The Ethics of Israel's conduct in the Israel-Gaza war 2023-2024 - A christian perspective

 

The events of October 7 have drawn Israel into a significant conflict with the Gazan people.  

Gaza has suffered considerable loss of life, injury and destruction of their cities and communities.

Daily images of dead or suffering children and now starving children has swayed world opinion against Israel.  

Last week the UN passed a resolution for an immediate ceasefire when a wavering USA decided not to exercise its veto power and instead abstained.

Many Christians feel conflicted when it comes to deciding what position to take.

1. Aren't Christians meant to love our enemies? (Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:27,35)
2. Aren't we meant to turn the other cheek? Matthew 5:39, Luke 6:29)
3. Doesn't one of the ten commandments require us not to kill? (Exodus 20:13)
4. Doesn't God love both Israelis and Gazans equally (John 3.16)?

Taken alone, they seem problematic.  As C S Lewis says, if we saw a vulnerable loved one about to be violently struck by another, would we really stand by and watch even though we had the power to stop it?

What guidance can the bible give to resolve this quandary?

It turns out Romans 12:9ff and Romans 13:1-9  help to resolve this quandary.

Romans 12:9ff echoes many of the passages cited above in Exodus, Matthew, Luke, and John.  And it discusses these things as how an individual might deal with enemies, and persecutors.

Romans 13:1-9 takes us into the realms of civic society and government authorities.  As a collective, we cede authority to governments to act on our behalf.  This passage makes it clear what their duties and responsibilities are:

1. To protect the vulnerable from wrongdoing (Romans 13:3)
2. To punish wrongdoing (Romans 13:2-4)
3. To prevent further wrongdoing (Romans 13:5)

In Israel's case, how is it to act in response to the October 7 massacres in the light of Romans 13?

1. It must act to protect the vulnerable.  Therefore it used deadly force on the day, to neutralize the terrorists and to prevent them killing any more Israeli citizens.  
2. Israel must punish the actors for wrongdoing.  This means Israel must seek out those responsible for the October 7 atrocities and hold them to account.  And if these suspects are unwilling to be taken alive, then Israel is left with few options except to use deadly force if it wishes to prevent further wrongdoing.
3. For Israel preventing further wrongdoing is ultimately the biggest problem.
   * Preventing Hamas from carrying out another October 7 massacres must be a high priority.
   * However, Hamas is determined to annihilate Israel.  Co-existence is unacceptable to them.
   The 700+ km Gazan tunnel system allows Hamas to hide from Israeli military action by turning Gazan hospitals, UN facilities, civilian buildings, and infrastructure into battlefield cover.  This has resulted in widespread destruction of these assets because Hamas has turned them into legitimate military targets.  
   * War is ugly and cruel.  Civilian deaths are inevitable.  That is why war should be avoided as much as possible. Yet war is sometimes inevitable and warranted.(Ecclesiastes 3:8).  And when it is required, as Churchill says, we must be resolute.  If this war and the subsequent peace are not won, then Israel will embolden others to repeat Hamas' crimes.
   * Like WW2 Germany, Hamas is waging a total war.  They have created a society where the division between civilians and combatants are heavily blurred.  The doctrine of martyrdom is taught to children from a young age.  The values and heritage of Gazans involve a fundamentally erroneous worldview, a worldview that believes that their land was taken from them when they have never exercised Manua Whenua over it.  Correcting this may take a generation or more to do.  There is no quick fix answer to a problem that runs so deeply.  It is also a worldview that much of the world has come to accept as fact in direct contradiction to the historical record.
   * Israel must therefore remove Hamas from power, prevent it from ever taking power again and then administer Gaza until a new generation emerges that is willing to accept co-existence with Israel. 
   * For many the fact that Israel is acting in self-defence is fair but the disparity of deaths on either side is sufficient to conclude that Israel is reacting disproportionately, and therefore unjustly, to Hamas' crime.  But a layperson's understanding of disproportionality in war under international law is wrong. Proportionality under the Geneva Conventions is related to the military objective not a naive comparison of war dead figures.  Israel's military objective is to prevent another October 7 being repeated.  Hamas has already publicly declared that October 7 is the first of many to come.  From Israel's point of view, Hamas must be destroyed. Hamas' total war strategy puts everyone in Gazan society in harm's way.  Even prominent leaders in the Arab world have criticized Hamas for doing so. 
   * We should also be aware that the Gaza Ministry of Health produces these figures and Hamas controls this ministry.  It must be seen as an organ within Hamas' propaganda machine.  All its figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants, implying that they too recognize Hamas' total war doctrine.  
   * In a similar argument, partly fuelled by thoughts about a perceived lack of proportionality, the accusation of Genocide is also directed against Israel.  Again, what constitutes genocide from a layperson's understanding is quite different from the definition used under international law.  Even the learned justices at the International Court of Justice are loath to conclude that genocide has been committed so quickly.  An outcome of their deliberations will likely be a more refined definition of genocide because the current one allows any killing to be construed as genocide, and if so, it robs the word of its intended meaning.  
   * For God, he does love both Israelis and Palestinians equally.  Perhaps our experiences as Parents may be analogous and help our understanding here.  When we have two children having a fight.  What do we do when there is a risk that one or both could be physically harmed?  We separate them.  But when the siblings are now whole ethnic groups involving millions of people on either side, what then?  Then separation is needed on a scale that is logistically quite different.  And how do you stop the fighting when one side wants to stop so they can regroup and repeat October 7 another day? And the other side does not want to stop because they don't want another October 7?    Unless the world is willing to risk the lives of its own citizens to keep them apart then it must allow protagonist Israel to subdue antagonist Gaza so that a lasting peace can be built.
   * Ultimately a lasting peace must deal with the root cause and that is, we have two tangata whenua, two indigenous peoples, both were offered statehood.  One accepted and said we will give co-existence a shot.  The other rejected statehood multiple times, and repeatedly opted for a winner takes all, fight to the death.  Until co-existence is acceptable to both sides, then peace is just a utopian dream.  
   
