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Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church

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with a moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and

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faith. And today, what constitutes a just war in the sight of God and man? Part two. Yes, part two

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of what constitutes a just war. And this is an important question for the church to ask

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today. We have covered in the past four of seven principles of a just war. And today, I want to

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cover those last three and underline them for you, because it's such an important question for

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the church to ask of our culture today. Because is the war that we're fighting with Russia justified?

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We are in a virtually undeclared war with Russia. Oh, how did this happen? Is it just

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justified? Do we have any business sending troops to Ukraine or helping her with any kind of aid like

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weapons and finances? Oh, dear listener, the drums of war are being steadily sounded for you. And our

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emotions are being stirred up by stories of atrocities by one side or another. Don't listen to the passions

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of the moment, I advise you, because many with far greater wisdom than us have wrestled with this

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question for centuries. In fact, the church has long wrestled with the question of whether it is right

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and good for the Christian to pick up a weapon at all, or whether a Christian king or magistrate

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should muster armies at all and fight wars. These were all pressing questions in the early church,

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especially to those being persecuted by the authorities of the Roman Empire. Ah, but the

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attitude towards war began to change as more and more people became converted to the Christian faith

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in the Roman Empire. People came to recognize that the magistrate is a servant for your good,

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who is an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. And oftentimes that would be,

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oh, for example, invading barbarians in the Roman Empire. Ah, so then it was the appointed authority,

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the rush or the Roman magistrate, who does not bear the sword in vain. So these questions were also

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asked by early Christian princes like Constantine or Justinian, and the church formulated an answer. It took

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them a long time to do, very many centuries, really. We don't have time to go into its history today,

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but know, dear listener, that the fathers of the church spent a lot of blood, sweat, and tears literally

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crafting the just war theory. It was shaped not in the ivory tower of the intellectual, but literally on

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the bloody battlefield of the soldier and in the councils of the courts of kings. But it was also given,

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perhaps, its finest expression in the works of San Agustin in his magisterial work, The City of God.

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And these, then, are the seven major principles that were articulated by San Agustin, and they're taught

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even today. These are not just ancient, dusty history lessons. No. For example, the just war theory is

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still taught at U.S. military academies. In fact, it forms the basis for much of the Uniform Code of

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Military Justice. Any of you who served in the military, you know that this is indeed that thick

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book, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, by which you were administered justice and order and law and

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order in whatever branch of the military you served. Well, you may not have known it, but indeed, what we're

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articulating today, the just war theory, forms the basis for much of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

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Well, what are those principles then? We covered four of them last week, and I'll just briefly mention those,

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and then we'll treat of the last three. First of all, number one, a just war can only be waged after

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non-violent options have been exhausted, and that means every one, as many as you can muster.

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Oh, the Apostle Paul tells us this. He says, if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably

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with all. Oh, that's a principle that the church indeed has trumpeted down through the centuries,

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and something that we should take up today as well, and do so even as nations, right? If possible,

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so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Now, that's not something we can do in every

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circumstances. There are circumstances in which we must fight, in which we must use violence in order

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to defend ourselves, our families, and our property. But that was the first one we treated, and I

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refer you to last week's message, and you can find that on our website, omnispotestas.org.

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Well, excuse me, the second of the principles of a just war are number two. A war is just only if it

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is waged by a legitimate authority. A legitimate authority. This curbs terrorism. Justice is not served

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by actions taken by individuals or rogue groups. Governments duly constituted are deemed legitimate.

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And we saw last week with a questionable status of our present administration who did, increasingly

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we're seeing, steal the election of 2020, that he is more and more seen to be an illegitimate

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authority. He has no business waging war on behalf of the United States of America.

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Number three, the third principle of a just war theory. A just war must redress wrongs suffered.

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Oh, that provision was included so as to exclude wars of conquest and empire. We've seen throughout

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history that so often magistrates and kingdoms march off to war to add to their lands and increase their

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sphere of influence and power, right? No, no, no. The just war must redress actual wrongs suffered.

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And we see that our involvement in the Russian and Ukrainian war is only aggravating wrongs. We're

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only creating more wrongs by our participation in it. There's no way that we will redress wrongs suffered

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no matter who we identify as being just because our very involvement is aggravating wrongs rather than

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redressing them. And then number four, we looked at last week, a just war must be undertaken with a

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reasonable chance of success. Oh, casualties incurred in a hopeless cause are not morally justifiable.

