The doctrine of warfare

1. The concept of warfare as taught in the Word of God.

a) In spite of man’s efforts for peace throughout the ages warfare will exist until the Millennium. Matthew 24:6.

b) The exception to warfare will be the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ, the last dispensation of history. Isaiah 2:4.

c) Man will not accomplish in the dispensation of the Church, nor in the Tribulation to follow, what only Jesus Christ can accomplish in the Millennium. The abolishing of war belongs to Jesus Christ, just as the solving of social problems belongs to Jesus Christ, just as the solving of life’s problems belongs to Jesus Christ.

d) Therefore, the Bible says warfare is a bona fide part of history. Ecclesiastes 3:8; Numbers 21:14.

e) There are some misnomers of warfare. Matthew 26:52 — “All who draw the sword shall perish by the sword.” This means to draw the sword in crime, and they shall perish by the sword or capital punishment.

f) The sword also refers to capital punishment in Romans 13:4 and not to the military.

2. The concept of the military. The fact that we are always going to have wars means that we are going to have the military.

a) Under the laws of divine establishment pertaining to divine institution #4, nationalism, all national freedom comes through military victory.

b) There are two factors involved in the protection of national sovereignty and freedom. The first is the spiritual factor. God protects national entities — Nehemiah 4:8,9. The second is the establishment of a military security system — Nehemiah 4:13-15.

Principles: 1) The failure of the military on the battlefield indicates lack of training, self-discipline, respect for authority, motivation to courage, spiritual incentive to resist and fight; 2) The failure of the military indicates a general lack of character and stability among the citizens of that national entity. The military is an index to the character of the people of a nation. 3) The Jewish failure during the Chaldean invasion by Nebuchanezzar — BC 587 — can be attributed to the spiritual and moral decline of the people. Jeremiah spent a whole book talking about the degeneracy, the reversionism, the apostasy of the Jews in that day. And because of these things the nation was wiped out. 4) God uses the military in action to demonstrate the degeneracy and decline of a nation. 5) Therefore the army becomes the index of national character. Armies defend freedom; armies also destroy freedom — Jeremiah 34:7. The issue of national sovereignty, integrity and freedom always depends on which army wins, the invading army or the army belonging to the nation. In this case the Chaldean army won and the Jews lost their freedom.

3. The military image of Jesus Christ. Throughout Jewish history the military image of Jesus Christ the God of Israel is beautifully portrayed. It began at the Exodus in the Red Sea deliverance — Exodus 14:14, “The Lord will fight for you today.” It was Jesus Christ who personally destroyed the great pursuing Egyptian army. The military image of Jesus Christ continued into the next generation and Joshua had the shock of his life in the generation after Moses. Joshua was making a personal reconnaissance when all of a sudden he encountered a soldier with a drawn sword. It happened to be the Lord Jesus Christ and it was one of those times when the Lord appeared in the form of a man or a theophany. He challenged Joshua. Joshua said he was in command of the armies of Israel, and Jesus Christ said, “No you’re not!” Then the Lord gave His rank, and it was Adonai Tsabaoth. This is mistranslated “Lord of hosts” and it occurs hundreds of times in the Old Testament. It is actually the title of the Lord Jesus Christ as the commanding general of the Jewish troops and it should be translated “the Lord of the armies.” So therefore His title alone gives Him the military image. So the Lord Jesus Christ fought for Israel in their deliverance. Joshua 5:13-6:2. This concept continues all of the way through history to the Armageddon campaign, the last great war in history which begins before but is concluded by the second advent of Christ. This concept, therefore, goes all of the way to the siege of Jerusalem — Zechariah 14:3,4. Jesus Christ holds the record for killing the most enemies of anyone in all of history. The record was established in BC 701 when the great Assyrian army under Sennacherib invaded the land. Isaiah 37:36, 37. The record is 185,000 killed! Jesus Christ will break His own record in killing the enemy at the Armageddon campaign — Revelation 19:11, 15. There is a principle here: War under many circumstances is right.

4. The principle of universal military training.

a) Universal military training demands total national conscription — Numbers 1:2,3.

b) There was one exception to this national draft — Deuteronomy 24:5.

c) The principle of mobilisation is found in Numbers 31:3-5.

d) Each generation must be trained in war under the principle of universal military training — Judges 3:1,2.

e) There must exist in the national entity a professional staff of high-ranking officers whose life is devoted to training, preparing, and planning for warfare — Luke 14:31.

f) True motivation for military training comes from God Himself — 2 Samuel 22:35. This also indicates the importance of physical training as a part of military training. Psalm 18:34; 144:1.

g) Military training, therefore, is useless and neutralised when men of a nation are apostate, reversionistic, full of emotional revolt, blackout, scar-tissue of the soul, full of degeneracy, antiestablishment, addicted to drugs, antagonistic toward authority.

5. Warfare is from God

a) Just warfare is from God — 1 Chronicles 5:19-22.

b) Draft-dodgers, slackers, deserters, discourage the military and are sinful before the Lord — Numbers 32:6, 14, 23.

6. The maintenance of peace by military deterrent. The Bible says that until Christ comes the only way to have peace is for the doves to arm themselves and become hawks. Preparedness acts as a deterrent to aggressive nations.

a) Military victory produces peace — Joshua 11:23.

b) God Himself has ordained the principle of peace through military victory — Psalm 46:7-9.

c) God also has to protect believers and certain nations from the crafty, evil, warlike nations which surround them — Psalm 55:20-23. The Lord Jesus Christ overrules stupidity in high places.

d) God destroys nations and empires — Psalm 68:30; Psalm 120:2,6,7. Just as God spanks the believer who doesn’t mind his own business so God spanks the nation that doesn’t mind its own business.

7. The supergrace believer and warfare. The last two clauses of Hebrews 11:34 dramatically portray the role of the supergrace believer in warfare. The supergrace believer becomes courageous in battle and he puts to flight the invading armies. Maximum doctrine in the soul gives the supergrace believer battle courage and moral courage so that tactical decisions are made and tactical actions are made that mean victory. Supergrace heroes are responsible for the defeat of invading armies. The testimony of supergrace David is given in Psalm 27:3 — “Though an army surrounds me my right lobe will not be afraid; though war rises against me, in spite of this I will keep on having confidence.” The supergrace believer is protected in combat — Job 5:20.

8. The principle of leadership in warfare. Proverbs 20:18 — “War plans are formed by wisdom in planning, and with wisdom make war.” Proverbs 24:1-6.

9. Warfare demands character. It demands moral and battle courage — Deuteronomy 20:1-8

10. Warfare is a means of discipline. God uses warfare not only to preserve the freedom of nations but He also uses warfare as a means of disciplining a nation — Judges 5:8. When the Jews began to go apostate they began to go idolatrous. They entered into reversionistic idolatry — “then war was at the gates.” Cf. 2 Chronicles 6:8,9; Jeremiah 6:22,23.