January 6, 2024
War accompanies practically every effort of mankind either as either a cause or a result. One cannot pick up a newspaper, turn on the television or connect to the internet without seeing some report of war in some corner of the world. Whether in the Middle East or in Eastern Europe or in Africa or in India or even in Ireland, it seems that, as a species, we are constantly at war with someone somewhere.
What makes us so contentious?
Many animals will fight over food, over territory, over mating. As far as we know, we are the only species who fights over ideas, over ideology, over philosophical constructs and yes, over our concept of God and religion. In fact, many of the bloodiest wars in history have been fought over just these things. Armies have attacked and defended, won and lost over their understanding (or more frequently, someone else’s understanding) of a deity’s expectations.
Is there something in our nature that foreordains us to battle each other?
Being sentient, by our own definition, more than any other species, we should naturally use our reason and our rational nature to solve social problems peacefully, with harm to no one. It seems counterintuitive that rational beings like ourselves should so readily choose violence as a means of problem-solving.
I am not a physician or a psychologist. I am not even a professional theologian but I can tell you that homo sapiens has within each member’s psyche, a strong capacity for fear, greed and selfishness. Some of us control these impulses better than others. When fear, greed and selfishness infect the leaders of a community to a certain breaking point, that community goes to war. When that fear, greed and selfishness are the result of a leader’s understanding of what he sees as his divine charge, the war becomes a holy one. (Note: I use male pronouns here since at least 99.99 percent of wars have been started by men.)
It seems we have adopted the same instincts that other animals have to seek food, a place to live and to reproduce, but we have added another dimension to the survival paradigm: the need to control the behavior of other people. Men have waged war for all of these reasons. This is enhanced by our unique ability to place the blame for society’s problems on people who have different skin, different language or different beliefs.
As terrible as we know war to be, we cannot seem to free ourselves of its treacherous and evil grip.
What does the Bible say about war?
Quite a lot. The word “war” appears in the King James Bible 225 times in 220 separate verses. There are references in the Hebrew Bible in the Torah, the History books, the Wisdom books, the Prophets and the Writings. In the New Testament, there are references in the Gospels, the Epistles and in the Book of Revelation.
With that many mentions in the book seen as sacred, perfect, and indisputable by so many Christians, one would naturally imagine that the Bible’s statements about so important a subject would be lucid, consistent, and easily understood by its believers. Only the most devoutly and willingly ignorant believers, however, would actually adopt that attitude. The rest of us will easily see that any document authored by as many different authors as we know were involved in writing the books of the Bible will contain many inconsistencies as its authors consider this complex concept.
If we hold to the belief that the Bible speaks with one divine voice, the voice of Elohim, El-Shaddai, Elyon, or YHWH, to mention several of the Jewish and Christian deity’s names, we will remain confused. Otherwise we will simply rely on the old Sunday School teacher’s fallback: “it is not meant for you to understand right now; one day you will.”
If, however, we use our innate intelligence, we can readily see that the truth is more complex and nuanced.
What can we make of this ambiguity?
How are we to interpret the teachings of the Bible if they are not consistent? I believe we have to approach this in the same way that we would approach any problem with understanding complex texts, by examining aspects of the text that help reveal both its superficial and underlying meaning.
As we have seen, throughout the Hebrew Bible, war is a constantly recurring topic. Everything that happens to the “chosen people,” the “Children of Israel,” in episode after episode, creation, the flood, Abraham’s family, the Exodus, and everything else, it seems, leads up what the Bible describes as the bloody conquest of Canaan and the entry of the people of God into the Promised Land.
YHWH gives great power the armies of Israel, which have risen in martial splendor and power from among the poor, oppressed, landless people who were in Egypt’s bondage since before baby Moses was pulled out of the river. These armies conquer Canaan and the surrounding lands on YHWH’s order to drive out every person they find there (Joshua 3:10).”
Wait, what does YHWH order Israel to do?
