War, Peace and the Pinnacle: Part 3

This post is from a response I made to a former member of my congregation after he e-mailed me a question. One of our fine Baptists, Dr. Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, made a statement concerning a position on war and foreign policy determined by President Bush on Iraq. The issue of chief concern was Dr. Land’s saying all Baptist agreed with the President’s response to 9/11. My answer, concerning some of my thoughts on the complex issues of war, peace, foreign policy and a Cross Disciple’s response, follows.

Post Script

Most importantly and basically, I hold again that this is a “triune issue.” To discuss war and peace alone creates nothing more than the usual dualistic dilemma that delivers us to diminishment! We must recognize the third reality of every concept or circumstance … truth! Although there is pervasive truth of “peace being desired,” there is the insurmountable truth of “war being determined.” Where is the man, the country, the government that will end war and usher in a pure and real peace? Give me one shred of evidence that mankind has the will, wisdom and resolve to do it! It is a futile exercise in illusion!

The truth of “triune thinking” places peace and war as the two second level priorities that they are. Kipling had it right in his famous poem, “If,” when he called both victory and defeat imposters! It is also true when naive, selfish and senseless human beings long for a “godless peace” by ending “human wars.”

It is only the pressure and pleasure of a ruling, loving, righteous Lord Who will end mankind’s endless conflicts and deliver again an Edenic peace! Only Jesus Christ qualifies to establish such a divine ideal! The “peaces” and “wars” of earth are only temporary dualistic dilemmas that will never be controlled by man. They are God’s sovereign tools, however, to reveal the third and higher reality to the eyes, mind and heart of those who “faith Jesus.” “For He Himself is our peace, Who has made the two one, and has destroyed the barrier …” (Eph. 2:14).

Our Lord has so allowed it that during our earthly journey all of us must struggle with our views of and participation in peace and war! But the highest conflict is not to end war or to enforce peace. These are limited dualistic areas. The true struggle of our earth life is to embrace the purity that sees God (Mt. 5:5). In “the churn” of war and peace our most significant and ultimate endeavor is to receive God’s gifts, find His higher truth and have the realities of eternity opened before our eyes (Mt. 7:7). Life for the Christ Disciple is much more than the dualism of defeat or victory. It is the trinitarian goal of overcoming both. Both peace and war on earth are irrelevant to the higher purpose of the Father, but I must save that compelling thought for another letter! Let it suffice for now that the only effective foreign policy by any country will have to be God’s policy!

This is “the foreign policy” that should have first billing on the lips of every “cross savvy” ambassador of our Lord Christ Jesus (II Cor. 5:20-21).

Great peace have they who love Your law; nothing shall make them stumble. Psalm 119:165

War, Peace and the Pinnacle: Part 2

The following post is from a response I made to a former member of my congregation after he e-mailed me a question. One of our fine Baptists, Dr. Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, made a statement concerning a position on war and foreign policy determined by President Bush on Iraq. The issue of chief concern was Dr. Land’s saying all Baptist agreed with the President’s response to 9/11. My answer, concerning some of my thoughts on the complex issues of war, peace, foreign policy and a Cross Disciple’s response, follows.

Each of us is “condemned” to act out a less than perfect role on earth no matter what political path one might choose … be it conservatives, liberal, passive or radical. All four positions can be “extreme.” When it comes to war … is one basically a 1) conscientious objector (I will never fight), 2) a pacifist (all violence is wrong, but I may be forced to fight), 3) a just war believer (war is necessary, like capital punishment, but I’ll be sure of the justice of it before I fight) or 4) a holy war advocate (it is the instrument of God and we should fight anytime it will advance our highest purpose).

Everything Dr. Land said fits somewhere into the four categories above. The differing phases of each have been chosen by sincere Christians for 2,000 years. His error, if I understand the issue correctly, would have me say I agree with you. He should not write as though he speaks for all Southern Baptists on this multi-option subject. We must remember, however, reading his letter in 2009 can in no way recapture the intensity, shocks, wounds and fears of the American people when he wrote it in 2002. We must see it in the light of the fresh experience of 9/11. They are different worlds!

U.S. foreign policy today plays musical chairs continually, as we have for over 220 years. We can be either isolationist (Europe – 1940) on an issue or imperialistic (Spain – 1898). If neither of those fit, we are either benevolent interventionists (Indian Ocean tsunami relief – 2004) or self-interested interventionists (Kuwait – 1990). I could offer numerous historical illustrations, if I took the time and space, for these four options. (I contend there are always four options that surround us personally and nationally.) This would make for an excellent research paper (it probably already exists in many formats). Whoever is in the White House at the time of a decision will tip the scales of foreign policy according to the political climate of the times. The president’s political party, the American electorate and personal ideology cannot be ignored. In the midst of critical events, principle is often lost, if ever known.

My primary responsibility as a servant of Jesus is to hear the voice of the Master for my life calling and then yield to His specific, eternal and global desires for my personal cross mission. Mine is to be a Citizen of Heaven above all other loyalties. I do have a secondary responsibility to be the best citizen I can be of the United States. Right or wrong, it is my only country to make “politically better.” But no matter how “better” I might make it, all human governments will always be malignant with sinful human nature; even the best acclaimed “good” will only be temporary, even though beneficial for a season. Nevertheless, those of us who see the world with the eyes of Christ and invest our energies in the Savior’s global mission can affect every nation on earth with spiritual and even political and economic “salvation!” Rich evidence to this fact is everywhere!

Yet again, my primary responsibility as a Cross Disciple on this earth is to increase my praise, perception and performance as an individual in order to reflect the faith and fragrance of my true Commander Warrior General, Jesus Christ. May God help us all to see this priority and pay the price to aim for its fulfillment!

