I have received some questions as to whether or not a stolen election constitutes justification for a war of independence. I’m not sure how widespread this thinking is, but this thread represents what I think is the right answer.

I think we should first seek a

2/theological/biblical answer. Does the Bible promote Christians taking up arms and shedding blood over a desire to protect a democratic system of government? Personally I don’t think so, especially given the calls for obedience to Roman emperors. And even when the Roman emperors

3/ turned on the church, there was never a call to take up arms and rebel, but as Tertullien said, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. So as Christians, it’s never our Christian duty to overthrow a government.

I suppose somebody can bifurcate this issue and ask

4/ from the perspective of a democratic citizen. As a citizen, when do we have an obligation to take up arms against the government? Well, again, that’s not a question the Bible gives us a green light on. That green light comes from John Locke, an enlightenment philosopher who

5/ provided the social contract theory upon which our government is built. He is the one who said if the government becomes destructive of our natural rights, it is the obligation of the people to overthrow and replace that government. And Thomas Jefferson worked that into the

6/ Declaration of Independence, which is not one of our legal documents that establishes our laws and our rights, but simply is an announcement of independence from Great Britain. But it does contain our nation’s theory of government. So if on the authority of John Locke‘s

7/ philosophy, which is codified in our founding documents, if your life, liberty, and right to own property is removed from you, then under his social contract theory you can rebel. But that is an entirely different question from whether or not the Bible tells us to do that. The

8/ Bible is clear on our duty as Christians, and it’s also clear on our duty as citizens. But it doesn’t address the need to wage war as an earthly citizen. Because of that, the Christian tradition, under the brilliance of Augustine, devised the just war theory. What he did was

9/ take many biblical principles and in a cohesive way he applied it to the issue of war. Just War theory answers when it’s just to go to war and how just people wage war. For our question, only the first part of that is relevant. When is it just to go to war? There’s some

10/ criteria that are given. First, you have to be able to demonstrate that the evil that would occur without going to war exceeds the evil and sin that would happen if you do go to war. Second, war can only be conducted by legitimate entities. It is not up to individuals or para

11/military organizations to wage war. It has to be two legal states/governments. If the cause is just, see criterion one, and if it is a legitimate government going to war, see criterion two, then as a citizen of that state, you can serve in that state’s military and participate

12/ in that war. You will not be participating in your role as a representative of the church, but in your role as a citizen of legitimate state that is waging a just war. This just war tradition has been championed by both Catholics and Protestants throughout history, and even

13/ is the official position of the American government. So pretty much taking all of that into consideration, personally, I don’t think the controversy surrounding the election meets either a Biblical call for a war or even a call under the just war tradition. I’m not willing to

14/ literally kill people and send them to hell over conservative politics. The fact that these questions are floating around just feeds the charge that Christian Nationalism is the biggest threat. If the just war criteria were met, then my answer would be different. There are

15/ scenarios that I could conceive where something might be necessary, but we’re nowhere near that yet.