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That's the prohibition on the old romantic lost cause of many a rebel. And it only causes further

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bloodshed. And we do not have a reasonable chance of success in Ukraine. Despite the valiant efforts

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of Ukrainians, the Russians will, in the end, eventually prevail. And they will see to it that

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they do. Our involvement will only aggravate and increase suffering. Well, those just very briefly

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were the four principles of just war that we covered last week. Let's take up number five for this week.

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Number five, the fifth principle of a just war out of seven is a just war must have as its goal,

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the increase of peace. Oh, the increase of shalom, of peace. The peace established after a war must be

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preferable to the peace that would have prevailed had the war not been fought. A principle evolved

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by the church in order to guide states that would engage in warfare. We are called to live lives of

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peace, dear listener. Oh, the Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4, he says, make it your ambition

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to live quiet, peaceable lives, minding your own business, working with your hands so that you might

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win the respect of outsiders and not have to be dependent upon anyone. And of course, the verse we

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just cited from Romans 12, if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. It's not

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a hopeless irony that a just war can bring peace. No. For example, from history, the defeat of Napoleon

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at Waterloo in 1815 brought an end to the Napoleonic Wars and brought a peace to the European continent

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that lasted for a century. Despite the brutal conduct and methods of the Roman army, another

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example from history, the peace that ensued, the Pax Romana, as it's famously called, that peace was

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greater for generations than the peace that would have prevailed had her wars not been fought,

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even church fathers like St. Augustine made the argument for the continuation of the Roman Empire

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and his encouragement for all Christians to pray for the peace of the empire. Well, the same cannot be

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said for the current war in Ukraine. Increase of peace will not happen in Ukraine. It must be emphasized

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that we are virtually trying to separate two very fierce, scrapping wolverines, if you will,

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and as happens when we stick our business in the midst of two fierce animals, we get hurt. And

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conflict is only inflamed and magnified as we participate. It's not lessened. Peace is not

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increased by our participation in this war. Our involvement in Ukraine only lessens the odds for

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peace and does not increase them. Dear listener, ponder for a moment. Let the passions of war being

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generated in your breast subside for a moment. Can any of you who are being provoked by the rhetoric

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of this administration, can you really think that Biden and his evil hosts are competent to bring peace

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to this region of the world? After so shamefully withdrawing from Afghanistan, bungling that withdrawal,

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are we really ready to follow in the wake of the charge of Joe Biden into war? Have you been so

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blinded by your emotions that your reason is clouded? Do not let that happen. The Biden

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administration cannot bring peace to America, much less Ukraine. Dear listener, we, even now,

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even at present, we're interfering in what is essentially a civil war between Slavic peoples

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that's been going on for centuries. If you know your history, you know this is nothing new in this

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region. But these bloody civil wars have been going on for centuries, and we have no business getting

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involved there. For example, from history, again, England and France both wisely stayed out of the blood

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feud that was our civil war in the 1860s. They stayed out because they saw no advantage to meddling

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in our American fratricide. There was no upside to taking sides in it. We had to settle that blood

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feud ourselves, howsoever bitter and bloody that it turned out to be. Oh, the same can be said for our

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meddling in this Slavic blood feud. We will not increase the chances for peace by getting involved

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in it. Our meddling will only aggravate conflict and increase the chances that any peace, quote unquote,

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that ensues will be more fragile and bitter than before it started. Do not listen, dear listener,

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to the foolhardy warmongers in the deep state who keep beating the drums of war. There will be no peace

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following these wars. You and your children will only pay dearly in American blood and treasure for

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generations to come. And this is not even to mention the chances that are being taken for nuclear war.

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They have been vastly increased. How can you tell me that peace will be achieved at the end of this

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when nuclear war is on the table? Fools like Representative Adam Kinzinger have beaten the

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drums for nuclear war, threatening nuclear war on Russia. Oh, and then on top of this, the United States

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of America has no war objectives. No one goes to war. Even Jesus told that parable of before a king

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goes to war, he sits down and plans it. He has war objectives. We have no war objectives. We don't know

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what we want. We don't know what victory would look like, much less defeat. But there will be no victory

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if indeed we go to nuclear war in this. Peace will not be increased by this administration, by our

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participation in this war between Russia and Ukraine. Ponder what the results of nuclear war would be.

