War

Discerning What Is Best
with Dr. Rex M. Rogers

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 28 October 2024

Are we happy when our enemies get what we consider their “just desserts”? How do we square this with the biblical command to love our enemies?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #176 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

When I was a kid, I remember times when I came home from school and started telling my mother about some other kid who had annoyed, bothered, upset me, or otherwise got under my skin. Mom would listen to this for a while, then invariably would say, “Well, have you prayed for him?” Prayed for him? No, Mom. I was thinking more about punching him.

This is a simple illustration of the human inclination and experience to react against other humans, to dislike them, maybe to hold them in contempt. Adults may not talk to their mothers that often, but they still react to others like I did back when. It’s in our nature, our sin nature.

On a much larger, sensitive, and dangerous level, individuals, people groups, and countries get at odds, then think, speak, and act badly, often-times violently toward others. Such is happening today in the Middle East where rockets are flying, pagers are blowing up, military units are advancing on ground, and each of several antagonists is trying to kill their enemy.

It is in this context of real-life war and danger that my SAT-7 Lebanese colleagues at our studios in Beirut recently held their weekly devotions focused on the question, “Are we happy when our enemies die?”

The fact that they did this got my attention. They are living real-life, not a parlor game. They are concerned about their safety and even more the physical safety and emotional well-being of their children. They are Christian believers now living, literally, in the midst of a war zone that is none of their doing or choosing.

Hezbollah has been launching rockets into Israel almost daily since October 2023, and Israel is now responding, surgically targeting and killing Hezbollah leaders.

Rockets hit specific buildings within the city of Beirut, not very far from our studios or where our staff live, and these rockets have killed the Hezbollah leaders at which they were aimed, but also, they’ve killed nearby civilians, innocent noncombatants. These unintended victims, so-called “collateral damage,” could be anyone.

Our SAT-7 Christian staff wanted to apply their Christian faith to their fears, concerns, and attitudes, wanting to respond as Jesus told us to respond: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’” Matt. 5:43-44.

We are to love and pray for our enemies. This is not easy to do.

I have never been in combat, but I’ve spoken with several who have survived combat, including my late father-in-law, James B. Stone, who was a U.S. Marines in the second wave of troops to beach on Guadalcanal, engaged in some of the most difficult fighting. He suffered shrapnel wounds and damaged hearing that eventually caused him to go deaf, and he came home with a Silver Star. He was a war hero who later became a Christian.

Once or twice, he talked about how he and his fellows were taught to think of the Japanese during WWII, including insulting nicknames and ethnic slurs, forms of hate. Remember, the Japanese at that time were the quite capable and threatening enemy. Then he talked about how years later it was difficult to give over those deeply embedded feelings to the Lord, to not hate or not even think poorly of Japanese people, rather, to pray for them.

If we are to pray for our enemies, we first need to define what or who is an enemy. Then there are other considerations, like self-defense, war, what is a Just War, and the meaning of the Imprecatory prayers in the book of Psalms.

Our natural response to enemies is often to fight back, get even, put them in their place, work to assure they get their “just desserts,” or to demand justice. But when we obey Jesus and respond to our enemieswith love, prayer, forgiveness and blessing, we take ourselves out of Satan’s line of fire and make room for God to handle justice as only He can. We don’t have to worry about our enemies.

This includes those among the enemy people group who are loveable, like children, but also those who are by their attitudes and actions decidedly “unlovely,” like radicals, extremists, and terrorists. And certainly, this includes enemies who persecute others, like al-Qaeda, ISIS, Taliban, Hamas, Houthi, Hezbollah, and the Iran red guard.

In “Ezekiel 33:11, God said, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.’ God is not even happy even when an evil person dies. As Christians, we should reflect the mourning and love of our Lord, who grieves the loss of lives on both sides of the conflict.”

Ultimately, our “enemies” are just people, just wayward individuals trapped in an “ism.” Can we then model the Lord and pray for our enemies, whatever the nature of their evil ideologies?

This does not mean we surrender our responsibility to make judgments about right and wrong, or that we wink at wrong in some warped definition of love. No, with St. Augustine, we still “hate the sin and love the sinner.”

For me, it’s amazing to think: God cares about the “worst kind of sinner.” He can even draw people to himself who are involved in wicked aggression, for even this malevolence is not the unpardonable sin.

The most compelling example of praying for one’s enemy was the prayer of Jesus on the cross. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” Luke 23:34. This prayer draws together three acts of the heart involved in loving our enemies: prayer, forgiveness, and mercy.

