Timothy Stoner

Part One: Knowing that you are at war

Posted on 06. Jan, 2010 by Tim Stoner in Blog, Christian Life, Emergent Theology, Essays, Life

Ten years ago Peter Kreeft, Catholic philosopher and evangelist, stunned then electrified a jaded Calvin College audience with a speech in which he laid out a three-step formula for winning the culture war. His points were simple but profound: 1. Know you are at war. 2. Know who your enemy is; and 3. Know what your weapons are. I will be using his outline in the next three posts to highlight some truths that are in eclipse and in danger of sliding off the Christian consciousness alltogether.

Many today inside and (certainly) outside the church believe and believe very strongly that all of that noisy, sweaty, battle rhetoric petered out with the Old Testament and was brought to a sudden halt by the violence of the cross. This view interprets the death of Jesus as this massive back fire that burned off everything that fueled spiritual conflict and cosmic warfare. Since the power source for the cosmic combat has been removed, so the argument runs, warfare has died out. Any residual warfare rhetoric that emphasizes dueling antagonists: light v darkness, church v world, righteousness v unrighteousness, good v evil, is antiquated or, worse, destructive.

Some go so far as to imply that God’s involvement in violence in ancient Jewish history was evidence of immaturity, but now that we’ve reached a “higher level of consciousness”—we’ve all grown up, including God, and can put that embarrassing phase behind us. There is no longer anything to fear (except maybe fear itself) and there is no longer any battle to fight. One influential book advocated that true holiness is learning to embrace the world not fear it. Holiness is positive, we are told—it is about loving God and people, not the old-school negative notions about confronting or avoiding evil. The world is no longer enemy, it is our friend.

When I grew up it was very simple: the world was dangerous, evil and deadly.   My parents were Baptist missionaries so I grew up under the delightful banner: good Baptists don’t smoke, drink, or chew or go with girls who do. There were several other things we did not do: gamble, attend Hollywood movies or, on pain of death–dance.

Many in the progressive Christian camp are rightfully in reaction against that very negative, culturally-influenced, fear-based, unbiblical perspective. The contextualized Gospel that is being proposed for a postmodern world is the polar opposite of that old judgmental, anti-cultural message:

It does not reject–it accepts;

It does not judge–it tolerates;

It does not condemn–it affirms;

It does not demand–it dialogues;

It does not warn–it celebrates;

It does not divide–it unites;

It does not fight–it loves.

Obviously, this is not all bad.

The problem is that in reacting it has jettisoned some essential elements. This new Gospel is based on a Grace that makes no demands, issues no orders, requires no sacrifice, involves no struggle, enlists us in no warfare. Jesus is the Celestial Hippy who came to make peace not war. All talk to the contrary is judgmental, narrow, divisive, intolerant, ungenerous, smug and mean-spirited. The most offensive stance you can take today is to believe that you are a part of a spiritually militant band of warriors.

There is an aggressive (one is almost tempted to add the adjective, warlike) insistence that what we must proclaim today is a message of peace. The biblical data simply does nto support this insistence. It is not too much to say that the New Testament is littered with references, implications, and allusions to warfare. But some would argue that relying on these is amateurish, contextually unconvincing proof-texting. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, whereas citing Bible verses in support of warfare mindset may be fundamentalist or Puritanical, it is also scholastic, patristic, apostolic and dominical. So—get over it.

It is like the days of Jeremiah when he wept because the prophets, priests, teachers practiced deceit by pretending that the people’s wounds were not serious and declaring to them “peace, peace” although the truth of it is, “there is no peace” (Jer. 6:14). The pressure is increasingly on to conform. The fix is in: cease all communication that smacks of confrontation, smells of battle, emphasizes division, implies judgment, stirs up fear, betrays intolerance, stings, wounds, offends anybody about anything for any reason. 

