Wake Up, Look Up

Hello, everyone, and thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch and in today's episode, we're asking the question, who speaks for God? And it's prompted by an article in the Atlantic that was called Head Hegseth's Unholy War. Here's the story. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is a confessing Christian. I'm very glad for that. but what I'm not glad about is that he recently began framing the war with Iran in explicitly religious terms. saying basically or, praying, inviting people to pray for, quote, unquote, overwhelming violence and quote, unquote, no mercy in the name of Jesus Christ. In fact, even taking some scriptures and making them so that maybe they read about destroying God's enemies and using that to describe what the United States military is doing. there are these psalms called imprecatory psalms, where the psalmist is asking God for his help with his enemies. Hegseth is claiming those in favor of the United States, saying that the enemies of the United States are the. The enemies of God. So the story here is Hegseth kind of Christianizing the war with Iran. Well, this has prompted a lot of backlash over Christians saying, you can't describe a war as holy and you can't claim for yourself scriptures that weren't written for you or about you. And I have to say on this, I agree. I'm glad that Secretary Hegseth is a confessing Christian. And I do think the regime in Iran has been. Has not only been evil, they've been evil for multiple decades. And the idea of a nuclear armed Iran is terrifying. And I can understand the arguments for military intervention. but you cannot claim for yourself what God has not given you. In fact, to say this is God's war. To use the name of God to justify your actions is a violation of one of the Ten Commandments. Exodus 20:7 says, you shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, or other translations will take the Lord's name in vain. See, when we were growing up as kids, what we were told is that to take the Lord's name in vain was to use his name in connection with a swear word. When you put those together, you were taking his name in vain. And sure, that definitely is one way of taking the Lord's name in vain, but another way is speaking for him when you're not entitled to look. The nation of Israel was a theocracy. It was, literally God's nation on earth to accomplish God's purposes. When they went to war, it was because God told them to, which is why the Scriptures are written in that way. And if you want to make a parallel between the nation of Israel and something in modern times, the parallel is the kingdom of Jesus Christ as manifested in the church. Not that the church goes to war, but that one day, according to the book of Revelation, Jesus will return as a rider on a white horse ready to do violence to his enemies. You cannot compare the United States and the biblical nation of Israel. I love the United States. I'm very proud to be an American. And, and I do think we have some global responsibility for enforcing justice. But that global responsibility is a sense of, responsibility because we're the nation's superpower. It's not because God himself said so. And we need to tread carefully here. I understand the desire to morally justify a war, and the way you should do that is by talking about the evil of Iran, what a nuclear armed Iran would look like, about many attempts to rationalize or deal with them that have gone unheard. War is complicated business. Defending a war, deciding which ones are okay and which ones aren't are a complicated business. And I don't mind with Secretary Hegseth wrestling with that or even saying, hey, as I think about this as a Christian, the biblical ideas of justice or of neighbor love are informing that that's okay. When you say, this is God's war, we are God's country. This, therefore whatever we do is justified. When you Christianize, the death of thousands of people, you are taking the Lord's name in vain. It's interesting. Of course, when we think about liberal politics, we think about disregard for God as in denying his existence or denying his relevance to the way we live, that it's laughable to them that we would think about what God has to say about sexuality or justice or government. And that is also terrible. But there's a little more danger of taking the Lord's name in vain or blasphemy by those who seek to bring their faith to bear on their politics. I want Christians in government, but I want Christians practicing government in humility, saying, I'm trying to let my faith inform me, I'm doing the best I can, and whatever I get wrong, I'm so sorry for. I don't want Christians going full tilt into violence saying, God is making me do it. God is on my side. This is the war of God because it cheapens God and it speaks for him. When only he gets to speak for himself. By the way, God has a representative who speaks for him, and that representative's name is Jesus Christ. It's not Secretary Pete Hegseth. So I hope Secretary Hegseth, as a fellow Christian, repents of taking the Lord's name in vain. And I hope you and I don't join him in this, and instead learn to be very careful about what we say God has said and what we say he hasn't said. Hey, thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. 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