Hi everyone,
I found an interesting song in youtube today through a site called Christians for peace.
Any thoughts?
Can Christians kill other people?
Blessings to all,
brian
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
Ecc 3:1
a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.
Ecc 3:8
The O.T. teaching and example is very specific on this. There's a big difference between killing and murder.
Murder is generally the taking of another's life for personal profit and advantage.
Killing is generally defined as the taking of life during war. It is impersonal and indirect even during hand to hand combat.
Your image at the top of this thread is interesting. It shows the explosion of an atomic device.
Two such devices were used on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945.
Was it just and proper to do such a thing to civilians?
I believe it was.
The practice and advantage of killing civilians during times of war are clearly taught in the O.T.
It is an axiom of war that civilians are valid targets due to their support either directly or indirectly for their combatant troops on the front line.
Civilians support the conflict and share in victory as well as defeat. They are as honorable or as guilty of the acts of war as those in uniform who performed them.
The act of Muslim terrorists on 9/11 is an example. For them, civilians are not innocent and therefore subject to lethal force as much as any uniformed soldier. Was it honorable? IMO it was not and I therefore shed no tears when Muslim civilians are killed by errant missles.
During the American Civil War, president Abraham Lincoln endorsed the policy of the destruction of southern AMERICAN homes, farms and industry in order to defeat Confederate armies.
During WWII, the Imperial Japanese Army killed innocent Chinese civilians by the hundreds of thousands. Specifically in the capital city of Nanking, China 250,000 men women and children (who had already surrendered) were brutally raped and murdered. The incident is called "The Rape of Nanking". Look it up.
It was standard procedure for Japanese and German armies to kill civilians AFTER a surrender.
-BUT-
No American bomb fell on any Japanese city AFTER surrender, nor were any
civilians or combatants harmed AFTER surrender.
Was the use of an atomic bomb on two Japanese cities DURING WAR justified? I believe it was.
In fact, considering the magnitude of Japanese atrocities
AND THE FACT THAT THEY HAVE NEVER ADMITTED TO OR APOLOGIZED FOR ANY OF IT, I believe it was well deserved.
It should be noted that in most Japanese text books, WWII has not been mentioned at all.
When some school children were asked what they knew about WWII they asked "who fought and who won?"