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Go and read and look at the consequences for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II

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and see the dreadful effects of those bombs and extrapolate that hundreds of times with the improved

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so-called, quote-unquote, improved bombs we have now. In any case, number six, the sixth principle of a

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war is that in a just war, the violence used must be proportional to the injury suffered. Oh, that's a

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tough one to enforce. The violence used in war must be proportional to the injury suffered. War is brutal

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by its very nature, isn't it? And once the passions of war are inflamed, it's almost impossible to control

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excesses. Examples can be multiplied from almost any war. The massacre of Jews by the so-called People's

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Crusade in the Crusades, or the rape of Nanking by the Japanese during World War II, or even the

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massacre at Mai Lai by Lieutenant Calley and his command in the Vietnam War. Well, once the so-called

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dogs of war are unleashed, they must hunt, mustn't they? But oh, what a price is paid as they wreak

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their bloody havoc. The church has tried to maintain a measure of restraint on this tendency, and thus the

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sixth principle of a just war. The violence used must be proportional to the injury suffered. But it's not

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always realized, for example, that the Old Testament maxim, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,

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that's from the Old Testament, was actually a biblical restraint on vengeance that was imposed

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on the followers of Yahweh. Many other cultures, like those under the Code of Hammurabi, for example,

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allowed for excess of vengeance by the upper classes on the lower classes. But the Bible has always held

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for strict application of equal justice, an eye for an eye, not two eyes and a hand, or a tooth for a tooth,

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not a mouthful of teeth and a foot. Well, what can be said for the war in Ukraine? If you've been following the

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unfolding events, dear listener, getting your news from more than the mainstream media, well, shills for a corrupt

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deep state war machine, then you know that atrocities have been committed by both sides

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in this conflict. Both sides. To say that it's all on Russia is sheer propaganda, meant to inflame your

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righteous indignation. By any measure, this war is not a just war by either side. And we, the United States

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of America should not be involved at all at any level. Well, the seventh and final principle of a

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just war is a just war must discriminate between combatants and non-combatants insofar as it is

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possible to avoid them in attacks upon military targets. Yes, a just war, if it's going to be just,

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must discriminate between combatants and non-combatants, right? Civilians. Oh, civilians have

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always gotten sucked up into the vortex of the deep drain of war, haven't they? For example, in a

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egregious example, Attila the Hun deliberately savaged and raped and tortured the peoples that he

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conquered. Islam, too, has always treated any non-Muslim peoples indiscriminately as kafirs that is

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unclean and indistinguishable from soldiers. And so, under Islam, as Islam conquers, all civilian or

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combatant are liable to the sword in every conquest by the armies of Allah, or even the Allies bombing of

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Dresden in World War II, which created a firestorm, a literal storm of fire over the entire city,

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killing thousands, hundreds of thousands of civilians. Oh, well, the church, in its admonishments

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to the princes of Christendom, as this was developed, these principles of a just war,

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they attempted to restrain the bloodlust that always accompanies war. Proverbs tells us,

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Proverbs 24, 11 says, rescue those who are being taken away to death. Hold back those who are stumbling

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to the slaughter. Or Exodus tells us this in warfare, keep far from a false charge and do not kill the

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innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked. Oh, and of course, Proverbs tells us again

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that one of the seven things that God hates is the hand that sheds innocent blood. Oh, this is a

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principle well-established in biblical tradition, and the bishops of the church constantly discipline

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princes whose passions drove them to excesses. Just one example from A.D. 390, when Emperor Theodosius

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impetuously slaughtered over 7,000 Thessalonian residents because someone had killed his governor,

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and Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, excommunicated the emperor. That took a lot of guts, but Ambrose,

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in his discipline of Emperor Theodosius for this crime, excommunicated Theodosius for the murder

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of thousands of innocents. Now, this is a great rollicking good tale. I encourage you to look this

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one up and read about it, because a stubborn Theodosius at first refused to repent, but

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eventually he did. It was a long journey to that repentance, though, as repentance so often is.