What about the other considerations? It is true that the Bible leaves room for self-defense, condemns murder but does not say, never kill, never use weapons, never go to war. There is a place in this fallen world for legitimate use of coercive force as noted in Rom 13:1-7. God says of legitimate government authority, “For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.” This teaching is not in conflict with love your enemy.

Then there is Just War theory – the right to go to war, the right conduct within a war. For Christians, Just War theory dates to St. Augustine. Thinking about when a war is just and justifiable and when it is not is one way we can love our enemies.

In the Old Testament we find what’s called imprecatory prayers. To imprecate means “to invoke evil upon or curse” one’s enemies. King David, the psalmist most associated with imprecatory verses, often used phrases like, “may their path be dark and slippery, with the angel of the LORD pursuing them” (Psalm 35:6) and “O God, break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions, O LORD!” (Psalm 58:6).

But the Psalms that include imprecations are not filled with only imprecatory prayers. In fact, there is not a single Psalm that ONLY has imprecatory prayers.

Rather each Psalm is filled with multiple subjects that usually combine these imprecatory prayers with the hope that the psalmist has in the Lord. They do not conflict with the command to love our enemies.

How then should we pray for our enemies?

Our own ability to forgive.
That they come to revere and submit to God via the Gospel.
That their sins are forgiven and that they become forgiving people.
That they will seek to do God's will.
That God protects them from temptation and the devil.
That right, justice, and peace will be recognized and established.

Loving and praying for our enemies, whether personal and social or international and political is a very “un-human” thing to do, meaning our human inclination is to not love but to promote ourselves against others. But this is the point: we cannot simply decide to love our enemies and thus make it so. Rather, we need God’s love in us. “We love because he first loved us” 1 Jn. 4:19.

Finally, “may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all” 1 Thess. 3:12.

Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com. Or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers for more podcasts and video.

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers, or connect with me at LinkedIn or X accounts.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 07 October 2024

With the Middle East on fire, how should we be praying and acting?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #173 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

It’s been one year since the surprise 10/7 Hamas massacre of innocent Israeli citizens just across the border with the Gaza Strip, and the Middle East now stands on the brink of regional war.

You will recall 1,139 people were killed. “About 250 Israeli civilians and soldiers were taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip, alive or dead, and including 30 children, with the stated goal to force Israel to exchange them for imprisoned Palestinians, including women and children.”

In the history of man’s inhumanity to man, the massacre was notable for its soulless brutality, sexual assault as an act of war, and premeditated terror, like filming atrocities with GoPro cameras.

Since this time, “during a ceasefire at the end of November, Hamas released 105 hostages. In return, Israel released 240 Palestinian prisoners.” Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he believes about 50 of the remaining roughly 100 hostages held are still alive.

War in Gaza has now killed tens of thousands of Palestinians with some Hamas still active. In the West Bank some terror attacks have occurred and sporadic fighting results. Iran’s proxies in Iraq, Syria, and Houthi rebels in Yemen are launching missile and drone attacks on Israel, and Israel has responded against the Houthis. From Lebanon, Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets at Israel, forcing 60,000 Israelis near the border to leave their homes.

Israel pulled off high-precision targeted assassinations using weaponized pagers and walkie-talkies, killing the Hezbollah men using them, with, as inevitable, some civilians nearby dying as collateral damage. Israel then surgically destroyed Hezbollah’s central headquarters in downtown Beirut, killing several top leaders. Iran then fired about 180 ballistic missiles into Israel, most of which were destroyed by Israel’s air defenses.

Israel has now moved militarily into southern Lebanon seeking to destroy Hezbollah’s capability to launch an invasion like Hamas did 10/7. Meanwhile, some one million Lebanese citizens in southern Lebanon have been displaced from their homes.

How are Christians processing 10/7 and the year since?

Have we demonstrated moral clarity on this issue, or are we reacting based upon emotion and maybe limited information? Or are we aligning with “our side,” people we think we should back, e.g., Israel, and then expressing indifference in the face of legitimate moral concerns for suffering people on what we call the “other side,” e.g., Gazans or Palestinians?

Here are a few different Christian perspectives:

Some have drawn a direct line from Middle East conflict to end of the world scenarios to the Second Coming of Christ. I am not a theologian, but I do know the Bible warns us against choosing times we think the Lord is coming. It is unwise to jump from media pronouncements to prophecy conclusions. That said, are we in the End Times? Perhaps. Only God knows. But our responsibility is still to live as unto the Lord.

