Military Service
William Joseph Lowe
Table of Contents
Military Service
It has always been a vexed question with the children of God, how far the required obedience to the powers that be authorizes or excuses taking up the sword in the service of the Government. "Thou shalt not kill" has been, and still is, thank God, quite enough to decide many a simple soul, who is determined, like the apostles, to obey God rather than man. "Love your enemies" is evidently incompatible with slaying them. The principle to be followed is clear, but difficulties always arise as to the way in which one is to put the principle into practice, as to when and where one is to refuse to handle the sword or the gun, particularly in those countries where every able man is de facto a soldier.
Some have thought to excuse military service on the ground of what God allowed, and even commanded, in Old Testament times. Such persons, therefore, put forward the old at the expense of the new Testament, and in their souls consequently lose the power of both.
Others, again, have sought to prove that a soldier is not responsible for his acts when he obeys his commanding officer. God will judge every one justly; but any Christian who weighs the words of the Lord Jesus can surely not hesitate for a moment as to what is his Lord's mind upon the matter. "My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews" (John 18:36). Never was there a more worthy, a more just cause to fight for than at that moment; but the Lord refuses it entirely on the ground of strangership to this world. If a Christian fights now it is to uphold the glory of the world that crucified his Lord; and it is a virtual denial of that word which tells us that our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20).
Some Christians have tried to compromise matters by going through the usual military exercises, in the hope that some way of escape will be found in the day of actual warfare, even going so far as to fire into the air instead of at the foe, when in battle. Thus they take the sword and hope not to use it they would maintain their status in the world on the one hand, and virtually refuse to pay the price which the world imposes for the status it has accorded them. This has always a very ugly appearance, and is fairly branded as cowardice, if nothing worse, and is surely a deep dishonor done to our blessed Lord.
The question should be decided at the outset of the Christian course. Being in the world, are we to be of it?
The Lord Jesus says no (John 17). What does His faithful disciple say? If we are not of the world, we must, as one has said, refuse its smiles, its honors, and its privileges; and then no one can complain if we also refuse its pains while submitting to its penalties. If we are Christ's, we belong to the place where He is, and we must be strangers where He had not where to lay His head; and He is soon coming to take us out of this scene altogether, to be with Himself in glory.
But decision in such a path must be the fruit of individual faith, and not servile imitation of another. If a person is converted while he is in a false position, the grace of God will know how to deliver him out of it, and faith and patience will be rewarded. But it is one thing to be found by sovereign grace in an evil position, and quite another to go deliberately into a false position having already received grace. This is very solemn. There are, however, certain cases which are peculiarly trying such, for instance, as when those who have refused or escaped military service in time of peace are suddenly called out in time of war; and there is no possibility of refusing, or refusal would, perhaps, be met by instant death. And that makes a man hesitate when a wife and children are dependent upon him.
From the earliest days of the Church there have been many who have suffered imprisonment, and even death, on account of their having refused to take up arms. Their names are written in heaven. Those of whom the world was not worthy. May God increase their number, and grant us all to walk by faith, and not by sight! He is ever faithful, in spite of all our failure; and in the midst of the terrible scenes of which we have been speaking, He often showed how He can reward faith, and come to the succor of little faith.
To His name be all the praise!
In times of peace the Lord has come in to help His people in a remarkable way. The majority have not served as soldiers, or were soon bought out by their friends, which has been allowed in France, although not in Switzerland or Prussia. Many have escaped through some personal disqualification; others have lived in exile from their country for many years.
During the late war many, knowing their liability to be called out a second time, engaged themselves beforehand as dressers in the military hospitals. I subjoin here a letter from one of these, translated from the French, and very slightly abridged:—
“... It is a great joy to me to speak of what our God has done for me, for I have seen His hand as plainly as if with the natural eye. At the time of my first departure for military service, I was deeply exercised with the question as to whether I could, as a Christian, take the life of another. After much research, I was convinced that the obedience due to the authorities was limited by the Word of Gory and that one called to proclaim the grace of God could not shed blood in obedience to the powers that be.'
'My path was thus clearly traced; it remained to walk in it, and then the difficulty presented itself more vividly, for the military penal code runs. thus:—Refusal to march against the enemy or armed rebels—DEATH!
“What could I do but make known my weakness to God? And He delivered me by putting it into the heart of my relations to purchase me out, at the time that my regiment was embarking for Africa
“But when the law recalling discharged soldiers and unmarried men under 35 years of age was passed by vote last autumn, I found myself again in the same embarrassing position, and was naturally in great distress; but I had to learn that they who do business in great waters see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep.
