An Ugly Christian Life

https://www.beautifulchristianlife.com/blog/3-things-a-christian-should-consider-before-serving-in-the-military

Fesko begs many questions in this piece. From his adoption of the culture's language of 'service' to the tacitly endorsed feminism in speaking of a military career, he simply assumes in good Kuyperian fashion that the military is a viable option for the Christian.

I understand he's part of the Magisterial Reformation tradition and as such the defection from New Testament Christianity known as Constantinianism is tacitly endorsed. For the most part, the Early Church understood that people might be converted in the legions and at that point they may be able to finish their term building roads and bridges and what not – as there was no easy way to legally be released. While perhaps problematic, such work was within the realm of ethical acceptability and involved no violence. That said, if called upon to kill, they were to refuse and deal with the consequences, a martyr-mindset the mammon-driven Constantinian Church cannot understand and one quite abhorrent to today's 'rights' and vengeance/litigation-minded Evangelicals.

So it was one thing to be in the legions when converted, but for a convert to willingly enlist in the legions – that was cause for excommunication and contrary to Fesko, the same should be true today.

As far as growing up and learning responsibility – this is (it must be said) a rather sick exhortation as it's all in the context of being part of a massive bureaucracy that exists in order to kill and profit from the business of killing and other forms of political and economic exploitation. I am familiar with all the arguments to defend it and I will grant the Romes and Babylons of the world will always have their armies to defend their interests. So be it, but as Paul argues in Romans 12 it has nothing do with us and only by setting aside Christian ethics and the Christian calling or vocation in the name of 'Vocation' (as developed in the wake of the Magisterial Reformation) can such thinking be even entertained. You're a Christian on Sunday but on Monday morning you put on your uniform and either with gun (or in support of those who actually shoot) live by a completely different ethic – but it's okay we assured, because you're merely fulfilling an 'office' or so the tortured argument goes. Such thinking represents a serious deviation from the New Testament and the Christian call to a holy and pilgrim life.

God forbid that my children would ever learn about 'service' or 'leadership' let alone (and I wince saying it) 'honor' from the military. If this isn't syncretistic and compromised thinking on display, I don't know what is.

The military is a stepping-stone to a profitable career? Is that what the Christian life is all about? I would rather have my son drive a garbage truck with Christian integrity than have one of Fesko's profitable careers.

He is worried as to whether such would-be stormtroopers are spiritually mature – if they were, they would have the spiritual skills and conscience to evaluate such questions on a higher level – a point Fesko nowhere makes, and we're left wondering if he in fact possesses that degree of wisdom!

He seems surprised that military men in the warzone behave like animals. Has he ever bothered to study war and its results? No Christian in his right mind would ever want his son (let alone his daughter) in this environment – all the more when considers that every war without exception involves lies and deceit and the real reasons for the fighting are often obscured by the very interests the war is being fought for.

His questions that he asks are juvenile and naive. He never raises the point as to whether or not Christians should even question what their government is asking them to do. This is frightening and part of a long and destructive sacralist legacy that has opened the door to Christians being involved in all manner of evil. In more recent years it has led to Christian support and cheerleading for wars that have resulted in literally millions of deaths and displaced people.

What an unhelpful, misleading and even vile article this was to read. Has the OPC grown so shallow as to produce this? God help those sitting under such leadership.