No, it is not all about military service
With the demise of compulsory military service in most areas of Christadelphians, many of our young people have grown up in a society where their interactions with the government have been largely benign. Long-gone are the times when mock-tribunals were held, in which young Christadelphians had to defend their objection to military service before a panel of (usually) experienced brethren.
Not only that, if you read and listen to talks on the subject, our attitude to military service has warped, in many cases, into a strictly pacifist argument: “Thou shalt not kill” (Matt 5:21), as reflected in many of the Bible Study courses put out by our community. When we make this our position, of course, we then have to explain the facts:
- Almost all modern translations, in common with the Old Testament passages Jesus cited, of Exodus 20:13, Deuteronomy 5:17, have, “you shall not murder,” and the Greek behind murder means, “to deprive a person of life by illegal, intentional killing — ‘to murder, to commit murder.’ ”1So acts of war are, in almost all cases, not covered by this prohibition.
- In the course of the history of the children of Israel, they were many times commanded to go to war with the nations around them. And were praised by God for succeeding.
I do not mean to say the pacifist argument does not have strength: but it is not the only basis of our attitude to military service. In fact, the primary argument has historically been that we are fundamentally alien to the society in which we live. It is of more than passing interest that the very name of our community was chosen by Bro. Thomas during the American Civil War in opposition to its members being forced to serve in the Union army:
“This is also to certify, that the Denomination constituted of the associations or ecclesias of this Name, conscientiously opposes, and earnestly protests against ‘Brethren in Christ’ having anything to do with politics in wordy strife, or arms-bearing in the service of the Sin-powers of the world under any conceivable circumstances or conditions whatever; regarding it as a course of conduct disloyal to the Deity in Christ, their Lord and King, and perilous to their eternal welfare.”2
Well before this familiar statement, Bro. Thomas had been even more explicit in his rejection of pacifism, for he declared at a Peace Society Meeting in 1848:
“That national wars to avenge the injured, and defend liberty, are neither impious nor impolitic; — that while a Bible Christian must not fight in the absence of the captain of his salvation, the Scriptures leave the nations to do as they please.”3
Aliens
“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household” (Eph 2:19).
“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil 3:20).
“Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence” (John 18:36).
The question is, are we really from above? Most of us are the citizens of the country in which we reside by nature of our birth, but do we, ought we, act as though we are not? In the US, as I write this, most “citizens” (or at least the media) are consumed with the upcoming elections, but “aliens” are not even allowed to vote. The dictionary definition of alien is, “a foreigner, especially one who is not a naturalized citizen of the country where they are living.”
In North America, as largely countries of immigrants, are our attitudes and values distinctive?
“Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory… Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all” (Col 3:2-4, 11).
While we do not (or should not) vote, do we allow ourselves the indulgence of political views? Complacency to insist that it is “natural” to have political opinions is as illogical as insisting that “lusting after a woman” is acceptable because it is “natural”! Yet we would recognize, even if unable fully to meet the Lord’s challenge, that to lust is to commit adultery in the heart. Likewise if we accept the principle that it is wrong to vote, then shouldn’t we also accept that it is untenable to harbor political opinions? Are we “of the Truth” in the sense that Jesus uses it, or does our thinking owe more to the newspapers we might read, or more likely the broadcast and social media we see, rather than to our appreciation of Christ and his message?
So who (or what) is our leader? In these days, we might not all respect our elected leaders, and we might even question the institutions that set our laws, but most acknowledge some form of allegiance to their country. While we are told to “honor the king” and to offer up “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks… for kings and all who are in authority” (1 Tim 2:1-2), do we recognize that our primary, indeed our only loyalty is to Christ? Anything less than this is a very serious betrayal of the Lord.
Consequences
The situation in most of the world is that, as Christadelphians, we are almost indistinguishable from the non-believers around us. Except for a few hours each week, when we attend our ecclesias, our apparent lives tend to conform to the society in which we find ourselves. Unlike the Amish and Mennonites you see in the rural areas of the Mid-West, neither by our dress or mode of life do we stand out. And perhaps we should not: after all, I am sure Paul and the other disciples were indistinguishable from their fellow Jews — until they opened their mouths and proclaimed the gospel:
“And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (1 Cor 9:20-22).
Paul advises us not to dissociate from the world and from those we might regard as sinners: “I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world” (1Cor 5:9-10). As Jesus said: “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32).
This is a difficult balance, to be part of the world and subservient to the state, but rendering all allegiance to our heavenly Master. But we need to be aware at all times of both aspects: and try our utmost to obey both sets of precepts. Indeed, there are perhaps times when we use the principle of submitting to the ordinances of men as an excuse not to do as we should. How often is it said that, “There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets” (Prov 26:13), as excuses are made not to preach the gospel? Peter and John refused to give up in the face of real threats (Acts 4:19; 5:29) from the Sanhedrin and the chief priests.
And lest we believe we have no conflicts in this duality, I would point out:
- An individual who becomes a naturalized citizen of the United Sates has to declare, in part: “I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same… and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”
- A person becoming a civil servant in Canada has to say: “I, [name], do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors. So help me God.”
Both of these declarations give me pause.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One