YHWH is clear in his orders to the Israelite army. He instructs them to kill everything that breathes in Canaan. (Deuteronomy 20:16-10) He orders them to kill “both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”
According to the authors of the Hebrew Bible, YWHW’s orders to Israel are ruthless and cruel. There is really no other way to interpret the words he utters, as reported in scripture.
What do we make of a merciful God ordering the murder of babies?
There are only two possible explanations. Either:
- YHWH is not a merciful God. He is, in fact, vengeful, vindictive and cruel. -or-
- The authors of the Hebrew Bible were lying.
There is no middle ground. Either the authors have falsely made YHWH into a violent and cruel deity or he really is one.
Is YHWH always portrayed in the Bible as a violent, vindictive and warlike God?
The same Bible that portrays YHWH as vengeful also clearly portrays him as merciful. In at least 38 Bible verses, YHWH is described as merciful.
For example, in Exodus, we find the following, attributed to YHWH: “And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.”
In the next chapter, YHWH says:
6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
We see here that the Bible describes YHWH as merciful, but importantly, that his mercy is conditional. He is quoted as follows: “but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
YHWH is portrayed here as a deity who will show mercy to his faithful but who will readily punish the unfaithful.
Does the portrayed nature of YHWH change from the Hebrew Bible to the New Testament?
This is one of the fundamental questions that theologians and scholars have been struggling with for a couple of thousand years. There have been councils of bishops, interpretations by rabbis, priests, preachers and scholars. There have, in fact, been wars…and still the question remains. There is no satisfactory answer for the reasoner. YHWH’s nature and actions as described in scripture are NOT consistent and it is impossible (for the reasoner) to make any definitive statement from what the Bible authors say.
At least five verses from the Epistles describe YHWH as merciful. The third chapter of the Book of James asserts that YHWH’s wisdom is pure, peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy, impartial and sincere.
As far as war is concerned, Yeshua himself has something clear to say about war as reported in the Gospel of Matthew:
6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains. (Matthew 24:6-13)
Yeshua, who comes to save the world as the Prince of Peace, predicted by the prophet Isaiah, himself states authoritatively that he has come “not to bring peace, but a sword.”
The coming of the Prince of Peace will be accompanied by war, and that he, himself comes with a sword.
It is important to pause here and review what we have seen so far.
- The Hebrew Bible portrays YHWH ambiguously, showing him as vengeful and angry on one hand and merciful on the other.
- The Hebrew Bible states clearly that YHWH’s mercy is conditional on behavior. YHWH shows mercy to the faithful and punishes the unfaithful.
- YHWH orders the Children of Israel specifically to show no mercy to the people residing in Canaan, which is to be taken by force from the people who live there and given to Israel.
- The New Testament asserts that YHWH is impartially merciful to all.
Do these things show a consistent message from scripture or from YHWH himself?
There is only one possible answer. The answer is NO.
YHWH as portrayed in scripture as both merciful and vengeful, both warlike and peaceful. Easy to show mercy to those who deserve it but not to those who do not. Yeshua says there will be terrible wars to come but that YHWH will prevail.
To all but the most deeply fundamentalist among us, these inconsistencies are troubling, at best. We can debate and interpret. We can argue and equivocate. We can rationalize and construct elaborate apologetics which pretend to put aside these inconsistencies. We can once again rely on the old Sunday School teacher’s fallback: “it is beyond your understanding right now.” Or we can admit that the authors simply disagree.
Okay, so what do God and the Bible have to say?
For the reasoner, our answer is not very satisfactory. The scripture shows YHWH as an enigmatic and oxymoronic deity, one who shows mercy impartially but also only to those who please him.
In his consideration of war, YHWH orders a full-scale war to be waged on Canaan. Yeshua, the Prince of Peace, says there will be more war and that he, in fact, is armed with a sword.
Given these facts, we must conclude that YHWH’s attitude toward war as reported is sad for the reasoner:
- War is permissible; in fact, war is indicated when YHWH’s people need land.
- Wars will accompany the future.
- Yeshua, the Prince of Peace, is well armed.
Govern yourselves accordingly.
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