Christians: Is Military Service Wrong?

leavingwt

Christians: Is Military Service Wrong?

IMHO, there are times when individuals/famlies/communities/states/nations must take up arms to defend themselves. Otherwise, they will cease to exist.

What do you say?

superpunk

Theologically, JWs have the rest of Christianity by the short and curlies on this topic - IMO.

Well, the NT is pretty silent about the subject. There have been several christian sects who rejected military service (somewhat like the witnesses) but the JWs were the only major ones I know of who also rejected conscientous objector nonviolent service.

PSacramento

Military service is wrong when one does what they know to be wrong.

When I served I was not a "christian" but served as a peacekeeper to help and protect my fellow man, certainly christian traits.

I am now a Christian and I don't know what I would do right now, but if I felt that the cause was just I probably would.

Titus

BurnTheShips

Is Military Service Wrong?

No.

There is no mention, by the way, of the first Gentile Christian giving up his military commission when he received baptism.

At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.

BTS

JWoods

To be honest about it, the JWs probably reject this more on the basis of being "different" from everybody else than they do on actual moral grounds. Much like the rules on flag salute and standing for the national anthem.

As far as bloodshed, they do not hesitate to cause their people to die for lack of blood transfusion, nor are they horrified by the vision of their war-God himself killing 99.5% of the world's population who are not witnesses.

In reality, this is a personal decision no matter what the WTS sages think about it.

awildflower

Well here's a piece from a book I just read:

On the most fundamental level, my sense is that we are a kind, compassionate, and caring species,........At the same time, out of necessity, we are also a species of warriors and survivors. When driven to extremes, we have the power, capacity, and will to override our fundamental nature and become violent, to protect and survive. Our violence can be triggered by circumstances, either real or perceived, that we believe threaten us as individuals, families, communities, or nations. At other times, we strike out in acts of sheer desperation at circumstances that seem beyond our control. Regardless of the reason that we betray what has been called our fundamental "goodness," it is in such moments that we witness the very worst and most frightening aspects of our nature.

In the absence of conditions that drive us to be animal-like in our actions, a growing body of ancient, scholarly, and scientific evidence suggests that when given the opportunity, we prefer to live peaceful and considerate lives that honor the benevolent aspects of our species.

What he goes onto talk about is that people are generally "good" by nature.

Now when Jesus said "those who live by the sword will die by the sword", IMO, meant that yes, if you fight, you usually die fighting. There was no "wrong or right" about it, but it just IS at times. Meaning, people do what they know and then when they know better they do better. I think we live in a time where there is a shift taking place among mankind where war, is just NOT working hence we wont need a military. It will change, I really believe that. And again, for me like everything else, it goes back to motive. Idk, just my thoughts.

PS were you in the military??

PSacramento

awildflower,

I was in the Canadian Army, served as a peacekeeper in Bosnia

I was a "weapons specialist/long range recon", a nice term for a sniper.

awildflower

Gotcha! So your from Canada?

Christians: Is Military Service Wrong?

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