Christian thoughts and perspectives of The Morality of War

Abstract

Paul in Romans 12:18 (NKJV) wrote that provided it is possible based on the prevailing circumstances Christians should be and live at peace with everybody. Nonetheless, in Ecclesiastes 3:8 (NKJV), God writes that there are seasons for hatred and love equally time for peace and war while Ephesians 6:11 (NKJV) notes that Christians should put on the armor of God and fiercely fight evil. The topic of war is contentious with contradicting and conflicting interpretations of the Bible about the morality and ethics of Christians about war. Well, Genesis to Revelation, war is an inevitable topic, where God destroyed by forging war on the people and nations that oppressed His People. In order to understand Christian ethics and morals about war, it is imperative for Christians to understand the Holy Scripture. God wants his people both believers and non-believer to coexist cohesively and harmoniously but war is justified as well where necessary as Paul wrote in Romans 12.18. From a personal perspective, I believe Christians are morally right to take an active role in military and war, however, war should be the last resort and only perpetrated with a just and reasonable cause. War should only be prompted with a reasonable cause, more importantly, a defensive cause. Christians have a right to protect themselves and where war is unavoidable then they are ethically right for if they do not their enemies will kill them. Conversely, war should be only for the greater good than harm even though casualties are unavoidable. The overarching principle and command from God to Christians is they should keep peace at all times and in case of war, they should protect rather than harm the con-combatant community. With the increasing warfare experienced across the globe, this paper discussed the role of Christians in warfare.