Some Christians have rushed to equate biblical teaching that Jews are God’s chosen people with the reality of Israel as a modern nation-state. A fraction of these believers embrace Christian Zionism, but most have probably never heard the term. This can get one in trouble several ways. Certainly, the Bible indicates God works through the Jewish people. And we are commanded to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Ps 122:6). But we should remember Israel is a secular government working with realpolitik, national interest approaches to decision-making, all of which may or should be critiqued from a moral point of view. It is not ipso facto antisemitic to question or criticize Israel’s actions as warranted any more than it is anti-American or anti-patriotism to critique our own modern nation-state and its leaders. In fact, it is our Christian stewardship to critique political ideas and actions.

Some Christians have said they are “concerned by the large number of people who lean toward peace-forward options for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That 88 percent believe that lasting peace requires a mutually agreed-upon solution is commendable but out of touch with reality when Hamas is dedicated to the destruction of Israel.” That’s Israel’s conundrum. If it lays down its arms in response to incessant calls for an immediate ceasefire, what happens next do you think? Will its enemies take their weapons and go home? If surrounded by armed aggressors, is laying down arms an act of peacemaking or suicide?

Some argue, horrible though 10/7 was, Israel is ultimately responsible because it has “occupied” the Gaza Strip since the Six-Day War in June 1967. They brush by the fact that in 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza, effectively ending its direct occupation of the territory. And in 2006, Gazans elected Hamas to leadership. It is true though, while Israel no longer has a physical presence in Gaza, it maintains control over its borders, airspace, and maritime access, leading to ongoing tensions and conflict in the region. This is considered minimal for Israel security, and 10/7 seems to suggest this is correct. Meanwhile, many Westerners still accuse Israel of being an apartheid state. But this is a mischaracterization. “In Israel there are non-Jewish judges, teachers, professors, even members of Knesset, as well as others holding high positions in all professions and occupations. In apartheid South Africa, non-whites were systematically banned from all such opportunities. They were deprived of the right to vote and choose their own leaders. Israeli citizens, both Jews and Palestinians, have these civil rights in full.” But Palestinians, or Gazans if you will, are still caught in the middle. Jordan remains one of the few Middle East nations to grant Palestinians citizenship. Other nations have greatly restricted their access. But for us as believers, trying to think beyond politics, it is worth considering that if Palestine is not a legitimate state, and though Hamas terrorists have dominated them, are Palestinians not legitimate people with real hurts and fears? God loves them too. So how do we help the hurting and helpless and harassed among them?

This comes into play when we consider how we balance Israel’s right to self-defense with Palestinians’ right to self-determination. Many Western politicians and religious leaders regularly speak of a “Two-State Solution,” meaning Israelis get to live here and Palestinians get to live there, happily ever after. This idea dates to about 1938, but the problem is, it is a Western idea. Middle Easterners for the most part have never supported it, especially Palestinian leadership and certainly terrorist groups like Hamas. “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free” is a rallying cry for terrorist groups and their sympathizers.” So how do you arrive at a peaceful co-existence when one side—Hamas—does not believe the other side—Israel—has the right to even exist?

Some among us pray for Christians in Lebanon, as in Gaza earlier, who are caught in the crossfire. We know Scripture commands us to weep with those who weep (Rom 12:15), to lament over pain and suffering, and many innocent, Christian noncombatants have been in danger in Gaza and are now in danger in Lebanon, as well as Israel.

Loving and praying for our enemies (Matt 5:43-44) is another biblical command. Recently, my international colleagues with SAT-7 in Lebanon reflected in their devotional time on the question, “are we happy when our enemies die?” This is a thought-provoking question and goes to the core of our faith. “Ezekiel 33:11 states, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.’ God is not even happy even when an evil person dies. As Christians, we should reflect the mourning and love of our Lord, who grieves the loss of lives on both sides of the conflict.”

“The Israel-Hamas conflict is a deeply complex and tragic issue with no easy solutions, but our call as Christians is to have a response rooted in love, empathy and prayer. Even in the darkest of times, hope and compassion can prevail.”

We can ask our Sovereign God to work through this violence to open doors for both just and lasting peace, and open doors for the development of free, democratic nations that protect human life and religious liberty.

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers or https://x.com/RexMRogers.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 29 September 2024

Perhaps some of you have experienced war, so you know how to pray during times of war, but for the rest of us, how should we pray in violent times?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #171 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

“War is hell,” so said Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman, and who would disagree with him? War damages, destroys, wounds, scars, maims, kills.

