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Is a “Just War” Possible?

Is a “Just War” Possible?

One of our online members asked the following: What is your view on the just war theory?

In discussing the “just war” theory in this blog, we are speaking only of warfare—not police action, such as using power to restrain individuals from committing crimes against others, but of a military engagement upon or between people groups, tribes, nations, and kingdoms.

The just war theory is the idea that one can justify war, that one can make the case that there are some situations in which war (the use of physical might to compel, coerce, force, destroy, and kill) is morally justifiable.

Justice is doing what is just or right. What determines what is just or right? The law. For example, it is just or right to punch someone in boxing but wrong or unjust to do so in a soccer match. The rules or laws of the various sports, nations, kingdoms, organizations determine what is just or right.

Thus, the question about just war requires us to ask: Through which law lens are we answering the question—human imposed law or God’s design law?

God is the Creator, the builder of reality, and His laws are the design laws upon which reality operates (gravity, laws of physics, health, and the moral laws).

Humans cannot build reality; therefore, sinful humans make up rules that require external enforcement through inflicted punishments.

If we use the human imposed-law lens, rules requiring the infliction of penalties, to answer the question of the just war, then we immediately conclude that justice requires the appropriate use of power or force to hold accountable and punish those who do wrong. In this model, war can be found justifiable if one can identify sufficient wrongs that cannot be remediated in any other way. But, as human history documents, the “wrongs” that justify war change based on the mindsets, culture, beliefs, and values of the people in power, because human laws are merely made-up rules.

But if one views things through God’s design law, one realizes that arguments for just war are a trap to ensnare people into engaging in warfare in order to destroy the hearts and minds of people. The true war between Christ and Satan is a spiritual war, not a physical one. God could have destroyed Satan and his followers as easily as dropping a pebble to the ground, but rebellion, distrust, and selfishness cannot be overcome with force. What God desires cannot be achieved with might or power.

God wants our love, trust, loyalty, devotion, friendship; and loving, trustworthy friends cannot be obtained by threats, inflicted punishments, or killing those who don’t obey. That is why the Bible teaches: “‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty” (Zechariah 4:6 NIV84). This Spirit is the Spirit of truth and love.

Those who are reborn into the kingdom of God wage a different kind of warfare than the world:

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:3–5 NIV84, emphasis mine).

We present truth in love and leave others free. We do not fight physical wars for lands, resources, or power over others; we fight to free hearts and minds from fear and selfishness, which cannot be achieved through military might. The true war is not to save our mortal bodies; it is to save souls for eternity.

The methods of warfare we use reveal whose side we are actually on and whom we become like in heart, mind, and character. Choose the methods of this world—violence, force, coercion, killing others—and we injure ourselves, harden our hearts, and become more like Satan, “who was a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44). But reject the methods of this world and practice the methods of Jesus and God’s law is further imbedded upon the heart and people are solidified in character to be like Christ.

Satan deceives people into pursuing “justice” through human law and coercive enforcement, including war, as a means to reproduce his own character in people. In my blog “Prepare! The King of the North Is Coming,” I describe how all the kingdoms of the world are Satan’s and how he pits them against each other to do various injustices in order to inflame fear, outrage, anger, and helplessness in people to inspire them to join one of his forces and seek to destroy with violence those who are seen as having done wrong.

Choosing to go down the human warpath corrupts the character of those who embrace and practice the methods of force and violence. Killing other people injures the person who kills; it hardens the heart. Such damage to the soul can absolutely be healed through repentance and receiving God’s grace, but wouldn’t it be better to never suffer such soul injuries in the first place? And sadly, many who have been damaged by participation in war, rather than turning to God, seek to numb themselves through various substances to avoid the suffering the trauma has caused.

War, the mass killing of other human beings, is contrary to God’s design for humanity. It cannot be done without traumatizing the heart, mind, and soul of the people who engage in it. The mind and heart naturally recoil from killing another person. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is the natural response to the unnatural experience of war. God would have people never experience the horrors of war. Thus, there is never a godly just cause for war, only an earthly “just cause.”

The entire effort (propaganda) behind justifying a war to a populace is because it is unjustifiable. The arguments used to justify war are made because people don’t want to feel the guilt and shame that comes from killing other people. The just war arguments are human rationalizations to make the warmongers feel they are doing right when, in fact, they are doing wrong. They want to make a case that in some circumstances, it is virtuous to use force to either compel or kill others in order to advance one’s own way. But it is all a lie of Satan.

Does Peace Require War?

