(Was a) Deacon's Blog

Laurence Vance provides an interesting perspective on the Fifth Commandment, —You shall not kill.— (NAB, Exodus 20:13).

He writes about the Commandment in relation to his perspective on the war in Iraq.

Here is an excerpt from Is It or Isn’t It? by Laurence M. Vance

“Thou shalt not kill” (Exodus 20:13)

There seems to be an inordinate number of Hebrew scholars who support the war in Iraq. It was not until recently, however, that I realized just how many of them are readers of this website. True, I always hear from one or two whenever I write about Christianity and war and happen to reference the above commandment, but the last time I wrote about this subject, the Hebrew scholars came out in droves.

I was told that a more [appropriate, proper, precise, preferred] translation of the sixth commandment, according to the original Hebrew, would be: “Thou shalt not commit murder” or “Thou shalt do no murder.” My rendering of the sixth commandment (actually, it is the rendering found in the Holy Bible) is unjustified and simplistic.

…

Read the whole article and you will see that he makes good sense, although I would disagree only on the level that disengagement would upset the ‘apple cart’.

What do I mean?

I think we have to get to a clear understanding of the reasons for our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I never bought the WMD or nuclear argument.

We’re smart enough and technologically advanced enough to know where that stuff would have been, had it been real. The U.S. or a surrogate (Israel) would have just bombed the locations to dust. This is what will happen if the Iranian threat is real or if North Korea gets any crazier than it is already.

The same goes for terrorism. In a general sense we know where Osama is. If we wish we could just fly in and obliterate whole tracts of Pakistan and Afghanistan. If people actually think the U.S. wouldn’t do this they are deceiving themselves.

And that is the key. That is the why.

We’ve taken self deception in regard to the power and might of the U.S. off the table. Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and many others all know that in order to achieve self preservation they have to bow to the U.S.

The House of Saud will never cut off oil. They know we are crazy enough and strong enough to melt the dessert. We’ll even let our sons and daughters die and burn tons of money, just to drive that point home.

We’ve simply taken the Cold War concept of spheres of influence and changed its paradigm. We’ve allowed Moslem leaders a big enough box to operate in (e.g., letting the Taliban blow up cultural treasures). We can close the box anytime and cut off the air. We can crush the box if we wish, or just leave it alone. The freedom that was obtained for the Christian man being persecuted in Afghanistan testifies to this truth. We will get what we want when we really want it.

Obviously, none of this squares with the commands of God or our life in Christ. None of it is right in the true sense of right. All of it is driven by economics and power politics.

That is the reality. That is why disengagement will not happen, why the ‘apple cart’ will not be upset, and why, as the Bush administration claimed in recent days, Bush’s successor will inherit this ‘war’.

I give Mr. Vance credit for testifying to the truth. I am just sorry that so few are persuaded to embrace not just the facts of the situation but the greater truth which is our life in Christ.