   

Bequeathing Logos Bible Software Licenses

 

The strength of Logos is its ability to give you access to a wide range of resources.  Its power improves greatly the bigger the collection of resources you have.

Over many years the number of resources you have accumulated licenses for can be quite considerable.  As you become more conscious that your time to pass into the afterlife is nearing, you may start thinking it would be a terrible waste to let the licenses lapse.

Perhaps someone else among your circle of friends, family and loved ones might benefit from them.

Faithlife has kindly provided a process to allow you to bequeath your licenses to an heir. 

Here is the process:

Provide Logos Support with the following information:

1. Current license holder details
   Email address
   Street address
   A list of titles from the order history on your account and if not purchased online, a list of titles and serial numbers
   A letter instructing Logos that this your wish and it will be saved to your account record.
   And if deceased already, a death certificate and an instruction from the Executor of the Estate.
   If you wish to effect the transfer before you pass, then there is a USD 20 fee.  The fee is waived if you have already passed away.
   
   
2. Recipient details
   Email address (if already a Logos user, the email address being used for their account)
   Street address
   

My uncle has just done this and his gift is a huge blessing.  There were many commentaries that I was saving up for and they were already in his collection.  

Hope this helps!

Why the West won and will still win

I was in Tienamen Square six months before the massacre.

Everyone remembers the occasion through the iconic picture of the "Tank Man".

But the Tank Man photo doesn't show you that over a million people gathered there, demanding:

• Freedom...
• Freedom of speech
• Freedom of association
• Social equality
• Democracy and 
• The end of corruption and nepotism.

Things we take for granted in the West.

But both photos don't show how it brutally ends.

While I was there, I met with a professor of history and sociology.  He told me he had been part of a research team that had been hired to look into something.  But now after three years they had their results but he was afraid to present their findings.

"Who was the client and what were you researching?" I asked.

"The client was the Chinese Communist Party," so I said, "you have a right to be frightened."

"What did they want you to research?"

"They want to know why the Western Civilization had got ahead of all cultures."

"What did you fnd out?"

"We thought it was technology at first because you defeated us so easily at the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 20th century.

But after some deliberation, we decided it wasn't that.

Then we thought it might be democracy but after considering that carefully, we decided it wasn't that.

Because we are a communist country we thought it might be free markets but after a lot of investigation and debate, we decided it wasn't that either."

