If you're eating lunch and someone breaks into your home to steal your TV and jewelry, and you kill the intruder "in self-defense," Exodus 22:2-3 says YOU must be executed.
Unless the intruder breaks in at night. Then YOU won't be executed. God will have mercy on you for your weak faith.
But should you kill the intruder if you want to be a follower of Jesus Christ, "The Sun of Righteousness who arises With healing in His wings" (Malachi 4:2), the Dayspring from on high Who hath visited us" (Luke 1:78) -- even at night?
Or does God have a bigger purpose for sending this intruder to YOUR door?
Many Christians seem to have a "blood lust." They seem to want more than anything to kill someone. Instead of looking for ways to save life, and instead of looking for ways to evangelize sinners and bring them to repentance and faith, they cling desperately to any verse which seems to give them a license to kill someone.
"Pacifism" is a worldview issue. It takes a Biblical view of the entire world to be a pacifist when confronting a single threat of potential violence. And it takes the worldview of the Prince of Peace to understand this passage in Exodus.
"Everybody knows" that Jesus commanded His disciples to be "pacifists." He commands us to
People who want to be respected by Presidents, Generals, Political Science Professors, and Defense Industry CEOs claim Jesus was only talking about our "personal" or "spiritual" side of our lives, but His commandments are not to be followed by those who are in positions of public responsibility ("The State"). As a result, since I was born, the government of the United States has killed, crippled, or made homeless TENS of MILLIONS of innocent non-combatant civilians around the world.
People who do not identify themselves as "pacifists" or do not believe that politicians and generals should take Jesus literally, believe that the United States is basically good, and is a force for good and for peace in our world. The prophets of the Old Testament would say that "The United States" is the modern parallel to Babylon or Assyria of old. The U.S. is the enemy of God and humanity.
Believing that "a friend of the world is the enemy of God" (James 4:4), I don't care if I'm respected by the “military-industrial-congressional” complex (as Dwight Eisenhower at one point called it),
Jesus sacrificed Himself to save His enemies.
| Christ died for the ungodly God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. Romans 5:6,8,10 |
The heartfelt desire of every true Christian is the Regeneration, Repentance, Restitution, Reconciliation, and Redemption of "the enemy." Not the destruction of the enemy. In short: "Love your enemy." (Matthew 5:43) "Thou shalt not kill." (Exodus 20:13) You cannot love your enemy after you kill him.
It is better to be killed than to kill.
For years I opposed pacifism as "unrealistic" and "impractical."
I claimed that God imposed a moral requirement on me to "defend my family" in the event of a home invasion, and that pacifism in the face of such an attack was immoral, not just cowardly.
To discharge my moral responsibility, I voted for a system of self-defense called "The State." This was the only "realistic" view. I was "practical." Not like those crazy pacifists.
Now, as I begin my second half-century of life, I look back on a bad decision. Since I was born, the machinery of self-defense called "The United States Federal Government" has murdered, crippled, or made homeless tens of millions of innocent non-combatant civilians. Children, grandmothers, and breadwinners.
It started with my fear of an attack on my family by a random, anonymous home invader.
From this crippled, unrealistic, skewed vision of "self-defense" comes the global disaster known as "national defense."
“If American Christians simply gave a tithe rather than the current one-quarter of a tithe, there would be enough private Christian dollars to provide basic health care and education to all the poor of the earth. And we would still have an extra $60-70 billion left over for evangelism around the world.”
Book Review: The Scandal Of The Evangelical Conscience - Acton Institute PowerBlog
We could bribe half the world into abandoning Jihadism and becoming Christian. But American Christians prefer the delusion of "national defense" and comfortable entertainment in their mega-churches.
American Christians have the economic muscle to bring in "the millennium." But we waste it on "defense."
Conclusion: "Self-defense" is irresponsible and unChristlike. "National Defense" is unmitigated evil.
The Christian position is that it is better to be killed than to kill. You should not take someone else's life just to preserve your own.
Of course, Christians do not want to see a sinner commit another sin and ratchet up the wrath of God which already rests on the sinner. Here is a book which contains several accounts of Christians who have engaged in creative alternatives to blind, knee-jerk violence as a response to sinners.
In order to be a pacifist, you have to be a Calvinist. You have to believe in the Sovereignty of God. You have to believe that God is sovereign over evil. You have to believe that there is no such thing as a "random act of violence." If God sends an intruder to your home, there is a purpose for it.
