War

On Palm Sunday – the day on which Jesus rode into Jerusalem and was hailed as King by the people – Pope Leo XIV used his homily to denounce all wars by saying, “Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.” He tries to biblically justify that statement by quoting Isaiah, “Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.”

The Pope uses a biblical sleight of hand here, taking Isaiah fully out of context. Isaiah was not referring to people who engage in war. The blood on their hands was not the blood of war, but the blood of ritual sacrifice. He was talking to the people who have rejected God’s will and embraced a sinful lifestyle, while still performing sacrifices to God. He likened them to “rulers of Sodom” and “people of Gomorrah” – the most sinful of all. God rejects the prayers and sacrifices of people who are hypocritical, offering ritual worship while living in sin. God calls for repentance, rather than merely performing religious rituals. Isaiah was not speaking out against war.

The problem is that this is the Pope who took Isaiah out of context to push his own views on war. This was not some random preacher on social media – it was the Pope. He should know the context of the Isaiah quote. He does know the context, but he misused the quote anyway to push his own views. And that becomes extremely dangerous because he was telling people who are engaged in war that God would reject their prayers when in fact, Jesus wants us all to pray, even the sinners, of which we all are, including the Pope. It is prayer which draws us closer to God and helps put us back on the right path. So, if Jesus is actually against war, then he would want those who are waging war to pray to him, to help them get realigned with himself.

But Ecclesiastes 3 cuts the legs out from under the Pope’s argument that there is never a justification for war. It clearly states, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven… a time to kill and a time to heal… a time for war and a time for peace.” There is no biblical basis for the idea that Jesus was against all war, no matter what.

On the same day that the Pope was spreading biblical misinformation, Muslim jihadists opened fire “indiscriminately” in a residential area of Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria, killing an estimated 30 innocent Christians – another mass killing in the ongoing orchestrated massacres of Christians in that country. Even though, the Pope and many Christians are against war, we all are at war. We are engaged in an ongoing war with the Muslim world whether we want to be in that war or not. And there is no peace deal which will end this war. This war ends when every Jew and every Christian is either killed or subjugated by the Muslim world. That’s it. Simply pretending that a war which systematically kills thousands of our people every year does not exist, does not magically make it not exist. The war is happening whether we admit it or not.

Jesus is the Prince of Peace and Jesus does in fact hate war. Nobody likes war, not even the most gung-ho warriors, but sometimes there are no other viable option or option that make sense. We are at war with Iran whose leaders have led tens of thousands of people in chants of, “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” over and over again for 47 years. Iran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism. There have been over 65,000 Islamic terrorist attacks against Christians, Jews and the West since 9/11, and Iran has sponsored a plurality of those attacks. So, if Christians and Jews are not allowed to engage in war, and the Muslims are told explicitly by their holy book to murder Christians and Jews, you do the math. In a very short time, there will be no more Jews nor Christians. Is that what Jesus wants?

Where does the Pope think Jesus stands on Islamic terrorism and the extermination of every Jew and every one of his followers? Does he think that is what Jesus I meant by “love your enemies” and “turn the other cheek” – allow the religion of the devil to murder every one of his people?  Does the Pope think that is the proper  application of Jesus’ teaching? Sit passively by and allow the enemy of Christ to murder all the followers of Christ? Does God listen to the prayers of people who are too scared to stand up and fight evil, too cowardly to fight for the will of God, who use the peace of Jesus as a shield to hide their cowardice?

You may argue that Jesus allowed himself to be mocked, beaten and crucified by his enemies, which is absolutely true. But Jesus’ death was the ultimate sacrifice for all the sins of the world and Jesus’ resurrection was the ultimate defeat of death. Allowing ourselves to be slaughtered by Muslims accomplishes neither of those. If we allow Muslims to murder all Jews and Christians which is their ultimate goal, they would be exterminating Judaism and Christianity, and rendering all Jesus did on this earth inconsequential. 

Is the Pope’s Palm Sunday statement against war a denunciation of all wars, or just this one in Iran? If it is this one, his logic is flawed. You can’t denounce a war by claiming Jesus was against all wars, and then only apply that statement to specific wars you disagree with. You have to apply it to all wars. If there is no justification for war ever, does that mean World War 2 was a mistake? Should we have sat back and allowed the madmen like Hitler and Hirohito to conquer the world, committing genocide and subjugating all those they conquered? Because that is what no wars means.

What about the Crusades? Were the Crusades wrong? Some think so, but before you answer, consider this, if there were no Crusades, the Muslims would have taken over all of Europe and forced all the Jews and Christians to convert to Islam or get their heads chopped off. There would be no more Christianity; there would be no more Judaism. If there were no crusades, most, if not all of us, would have never been born, there would be no Vatican City, there would be no Pope to denounce all wars as evil, even though he is only alive and the Pope because people were willing to fight and win wars against the enemies of Christ. 

In the end, it is what you go to war for that defines you as a Christian. What is your red line where you will stand up and fight? That reveals everything about you. If you are willing to fight for money or oil or merely to conquer a peaceful nation, that is what you are – you are about money, oil and conquest. If you are willing to stand up and fight evil, you are standing up for the will of God.

Iran is an evil nation that poses an existential threat to the West, and to Christianity. They want to turn the world into a worldwide Islamic caliphate. And if we allow that to happen, the devil would have won, and Christ will have been defeated. Jesus is the Prince of Peace, but he was also a warrior. He is a warrior for his father’s will to be done here on Earth. And the slaughter of all Jews and Christians, and the Islamic take over of the world, is a direct assault on the will of God. Jesus wants us to fight for his father’s will, whether it is fighting the sin that resides in us, whether it is fighting with words and actions against those who threaten his father’s will, or whether it is time to pick up a weapon. And what causes us to do is what defines us.

__________________________________________________________

Mr. Garrett is a graduate of Princeton University, and a former NFL player, coach, and executive. He has been a contributor to the website Real Clear Politics. He has recently published his first novel, No Wind.