The title of this article is from George Orwell’s book 1984 where the famous quote: ”War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength” represent the slogan of the party. It is sad that is almost the reality of the times we live in now.
I know it is a controversial subject and it seems to be political motivated. I would like to make some disclosures: I don't vote. I came to the US in 1995 from a communist country, so I experienced the sad reality of a country where the government runs everything. It took me several years to be cured of all the socialist ideas but now I believe in a limited government free market capitalist system. I think this is close to the biblical Government that Israel had in the Old Testament during the time of Moses. If I would have been forced to choose and vote between two evils, as some people say, I would have voted for Mr. Trump.
In tackling this difficult subject I would like to address the most important question, and if you can get the right answer I think we will have a clear understanding of what is happening in the world and where we are headed.
Does the U.S.A. have a call from God to go and free people that are oppressed by evil regimes? By looking at the history I think we can easily find the right answer to this question. The Bible is clear that God has not called any nation after the time of Christ to do the job that in the Old Testament Israel was called to do—punish nations that have passed over the line of God's mercy. The time that we are living in now has many countries that suffer under evil regimes, but I think they will rise up to free themselves when the yoke their government put on their necks is unbearable.
In understanding war, I think one of the key issues is to understand who is influencing US foreign policy—especially the military intervention in other countries. Even if we like it or not, I think the greatest influence is religion, especially the evangelical understanding of prophecy .
We hear about Muslims fighting the jihad [holy war ], we had the crusades that the counterfeit Christians were fighting [I am talking of the wars of aggression when the so-called Christians thought that they can do evangelism with the sword]. To be fair, the Christians were also in the war but those were wars of defense like the Bohemians during the time of Jan Huss , and the Netherlands under prince Orange when they were invaded by the Spanish armada, etc. In those wars God had clearly intervened to defend his people.
The United States has a prophetic role in the end time and I think the right understanding of prophecy will help us understand the future. We know that the beast that comes from the earth in Revelation 13 (2 horns like a lamb but he spoke as dragon) represents the U.S. starting like a lamb and in the end speaking like a dragon. My question is can we know the time when U.S. will start talking as a dragon? In correctly answering this question, I think we should look at history and see what happened. It helped me to read what the pioneers wrote and the ideas that they were promoting when history was happening. Especially A.T. Jones and the articles he published in the American Sentinel when U.S. started being involved in the US -Spain war and then the Philippines war. In reading those articles we can see very clearly the influence of apostate religion upon the shaping of US foreign policy and that God used the Seventh-day Adventists to try to prevent our country from taking a wrong direction. We choose to ignore His counsel and we can see clearly the result of that in our days. In the ideas preached from the pulpit was emphasized the divine plan for the U.S. to be a power for good in this world, which I believe is true. It is very important to know how you can be a power for good and here the problems starts when you believe you can use force for that.
Jones-isms
What AT Jones wrote in an editorial from American Sentinel, March 4. 1897, illustrates this very well:
“SELF-PRESERVATION is the first law of nature.”
But self-sacrifice is the first law of grace.
In order to self-preservation, self-defense is essential.
In order to self-sacrifice, self-surrender is essential.
In self-defense, the only thing that can be employed is force.
In self-surrender, the only thing that can be employed is love.
In self-preservation, by self-defense, through the employment of force, force meets force, and this means only war.
In self-sacrifice, by self-surrender, through love, force is met by love, and this means only peace.
Self-preservation, then, means only war: while self-sacrifice means only peace.
But war means only death: Self-preservation, then, meaning only war, means only death. While self-sacrifice, meaning only peace, means only life.
Self-preservation being the first law of nature, nature then means only death. While self-sacrifice being the first law of grace, grace means only life.
But death is only the wages of sin: nature, then meaning only death, it is so only because nature means sin. While life being only the reward of righteousness: grace meaning only life, it is so only because grace means righteousness.
Sin and righteousness, nature and grace, are directly opposite and antagonistic elements. They occupy realms absolutely distinct. Nature, self-preservation, self-defense, force, war, and death, occupy only the realm of sin. Grace, self-sacrifice, self-surrender, love, peace, and life, occupy only the realm of righteousness.
The realm of sin is the realm of Satan. The realm of grace is the realm of God. All the power of the domain of grace is devoted to saving men from the dominion of sin. This in order, that “as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign, through righteousness, unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord”
On which side do you stand in this great controversy? (AMS March 4, 1897, page 129.15).
I know that these are spiritual matters and have a individual application, but I think that there are some principles that can be applied even in social relations with good results. If you have an enemy that has been nasty to you, if you show him love you may be able to make him friend [act as a lamb]. Some will say you are naive, you cannot use this principle in foreign affairs. I will say if possible we should try.
For example, in the Iran situation, instead of applying sanctions [which is a form of blockade], help them built a nuclear plant so that they can have a cheap source of energy and can export more oil so that they can prosper economically. You say that will be setting the Iranians first but I think that will benefit us in a way that will keep the price of oil lower and we will have to pay less for gas. We have the record of history that when we used force [when we did not have to defend ourselves] we did not accomplish anything good and we acted as a dragon. Case to study: the war in Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan.
As AT Jones wrote “war means only death”. We as Christians should do everything possible to avoid war, we should seek peace by all means. As Christ said in Matthew 5;9 “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God”.
There was a time when most of the Christians believed that the only morally just war was the war of defense. In a future article I will try to show how that was changed and the preemptive war is considered morally justified by most of the people today. And yes, it was a religious person that had a big influence for that. I will look also what the pioneers wrote about American imperialism and militarism.
****
Nick Hojda is a bricklayer and an Adventist from Ohio.