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But think of an emperor under these circumstances. But these casualties, these so-called collateral

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damage casualties. Well, on Theodosius' part, they were deliberate, weren't they? The American

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military, however, has a euphemism for this phenomenon, and it's called collateral damage,

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isn't it? When a so-called smart bomb aimed to take out a house filled with terrorists, maybe,

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maybe it also kills innocent bystanders or neighbors. Well, they're tabulated as collateral

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damage. What a euphemism. Innocent civilians is what they are, right? While United States soldiers

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have an official policy of minimizing collateral damage, it is always easier to maintain in the

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classroom at West Point than it is to strictly adhere to in the fog of war. But it is nevertheless

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one of those principles, dear listener, that most officers and soldiers honor, and they try to live

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by. We must respect them for that. But this element of the just war theory is being transgressed,

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certainly, by Russian forces, as whole cities are being subjected to bombardment and shelling.

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This is not a just war. Reports of civilians regularly being shot and blown up, along with the

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military of Ukraine. Well, this is a commonplace in the news. Well, there seems to be no effort to

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distinguish between civilian and soldier, despite protests to the contrary by President Putin.

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This is an egregious violation of the just war principles by Russia. Well, all in all, we must

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conclude that America's involvement in the Ukraine war is a transgression of almost every point of the

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just war theory. An evil, corrupt, deep state administration. Have you forgotten this? Have you

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not seen this evil, deep state administration violate your rights? Demonstrate its desire to

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establish a tyranny over you? Have you forgotten this? This evil, corrupt, deep state administration

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led by an incompetent, illegitimate commander-in-chief is waging an undeclared war, which is producing

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utterly evil consequences. Do not be fooled. Do not be manipulated by your emotions. Do you who feel

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passionate about risking nuclear war, do you know what we face? All the consequences of nuclear war

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would be devastating. We have no concept because we've never been through one. But look at the results

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of the atom bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. And we will see two even further greater devastating

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jaw-dropping consequences for nuclear war if we ever actually engage in one. Albert Einstein said this,

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I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with

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sticks and stones. Oh, I've quoted this last week and I quoted again today because this is what we

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face. Utter annihilation and destruction. And some people do it so glibly, like Pelosi or Biden or

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Kinzinger or even General Milley. Oh, so those of you, let me ask, do you who blindly follow Joe Biden,

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Nancy Pelosi, General Milley, Lindsey Graham, Adam Kinzinger at all, do you mean to tell me that these

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evil incompetent leaders, they've already demonstrated this, do you mean to tell me that these evil

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incompetent leaders who have destroyed our economy, sickened our culture and cynically imposed tyranny on

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us, do you now mean to tell me that they are suddenly righteous patriots who will successfully wage

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an honorable war? Oh, give me a break. This war and our involvement in it is just another step

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in our enslavement and progress towards tyranny. Alexander Solzhenitsyn put it very succinctly

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when he said, a state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny. A state of war,

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which we are in now, only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny. My suspicion is that those who rule

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over us now are using the state of war precisely for those purposes, dear listener. And if you just

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benignly tut tut that, oh, Pastor Bass, you're only a conspiracy theorist. Well, if I'm a conspiracy

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theorist, then you are a naive brainwashed Pollyanna and you are being fooled. Let us instead of pursuing

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war, let us pursue peace and reconciliation between Russia and Ukraine. And above all, the United States

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should have no part in the fighting of this war. While the just war theory, which we just reviewed

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for you over these last two weeks, while the just war theory is in many respects a high ideal that is

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very difficult, if not impossible to achieve completely. Nevertheless, the just war theory

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is a valid metric by which we can gauge our performance before an all-holy and righteous

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God. If you want to know what God thinks of fighting wars, the circumstances under which they

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can be fought, and the means and ways by which a righteous war can be fought, then you must consult

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the just war theory. So I think that the church, in crafting this metric, dear listener, guided by the

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scriptures, indeed, the church has given us a high ideal by which to live. May we indeed live it.

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And dear listener, may you, as the Apostle Paul exhorts us all, may you, if possible, so far as it depends

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on you, live peaceably with all, from Romans chapter 12. If possible, may it be true for you,

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may it be true for me, if possible, so far as it depends on us. May we live peaceably with all.

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This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. New Geneva meets for

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holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. If you've been

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thinking of visiting us, I just urge you to go ahead and cross our threshold. You'll find a warm

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welcome and an opportunity to worship God in spirit and in truth. So we meet for holy worship once

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again on Sunday morning at 10 a.m. 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call us

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for feedback or more information at area code 208-523-0196. That's area code 208-523-0196.