Violence & Virtue: A Christian View of Combat

Written by John Cooper Jr.

With the current events between Russia and Ukraine, the thoughts of war and violence are on the minds of everyone. A lot of the focus here in the United States is on what our response and NATO’s response should be, but that is not the intended topic of this article. I’m sure everyone has an opinion of how their own country (mainly the United States and Canada on this platform) should respond, and I thought I would write an instruction/encouragement to the people fighting on the front lines in either a defense of their homeland or for any righteous cause.

A theology of the warfighter will be something I can develop in a later article or you can visit The Godly Grunts podcast or blog to get a deeper dose of that, but here I want to just speak to combat itself and what the Lord says to it. In recent years here in the Americas we have not had to preach many sermons that handle the weighty topic of combat so this may be a good time to visit this.

Christians In COmbat

First, we must understand that Christians can enter armed conflict. A lot of Christians cannot reconcile killing another image-bearer and may be conscience-bound not to do so, and that is ok.  Am not here to encourage every Christian to take up arms, however I would like to hit on just a few things concerning Christians in combat. One of the first realizations for the Christian is that if you serve in combat, you are a part of God’s ministry. God’s ministry? Yes. The ministry of the sword. This is something I spoke at length about on Episode 35 of the Carpe Fide Podcast and I would encourage you to listen to that for something a little more in-depth. But quickly, military service is the tool God uses to enact his wrath upon the unrighteous, given that that military is fighting for a righteous cause.

for it [the government] is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword in vain, for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. (LSB)
Romans 13:4

“As you fight, there will be the temptation to commit war crimes or evil acts to the enemy. Do not give in.”

Second, is that your righteous living is something that will encourage and guide the war effort around you. War is nasty business. And as you are fighting the temptation to become a man full of rage, hate, and violence will fill you if you let it. Being surrounded by death has a way of infecting and changing you, and if you allow, you will become consumed by it. But as you fight, there will be the temptation to commit war crimes or evil acts to the enemy. Do not give in.

David faced this temptation in 1 Samuel 25. When Nabal would not give David his just compensation for guarding Nabal’s flock, David was going to go kill him and every male in his house. What is interesting is that it is never recorded that any of the people in David’s company said, “Hey sir, this isn’t right, it’s murder.” No, what we see is David and 400 of his soldiers strap on their swords no questions asked to go slaughter Nabal and all his men.

When warned, Abigail, Nabal’s wife (who would eventually become David’s wife), runs out to meet David and plead for the lives of her husband and all the men. She says this to David in verse 28-31,

Please forgive the transgression of your maidservant; for Yahweh will certainly make for my lord an enduring house because my lord is fighting the battles of Yahweh, and evil will not be found in you all your days. And should anyone rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, then the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with Yahweh your God; but the lives of your enemies He will sling out as from the hollow of a sling. And it will be that when Yahweh does for my lord according to all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and appoints you ruler over Israel, then this will not cause stumbling or a troubled heart to my lord, both by having shed blood without cause and by my lord having saved himself. When Yahweh deals well with my lord, then remember your maidservant.”
1 Samuel 25:28-31 (LSB)

“You do not have to put your righteous living on the shelf to be a combat killer.”

Abigail knows that if David murders her worthless husband that He will not bless David’s rule as king of Israel. Why didn’t any of David’s soldiers do that? We will never know this side of Glory, but I put this in here to remind you, oh holy man of war, to remain faithful to doing the will of God while fighting. You do not have to put your righteous living on the shelf to be a combat killer. After all, the commander of the Lord’s Army in Joshua didn’t give him an M2 Machine Gun from the future, rather commanded him to meditate on His word.

So, we have established that you can be a man of God and a man of war. But what do you depend on in battle? I am currently reading a book, Sacred Scripture, Sacred War; The Bible and the American Revolution by James Byrd. In this book, he writes about the most quoted verses and the structure of sermons in the American Revolutionary War. And one of the themes preached by chaplains and pastors at that time was the reliance on God in battle. 

Proverbs 21:31 says, “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the LORD.” (ESV) and I will be taking the rest of this article breaking down the two parts of this verse, the warrior’s responsibility and the Lord’s victory.

The Warrior’s Responsibility & The Lord’s Victory

Psalm 144:1 was a commonly quoted verse by me when I was in Afghanistan. It reads, “Blessed be Yahweh, my rock, Who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.” (LSB) It is the Lord who trains our hands for battle. And though it is the Lord, we still must train. If you are fighting for a noble and righteous cause, especially if you are inexperienced and thrust into a situation to defend your homeland, YOU MUST TRAIN!!