War is a reality of life (spiritual life that is). I started out my book, The God Who Smokes, by quoting Peter Kreeft who proposes rather audaciously that war is the meaning of life. Since we are surrounded by best-selling gurus and religious innovators; leaders of all types who are banging the drum incessantly on the message that the essential hallmark of true religion is a generous, kind tolerance, and a compassionate affirmation of all points of view, this it is easy to forget. It is also easy and convenient to ignore or reject.

But this is not something Jesus ever did. It was the daily context of His life. His early years were spent in Egypt as a political refugee seeking asylum from a king seeking to kill Him—a king who celebrated His birth by slaughtering all the children in his home town. For the citizens of Bethlehem the birthday of Jesus was like the yearly memorial to the killings at Columbine. It was a very sad day. Christmas was a bloody holiday.     

Jesus refused to whitewash this truth, or downplay it to avoid offending the crowd. He tells His disciples: “I didn’t come bringing peace but division (Lk. 12:51). In another context He tells the crowd: “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to being peace, but a sword.” (Mt. 10:34). At the beginning of his Gospel, John tells us that the darkness attempted to overcome (a battle word) Jesus (Jn. 1:5) but at the end of His life Jesus declares that while His disciples will face trouble in this world they are to “take heart since I have overcome the world (Jn. 16:33).

Warfare is not an archaic, antiquated, irrelevant paradigm it is the biblical cosmology. War is how the Bible teaches us to understand reality. It began in the garden and God promised Adam and Eve that the battle will be hostile and incessant until the Seed of the woman crushes the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). That crushing occurred on the Cross but has not yet fully been implemented. Until it is our context (like Christ’s) remains that of spiritual battle. That is what the book of Revelation makes inescapable. The Lamb’s War precedes the restoration of all things and the inauguration of the peaceful kingdom in which war will cease forever. Till then there is war in the heavens and war on the earth. War continues unabated–outside of us and, most distressingly, inside.     

Before leaving the earth Jesus warns His disciples that they are going into enemy territory. They are not going on an extended spiritual retreat. “The world will hate you”, He assures them, “just as it hated Me” (Jn. 15:18f). So He sends them out like sheep among wolves (Mt. 10:16).

What is so unique and attractive about Jesus is that while He lives in the conscious reality of all-out cosmic war, He never sounds belligerent, obnoxious, caustic, or arrogant; even when he uses intolerant labels and divisive language. Love pours out of Him even when He is angry and passionate and commanding—He never gives any ground for His enemies to accuse Him of being cruel, sarcastic, demeaning or mean-spirited. He speaks the unvarnished, unsentimental Truth and even though it really stings, His audience knows that it is intended for their good.

Several decades later St. Paul explains (following his Rabbi’s lead) that warfare is a fact of spiritual life. “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world” (II Cor.10:4), he declares. In his final writings he exhorts Timothy to “fight the good fight of faith” (I Tim. 6:12) and then repeats it again. And at the end of his life Paul summarizes his apostolic ministry as having “fought the good fight and finished the race” (II Tim. 4:7).

When we put the battle on mute, turn down the sound of armies, the cries of battle, the clashing of swords, the screams of the wounded and dying we do something very dangerous: we muffle the trumpet call of warning and of engagement. What is more, we leave ourselves and others who depend on us vulnerable. Our silence causes others to remain:   

1.  ignorant that they are in the middle of a battle;
2. oblivious that there is an enemy intent on their destruction;
3. unaware that they have powerful weapons;  
4. unprepared to face attack, to confront and to resist; and
5. incapable of fighting for others who’ve been victimized by the enemy.

On September 11 thousands were blissfully unaware that they were at war—that Jihad had been sanctioned against the Great Satan and its disciples. As the elevators took them up to their offices they were ignorant that they were combatants in a holy war in which an implacable enemy had meticulously planned their deaths. Their ignorance did not shield them. Rejecting the notion of a holy war was no defense. Nor does denying the reality of al-Qaeda make Osama bin Laden disappear. Similarly, neither does focusing on the happy thought that Jesus created a great big demilitarized zone give us wings to fly blissfully above the fray or make the war go away.    

Tags: Add new tag, adversaries, battle, jihad, Kreeft, warfare