Awful though it is, war is a fact of life in a fallen world because it is rooted in the sinful, deceitful heart of man.

How then should we pray in times of war? Should we always pray for an immediate cessation of violence? Should we pray for peace when injustice remains? Can we pray for evil actors?

There is much in Scripture to guide us. We are commanded and expected to pray.

The book of James says, “You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.” James 4:2

In the Lord’s prayer, we’re taught to acknowledge God’s will, saying “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Matt. 6:10

Scripture recognizes that war and conflict and trials and tribulations will happen in this fallen world, so we are reminded, “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.” Prov. 21:31

Perhaps surprisingly, nowhere in Scripture are we told never to go to war or that all war is evil, unjust, or wrong. As I’ve mentioned before talking about weapons, while God says, “You shall not murder” (Ex. 20:13), nowhere does Scripture tell us not to own weapons, that weapons are ipso facto evil, or that we should not use them for self-defense.

So, war happens, and it may be that we find ourselves in war for just reasons. But whatever the motivation of the actors in war, how should we as Christian believers pray during such times?

Let’s consider the obvious first: Just War theory refers to noncombatants. So, we should pray for innocent children – physically and emotionally endangered, living in fear and panic, ill, suffering, hungry, unable to attend school, orphaned. Innocent children may be found on all sides of a conflict.

Think how difficult it must be for Christian parents in a war zone to explain to their young children what’s happening, and to explain this in a way that is truthful yet does not raise their fears and anxieties.

Other ways to pray for in innocents in war who suffer, including civilians, children, and especially hostages:

Pray for protection: Ask God to protect civilians, children, the elderly, the infirm.
Pray for an end to violence: Ask God to bring an end to the war.
Pray for wisdom and grace: Ask God to give leaders the wisdom and grace to put the safety of noncombatants first.
Pray for guidance: Ask God to guide efforts to bring relief to troubled regions.
Pray for those who are displaced from their homes, what’s called internally displaced peoples, and pray for those who emigrate from their country and may become refuges.
Pray for hostages will be unharmed and released.

Scripture enjoins caring Christian believers to weep with those who weep or experience lamentation, pain, or suffering. How can we do this?

Pray for comfort and healing: Ask God to comfort and strengthen those affected by war, and to help them find healing and hope.
Pray for those separated from loved ones: Ask God to watch over refugees and victims of war, including those separated from their loved ones.
Pray for the bereaved. People experience loss in war, and grief becomes a daily companion.

My friend, John, reminds us we should take care to pray without “telling God what to do.” In other words, //medium.com/@andrewhayes/try-praying-without-saying-i-pray-that-a74ef49f17d3" style="color: #96607d; text-decoration: underline;">pray without saying, “I pray that” or “Lord, please do this or that.”

Jesus prayed for the Lord’s will, as in “When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,’” Jn. 17:1

And King David, “But you, O God my Lord, deal on my behalf for your name's sake; because your steadfast love is good, deliver me! For I am poor and needy, and my heart is stricken within me.”Ps. 109:21–22

We should pray by asking, not by directing. This means, of course, that we must trust the Sovereign God for his will and the results, for those in war as well as for our loved ones near us.

Sometimes it is difficult to know how to pray for a given violent conflict. What if at least one side are evil aggressors who act based on greed, ethnic hatred, or desire for power? What if they will not respond to pleas for ceasefire or negotiation, and in fact, without unconditional surrender, declare they will fight and kill until the last among them live?

Evil, violent groups like this may only respond to military power and destruction, meaning that exercise of violence as legitimate coercive force, as noted in Romans 13, may be the only way to end violence. It is ironic, perhaps, but it is the fallen world again. It is the character of sin.

So, in this case perhaps we pray for the Lord’s intervention according to his will.

We pray that evil actors will be restrained and brought to submission to what is right and just. We pray not just for a cessation of violence, not just for peace, but for a peace that is just and therefore potentially lasting.

Scripture tells us to pray for the opposition, evil actors. God said, “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” Matt. 5:44. We are commanded to pray for the Taliban, for Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. We are commanded to pray for any human being we consider enemies of moral right, good, and peace.

We may also pray specifically for Christians on all sides of a conflict or war. In the Holy Land, that is, Israel—yes, Israeli Christian believers or Messianic Jews, and in the West Bank, Gaza—yes, Palestinian Christian believers—there are Christians right now caught in the crossfires of this violence. In Lebanon, there are Christians fearing for their families as violence edges closer to where they live and must work.