I am not primarily a conservative, a liberal, a radical or a passivist. I am, by God’s grace, a pinnacleist. I seek to see all four positions noted above with the mind of Christ. Each ideology reflects both truth and lie, and they can only come to highest unity with the mind of Christ in His “fullness of time.” I seek to sit on the pinnacle of the pyramid of my life experience and theologically and philosophically reign over each of the four positions. It is there that I will see most clearly the Lord’s 360 degree vision of His creation. Only “on the pinnacle” of my personal life pyramid will my vision be such that I can most powerfully reflect to others the approval and authority of Christ in my words and in my deeds. Although I am a small, limited little man in this world’s vast order of things, I will strive to contribute my creative best to help people, honor Christ’s Lordship and “cross advance” my own issues. In essence, I am joyfully waiting on the Savior’s coming kingdom … the only government that will be true, just, perfect and full of the Lord from heaven. While I wait, I am contentedly occupied with only one goal … “finding more of the Master in the midst of the mess.” In this way, I will most perfectly be His warrior and “fight the good fight of faith” (I Tim. 6:12; II Tim. 4:7). (To put “fight the good fight” in more brilliant and enthralling tones … let us hear it in the Greek and praise the Source of all we are even more … Paul’s words to dear Timothy and to us should fire our hearts, “The good agony I have agonized.” Therefore you too should “… agonize the good agony of the faith.” Thank God we have been granted this kind of suffering for the Savior’s sake (Phil. 1:29).) I take the great Apostle’s counsel to his faithful Timothy as the Savior’s personal word to me!

• “He trains my hands for battle.” Psalm 18:34
• Or as David put it in Psalm 120:6-7,”Too long have I lived among those who hate peace. I am a man of peace, but when I speak, they are for war.”
• “There is a season for every activity under heaven … a time for peace and a time for war.” Ecclesiastes 3:1,8

These, my friend, are a few of my thoughts on President Bush, Dr. Land and, above all, you and me! May our Lord enable us all to go to the pinnacle as we remain four brothers in Christ.

War, Peace and the Pinnacle: Part 1

This post is from a response I made to a former member of my congregation after he e-mailed me a question. One of our fine Baptists, Dr. Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, made a statement concerning a position on war and foreign policy determined by President Bush on Iraq. The issue of chief concern was Dr. Land’s saying all Baptist agreed with the President’s response to 9/11. My answer, concerning some of my thoughts on the complex issues of war, peace, foreign policy and a Cross Disciple’s response, follows.

A Reply to a Letter on the Iraq War

Your facts about the war in Iraq seem right to me. But even if they are perfect and rightly interpreted, facts are never enough for “triune solutions”! We’ll never know if the WMD evidence at the time supported our response or not. I do see an Islamic country with a democratic government as the “camel’s nose” to our security. Yet life is always “a mixed bag,” just like Moses’ “mixed multitude.” For the last several centuries Islam declined to poverty and weakness, though they had leaders who remained radical. In our day they have become again rich, powerful and even more radical.

U.S. diplomacy always rises or falls to the level of a current administration’s “sin level” … I’d include every president from Wilson to Obama in our WWI to Iraq/Afghanistan drama. Our foreign policy has not been perfectly consistent or ethically rational even though that was our goal. How consistent and rational can a foreign policy be when our options and leaders are in constant flux? Even if one course of action is worse or better, inconsistency and irrationality are the causes of policy. This is true from Andrew Jackson’s Trail of Tears to L.B.J.’s “no win” in Vietnam.

Mankind will never be able to govern themselves in a lasting, peaceful, righteous and fully beneficial way. They may insist on keeping their dream of building “a good Tower of Babel” but they will never finish it! General Patton, addressing his troops before Operation Overlord in WWII, knew all the peace conferences, diplomatic negotiations, treaties, charters and international organizations, etc. may look good and sound good, but they were all useless when it comes to stopping war. It won’t work. “The quickest way to get [this war] over with is to go get the [madmen] who started it.” Christians, even the ones most committed to the Cross, are both as brilliant and confused as all other parties involved when it comes to motives, diplomacy, policy, integrity, comprehension and war making. We are all generational victims of our cultures and our times. It makes no difference if one is a devoted Christ Disciple in England, Germany, Italy, South Africa, Israel, Korea, Brazil, India or America, etc. We are all prisoners to the different levels of our fellow citizen’s falleness. Human efforts will never eliminate war or establish a truly just government. I would confidently say our U.S. founders did the best job of it throughout all of history. America has been the greatest nation in 4,000 years of civilization when it comes to creating the most freedom, the most prosperity, the most opportunity, the most equality, the most progressive justice, the most benevolence, the most influence, the most idealism and the most economic and military power! It has provided these benefits to the greatest number of its citizens, more than any other nation that has ever existed.

This is all according to God’s design. His truest, deepest people come to see that the kings and kingdoms of this earth are just continuous and temporary passing dramas for proving again and again that our fallen and broken humanity will never fully face the Lord’s reality and learn His heart and His ways. Only those who follow Jesus after the manner of His cross really learn, find and overcome (Mt. 11:28-30; Luke 9:21-27). Only the most earnest Cross Disciples of Christ the Savior truly “catch on to what’s really going on” and walk the earth with His light, for His significance and contribute to His glory!

The best Christians with the most brilliant and gifted minds about “human government” can only “tinker with it” and “tweak it.” They can make it better and more just, but they will never fix it! The next generation of non-learners will always force their own ignorance, short sightedness and mistakes on any government. In Romans 11:32, Paul summarizes all of mankind’s unjust and inept governments and their dilemmas of failed deliverance with these words, “For God has put all mankind in the prison house of disobedience (they can’t deliver themselves) so that He may have mercy on them all (as they come to their senses)” (H.D.M. translation).