War

Share three of themost vivid images/ideasfrom the DVD...

What emotions &

thoughts does the clip

prompt?

Is war inevitable

because violence is in

man's genes?

I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

What doesthe Biblesay aboutwar?

Genesis 6:11-13Deuteronomy 1:41-45Joshua 8:11 Samuel 15:2,3Psalm 46:9Psalm 140:1,2Nahum 3:3Micah 4:3,4Matthew 5:39Matthew 26:51John 14:272 Corinthians 10:3Ephesians 2:13-17

What doesthe Bible

say about war?

Ever been with us...

‘Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence.God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them.I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.”’

Genesis 6:11-13

Caused by sin...

‘Rescue me, O LORD, from evil men; protect me from men of violence,who devise evil plans in their hearts and stir up war every day.’

Psalm 140:1,2

Can we agree with...

‘O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us—he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks..’

Psalm 137:8,9

Horrific in nature...

‘Charging cavalry, flashing swords and glittering spears! Many casualties, piles of dead, bodies without number, people stumbling over the corpses’

Nahum 3:3

Sometimes God forbids...

‘We will go up and fight, as the LORD our God commanded us. So every one of you put on his weapons, thinking it easy to go up into the hill country. But the LORD said to me, Tell them, 'Do not go up and fight, because I will not be with you. You will be defeated by your enemies.' So I told you, but you would not listen....You came back and wept before the LORD, but he paid no attention to your weeping and turned a deaf ear to you.’

Deuteronomy 1:41-45

Sometimes God commands...

‘Then the LORD said to Joshua, Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land..’

Joshua 8:1

Sometimes judgement...

‘This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites...’

1 Samuel 15:2

...but too servere?

‘This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites...and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’

1 Samuel 15:2,3

Jesus taught...

‘Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.’

Matthew 5:39

We don't...

‘"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 this world".’

2 Corinthians 10:3

Jesus taught...

‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.'

John 14:27

The folly of violence...

‘With that, one of Jesus' companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?”'

Matthew 26:51

Christ comes to...

‘now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.'

Ephesians 2:13-17

'He makes wars cease to the

end of the earth; he breaks

the bow, and shatters the

spear; he burns the shields

with fire.'Psalm 46:9

'He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war any more. They will sit under their own vines and under their own fig-trees, and no-one will make them afraid, for the LORD Almighty has spoken..'

Micah 4:3,4

Is war ever justified?

Just war...

=> defending against an external attack=> recapturing things taken=> punishing people who have done wrong

Just war...

=> beginning=> conducting=> ending

Redemption, viewed through theincarnation and the cross, allows noother course for its plot line than torun the gauntlet of human violence. But the outcome is adivine and dramatic resolution ofviolence and the transforming power of the Gospel.