Pray for the safety of Christian believers.
Pray for their encouragement.
Pray God will be their refuge in suffering.
Pray for their witness as unto the Lord and his Gospel, his peace.

I think it is particularly appropriate and important to pray for the next generation. Pray for those whose hearts are bent on hatred and violence, that the Sovereign God will pour out His Spirit upon them, such that they see the futility of generational, ethnic or religious hatred, that they will come to see each human being as precious in the sight of God, that they will “turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it,” Ps 34:14.

Finally, pray for the global Church, especially the Western Church, that our eyes will be open to what God would have us do, and that we will be renewed in wisdom, faith, and hope. Pray the Church will see helpless and harassed human beings in the midst of the smoke of violence, that we will care for the hurting of all nationalities, ethnicities, ideologies, and politics, that we would think God’s thoughts after him.

Pray “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God,” 2 Cor. 1:3-4.

Jesus said, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world,” Jn. 16:33.

Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com. Or check //www.youtube.com/@DrRexRogers" style="color: #96607d; text-decoration: underline;">my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers for more podcasts and video.

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 20 May 2024

Are Christian leaders speaking into the Israel/Hamas Conflict in a manner that reflects our best understanding of a Christian worldview?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #150 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

Since just after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas surprise attack on innocent civilian Israelis in Israel, I’ve been bothered by how some leaders, including Christians, seem to be parsing this conflict.

On 10/7, Hamas terrorists crossed into Israel and perpetrated heinous, barbarous, cruel, and sickening carnage upon Israeli civilians, killing 1,139 people, including 764 civilians and 373 Israeli security personnel. This coordinated armed coercion included murder, butchery, torture, burning, and weaponized sexual violence involving rape, mutilation, extreme brutality against women and girls. And it included kidnapping some 252 victims and holding them as hostages, some of whom have been returned, most of whom are now dead, presumed dead, or believed still in captivity. To add considerable insult and humiliation, the savage raid was videoed by Hamas killers who wore Go-Pro cameras and later in their celebration, pride, and arrogance shared the videos with the world.

Since that time, Israel’s military, called the Israeli Defense Force or IDF, invaded the Gaza Strip and have been seeking to eradicate Hamas, wiping out every operative and eventually the group itself. As of May 8, 2024, over 36,000 people (34,844 Palestinian and 1,410 Israeli) have been reported as killed in the Israel-Hamas conflict, including 97 journalists (92 Palestinian, 2 Israeli and 3 Lebanese) and over 224 humanitarian aid workers, including 179 employees of UNRWA.

Despite the gut-wrenching brutality of 10/7, it has not been Hamas but the IDF that has attracted near world-wide condemnation for what is perceived as disproportionate killing, indiscriminately killing thousands of women and children, or intentionally engaging in a military operation aimed at genocide of the Palestinian people.

Now remember, the Palestinian death toll figures have consistently been taken from the Gaza Health Ministry, controlled by Hamas, yet these figures have been reported on mainstream media as if there is no question concerning their accuracy.

Recently, the UN revised these casualty figures significantly down, then denied they had done so.

All this sets the stage for Christian leaders to make comments that I find bothersome for their shallow theology or selective presentation of facts.

1-Comments lack nuance, meaning they tend to be one-sided, which is understandable and not necessarily bad if the full story is considered. Some leaders present a certain narrative that omits questions, issues, or developments that might cause one to question their message. Mainstream Media does this every day, i.e., they don’t provide news as much as interpretative slants that fit their political view. They knowingly omit inconvenient truths.

2-From the get-go, many Christian leaders have called for “ceasefire,” which seems logical, right? No one wants to perpetuate war and killing…well, except Hamas. I’m not quibbling with Christian leaders calling for ceasefire per se, but my eyebrow goes up when I note that their demand for ceasefire:

a) is generally aimed at Israel, not Hamas,

b) is presented as the moral equivalent of a biblical mandate about loving one’s enemy, that is, the only way to show this is ceasefire,

c) is shared as a panacea, meaning an automatic cure to what ails the region.

3-Christian leaders sometimes say that if people, in this case nation-states, would “just sit down and talk with their enemies,” then peace would be established. But one problem here: Hamas states in its founding documents that it does not recognize Israel’s right to exist. Hamas hates Israel and has vowed never to cease actively attempting to destroy Israel as a nation-state.

Consider these few quotes from Hamas’ primary documents:

“Palestine symbolizes the resistance that shall continue until liberation is accomplished, until the return is fulfilled and until a fully sovereign state is established with Jerusalem as its capital.”

“Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine. Its religious, historic, and civilizational status is fundamental to the Arabs, Muslims, and the world at large. Its Islamic and Christian holy places belong exclusively to the Palestinian people and to the Arab and Islamic Ummah. Not one stone of Jerusalem can be surrendered or relinquished.”

“The establishment of ‘Israel’ is entirely illegal and contravenes the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.”

“There shall be no recognition of the legitimacy of the Zionist entity.”

“Hamas believes that no part of the land of Palestine shall be compromised or conceded, irrespective of the causes, the circumstances and the pressures and no matter how long the occupation lasts. Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea. ‘

How will talks proceed when in this case at least one side does not believe the other has any right to exist?

4-Christian leaders frequently say, “Violence always leads to more violence.”

But what if violence is perpetrated by bad actors seeking to destroy others? What then is the proper response?

If a terrorist group slaughtered, raped, and brutalized Americans in a surprise invasion into our country, all the while videoing the carnage, then also kidnapped American citizens, subjecting them to sexual degradation, abuse, and murder, what would these Christian leaders want the US military to do?

Would Christian leaders really stand up and say, “Violence begets more violence”? Would they argue we should sit down for talks with the perpetrators? Where in this scenario is there room for self-defense?

Some Christian leaders, while not declaring themselves as such, sound like romanticists or idealists or pacifists, because their comments seem bereft of any understanding of evil or sinful depravity in the human heart. Their comments don’t acknowledge that one reason God created government is as a protection against the ravages of evil in the world. God gave legitimate government authority to use coercive force to preserve peace, establish justice, and insure domestic tranquility.

In fact, in shouting “Violence leads to more violence” and calling for immediate ceasefire, these leaders fail to recognize that in a fallen world, sometimes legally constituted governmental and military force must use violence as the only means available to stop violence.

Cries of “Violence always results in more violence” also suggest those who embrace this incomplete philosophy equate the absence of violence with the presence of peace and justice.

In other words, if I don’t hit back, if I don’t return fire, i.e. the absence of violence, then there is peace? Or rather, maybe what we get is not peace but appeasement toward the bad actors. What we get is kowtowing, enablement, surrender, subjugation, or enslavement wherein the evildoers are allowed to escape justice and are allowed to return another day to reap dark deeds upon the innocent.

I’m not making a case that those who respond in self-defense or as arbiters of justice, peace, and security want violence, that they want to kill. No. It is that they understand human nature, as Ronald Reagan did when he talked about “Peace through strength.”

5-Some Christian leaders are pro-Israel, and some are pro-Palestine, while showing little concern for people on the side they oppose. Among both sets of leaders there are a few who sound prejudiced or worse. Commentators in both camps make the questionable arguments mentioned above. Both are quick to summarily condemn the other side, acting as if bumper sticker theology or meme politics hold ready-made solutions. I don’t sense much subtlety in these views; they’re sure God is on their side.

We’d be better served if Christian leaders wrestled with evil, violence, peace, and justice in Christian worldview terms. This means we label bad deeds as morally unacceptable, no matter who commits them.

A Christian worldview is not idealist or pacifist, but realist, understanding both sin in a Satan-dominated fallen world and the power of the Sovereign God.

Christian worldview recognizes there is always sin on all sides of human conflict, but does not wash away accountability for evil via the currently popular “bothsideism,” an illusion of respectability for certain points of view or certain sides that’s created without evidence.

A Christian worldview hurts for the “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd,” (Matt 9:36) who suffer and die, no matter who they are. And a Christian worldview demands we work to aid them, no matter who they are.

A Christian worldview proclaims hope in the transformative power of the Gospel, in Jesus Christ whose sacrifice is for all – Israelis, Palestinians, Americans, Iranians, Jews and Arabs, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthis.

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 08 March 2024

I read “Israel is bad” or “Hamas is bad” arguments, one-sided with little nuance or consideration of issues faced by the opposition or by civilians.

I read “Ceasefire Now” arguments with no explanation of what can happen next.

I read “Two State Solution” arguments that seem to ignore the history of this diplomatic idea.

For the “Israel is bad” faction:

What resolutions to this war, do they recommend?
How should Hamas be held accountable for 10/7?
If Israel embraced a ceasefire now, what do they believe Hamas will do?
How do they suggest Israel get the remaining hostages returned?
How would they fight an enemy ensconced in tunnels under an urban civilian landscape?
Where in this approach is any responsibility, blame, accountability assigned to Hamas?

