Untangling Popular Anti-Israel Arguments: Critical Thinking
about the Israel-Hamas War
Note to readers: See previous APOLOGIA post for Appendix 2. (Also, Table of Contents with links is listed below. Or download pdf of the whole book here.)
Note to critics: Please read the whole of my little book (including notes) before offering criticism. Thanks.
Appendix 3: War and Bible
I am neither a pacifist nor a war-monger. I believe that sometimes (as a last resort) war is just, or at least more just than the alternatives. I believe, too, that my view is consistent with the Bible. Here are some relevant clarifications.
1. Genesis 9:6
“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God has God made man.” This biblical principle seems odd or even contradictory until we account for the biblical notions of guilt and shedding blood with/ without God’s approval.
Consider Genesis 9:6 plus my clarifications in brackets: “Whoever sheds the blood of man [whoever kills an innocent person, i.e., kills a human being without God’s permission], by man shall his blood be shed [the guilty person will be killed by others with God’s permission, i.e., God prescribes that other human agents kill the guilty person].”
So in the case of killing an innocent person (a capital crime), it’s possible to forfeit one’s life (via capital punishment). Innocent life is so important—because made in the image of God—that whoever destroys it unjustly is justly destroyed.1
2. God’s vengeance
Yes, Scripture tells us that God says “vengeance is mine.” Significantly, however, Scripture ALSO tells us that (just) government is “God’s servant”—God’s “agent of wrath.”
Romans 13:4: “[The government] is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.”
The sword is an
instrument of death. The sword-bearer is God’s appointed agent.
Vengeance is God’s, yes, but God delegates.
3. The Bible commands “Do not kill”
No, the Bible commands “Do not murder.” Killing and murder are different morally. All murder is killing, but not all killing is murder.
Think of a police officer who must kill someone engaged in a deadly shooting spree in a school. The police officer doesn't murder; the killer of the students murders. The police officer kills the murderer to protect innocents; the murderer kills innocents. The police officer kills justly; the murderer kills unjustly.2
4. Turn the cheek
Jesus said: “Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.”
Yes, Jesus said this, but this has to do with personal relationships, not matters of government. It has to do with a backhand slap to the face, which in Jesus' culture is an insult. It means that if someone insults you, suck it up.
Context is important. Jesus is talking to individuals about how to relate to one another within a society ruled by a foreign power. Jesus is not talking about the affairs of state. (About the affairs of state, Paul in Romans 13 says the state legitimately bears the sword and is God’s agent of wrath.)
C. S. Lewis, in his essay “Why I am not a Pacifist,” points out that Jesus’ audience consists of a “private people in a disarmed nation” and “war was not what they would have been thinking of.”
Also, Lewis asks: “Does anyone suppose that our Lord’s hearers understood him to mean that if a homicidal maniac, attempting to murder a third party, tried to knock me out of the way, I must stand aside and let him get his victim?” For Lewis, context renders such an understanding impossible.
The turn-the-other-cheek passage, then, doesn't mean we shouldn't use force to protect others.
5. Love your neighbour
Aren't we supposed to love our neighbours? Doesn't love preclude war?
Yes, we should love our neighbours. No, love doesn't preclude war.
Here I side with Augustine (354–430 AD). According to Augustine, love of neighbour sometimes requires that we use violence to protect our neighbour, as when our neighbour is threatened by an assailant.
In the name of love, according to Augustine, we may have to use military force—a lethal force—to stop an army from murdering innocent neighbours.
Reminder: Not all killing is murder. Think again of the good police officer who justly kills a rampaging killer of innocents. Soldiers—just soldiers—are like that good police officer.3
6. Jesus and the sword
Doesn't Jesus tell his followers to reject the sword, as when Peter cuts off the ear of the man arresting Jesus?
It seems to me that Jesus tells Peter (who was carrying a sword even after following Jesus for a few years!) to put his sword away so that Jesus would complete His special mission, i.e., so that Jesus—an innocent man who is also God—would die on our behalf for our sins to satisfy the requirements of God’s justice.