Do not think because you have watched Walker Texas Ranger and American Sniper that you are now going to function that weapon system properly. You need to get behind that weapon system and actually train on it so that you can be effective. Your spare time when you are behind the line a little needs to be doing some mag changes and immediate action drills. Get yourself familiar with that weapon system.

Also remember that there are three aspects to combat, Shoot, Move, Communicate. We used to chant this on the way to the chow hall in basic training to beat it into our heads, “Shoot, Move, Communicate, Kill! Kill, We Will!” If you are out of shape and it seems like an invasion is coming, get out there and get into better shape. When you start shooting people they will see where you are. They will hear the fire from your direction and see the muzzle flash. You must be able to move not only to better positions, but also to advance on the enemy.

And lastly you must be able to communicate. You need to know where friendlies are at all times. You need to communicate where you are going effectively. Why? Because friendly fire is a real thing. And killing one of your friends because you didn’t know it was them will haunt you forever. Communicate effectively and pass along all battlefield information accurately.

So, you must be ready and you must train. And if an invasion is upon you be like David before he fought Goliath. He didn’t bog himself down with equipment he did not train on and was uncomfortable with, rather he used the sling and staff because he had used it before to gain victory. If you go into a firefight trying to figure out how to use a fancy piece of equipment half the time you could end up dead before you even get a shot off. Rely on what you know but remember David didn’t fight his whole career with a sling either. He trained on the weapons of war and eventually was familiar enough were he even wielded Goliath’s sword in his future battles. So constantly learn and get comfortable on weapons, especially any recoilless rifle or Javelin type system. If you’re in combat you know what I’m talking about.

And lastly it is God who brings the victory. Just like in our faith how we are expected to be faithful to God and “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling”, but we know that salvation is only through faith alone not our works. The same is true in combat. 

Combat can be chaotic. There are bullets flying, artillery coming in, vehicles moving, radio reports, advancing enemy, and throughout all of this you are not only trying to stay alive but kill someone who has the same objective. We always used to say, “Mortars do not discriminate.” And the battlefield is a wild place where anyone could die. But who controls it? God.

Think about this. You shoot a bullet and as that bullet exits the barrel there are all kinds of ballistic and other factors. The wind, percussion of explosions, weather, fragments, civilians, and movement of your target all come into play. Then when the round impacts there are other factors like distance it was fired from, body armor, placement of impact, bone, and numerous other things. Just because you point, and shoot does not mean you get the intended outcome.

“It was God’s hand that guided that rock to the head of Goliath.”

Think with me about the whole David and Goliath situation. David slung a rock at a giant in armor. Yet the rock hit him to the ground in one shot and then David cut his head off. It was God’s hand that guided that rock to the head of Goliath. We believe God is sovereign and will do the same of our rounds.

John Witherspoon – a Presbyterian minister and signer of the Declaration of Independence – preached violently about war. Though many sermons regarding the sovereignty of God and battle during this time period were preached from God’s intervention at the Red Sea in Exodus, Witherspoon gave this warning to the patriots from 1 Samuel 17 (David and Goliath). He quoted David who said in verse 45-47, 

You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of Yahweh of hosts, the God of the battle lines of Israel, whom you have reproached. This day Yahweh will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the camp of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that Yahweh does not save by sword or by spear; for the battle is Yahweh’s, and He will give you into our hands.”

1 Samuel 17:45-47 (LSB)

After this, he warned the American patriots not to become reliant on their own arms, but rather remember that God will grant them victory if they remain committed to Him. He said, “Ostentation and confidence was an outrage upon providence, and when it becomes general, and infuses itself into the spirit of the people it is the forerunner of destruction.” Or as the Proverbs say, “Pride cometh before the fall”.

So, in closing. If you are a Christian on the front line of armed conflict, love those who you are fighting, but do not hesitate to shoot them in the face. Remember that staying faithful to God is of supreme importance and sharing the Gospel with those around you is more pressing now than ever. You need to train and fight as if your life depends on it, because it does. But remember, victory belongs to the Lord. And if you are struggling with whether you should fight in defense of your family and neighbors as a Christian, heed these words from Jeremiah 48:10, “Cursed be the one who does the work of Yahweh with a slack hand, And cursed be the one who restrains his sword from blood.”