a "pacifist" would mean something like writing a letter to your Congressman demanding that all "defense" spending be cut. 100%.

In fact, a consistent pacifist -- that is, a consistent opponent of violence, like extortion ("taxation"), locking someone in a cage to be sodomized ("incarceration"), bombing schools and water treatment plants in order to cause a cholera epidemic ("Spreading Democracy") -- would advocate cutting 100% of all government taxation, credit expansion, and spending. This is because "government" itself -- not just the government's military -- is an idol. Therefore a consistent Christian is a pacifist, and a consistent pacifist is an "anarchist".

In fact, I'll prove to you that the Bible is an Anarchist Manifesto, which regards "government" as an idol, a false god.

Obviously, this is not the perspective you'll hear in any "organized church."

But think about it for just a minute. 60 seconds.

• The Bible is a big book. Thirty thousand verses. Most church-goers can tell you only about a handful of those verses.
• The entire Lord of the Rings series (including The Hobbit) has 576,459 words.  The King James Authorized Bible has 783,137 words.
• The Lord of the Rings is about power. So is the Bible.
• The Lord of the Rings is the word of J.R.R. Tolkien. The Bible is the Word of God.
• Tolkien is an anarchist. So is the God of the Bible.
• The Bible is both an epic story as well as the inspired and infallible chronicle of the history of the human race, focusing on the nation of Israel.
• St. Augustine described the story as the conflict between "The City of God" and the kingdoms of man.
• You cannot serve two masters. You must declare your allegiance either to the Kingdom of God, or to the kingdom of humanism.

In the Bible, human government is a rebellion against God's Government.

• God never commanded human beings to form "governments."
• They are instruments of conquest, rape, and pillage.
• Most idols in the Bible represent human empires.
• Israel sinned by rejecting God's Government and desiring a visible, physical, human government (1 Samuel 8).
• Israel constantly sought the protection of foreign militaries, and God's prophets continually denounced this as idolatry.

Even the United States is a rebellious substitute for the Government of God. The three branches of the U.S. Government are seen in

Isaiah 33:22 

For the LORD is our Judge,
The LORD is our Lawgiver,
The LORD is our King;
He will save us

The Bible says that if we obey God's commandments, we will enjoy the blessings of peace, prosperity, security, and everything the Bible conveys in the word "salvation." Every human government is a pseudo-savior. Every human government is a rebellious substitute for the Kingdom and Reign of God. Every human government is anti-Christ.

The word "Christ" has many meanings. The basic meaning is "anointed," as in "king" (Matthew 21:5 ), e.g., "King of Israel" (John 1:49). Jesus is also called a "Ruler" (Micah 5:2), a "Potentate" (1 Timothy 6:15 ), a "Governor" (Matthew 2:6 ), a "Captain" (Hebrews 2:10 ), a "Prince" (Isaiah 9:6 ), and many other words (some of which we aren't familiar with in our day, like "Horn" [Luke 1:69 ]) which are political in nature.

Many political terms can be inferred:

• Jesus is a "servant," which is another word for "minister," and Jesus is surely the "Prime Minister."
• In his inaugural address, George Washington spoke of "that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations." The one who "presides" is the "president."
• Jesus is our King, our Lawgiver, and our Judge (Isaiah 33:22) -- all three branches of government under the U.S. Constitution.

Our point is that Jesus is the -- THE -- the ONLY -- legitimate king, prince, ruler, president, prime minister, governor, legislator, judge, and potentate. If we simply practice what we preach -- by obeying His commandments -- we will have a peaceful, orderly, and prosperous society. All other earthly kings, princes, rulers, presidents, prime ministers, governors, legislators, judges, and potentates are illegitimate usurpers and anti-Christ.

If we will obey the Commandments of God, we will not need a visible, physical, man-made "government" at all.

I believe the Bible is an Anarchist Manifesto. That's a shocking claim, but very easy to prove. (Just hard to accept.)

• The Bible says "Thou shalt not steal."
  • Government taxation is theft
• The Bible says "Thou shalt not kill."
  • Governments take vengeance on their enemies.
• At no point in history, according to the Bible, did God ever command anyone to form a "government."
  • "Governments" are formed as instruments of conquest and force.
  • "Governments" are the immoral means we choose to acquire what we desire.
• "Oh Yeah?" some will reply; "Then why does the Bible say we are to 'render unto Caesar' and obey the government?"
  • That's a fair question.
  • There are a growing number of "Christian Anarchists" today, and they often get this wrong.
  • The first reason is that Christians are pacifists who do not resist evil, but overcome evil with good.
  • The second reason is that Christians want to persuade and convert statists. Statists are very weak, frightened, and fragile people, notwithstanding all their macho tough-talk and bravado. They do not have faith in God's promises to protect and save those who obey Him. "Whatever is not of faith is sin" ( Romans 14:23). Christians must respect the conscience of the idolatrous cult member.

  • Click here for more info.

Israel was commanded to destroy the idolatrous images.

We are commanded to destroy the idol of "the government," but we do so with the "Sword of the Lord," which is the Bible. By preaching the Gospel, we provide the means by which the Holy Spirit converts archists into anarchists. Conversion is peaceful, not revolutionary (though often people are "dragged kicking and screaming" into the Kingdom of God. In other words, it's a personal, psychological, religious struggle. The Bible describes it as "agonizing.")

To really persuade you that Christians are morally obligated to totally disarm the military and completely disband "the government," I need you to read the Bible from cover to cover and ask questions you've probably never asked before.

Then I need to you read the U.S. government from cover to cover -- that is, to examine how the entire concept of "the government" has become the most dangerous idolatry in our lives today.

In your life.

If you're interested in that "wager," go here:

www.AnarchistBibleBet.com

Not a gambling type? Try this:

www.HowToBecomeAChristianAnarchist.com