`In order to evade the daily increasing difficulties, I sought to enter the service as hospital assistant, though such work was very much against my natural inclinations; but at any rate it was better to dress wounds than to make them. Then it was, however, that God's care of me began to be openly manifested
“The medical corps to which I was appointed was divided into two sections one to follow the army, the other for hospitals in the interior; and on my arrival I was offered the choice of the section with which I would remain. Nature would have preferred the hospitals, but such a choice would have had the appearance of cowardice, which ought never to be seen in a Christian. So I refused to choose. The commissioner then insisted upon knowing my motives. I explained to him, as well as I could all the circumstances. However, I was appointed to the army section; but as that section, created for present need only, was new, it was also necessary to have a new set of clerks; and as my civil profession (of merchant's clerk) had been noticed I was appointed clerk in the head office, without my applying for the place.
“How wonderful are the ways of God towards His own! If I had asked to remain in the interior, I should not have seen His hand of love and grace. Many young men, desiring to avoid the difficulties and dangers of the winter campaign, came with letters of recommendation from eminent persons to the Director General of Hospitals, so that I, without any letter should have had no chance of being employed But having been nominated to the other section, where there was no competition, I was at once put into the office, and thus relieved from having to follow the army during that severe winter, and from having to encamp in the snow for many days and nights, which my health would never have stood.
`Thus God preserved me; blessed be His name. May His love and goodness be deeply graven in my heart, keeping me ever nearer to Him, in dependence upon Him. But we must not forget that God was mindful of the prayers which His saints offered up to Him at that time, and that by their means He was pleased to lavish His blessings upon His children in trial”
The above letter is given at length on the ground that one such instance with some detail is of more value than general statements, but it is not at all an exceptional case. The same unslumbering eye and the same ever outstretched hand were active in behalf of all those whom the Lord loves with an unchanging love, and to purchase whom He alone knows the price He has paid.
The young brethren who were called to take up arms in the country of Montbéliard were, in one way and another, kept from actually fighting, and not more than two or three of them ever drew a trigger. Two or three were orderlies, others had some temporary charge of baggage, etc., while their regiment was engaged; others, again, were absent through sickness, or their battalions were never engaged at all. A brother, from the south of France, wrote, at the end of January last "... Five or six other brethren have lately left this for the seat of war, four of whom have been delivered by the grace of Gory one scarcely knows bow. Without doubt, God had pity upon them, in spite of their little faith, and that is a fresh subject of thanksgiving. The greater number have been kept from taking part in the fighting. One of them changed his regiment the very day of an engagement, and his old regiment was amongst those that fought, but the one he joined arrived on the field just half an hour after the battle was over. Another was just preparing to fire, much against his will when a ball wounded him very slightly on the side of the head and be was taken prisoner, and thus delivered...”
The brethren in Paris who were ordered to serve as National Guards were delivered in a similar way.
During the Prussian siege there was no fighting, and under the Communist movement they all absented themselves, except one, and he was ill during nearly all the latter half of their reign.
In Germany the brethren petitioned not to be sent to active service, but to be employed in any civil duty the Government might see fit to order them; and the Lord disposed the hearts of the authorities to grant their request.
In Switzerland very many of the young brethren in the army are dressers or surgeons' assistants. There were a few Christians in the Prussian army; and some few of each of the belligerents seem to have found peace in believing at the eleventh hour. Nothing is impossible with God.
In the presence of the unrelenting power of evil, in the face of foes whose guiding principle is enmity against God, in the place where he who has the power of death binds his captives through slavish fear to do his will, God will never allow temptation to be without a way of escape for those that trust in Him. Death very often has been, and will be yet again, the only door of deliverance open to those that will not deny their Lord. But what a glorious deliverance that is from all the power of the enemy for those who can say, 'Death is ours!" and who can boldly face it, being strengthened with the power of their Lord's might, as they sing with Him, "O grave, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?" The enmity of Satan and the malice of man will yet swell the ranks of the noble army of martyrs, and Jesus says to His followers, "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." He was faithful to death for us; He took the cup of suffering and drank it to the dregs; He went through the most terrific hour of temptation, and having left us an example that we should follow in His steps, He never promises that we shall be kept out of tribulation; but He does promise to sustain us in it— "In this world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." May He grant to us to overcome, even as He overcame! Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ
W. J. Lowe
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