He asks, "Who are we at war with?" and follows up with the answer that "We are war with ourselves." Lucado stated, "The wages of sin has always been death. Glatatians 6:7 says, "A man reaps what he sows," so if you sow seeds of peace you reap peace, and if you sow seeds of destruction you reap destruction. As long as the sinful nature of man dominates his thinking there is going to be war. War is the fruit of sin." Later on he states that war is a tool of God and that there is one time in scripture when war is condoned and used by God. It is to defeat wickedness. There are also numerous accounts in the bible where God purges the land of godless pagan people. This being the case it is still a hard truth for many people, including myself to look at and accept. After all is God not a loving God? Yes, I believe God does love us enough to want our world to have order in it. .
Since God has provided war as a tool for the world, when is it a just cause for mankind to wage war? It is for our leadership to decide this, with whom God has provided for our care and to maintain order with his authority. According to Steve Horst in his paper delivered at the November Religion Colloquium at Indiana Wesleyan University, he discusses Thomas Aquinas in his 13th century, "just war theory." This theory aligns itself with what God would expect of a responsible leadership or government. He writes that war must be defensive and only in response to an act of aggression. A war must intend to secure a fair peace for all parties - not for revenge, economic exploitation, or ethnic cleansing. It must be a last resort after all other efforts to resolve have been exhausted. Civilians must be cared for and safeguarded and the defeated are to be shown mercy. Pastor Timothy R. Scott in his short paper titled, "Pastor Offers A Christian Perspective Of War" quotes St. Augustine's Just War Doctrine in order to help illustrate this perspective of war.