From a human-law perspective, “just war” is a discussion of “the greater good,” “the lesser of two evils,” to decide when it is “just” to send others to war to kill others; rarely do we find those who order people into war going into battle themselves—if somehow that always occurred, it is likely we would have less war. There has never been and will never be a human war in which injustices do not occur—from both sides. Further, even if one claims a “just cause,” the people sent to war are always harmed—not always physically, but always emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. The more “action” they see, the greater the harm. God doesn’t want anyone to experience this type of injury. All war is instigated by Satan.

Because we live in a world of sin, Satan will inspire his agents to do injustice at every level of human existence—abuse in families, crime in communities, exploitation in churches, corruption in governments, profiteering in business, and war among nations.

The godly who occupy seats of authority in government are to take actions designed to avoid and prevent war, but not at the cost of colluding with or enabling evil—the exploitation of the innocent. The righteous seek to restrain those who seek to do evil, not force the evil to do good. On an individual level, we do this with police powers and imprisonment. But the same principle is used by nation-states.

Roman general Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus famously said, “Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum,” which means: If you want peace, prepare for war. This is because the unrighteous are governed not by love for others, but by fear and selfishness, by the survival drives, the strong dominating and taking from the weak. Thus, what prevents the unrighteous from going to war is fear, not love, the conclusion being that war would be too costly and they would lose more than they gain.

So, in this world of sin, if a wicked person takes their nation to war, what is the “just” response of the righteous? To act in ways that bring the war to an end as quickly as possible, with the most effective interventions in order to reduce the number of injuries, damage, and harm. The war is still unjustifiable; the action to end the war is justifiable.

But the Christian must always recognize that the real war is a war for hearts and minds, for the kind of people we will be, for what kind of character we develop. Will we be like Jesus, or will we be like Satan? Which law, methods, and principles will we choose to embrace and practice in how we treat others? Not just when times are good, but when times are bad, especially in the face of injustice. One of Satan’s best strategies to win recruits to his army is to do real injustice, incite outrage in response to it, and get those wronged to seek to do “justice,” to make it right, by using Satan’s methods of force and violence in return upon others.

But Jesus said,

My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place (John 18:36 NIV84, emphasis mine).

Those who are members of God’s kingdom do not wage war as the world does. We do not fight with the weapons of the world. To do so is to join the army of God’s enemy:

You have heard that it was said, “Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:43–48 NIV84, emphasis mine).

If we want to be part of God’s family, we must rightly represent Him. We must live to honor Him. We must carry out His law, His methods, His design, His protocols for life in how we treat others.

You have heard that it was said, “Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.” But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you (Matthew 5:38–42 NIV84, emphasis mine).

Satan cannot force people to sin. He cannot make people choose him or practice his methods. He must get people to choose his methods, to prefer them. Thus, Satan inspires the wicked to do real injustice, which tempts the righteous with outrage and into embracing his methods to do “justice” by using ungodly methods, to punish, to fix things with violence. And when people do so, they become less like Jesus and more like Satan.

Jesus is clear: Those of His kingdom love their enemies and do not use violence to advance it.

There is a justifiable war—it is the war of truth against lies, of love against fear, of liberty against coercion; of forgiveness against resentment; it is the war being waged for every soul. We do not wage war as the world does; we use the weapons of truth, love, and liberty to destroy the false beliefs and fears that hold minds captive. We model ourselves after Jesus and the apostles who, despite the injustices of a pagan Roman empire, did not use violence but warred against Satan’s kingdom and the injustices of the corrupt human governments by winning people to live in harmony with God’s law. The goal of wielding God’s weapons is to turn our enemies into our friends:

Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come. All this is done by God, who through Christ changed us from enemies into his friends and gave us the task of making others his friends also. Our message is that God was making the whole human race his friends through Christ. God did not keep an account of their sins, and he has given us the message which tells how he makes them his friends. Here we are, then, speaking for Christ, as though God himself were making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf: let God change you from enemies into his friends! (2 Corinthians 5:17–20 GNT, emphasis mine).

In the final days before Christ returns, Satan’s forces will increase their assault, there will be more injustice, more abuse, more crime, greater calls for “just war”—all intended to draw in the saints of God into choosing to join with one of Satan’s forces and embrace and practice his methods to advance “justice” to make the world better.

It is a trap.

God’s people will refuse and, instead, will advance truth, love, and liberty, trusting God with their lives, fortunes, and futures, even if it means going into the fiery furnace or the lion’s den. For in the last days, the people of God, empowered by the Holy Spirit, “overcame him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death” (Revelation 12:11 NIV84).

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Testimony 17

The blessings of clarity and understanding you and your class inspire me to take from the word of God have impressed upon me so greatly the true, loving character of our Creator. I have found amazing freedom and joy through building a stronger, more intentional relationship with Him. What is new is that this is now a relationship built on love, reverence and respect rather than fear and obligation, and as such my eyes have been slammed OPEN as I am continually impressed by the manifestations of God’s true character in His provisions for fallen man.

