Recently I heard a homeschooling mom passionately talk about our need to start a local militia to defend our God-given rights against the American government. In the same breath she mentioned how her son is reading through The Chosen book. The Chosen is a popular television series dedicated to the life and memory of Jesus Christ, a famous and strange rabbi who called his disciples into the ministry of martyrdom.  While I’m not new to the landscape of American evangelicalism, this well-meaning mother shocked me when she casually talked about using force in a carnal way as she name-dropped Jesus in the same breath.

When I was around twelve or thirteen, my father gave me a copy of Tortured For Christ by Richard Wurmbrand and I’ve never been the same. Wurmbrand, a Jewish Lutheran minister in Romania, suffered greatly for his faith and did so (at times) joyfully, maintaining the centrality of enemy love and praying for your persecutors.

I recall a conversation years later with my father who happened to survive Romanian communism and persecution. I asked my father if it would ever be ok for a believer to take up arms against a government that was hostile to Christians. My father (who is the toughest man I know) told me point blank that a Christian couldn’t do that—at least not from a biblical perspective. My father, a pastor, maintained that Christians could not fight against persecution. Jesus allowed us to run, but never to physically fight.

As a kid, the idea of non-retaliation terrified me and as an adult, it still rubs me the wrong way. And yet I’m reminded of something Francis Chan once said: if the Bible stated that we would each have to stand on our head in order to be saved, he (Francis) would do it, no questions asked. His point was simple: the Bible may call us to do and believe outrageous things, and that’s alright. Our job isn’t to know the why, but to trust God enough to obey.

The early church was not perfect (just read 1 Corinthians and Revelation!) but they understood that God calls us into strangeness and it’s not for us to kick against the goads. Overall early Christians seemed to embrace that God called us into discomfort rather than the pursuit of pleasure and comfort.

The System of the Kingdom & the System of the World

In his interaction with him, Jesus said to Pilate, “My Kingdom is not of this world. If it were of this world my servants would fight for me. But my kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). How God gets things done in God’s Kingdom is radically different than how nations and their rulers get things done. John Piper takes John 18:36 as meaning “we’d better be very, very careful before we undertake any processes that involve force or coercion to put the kingdom of Christ in place. Any identity that we can put in place by force or weapon or law is not the kingdom of Christ. In this age, King Jesus is creating a people a very different way.”[1] According to the late George Beasley-Murray, Jesus is stressing to Pilate that “his rule is wholly different from that of the political powers of this world, and wholly different from anything that Pilate has experienced…”[2] While the Kingdom of God is manifesting itself in the world, its origin is outside of this world, and its nature is radically different than any earthly pattern. As Marianne Meye Thompson puts it, “kingdoms “of this world” do not follow that path of surrender rather than dominance, of giving up life rather than taking the life of others. Neither the Caesars of Rome nor the kings of Israel had done so. … In this world, Jesus’ kingdom manifests itself as self-giving and life-giving love.”[3]

Should Christians be involved in militias against governments? It depends which Jesus we pledge allegiance to. If it’s the Jesus of American imagination, then we should join a militia to defend the good news of democracy. If it’s the strange ancient Jewish rabbi whose kingdom is not like anything this world has seen, then we have no place doing so.

In America, like most nations, whoever holds the fiercest weapon holds the power. But God’s Kingdom never seems to advance through force. Jesus likens it to a non-assuming mustard seed that most can’t see. And yet that mustard seed is busy transforming into a magnificent tree that soon will overtake everything. God’s Kingdom advances subversively. It may not be shiny or sexy or on-the-nose but it’s the way of King Jesus.

The gospel of American imagination                                    The gospel about Jesus

A focus on comfort, wealth, safety, rights                              A critique of comfort & wealth, a call to simplicity, a call to renounce rights if necesarry                                                                                                              
A hyper-focus on the individual (individual happiness, individual eternal security, personal wealth/health)                                              A King-Jesus centeredness, followed closely by a community-centeredness as followers enter into a new family & new creation
A nation-centered outlookAn emphasis on all nations & cultures rather than on one (see especially Galatians)
A carnal view of powerA radical view that through the cross God is shaping & forming a new & better world, subversively

Photo Cred: Esther Moreno, Vecteezy

[1] https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/politics-patriotism-and-the-pulpit

[2] George R. Beasley-Murray (Word Biblical Commentary 2nd edition, Thomas Nelson,  1999), John, 331.

[3] Marianne Meye Thompson (WJK, 2015 ), John: A Commentary, 380.