How Should Christians Respond to Terrorism?

By KEVIN SHRUM
I want to look at both our personal and church responses to the terrorism and extremism of the day.
While it is easy to get frustrated and angry, our call as believers is to be salt and light in a tasteless and dark world (Mt. 5:13-16). We are called to live with faith, hope and love (1 Cor. 13:13).
For far too long we have assumed that our culture would always lean toward a Judeo-Christian worldview. This assumption is proving to be wrong.
We let down our guard and stopped being
spiritually vigilant. Cultural Christianity, the kind of Christianity that is bland, not well-defined and non-convictional, is dying, and rightly so. This is good.

What must replace the generic Christianity of recent decades is a robust, well-articulated, and convictional gospel that is both authoritative and authentic, truthful and loving, confrontational and gracious, a belief in the gospel of Jesus Christ that is deeply grounded in the authority and sufficiency of God's Word.

We are angry at the demise civil society. However, anger, both short-term and long-term, especially if it is not righteous anger over sin, does not accomplish the righteousness of God (James 1:20). Anger, in the long run, only breeds more anger. We are called to practice enemy love (Mt. 5:38-48), refusing to take vengeance into our own hands (Romans 12:9-21); that is the job of the government (more on this later).
While Scripture allows for us to personally defend ourselves, our families, and our homes (see Psalm 82:4; Proverbs 24:11; Ezekiel 33:6), we are forbidden to be the aggressor or to take justice into our own hands. We are to be law-abiding citizens even in a culture that is often godless and lawless. We are not anarchists or antinomians. While we have every right to petition our government for any redress of grievances we may have, we are called to do so in a respectful, diligent, and lawful manner.

We have a higher calling serving a higher law (God's law), even if we live in a godless and lawless land. We do not do right because the law of the land tells us to do so; as Christians we are called to do what is right and godly because the law of God has already laid claim on us. Even if our culture changes every law into an unrighteous one, this should not alter the necessity of the Christian to do the right and righteous thing.

For example, even though the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, this doesn't change or alter the Christian's belief system because we already know the definition of marriage as articulated in God's Word. We are, in the end, subservient to a higher law than the law of the land, the truth of God's Word.

Where the commitments of the state and the Word of God coalesce, we rejoice. And when they do not we seek to alter those processes by every lawful means possible. And if such a time were to arise where we would be asked to violate the Word of God, which is not very often, we may find it necessary to disobey the law of the land with the full knowledge that we may have to pay the price for disobeying a law that we believe is unjust and unbiblical. I predict that it will not be uncommon for some Christians in America to do jail time for peacefully, yet convictionally following the dictates of their conscience that is held captive to the Word of God.

We are to pray for our leaders (1 Timothy 2:17). We are to submit to our leaders (Titus 3:1-11), unless what we are asked to do is in direct violation of God's Word (Acts 5:17-42), and even then we must be prepared to pay the price for violating what we believe to be an unjust, unbiblical law (i.e. Kim Davis). We cannot break the law simply because we don't like a law. This would lead to lawlessness and anarchy. Christians believe in the "rule of law."

For example, I should not break speed laws simply because I think it ought to be 70 mph rather than 60 mph. However, if the gospel of Jesus Christ were to be outlawed and if I were to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in direct violation of that law I should be fully prepared to pay for violating what I believe to be an unjust law.

Fortunately, we live in a country where we can change laws through a variety of Constitutional means. Many believers in other parts of the world do not have this privilege. How sad it is that too many Christians do not avail themselves of the freedoms God has given to us in America.

We are called to demand from our political and civil leaders the highest degree of righteousness and goodness. We are allowed to participate in the full array of opportunities that God gives to us in order to effect social change and cultural reformation. See, for example, Jeremiah 29 and God's instructions to His people as they entered Babylonian captivity; they were to do everything they could to influence that culture for good and righteousness even though it was a foreign and godless land. In fact, Daniel and the story of the Hebrew boys all took place while in a foreign, godless land. God blessed them for their obedience "behind enemy lines."

Further, we are allowed to utilize every law and political mechanism available to us in order to advance the kingdom of God on Earth and in order to preserve, protect and defend a peaceable and productive society — just as Paul exercised his rights as a Roman citizen to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ (see Acts chapters 22 and following), we are called to utilize every available means to change, alter, or preserve a civil society, so long as it does not violate God's Word or become the primary cause of our life.

While we are to participate in the political process, we are to be known more for the Gospel of Jesus Christ rather than the church being viewed as just another political action committee. In other words, we are Christians first and then Americans. We do not wrap the cross in the American flag. Rather, the cross is the center of a Gospel we preach that rules over all cultures, even the United States of America.

We are thankful to God to be Christian Americans. The Christian's ultimate goal is not the building of a theocracy, however, that is a far too temporary a goal. Our ultimate goal is the advancement of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. However, wherever the Gospel is advanced freedom usually breaks out. This is why non-democratic societies are usually afraid of religious liberty. So, let us cherish, defend, protect, and properly use our freedom.

No other culture in the history of the world has been so positively shaped and impacted by the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the United States of America. This singular truth should remind us that the degree to which our culture, or any culture for that matter, orientates itself to the Gospel is the degree to which that nation or any nation for that matter, might be blessed by God.
There is a very good reason why Psalm 33:12 states this general principle: "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom He has chosen as His heritage."

The degree to which we orientate ourselves to other things is the degree to which we will lose the blessing of God. I am proud to be a Christian American.
We are to live godly and peaceful lives so that sinners might be saved (1 Timothy 2:1-7). And we are to be reminded that temporal states are just that — temporary states. God owes no nation. He is free to cause nations to rise and fall, and He does.
The Ancient Greek Empire thought it would never collapse, but it did. The Roman Empire (27 BC – 395 AD) thought it would never be defeated, yet it imploded from within.

This side of Heaven, no system of government will be perfect because those governments are made up of imperfect people. There are systems of government that are more desirable than others, yet none are perfect. Therefore, while we strive to commit ourselves to helping build a lawful, peaceful, and good society, we should not be disappointed when the sinful nature of man raises its ugly head and destroys and deforms what is otherwise good and noble.

Finally, we are to be reminded that we are first and foremost citizens of another world. I am a proud American. Personally, I want to be nothing else. But our great God is our Prophet, Priest, and King — One True, Great God, yet three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit; He alone deserves our ultimate allegiance.

Philippians 3:20-21 states: "But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself."
So, while we are serving our communities as Christian citizens and while we're praying, working, preaching, and living the truth of the Gospel, we are not to hold too tightly to this world. God owes no man or nation anything, yet He has promised to uphold His people by the power of His might and He has promised that His Church will never be conquered.

What should the church do in these seasons of change?
Answer: What the church should always be doing: 1) preaching a clear Gospel, 2) calling for holy living from her members, 3) ministering to the needs of people, and 4) reaching the lost here, there, and everywhere.
In fact, everything I just mentioned that we should be doing as individual believers should be done as the body of Jesus Christ, except multiplied by millions.
In Part III we will look at what we should be expecting from the state when it comes to terrorism and extremism.