Citizen Columns
Question
What would constitute a 'just' war?
Answer
If we are to look at war from the perspective of God's purpose for human life, then we have to say there can be no war that is ever just. War is not in His plan for creation at the beginning of time nor for His eternal kingdom at the end of time.
Christianity is meant to be a permanent reminder that we look toward an eternal life where "nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" (Isaiah 2:4). It was for this reason that the early church gave even the most honourable military service a penitential character. Anyone who killed in the course of their military duties was kept from Holy Communion for several years. And to this day in the Eastern Church, clergy are barred from bearing weapons.
Yet churches have blessed chaplains, troops and even weapons. I, myself, was for a very short time an Air Force chaplain.
We do not yet live in the eternal kingdom, and the tragic realities of our fallen world demand that the weak be defended from crime, violence, terror and war. It is the duty of government to "bear the sword" for this defensive purpose (Romans 13:4). Could we stand by and watch our home invaded and our loved ones defiled and butchered? No more should we look on passively while the same happens to our country or to our international neighbours.
Of course, there is always too much innocent suffering to make war anything better than a sad last step. And there are too many grey areas around questions about what is truly defensive. This is why war can never be purely "just" in the sense of being totally fair and morally right. But when all other means are exhausted, war may be the only way to "lay down one's life for one's friends" (John 15:13).
Father John Jillions
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