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It's not easy to know how to be a Christian in wartime. One reason is that no one duty applies to every Christian. Though this war somehow fits into God's providential plan, it's often difficult to discern what our individual role in it is. Phillip Jensen, dean of Saint Andrew's Anglican Cathedral in Sydney, Australia, tried to answer that question on March 23, the first Sunday after the war began. He could not give guidance for every possible Christian response in a single sermon—for example, there is nothing here about the many worthwhile peacemaking efforts Christians are pursuing in hotspots like Palestine, Ireland, and Colombia. But Jensen still managed to cover a lot of ground and give direction for believers all across the globe. A condensed and edited excerpt.

It was one of the first men to use total war, American Civil War General William Sherman, who used to say, "War is hell!" He was both right and wrong.

It is hellish in its horror and destruction: the unleashing of the forces of evil.

It is hellish in its suffering. The four horsemen of Revelation 6 riding out to conquer and fight, to impoverish and to kill, are the realistic images of war. For with war comes not only conquest and hostility, but also economic disaster, illness, and death.

It is also hellish because it is the consequence of and judgment upon sin. It is the Lamb who opens the seals that release the four horsemen—the Lamb who died to take away the sin of the world and has risen to rule and put into effect the plans and purposes of God. It is the Lamb, Jesus, who sends the four horsemen into the world as part of the judgment of God upon sinful humanity.

But war is not hell. Like all human self-willed chaos, it is only the foretaste of hell. The four riders of the Book of Revelation are only a beginning and warning of the judgment to come.

In any event, war raises a multitude of questions. Where does war, and this war in particular, fit into God's plans? Is God on our side? How does this war look from God's perspective? What should Christians be praying for, hoping for, and expecting to happen? Fortunately, the Scripture in general, and particularly the sixth chapter of Revelation—a text often ignored and feared because of its apocalyptic content—provides guidance in times such as these.

Let me begin by briefly outlining five different attitudes to this war, because God's Word has something to say to each.

First there are the doves, the pacifists who are opposed to all war and all violence. They are opposed to the war in Iraq because they oppose any use of force to resolve any issue. We all have sympathy for this position. The biblical image of heaven, after all, is of peace and harmony where "they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore" (Isa 2:4). The Prince of Peace will usher in the time when "the wolf shall dwell with the lamb" (Isa. 11:6).

That, however, is exactly what I believe is wrong with the pacifists' position: It is the wrong timing. We are not in the Garden of Eden, nor yet in the heavenly city. Now is not the time for world peace. We are in the fallen world of human sinfulness, where evil people do dastardly things and where God has given governments authority to administer justice with the sword (Rom. 13:1, 1 Pet. 2:13). Pacifism is a godly mistake in that it fails to take seriously the sinfulness of humans, for monsters do exist and do need stopping. We are all capable of doing real harm to our neighbor and need the constraint of law and order and of good government.

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May 2003, Vol. 47, No. 5