The Bible and Holy War?
Luca Giordano: The Defeat of Sisera, c.1692 (Judges 4:12-23); image courtesy of Wikipedia.
CATHEDRAL NEWSLETTER - 26 June 2025
Friends in Christ, one of the merits of the Anglican pattern of ministry is that our services involve systematic reading of Scripture, even part we find obscure or difficult. This is a chance to grow by having our thinking challenged by God's inspired Word.
At our Evensong services on Mondays and Thursdays recently, we have been working through Deuteronomy. Tonight we came to Old Testament Israel's 'conduct of war' passage in Deuternomy 20.
It raises a difficult question: Can there be a Holy War?
The Bible is often criticised on this: how can a loving God command complete destruction by warfare, as he does on the Canaanite tribes in the book of Deuteronomy?
The question is all the more pressing as modern media beams the absolute horrors of warfare instantly onto our screens. Here are some biblical thoughts I put together some time ago on the topic.
1. We must admit the awful horror of the wars and other violence described in the Bible. Some of it is perpetrated by God’s people (sometimes with his command, often without sanction). But there is no glossing over it.
2. In the case of ‘holy’ war’, we will never agree it could be just, unless we believe in the absolute holiness of God - his complete moral purity and goodness. Although God often delays action, he cannot tolerate sin (Habakkuk 1:13). And, as Creator, he has the right to judge it. The warfare against the Canaanites was repeatedly explained as being punishment for dreadful sins: idolatry; violence, sexual immorality, even child sacrifice (Deut 7:1-6; 12:29-31; 18:9-13).
3. Israel needed to live as a holy nation as a light to the world, distinct from the immoral nations around them. Hence they needed to remove all sources of temptation towards idolatry and sin (Deut 20:16-18). God is even to be said to be fighting for them, as his appointed instruments for judgment against such sin (Josh 23:9-10).
4. We need to realise that the Biblical worldview has a more corporate view of moral responsibility than our very individualistic West. So a nation’s non-combatants may share in the responsibility for a nation’s sin.
5. Yet Christians now are in a very different situation from ancient Israel. They were gathered as the socio-political people of God. We are not gathered as a theocracy.
Instead - as citizens of heaven - we are scattered as “exiles” and “foreigners” among the nations (1 Peter 2:11-12). Somewhat like Old Testament Israelites in exile, we can “seek the welfare of the city” or town in which we live (Jeremiah 29:4-7). And so our weapons are not weapons of this world, but those of gospel preaching and living (Ephesians 6:10-20). And so Jesus says that we must love our enemies (Luke 6:27-36) – not cause them ill.
6. But the ‘problem’ of devastating judgment still also occurs in the New Testament. Jesus and the apostles speak judgment on those who reject God and practise immorality; in fact, against all who remain outside of Christ’s kingdom (Luke 6:24-26; 13:28; 16:19-28; see also Paul in 2 Thess 1:8-9). But judgment belongs to the Lord Jesus and not to us.
And this judgment is delayed - until the last day. In a sense, it is ‘hidden’ till then. So since it will be implemented somewhat differently, we do not always notice that the New Testament teaching on judgment is just as vigorous as the Old. None of this is easy. But it also guarantees the goodness and peace of heaven and the wiping away of all tears for all who join Jesus there (Revelation 21:3-8).
For another effort to address the question see Justin Taylor, “How could God command genocide in the Old Testament?"
Soberly in Christ,
Sandy Grant
Dean of Sydney