I Ran- From Iran!

I  Ran – From Iran!

By Thomas Williamson

          “The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.”-  Exodus 15:3

          “For there fell down many slain, because the war was of God.” – 1 Chronicles 5:21.

          “A time of war, and a time of peace.” – Ecclesiastes 3:8

          “Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.” – 2 Chronicles 16:9.

          There is currently a national debate in America over the question of whether or not to go to war with Iran.  Are there any Scriptural principles that can be consulted, to guide us in this controversy?

          There seems to be an unspoken assumption on the part of some American fundamentalists, that once our leaders have decided to go to war, it is our Christian duty to support that war without question.

           However, even during the Old Testament theocracy, there was no such duty on the part of God’s true believers to endorse and support all wars proposed by the government.

          In Numbers 14:40–45, the children of Israel determined to go to war with the Canaanites.  Moses warned them not to go war, because the Lord was not with them at that time.  The Israelites ignored Moses’ command, went to war and were soundly defeated.

          In 1 Kings 12:21-24, Rehoboam King of Judah prepared to go war against Israel in what appeared to be a noble cause – to reunite all 12 tribes of Israel under the Davidic dynasty of Judah.  But Rehoboam was ordered to call off the war in the name of God, by Shemaiah the man of God.  Rehoboam obeyed and there was no war.

          In 2 Chronicles 16:1-9. King Asa of Judah made an alliance with Syria and conducted a successful war against Israel.  Even though he won the war, he was rebuked by Hanani for making an alliance with Syria and was told that he would have to endure more war as a result.  That particular war was not of God.

          In 2 Chronicles 18:3, King Jehoshaphat of Judah agreed to go to war against Syria on the side of Ahab King of Israel, but the prophet Micaiah protested against the war plans, warning both kings that the war would be a failure.  Jehu the son of Hanani condemned Jehoshaphat for his participation in that war, 2 Chronicles 19:2.

          In 2 Chronicles 25:17-20, we find that King Amaziah of Judah was warned by King Joash of Israel not to go to war with Israel.  Amaziah ignored that good advice, went to war and suffered a disastrous defeat.  We are told in verse 20 that God allowed Amaziah to go to war and be defeated in order to punish him for his idolatry.

          In 2 Chronicles 35:20-25, King Josiah proposed to go to war against Pharaoh Necho of Egypt; Necho warned Josiah to stay out of the war, telling him he would be meddling with God who was on Necho’s side in that matter.  Josiah did not heed the warning, and was killed in battle.

          In Jeremiah 27:11-17 and 38:17, the Prophet Jeremiah advised King Zedekiah to surrender to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, rather than fight a hopeless war that would result in the ruin of Jerusalem.  As a result, Jeremiah was branded a traitor and imprisoned by his enemies.

          The Bible does not teach that believers are obligated to render unquestioning endorsement of all wars that may be proposed by our leaders.  While the powers that be are ordained by God, this does not mean that we as Christians have a duty to blindly support all wars, any more than godly Old Testament believers were obligated to support every war.

          Not all wars are good or of God.  Jesus in His parable of the king going to war, Luke 14:31-32, told of a wise king who decided to seek a diplomatic approach with an enemy army, rather than getting into a no-win war.

          While Christ stated in Matthew 24:6 that “ye shall hear of wars and rumours of war,” He also stated that such commotions were not a sign of the end: “but the end is not yet.”  Nowhere does the New Testament teach or hint that it is the duty of Christians to promote warfare in order to hasten the Second Coming of Christ or for any other reason.  Christ is sovereign, and He can return to earth at any time, regardless of any current state of war or peace in the Middle East. 

          Now that it has been established that there is no Bible principle that teaches a duty to endorse all wars, we can examine the question of war with Iran in a dispassionate basis, “counting the cost” to see if this would be a good idea.