T.E.H., Salt Lake City, UT, USA

 

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I just wanted to personally thank you for your teachings and insight into scripture. I came across your website via my cousin who suggested I look into “Healing the Mind” information. My youngest daughter has been struggling over the last couple of years and it all came to a head this spring. When I started listening to the “Healing the Mind” lectures my own life began to be transformed. I began sharing with all my daughters the concepts you laid out so clearly. I ordered your book and soaked it up. I just want to say “Thank You!” My walk with the Lord has been refreshed and renewed. Your obedience to the Lord is a blessing to so many.

R. K., Anderson, SC, USA

 

Testimony 43

Two years ago I stumbled upon your book, “Could It Be This Simple,” and then found “The God-Shaped Brain” videos on YouTube, your bible study class, and the ‘Come And Reason’ mobile app. I shared your book with a friend and after nine months of showing love, patience, and kindness this person has been changed by the love of God, too. The same love that healed me, I now express to other women in tangible ways, such as to a Baptist woman with high anxiety and childhood trauma. She was extremely happy and relieved when I shared about the so-called “judgment of God” and burning in hell. She had no desire to serve a God that was so harsh. I have repeated the phrase dozens of times to her. “What we believe has power over us, but we have power over what we believe…”

This message that you are sharing has changed my life. I will continue to serve other women and bring this message of God’s healing love to their lives by sharing your books, YouTube videos, and The Remedy Bible app. Keep up the good work. Don’t be discouraged. God is doing a mighty work in and through this ministry!

Jill L., Midwest, USA

 

Testimony 71

When I was 9 years old, I remember setting at our devotional table with a hunger and thirst for God that wanted more, deeper, BETTER. I can remember literally crying and pounding on the table, “I know these teachers didn’t mean to give us error. They taught what THEY had been TAUGHT, but didn’t ANYBODY READ THE BOOK?!?!?” It mattered to me then. It mattered to me as a teenager. It matters now as I teach bible classes. It didn’t have to be so hard as I watched so many give up and lay God’s great plan and gift of salvation aside as being “impossible.” Then, a friend sent me a link to Come And Reason’s website. I grew excited. YES! FINALLY! Then another friend told me to stay away, saying her son had just broken up with a girl because she was involved with Come And Reason and that “Tim Jennings preaches a false gospel.” But, AFTER many years of developing an authentic and, dare I say FUN relationship with Jesus, through the Holy Spirit I see this message has been around a LONG time, since the apostle Paul, Ellen White, Graham Maxwell, Ray Foucher, and yourself (though I admit, you’ve made me back up, rewind and replay the clips, and get out my well-worn Bible on a few things.) I’m so thankful I have found LIGHT during these DARK days. I am not alone.

Vicki DiNitto

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I’m a youth leader in South Africa. We as a youth group are currently using a lot of the material on the Come and Reason site. Since we’ve started using the material, our youth group has grown.

R. V. N., South Africa

 

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My husband is a pastor and I listen to your lesson almost every week. Thank you for helping me in my study life and to help me love the “real” God more.

C. F., NC, USA

 

Testimony 45

I have been confused for years about what [christianity] calls [its] most disgusting teaching. It has never made much sense to me and for that reason has been evermore empty. I have listened to your class off and on and have struggled determining what is truth, because of the resistance design law encounters in the church. So, I thank God for your ministry. What you teach makes sense. It’s logical and backed up by the power of love. I have never seen that in Christ until now. I am astounded by the insight that is found when we look at God’s ministry through design law. All strength to this message, as I believe it to be the power of God.

Brendon S.

 

Testimony 66

I am incredibly grateful for the transformative impact you’ve had on my life, and words cannot fully express my appreciation. Over the years, I have been an avid listener and follower of C&R and extend my heartfelt thanks for creating the C&R mobile app. It has allowed me to immerse myself in your lessons repeatedly, enabling me to grasp the profound significance about the Character of God, Design Law, the protocols for life, the reasons behind the current chaos, and Christ’s mission to restore everything. They have deeply touched me. Having studied with various churches, I came away with the perception that God is no different from the deities of ancient Greek or Roman mythology—demanding sacrifices and taking pleasure in bloodshed. Thanks to your transformative teachings, I have experienced a profound awakening to the true nature of God and the immense power of His love. It is truly a remarkable and liberating sensation to finally grasp the truth and embrace the empowering nature of God’s laws. My self-perception has become brighter and more infused with love. My journey of growth continues on a daily basis.