For the “Hamas is bad” faction:

Do they believe all Palestinians are evil, culpable for 10/7, and thus should be destroyed, or at least are of no concern should they become collateral damage?
Do they believe Hamas’s self-articulated mission, rejecting Israel’s right to exist, or the evil facts of 10/7, justify any Israeli response?
Do they believe Israel is free to seek justice, revenge, retribution, genocide, or none of these goals?
Do they believe that if Hamas is annihilated there will be no more terror attacks upon Israel?

For those calling for “Ceasefire now,” including several hostage families:

Do they believe Hamas will return the remaining hostages simply due to a ceasefire?
Do they believe a ceasefire would end the war?
Do they equate ceasefire with peace?
Is a ceasefire the same as justice?

For those calling for a “Two State Solution”:

Why are people continuing to propose this political “solution,” which has been discussed since 1937, when people in the MENA do not own it and many do not want it?
How can a two-state arrangement be set up when one, if not both, people groups believe the other holds no right to even exist – as a people group, much less as a nation state?

Details: Written by: Rex M. Rogers; Published: 06 November 2023

In the chaotic maelstrom that is the Holy Land crisis, what principles can we glean from Scripture to guide our thinking?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #117 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

The complexity of terrorism, violence, and war in the Holy Land calls for thoughtful response.

Partisan, ideological, or street protest slogans are not enough, and in fact many of these are hateful, inflammatory, and clearly not something a Christian should think, say, or promote.

The ethnic nature of the conflict, dating back to Abraham’s sons Isaac and Ishmael, Jew and Arab or Palestinian, involves not only nationality, disputed territory, and historic grievances but also religious or worldview differences, making this violent upheaval all the more complex.

Understandably, we can point to the Oct 7 Hamas barbaric attack on innocent, unsuspecting Israeli civilians and arrive at a point of moral clarity. Yes, those needless deaths were perpetrated by evil incarnate deserving of the harshest retribution and justice.

But then with first the bombardment of urban areas in the Gaza Strip and the subsequent advance of the Israeli Defense Force into Gaza with noncombatants inevitably killed and wounded, and the related humanitarian crises, what is right, just, and morally justifiable gets murkier.

But as soon as you suggest any murkiness here, you’ll likely hear from Israel proponents saying there is no murkiness, no moral equivalency between what Hamas did and what the IDF now is forced to do in self-defense, in what Israel considers an existential fight, and the realpolitik of justice.

The proponents of Palestinians, including those who condemn Hamas and its terrorism, introduce another quandary that further muddies our desire for moral clarity.

They note that 60% of Gazans lived on some form of aid, no jobs, and struggling since 2006 under Hamas dominance that ignored the citizens while Hamas built its arsenal. These pro-Palestinians decry not only the bombardment, or any Israeli action really, they argue the West ignored Hamas for 18 years, allowing the timebomb to tick in the Gaza Strip. Others say, Hamas has been in charge for 18 years and did nothing to help the Palestinian people. In fact, Hamas leaders live in high-rise luxury hotels in Doha, Qatar, Beirut, and Istanbul.

Now, the war is personal. Many in the Arab World know someone who lives in Gaza, know people who have been killed, and, again, believe the West, specifically the U.S., is backing Israel to the point of perpetuating Palestinians and Arabs as second-class citizens. While it may be difficult to grasp why the U.S. is at fault here, still, this is how many in Arab countries feel and how they are parsing what’s happening.

Of course, one does not have to embrace all this perspective to be disturbed by the images of death and destruction now emerging from the Gaza Strip. Even if your inclination is to support Israel’s right to defend itself and hold Hamas accountable, suffering and death of noncombatants is gut-wrenching, for these casualties are real people, including children, and are not just “collateral damage,” nor are they mere numbers.

One of my colleagues noted this week that major news agencies are now rounding what in the Viet Nam War days we called body counts. In other words, say 7,457 people are said to be killed, but media reports 7400 or 7500, as if, as my colleague said, we’re talking about sticks or candy for Halloween. No, each number is a human being made in the image of God.

You don’t have to dismiss or ignore Hamas’s depraved massacre to care about innocent Palestinians caught in this war between an evil ideology and a nation state. So again, moral clarity is harder to come by.

Our best, most trusted, accurate, and powerful source of moral understanding is the Scripture, the inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God.

Consider these principles that speak not only into our understanding of the Holy Land crisis but of any and all trials we confront in this life:

God is sovereign—omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent—so he’s never surprised, never uninvolved in earthly affairs. This doctrine is the basis of both accountability and hope.