What is that purpose?
First, we must understand that all sin is first a sin against God. After David murdered a man, He confessed,
Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned
and done this evil in Thy sight,
that Thou mightest be justified when Thou speakest,
and be clear when Thou judgest.
Psalm 51:4
You are created in the Image of God. Someone threatening violence against you is angry at God. He hates God. He is in rebellion against God. He is taking out his anger at God on you.
Every act of violence is an attack on the Christian faith. Every act of violence is a form of "persecution." If God has blessed your obedience with material wealth (as promised in Deuteronomy 28:1-14 and many other places), someone attempting to steal your wealth is angry at God's Providence. He is angry that God requires obedience, self-discipline, and work in order to obtain wealth. He wants something for nothing. He is persecuting you for your faith.
How are Christians supposed to respond to persecution? Kill the persecutor? If someone threatens to kill you, you "witness" to him, announcing the good news of the Gospel. "Witness" here includes the demand for repentance from violations of God's Law, including, obviously, the harm being threatened. The Holy Sprit promises that God's Word will not return void. "When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him" (Proverbs 16:7). If the Lord does not do this, then you may become a "martyr," which comes from the Greek word for "witness." There is no evidence in the New Testament than any faithful Christian chose to kill someone in "self-defense" rather than be a martyr. They followed the example of Jesus.
The issue of "self-defense" is related to the issue of Violent Revolution Against the State. Romans 13 says we are to submit to the demonic "power" that operate empires. We are subject to governments because we are pacifists, because the Bible commands Christians to love and pray for enemies and prohibits violence and vengeance. Pacifism is one reason why Christians are commanded to "be subject" to the State and its laws, all of which are unjust and contrary to Christ. "The State" is institutionalized violence, and as pacifists we respond to violence peacefully. We are Theonomic Pacifists.
The "powers that be" do not acknowledge the Crown Rights of King Jesus. When "the powers that be" command us to do something that God prohibits us from doing, or prohibits us from doing something God commands us to do, it's likely that the civil command is based on "national security" or some "state interest." It's not necessarily based on a self-conscious rebellion against the God of the Bible. It's just a "practical" or "utilitarian" step in ensuring the peace and prosperity of the empire. No offense intended. It's purely secular statecraft.
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We shouldn't buy into this civil neutrality. We should turn this into an evangelistic opportunity. When a thief breaks into our home -- whether it's a government SWAT-team, the IRS, or some teenage thug who lives down the street and wants money for drugs -- we should ask, "Do you know why the Lord Jesus Christ made you come here today?" They will be offended that you've impugned their "free will." But there is a reason why Jesus sent them to your house. Their life is messed up, or they wouldn't be stealing from you. They wouldn't voluntarily or happily be a person that good and virtuous people look down on. You have the answer to their problems. You have the Gospel. You have salvation. Your armed intruder needs to "obey the Gospel" Your intruder is not just "doing my job." Your potential executioner is not "just following orders" -- neutral, pragmatic, utilitarian civil regulations. This encounter and conversation is about your intruder's relationship to his real God. The God of the Bible, not the false god (idol) we call "the government."
If God is gracious, your word will not return
void (Isaiah 55:11). Your intruder/attacker will ask for the light you have.
If God has other plans, you will be shot.
But you left a witness. You planted a seed. The Greek word for a "witness" is martys - μάρτυς. The verb "to witness" is martyromai - μαρτύρομαι .
The Greek word for "testimony" is martyrion - μαρτύριον. You can see the relationship to the English word "martyr." Some will say, "I'm not going to evangelize an intruder; I'm going to exercise my Second Amendment rights and splatter his
brains all over my flatscreen TV." That's really good.
If you're not willing to be a "martyr," you've pretty much decided not to be a follower of Jesus.
You've pretty much rejected the moral authority of the New Testament.
The Christian anarcho-pacifist gives the intruder the money, but also gives the Gospel.
The non-pacifist gives neither; he gives death.
The Christian anarcho-pacifist gives the government obedient subjection, but when possible, turns the oppression into an evangelistic opportunity, and makes a "witness."
Our goal as Christians is to persuade statists to repent of their idolatrous worship of "the government" and disavow their allegiance to this dangerous and authoritarian cult, and to give their full allegiance to Christ as new citizens of His Kingdom.