          Iran is a large country, with 3 times the population of Iraq and almost 4 times the land area, and that land is much more rugged and mountainous.  We have been at war in Iraq for more than 3 years now, and our leaders have told us that it will take many more years of warfare there before the mission is accomplished.  If we do not have the military resources or capability to quickly bring the war in Iraq to a close, this raises the question of whether we can simultaneously take on Iran, without totally exhausting ourselves as a nation.

          What would be the purpose of an attack on Iran?  Would it be to bring democracy to Iran?  No, because they already have it.  The president of Iran was democratically elected in a landslide.  The parliament of Iran, which includes Jewish and Christian representatives, is also democratically elected.  Democracy is not the cure-all for the problems of the Middle East, because the people there, when allowed their free choice in elections, tend to elect the most radical and anti-American candidates, as evidenced by the recent victory of Hamas in Palestine.  We need to ask ourselves, is it worth it to go to war to bring democracy in the Middle East, when the predictable outcome of that democracy would be the overthrow of almost every pro-American and pro-Israel government in the Middle East, to be replaced by Islamic fanatics.

          Should we attack Iran  in order to protect Israel and/or the Jewish people?  At this time, there is no danger that Iran will attack nuclear-armed Israel, which would result in a devastating counterattack by Israeli nukes.  Iran will not make such an attack except in retaliation for an American or Israeli attack on Iran.  If we care about the welfare of Israel and the Jewish people living there, it would make sense to leave Iran alone rather than starting a war which would  result in the slaughter of thousands of Israeli Jews and the devastation of their homeland.

            For us to nuke Iran would almost certainly result in the deaths of most of the 30,000 Iranian Jews living in Iran.  Iran is not now killing any of these Jews, who are allowed to operate synagogues and other Jewish institutions in Tehran and elsewhere.  During the 1940’s, when Jews were being massacred in the so-called enlightened “Christian” nations of Central Europe, Iranian Jews  continued to go about their business as generally accepted members of Iranian  society, and many Jews remain in Iran today.  The notion that all Iranians have a fanatical hatred of Jews, and want to kill them all, is a myth.

          Should we attack Iran in order to stop them from developing nuclear weapons?  Iran has no nuclear weapons and we have absolutely no evidence that Iran has a program to develop nuclear weapons.  We were told that Iraq had such a program, and that information was mistaken. 

       Even if a nuclear weapons program does secretly exist in Iran, even proponents of a nuclear strike on Iran admit that such a strike would not prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.  It would only slow down the program for a few years.  There may be  100 or more underground research sites whose location is unknown, and there is no way that any bombing campaign would eliminate them all.

          The current nuclear research program being carried on in Iran is for the purpose of developing peaceful nuclear energy.  The uranium enriched for this purpose cannot be used for nuclear weapons.  The Non-Proliferation Treaty, signed by Iran and by the United States, specifically grants Iran the right to develop peaceful nuclear energy.  For America to demand that Iran abandon this nuclear energy program would be a violation of the treaty which we signed.  Israel, Pakistan, India and North Korea have not signed this treaty (which Iran has signed) and these 4 countries all have nuclear weapons, but no one is proposing that we go to war with any of them.

          If we do go to war with Iran, such action would put our armed forces in Iraq and our ships in the Persian Gulf in great danger of being wiped out by Iranian counterattacks.  The Persian Gulf, through which 40% of the world’s oil passes, would be closed to oil tankers.  This would create worldwide energy shortages and collapse the economy of America and other nations.  The resulting economic depression would be blamed on the Republican Party, resulting in the election of socially liberal, pro-abortion, pro-gay Democrats.  Also, the predictable collapse of the value of the U.S. dollar would make it very difficult for us to maintain and pay for our current military establishment in the Middle East and elsewhere.

           All these things have to be taken into consideration as we “count the cost” of attacking Iran.  As of the time of the writing of this article (June 13, 2006) it appears that the Bush administration has taken all these and other factors into account, and has decided not to go to war with Iran at this time.