The above sword passage is a special case, in other words.
Significantly, as I have pointed out, elsewhere Jesus tells his disciples to buy swords. Elsewhere, too, Jesus commends without reservation the faith of a Roman Centurion, a commanding officer of 100 soldiers, i.e., 100 professional warriors—who use swords! (Jesus’ having such high regard for a soldier strongly suggests that there is such a thing as morally good soldiering and thus the moral appropriateness of sometimes, under appropriate circumstances, taking human life.)
Also, John the Baptist, whom Jesus holds in high regard, advises soldiers—professional warriors/ killers/ sword-bearers—not to quit their jobs but be content with their pay.
Also, David—a man after God’s (Jesus’) heart—uses violent force to kill Goliath plus chops off Goliath’s head with a sword.
Moreover, God in the Old Testament often uses lethal force (e.g., the sword of war) to deal with evil aggressors.
Furthermore, Ecclesiastes tells us, apparently prescriptively, that there is “a time to kill” and “a time for war” (which often involved swords).
In addition (and again), the apostle Paul, writing under the influence of the Holy Spirit (who is one with Jesus), says the state bears the sword—a lethal instrument—as an agent of God’s wrath (1 Peter 2:14 confirms the government’s role in punishing wrongdoers).
Therefore, when it comes to the question of whether the Bible tells us to use lethal police/ military force justly, it seems there are good biblical grounds for thinking so—especially to protect innocents from evil aggressors.
Love of neighbour sometimes requires just force to protect one’s neighbour.4,5
NOTES
1. To destroy an innocent life unjustly presumes the intent to do so. In war wherein innocent lives are not targeted (such as the Israeli war against Hamas), there is no intent to destroy innocent life.
2. If the police officer accidentally kills a bystander or an innocent person being held as a human shield by the person doing the deadly shooting spree, then that killing is tragic but not murder.
3. See note 2.
4. Some recommended resources on war and Bible:
- Brody, Shlomo M. Ethics of Our Fighters: A Jewish View on War and Morality. Jerusalem: Koren Publishers/ Maggid Books, 2024.
- Copan, Paul, editor. War, Peace, and Violence: Four Christian Views. Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP Academic, 2022.
- Lewis, C. S. “Why I am not a Pacifist.” In The Weight of Glory, 64–90. New York: HarperOne, 2001. First published 1949.
- Patterson, Eric. A Basic Guide to the Just War Tradition: Christian Foundations and Practices. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2023.
- Rae, Scott B. “War, Violence, and Morality.” In Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics, 4th edition, 288–313. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2018.
5. The above appendix is a combination of two of my articles published previously in my blog APOLOGIA and in my local newspaper The Carillon on August 21 and October 30, 2014.
Table of Contents (links)
Chapter 1. Israel is engaging in colonial retaliation?
Chapter 2. Israel is a powerful state and thus the oppressor?
Chapter 3. Israel is not a legitimate state?
Chapter 4. Israel occupies Gaza?
Chapter 5. Gaza is like a Jewish ghetto?
Chapter 6. What about Gabor Maté?
Chapter 7. What about Gabor Maté, again?
Chapter 8. Israel targets a hospital?
Chapter 9. Israel’s attack on Gaza is as bad (or worse) as Gaza’s attack on Israel?
Chapter 10. Israel is wrong to cause Gaza to suffer?
Chapter 11. Israel is guilty of genocide?
Chapter 12. Israel’s response to Hamas is not proportional?
Chapter 13. Israel should agree to a permanent ceasefire?
Chapter 14. Israel should embrace a two-state solution?
Chapter 15. Conclusion and prayer
Appendix 1: Criticizing Islam is Islamophobic? (Part 1 of 2)
Appendix 2: Criticizing Islam is Islamophobic? (Part 2 of 2)
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