Persuasion requires two things: love and wisdom. You must have love for your "prospect," and you must have wisdom to know how to communicate without offense. Not just "communicate" in a neutral dispassionate sense, but to enchant. To sweep them off their feet.
This requires a personal relationship, not impersonal confrontation. "Personalism" has a long tradition in Christianity.
But what about Exodus 22? Doesn't this verse justify killing an intruder in "self-defense?" Here is the passage:
"If a thief is caught in the act of breaking into a house and is struck and killed in the process, the person who killed the thief is not guilty of murder.
But if it happens in daylight, the one who killed the thief is guilty of murder.
Matthew Henry comments:
Yet, if it was in the day-time that the thief was killed, he that killed him must be accountable for it (Exod. 22:3), unless it was in the necessary defence of his own life. Note, We ought to be tender of the lives even of bad men;
Reformation Study Bible:
The daytime thief was readily identifiable and killing was not justified.
Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament:
Clarke's Commentary on the Bible:In the latter case the slayer contracted blood-guiltiness, because even the life of a thief was to be spared, as he could be punished for his crime, and what was stolen be restored according to the regulations laid down in Exodus 22:1 and Exodus 22:4.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible:If a thief be found - If a thief was found breaking into a house in the night season, he might be killed; but not if the sun had risen, for then he might be known and taken, and the restitution made which is mentioned in the succeeding verse
If a thief, in breaking into a dwelling in the night, was slain, the person who slew him did not incur the guilt of blood; but if the same occurred in daylight, the slayer was guilty in accordance with Exodus 21:12. The distinction may have been based on the fact that in the light of day there was a fair chance of identifying and apprehending the thief.
We are Now in the Daytime of the New Covenant. In fact, as James Jordan points out, the entire Old Covenant economy could be viewed biblically as being the “night” and the New Covenant as the “day.”
The moon, of course, governs the night (Psalm 136:9; Jeremiah 31:35), and in a sense the entire Old Covenant took place at night. With the rising of the Sun of Righteousness (Malachi 4:2), the “day” of the Lord is at hand (Malachi 4:1), and in a sense the New Covenant takes place in the daytime. As Genesis 1 says over and over, first evening and then morning. In the New Covenant we are no longer under lunar regulation for festival times (Colossians 2:16–17). In that regard, Christ is our light.2
Following this same idea, Zacharias prophesies at the birth of John the Baptist that he would be “the Sunrise from on high” who shall “shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:78–79). The light of Christ creates the everlasting day, so that in the New Jerusalem,
the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it (Rev. 21:23–24; compare Is. 60:19–20).
The New Testament was written in the last days of the Old Covenant. The "night" of the Old Age was passing (Hebrews 8:13), and we are now to live in the Day (Romans 13:11-13; Luke 1:78; Malachi 4:2; Revelation 22:5; 1 John 2:8). Christians who live in the Day do not need to kill. God will hold us to the higher standard.
“And [Jesus] came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both [Jews and Gentiles] have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Ephesians 2:17-18).
This is the truly “good news” of the Star of Jacob, the Star of Bethlehem, and the King which it announces.
The American Vision: Why a Star?
"Sun" is an appropriate name for Christ, for God the Father has given a much clearer light in the person of Christ than He did formerly by the law and all its appendages.
Christ is called the light of the world, not because the fathers wandered as the blind in darkness and were content with the law as with the dawn or with the moon and stars. We know how the doctrine of the law was so obscure that it may truly be said to be shadowy. When the heavens at length were opened and the gospel was made clear, it was through the rising of the Sun, which brought the full day. Hence it is the peculiar purpose of Christ to illuminate us.
On this account, the first chapter of John says that the true light which illuminates every man that comes into the world existed from the beginning. Yet this light shone in the darkness, for some sparks of reason exist in men, however blinded they became through the fall of Adam and the corruption of nature. Christ is specifically called the light with regard to the faithful, whom He delivers from the blindness by which all by nature have been afflicted, and whom He undertakes to guide by His Spirit.
The meaning, then, of the word, "Sun," when applied to Christ, is that without the Light of the World we can only wander and go astray. But by His guidance we shall keep in the right way. Hence He says, "He who follows me walks not in darkness" (John 8:12).
—John Calvin