God is Creator and he loves all human beings made in his image, including every demographic,Jews, Arabs, Palestinians, Iranians, Russians, Chinese, even Hamas and Hezbollah. This doctrine means that no human being is unworthy, expendable, of no consequence, but a person of eternal value. This is the basis of our understanding of human reason, moral agency, and freedom.

In the Christian Church universal, what Scripture calls the Body of Christ, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Gal. 3:28. This doctrine clearly states that no one is beyond the care or reach of the Holy Spirit, and that heaven will indeed be the most diverse place we’ve ever been.

We live in a fallen, i.e., sinful, evil, world, so wrong, wicked, depraved things happen. Unlike humanly devised philosophies and religions that have no ability to define sin and thus no way to respond to evil, biblical Christianity tells us the origin of sin and therefore the source of wrongdoing, not our environment, biology, or upbringing, but in our own hearts. This doctrine allows us to understand the need for law, criminal justice, and grace.

One purpose of government is the legitimate use (police, military), as required, of coercive force as “agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer,”thus to preserve order, restrain evil, create security, allow human flourishing, Rom 13:3-4. Because sin exists, humanity needs protection and a way to achieve justice, including, if necessary, the right use of violence; in other words, sometimes the only way to preserve peace is through violence.

Israel is a nation state, which is not the same as the Jewish people, and Palestinians are not the same as Hamas. Christians too readily jump from the pages of the Old Testament into current affairs saying, “Thus saith the Lord.” While is its true that Jews are “God’s chosen people,” and it is true that God will work through Israel in the end-times, in the meantime, it behooves us to remember that no nation’s leaders, including in the U.S., are always right and moral, and no nation, including the U.S., is always right and moral.

One can critique Israel’s response without being antisemitic or ignoring the nation’s legitimate defense of its people and plans to hold Hamas accountable, and one can care about Palestinian lives without supporting Hamas or ignoring their heinous actions, and one can desire Hamas faces retribution without being a warmonger. Nations are political actors and what they do can and should be critiqued. Evaluating Israel’s policies is not ipso facto anti-Jew or antisemitic but rather a political calculus regarding decisions enacted. Similarly, a people group like the Palestinians, can be critiqued for electing and among them many supporting Hamas, and at the same time it can be accurately said that most Palestinians are victims of a dictatorial hate group that seized control of the people and the territory.

Calls for genocide of Palestinians or Israelis, coming from the Left and the Right, even shockingly from Christians and sadly from many American university students, are not morally justifiable. There is nothing in Scripture that endorses ethnic cleansing or genocidal mania. Yes, in the Old Testament, God called upon Israel to destroy different people groups, but one, he is God and we are not, two, this was a matter of idolatry not hate, and three, God at various times stopped this kind of thinking, for example Jonah’s desire for Nineveh to be destroyed when God wanted to call them to himself.

God is not the author of evil, but he will even use evil of men to bring people to Christ. “Even in the darkest of times, hope and compassion can prevail. Looking back at the suffering ISIS brought to millions, and that the Islamic government has brought to its own people, we see that the Lord has used it to open the eyes of millions of Muslims to see what the true Islam is and to become open to the message of the Gospel.

It's possible to work for justice and peace at the same time, pursuing a just peace, which has varied definitions but is not peace at any cost. This is practical. So often, we seem to think in either/or terms. Justice, rightly understood, is not contradictory to what God determines is peace. The problem with much current discussion is a belief justice equals peace, yet even protesters shout, “No justice, no peace.” Peace that is not built upon moral foundations defined by God is simply a temporary cessation of violence, not genuine just peace.

We often hear Christians calling upon God to do this or do that. But my friend and colleague John Frick made an interesting observation about this. In our prayers about the Holy Land crisis, John said, we should "avoid telling God what to do."

In other words, while we know God's character and much of his will revealed in Scripture, we do not know God's will exhaustively.

So, the point is, while we have our desires about how this war is resolved, and we can share these with the Lord, ultimately, we should say, "Lord, your will be done.

“The Psalms, and the entire Bible, though well aware of the human capacity for evil, also proclaim that evil will not have the last word.

Out of the depths of pain and sorrow, the believer’s heart cries out: “I trust in you, O Lord; I say, You are my God’,” Ps 31:14.

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

Page 1 of 3

Are We Happy When Our Enemies Die?

10/7 Hamas Massacre One Year Later

How to Pray in Times of War

Thinking About the Complexities of the Israel/Hamas Conflict

Thinking About the Israel/Hamas War

Deep Thoughts Re the Holy Land Crisis, and Life