Saturday, 26 November 2011
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Israel and Iran: Thoughts on War and Peace
I had a conversation on the phone with my dad tonight on my way home from work. I talk to him about every night.Now, I consider myself to be a fairly conservative individual, but I try to keep an open mind. I'm sure my dad does too, but he is conservative in a different way.
We began to talk about politics. It's almost a nightly occurrence. I love talking about politics with my dad because it shows me that he and I are both aware of what is going on in the world around us. But he started talking about the chance that Israel may be going to war with Iran. Really, I think this is inevitable, but who knows when it will actually happen. In any case, Dad said, "So if that would happen, where would you stand?"
I began to explain, "Well Dad, I have a different opinion on war in general, I don't know if..."
"You're not answering my question" he interrupted. "We are Israel's only friend. Who will stick up for them if we don't? If Israel would go to war with Iran, would you support Israel?"
I told Dad, "I don't really believe in war, Dad..."
"It's a yes or no question."
"Ok, Dad, you know what I think? I think it's senseless to call myself a follower of Christ, a Christian, if I don't even try to do what Jesus teaches. It just doesn't make sense to me."
Dad stopped for a second and thought. He came back with the one thing he could come back with... "Yeah..."
I believe in peace through Christ because it's what Christ taught. I will not get swallowed up in what everyone else tells is right or moral. I look to Christ to see how I should be living and allow Him to live through me.
Peace to you.
How do you view peace as taught by Christ? How does it affect your decisions on what is right and moral?
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jmallory@xanga - Name: Jimmy
- Location: Dayton, Ohio, United States
- About Me: Jesus is alive and working in me. I'm just trying to manifest his glory.
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Comments (10)
When asked which nation we shall side with in conflict our only answer can be God's nation of heaven which is heavily populated by martyrs. Our king transcends national divisions and so do we as his children, servants, and citizens. Too often we think our ethics derive from rules and not from identity. Christ transforms people and not rules. His Way is one we must follow but we can only do that if we are a peculiar people like Him. Identity determines ethics. The peace taught by Christ derives from who he is and we access it when we enter a relationship with him and the more that moves forward the more our identity becomes like his and the more we are able t live out his peace.
We can support Iran and Israel without supporting the violence of both. We choose love, not sides.
I'm not a Christian but i'd just like to point out that the whole topic is pointless. How are Israel and Iran going to fight a war? The two countries aren't next to each other, neither country has anything to gain from it, Israel has the best military in the middle east, and any country that really threatened to wipe out Israel would be in danger of being nuked. And part of the reason we're Israel's only friend is because they're expanding onto Arab land; something they can stop doing any time they want.
I'm not interjecting this as a rebuttal OR a supporting clause, but I would like to see someone talk about this passage in relationship to peace: John 14:27.
The one of great tragedies of modern Christianity is that far too many Christians have substituted doctrine instead of intellect as a means of reasoning out the truth. Another great tragedy is that far too many Christians redefine the meaning of Holy Scripture in order to support their own personal political values.
This post is a tragedy in both regards.
Regarding reason:
If peaceful, hardworking people had adopted pacificism in bygone times then we would still be hunter-gatherers at the mercy of the wicked marauders who roamed the land. It would have been impossible to acquire the surplus necessary to build civilization since the marauders would have stolen it.
This principle still holds true. If everyone adopted pacificism, civilization would be destroyed by marauders and the human race would be reduced to savagery. Billions and billions of people would die in war and of starvation.
Consequently, pacificism is a philosophy of mass murder. Christianity repudiates mass murder. Therefore Christians must repudiate pacificism on grounds of simple reasoning.
Regarding faith:
From Genesis we know that God made man his helper whose job it was to tend the Garden and protect it from intruders. Adam's cowardly failure to lay down his life carrying out his duty, led to the Fall of mankind.
Western Civilization, particularly American Civilization rose up because of the Judeo-Christianity, its values and teachings. Though a mere shadow of the Garden, in our civilization mankind gets a taste of Garden paradise: personal liberty, freedom to worship God, abundance, peace, security, the liberty to live out God's will according to our human and personal natures.
And just like Adam, it is the duty of each man to lay down his life to protect the Garden.
Pacificism, we conclude then, is the cowardly philosophy of Adam who passively watched as Satan seduced his wife and tempted them both into throwing away the Paradise that God had given them.
Consequently, on theological grounds, pacificism must also be rejected.
@FearofGodandPerfectLove@xanga - Let not your heart be troubled was the message Jesus gave to his disciples at the Last Supper in order to prepare them for the bloody tragedy of the Crucifixion. What connection does that have to Israel, Iran, war and peace?
@homealivein45@xanga - Please re-read my comment:
"I'm not interjecting this as a rebuttal OR a supporting clause".
However, it does have a lesson for us to learn regarding the Lord's peace- so in association to the lesson of peace (not Iran vs. Israel), it has a great deal to offer. Which is why I'd be interested in hearing thoughts on the passage in relationship to Peace.
@FearofGodandPerfectLove@xanga - If you had actually read and understood my own comment you would realized that I was only asking you to explain your own thinking, not rebut or support anything in this post.
Jesus said,
Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.
It seems difficult for some folks to not swing all to one side or the other. The same God of the OT is the same God of the NT and He is not schizophrenic. There is a time for peace and a time for war. Neither is all the time.
@homealivein45@xanga - Everyone knows what you think.
@mtngirlsouth@xanga - There are many things I can say, but I will stick with this one for right now: in the verse where Jesus tells his followers to carry swords to protect themselves, the disciples brought him two swords and said, "here, we have two swords." Jesus said, that is enough. Though, he wasn't saying that it was enough swords. Rather, he was saying "that is enough of your foolishness." This is the traditional translation. Hardly anyone goes with the translation you accepted and here is why... The night he said that was the night he was betrayed. That was the same night that Peter defended himself by pulling out his sword and sliced off a soldier's ear. What did Jesus say then? Well... He condemned Peter for doing as jesus suggested, according to you, right? But that wouldn't make much sense. He said, "if you live by the sword, you will die by the sword." Then he healed the soldier's ear.
To me, it would make God more schizophrenic if he would say two contradictory phrases in the same night. If you'd like more info, you should read the post having to do with this subject on XCCP.xanga.comPeace to you :)
@jmallory@xanga - The anti-intellectual may know what he or others think but doesn't know why. Why? is the question that leads us toward the truth.
Ideas that fail the test of reason will also fail the test of faith. That's what makes Christianity such a powerful civilizing force. It demands that we understand why we believe the way we do.
Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves (cf. Ex 33:18; Ps 27:8-9; 63:2-3; Jn 14:8; 1 Jn 3:2). ~Pope John Paul II, Fides et Ratio.