Chris P., Lake Mary, FL, USA

 

Testimony 48

I just want to tell you how blessed I have been reading “The Remedy!” It has become a daily part of my devotional relationship with God. In it I have found a God of love and a God that loves me! The bible has come alive for me! It is the first time that I can say that I have felt hope fill my heart as I have read God’s word. This is good news I can share! Thank you, Dr Jennings! Thank you for your heart for others. I can’t put into words how this has set me free! It has strengthened my trust and love for God.

Jason H.

 

Testimony 49

I came into the church at 21, but that is as far as it went. I was so confused about what love is. I couldn’t find it in the bible, because I am not a person that can read between the lines. I have no logic. I have read many, many books; trying to figure out the crux of the matter. They were helpful, but something was still missing. I have become very frustrated to the point of crying out to God, “Where can I go?”  I needed some basics.

I found two books, written by Timothy Jennings, MD, to be very helpful. God showed me that I had lived my whole life in fear. I didn’t even see it. Now, I do. God is so good.  I discovered the “The Remedy”  Dr. Jennings new book, “The God-Shaped Heart!” Oh, I was so excited, I purchased them right away.

I can get rid of most of my books, because “The Remedy” brings the Love of God out so clearly, even I can’t miss it. Now, I want to sit and read my Bible. Wow, what a revelation! It is just simply Awesome! I am so grateful to Jehovah Almighty for hearing my prayer for more understanding! I am so encouraged!

Jackie S.

 

Testimony 37

Hearing Dr. Jennings’ presentations in person came at a pivotal moment in my spiritual journey that began about nine months ago, when the fault lines inherent in my belief system began to crack under questions that most reasonable people end up asking about God and His nature. These were questions I couldn’t find answers to, and they shook my faith. I was unable let it go any longer and be satisfied. My Christian experience became distant. I was afraid; the fear in me rose like thorns, pushing me away from Jesus. And then someone heard my questions and introduced me to this ministry, and my life has totally changed.

I can tell you that this new, “present truth” message is far grander and life-changing than when I shifted from being an agnostic and then a nominal Christian. It has radically altered my worldview, because it reveals a God that makes sense. It is a revolution. I believe that Dr. Jennings’ message is the final message that must go to the world. If any message could be called “righteousness by faith,” as abused as that term is by the right and the left, this is that message, because Jennings’ biblical message identifies a God who is different, whose character isn’t an impossible contradiction.

I walk this path now without fear. I see people differently, and the Holy Spirit burns in my heart. Many call Dr. Jennings’ message false and compromising, but it isn’t false, because I’ve seen the fruits within my mind and body. It is not compromising, because in this message is the only road to holiness that makes any sense. No longer do I behold a pagan god who is always angry and suspicious. Instead, I behold a God who is freeing and loving, always working for our good, and giving me every reason to love my enemy even to my own death, just as Jesus pleads with us. God is good.

Anthony L., CA, USA

 

Testimony 5

We listen to your bible studies lessons in our class in Montana. You actually were the main reason I decided to get a laptop, so I can go to your site and listen, read, learn, and print the class notes. I am so grateful to learn the correct view of God and his character. Now, to just have others have an interest in knowing, so I can share it with them. Good thoughts your way.

R. N., MT, USA

 

Testimony 2

I continue to enjoy your lessons every week. The more that I research your conclusions, the more I am convinced that the Holy Spirit has lead you to distill out the essence of human redemption. Thank you for your courageous stand for the truth.

S. G., TX, USA

 

Testimony 21

I am absolutly on fire with the message at Come and Reason! I can’t get enough! I’ve read your book, blog, and articles. I’ve listened to your Bible study podcasts, your radio show, and your series – all excellent! It wasn’t until the past couple of years that I have I like I’m becoming “healthy,” with more to share with others than just beasts and commandments! I used to be a Bible worker and preached when the pastors were gone until I had had enough. I didnt realize at the time what the problem was, but i know now… the message wasn’t properly focused. Now my flame is rekindled. All of your little examples are so perfect in explaining something “complicated” and making it easily understood! Now I’m trying to shape it into a life changing evangelistic series! Thank you!

M.T., USA

 

Testimony 46

Over the past couple of years God has been expanding my view of Himself and His character. Along my approximately 40-year journey, I have often had questions, but was hesitant to voice these and step outside the traditionally accepted thinking, for fear of admitting that I may in fact be eternally lost. In the recesses of my thinking has been the thought – if one blindly accepts (which is widely regarded as “real faith”) and does not question, is this really ‘truth?’ I often find it challenging to grapple with very theological ‘speak,’ but Dr. Jennings has a real gift of explaining spiritual concepts with clear practical examples. The weekly discussions are growing my Christian experience and slowly changing my view of how to live as a child of God in today’s complex world. Finally the whole Old Testament sanctuary teaching moved in my mind from fantasy to reality!

Beverly S., South Africa