Who would Jesus bomb?

In every age, we find ourselves wrestling with the question of how Jesus Christ would respond to the moral questions of our day, especially as it relates to matters of war, power and politics.

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The Israel-Hamas war, spurred to greater violence by Hamas’ barbaric and brutal attack on Israeli civilians and the resulting counterattacks by Israeli forces, brings this moral quandary front and center.

Certainly, the decision to unleash the kinds of weapons raining down on the Middle East right now, where civilian casualties continue to mount, is a military one.

Obviously, it is also a political one.

But is it a Christian one? Would Jesus bomb or kill anyone?

For those who study the life and teachings of Jesus, the resounding theme is one of outright resistance to war, materialism and empire.

Yet for American evangelicals, for whom the line between politics and religion is often blurred, the answer is not quite so clear-cut.

As David Kuo, who served as Deputy Director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives under President George W. Bush, shared some years before his death, “Many Christians have embraced the idea that politics and God are synonymous, and that certain political positions or certain legal positions are God’s positions. Thus, to oppose those positions is to literally oppose God. But this is simply not true. Jesus’ gospel is not a gospel of politics.”

The narrative about the birth of Jesus is one that speaks on multiple fronts to a world that has allowed the life, teachings and crucifixion of Jesus to be drowned out by partisan politics, secularism, materialism and war, all driven by a manipulative shadow government called the Deep State.

The modern-day church has largely shied away from applying Jesus’ teachings to modern problems such as war, poverty, immigration, etc. Even now, despite the popularity of the phrase “What Would Jesus Do?” in Christian circles, there remains a disconnect in the modern church between the teachings of Christ and the suffering of what Jesus in Matthew 25 refers to as the “least of these.”

Yet this is not a theological gray area: Jesus was unequivocal about His views on many things, not the least of which was charity, compassion, war, tyranny and love.

After all, Jesus was born into a police state not unlike the growing menace of the American police state. When He grew up, He had powerful, profound things to say, things that would change how we view people, alter government policies and change the world. “Blessed are the merciful,” “Blessed are the peacemakers,” and “Love your enemies” are just a few examples of His most profound and revolutionary teachings.

When confronted by those in authority, Jesus did not shy away from speaking truth to power. Indeed, His teachings undermined the political and religious establishment of His day. It cost Him His life.

And while Jesus was no stranger to anger, especially in the face of injustice, He loved peace more than violence. And He trusted God to bring about justice in His own time. Even when the hour of His death neared and soldiers pursued Him, Jesus instructed His disciples: “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.”

“Jesus also lived in a violent world—a world as violent as the one we live in. The Roman Empire was extremely violent, but Jesus didn’t respond in kind. That is the key. Christians have to remember that the Bible teaches us nonviolence in the face of violence,” explained Barbara R. Rossing, an associate professor at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. “Jesus is the lamb in the book of Revelation who teaches a different way than more and more firepower and violence. It’s the power of love to change the world. Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane told Peter to put away his sword. Christ said that those who take up the sword will perish by the sword. There is absolutely no invitation in the New Testament for Christians to take up violence as a way of responding to evil in the world.”

Who would Jesus bomb? You tell me.

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Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His latest books “The Erik Blair Diaries” and “Battlefield America: The War on the American People” are available at www.amazon.com. Whitehead can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.