"You're running out of possibilities," I said,  :What did you conclude?"

"You won't believe me," he said.  

"Try me," I replied.

"It's religion.  Because for centuries you believed in a God who gave you benevolent laws, you obeyed them.

As a result, you ended up with the rule of law.

We don't get the rule of law like that.  We get it by frightening the bejesus out of people.  

We hold open trials, with very public and gruesome executions.

But when you see a crowd gathered around a television watching these things, you won't hear them saying, 'Bad person, deserves all he gets', instead, you will hear, 'Stupid person, for getting caught!'

But we know that Western society is becoming more secular and moving away from a belief in God.

And so we know that we will catch up."

I was left wondering, "Was he warning me or was he threatening me?"

Our knowledge of God and His ways have shaped the world.

The knowledge that 

• God created the world for the basis of modern science and the scientific method.
• God loved all human kind, led to the idea that all life is precious.
• That all humans are created equal led to
• The idea of Human Rights and
• Servant leadership
• God gave us his law (or ways) led to the Rule of Law; and
• God's gift of reason meant that there was an obligation to Progress.

God's revelation has shaped and changed New Zealand too:

In the 1870s, an elderly Hawke’s Bay chief, [Chief Hapuku Ngaruhe,] reflecting on the changes that had occurred in his community over his lifetime, concluded that:

‘It was only after the word of God was preached that the evil of the deeds and life of olden times was seen, that is these were condemned, murdering, family quarrels, seduction, and cannibalism, but there were many and great evils committed in Ao-tea-roa (North Island) but the gospel being preached caused the evils of Maori to cease.’

Western civilization has been touched in so many ways by God and his revelation through the bible.

And we are all the better for it

The Western World may not be perfect 

And despite what its critics may say:  

There are not thousands of people lining up trying to emigrate to Iran, China, Saudi Arabia or Russia.

Hurt people, hurt people

 

One of the great things about following God is that he is in the game of restoration.  People who have been harmed, devastated, indeed scarred by those around them, or even due to the consequences of their own failures, can come to God for healing.

Though often quoted out of context, Matthew 11:28 has traditionally been quoted as an invitation to those who are birds with broken wings to see comfort and restoration with God.

Unfortunately often, indeed, most of their healing isn't instantaneous.

Luke 6:45 tells us that the pain, hurt, sorrow, anger, humiliation can be stored in our hearts, such evil will eventually, sooner or later,  wells up and will be exposed to others, which unfortunately may cause further evil to them.

Equally sadly, as they heal the remaining hurt causes a fight or flight reaction as they rightly or wrongly associate people around them with their previous sources of harm.

Deeply embedded conditioning takes time to undo.

Thus if an authority figure such as a parent caused the harm, its easy to project this onto another authority figure and they can become overly sensitized and wrongly accuse the authority figure of being a similar threat.

You can see it in the relationship between Jacob and his sons.  By playing favorites, he hurt his other sons and created bitterness, jealousy, and indeed hatred between them and Joseph.  They in turn sought to harm Joseph (Genesis 37-50).

David offended Absalom when he allowed the rape of his sister to go unpunished.  The resentment and hostility to his father grew to open rebellion, and David had to flee the country.  There can be no doubt that Absalom's hurt caused further hurt for his father.

My father, for example, saw us children as cheap labor.  Every hour of our day was accounted for.  If we were late home from school, we would expect to be punished.  

After a while, we brothers developed a kind of passive resistance to the tasks he assigned us.  Never rushing to do it straight away, and when we did start, not doing it quickly, as there was no hope of finishing and having a rest.  

Later in life, I had to consciously work against my own unconscious passive resistance to tasks being imposed by those around me as I realized that I had fallen into the habit of feeling the same way about them that I had when my father assigned me tasks, so many years before.

Of course, this caused my managers and colleagues the same frustration, animosity, and anger it evoked in my father so many years before.  See how it's contagious?

Over the years, I've worked hard to be more responsive.  And people hardly notice it now.  But inside, I still have to overcome the resistance to put aside a task immediately before circling back.

If I caved in, it'd be career-limiting.  But it's not that easy to break many years of conditioning.  It's a habit, that comes with associations of bad memories of the past and the pain, violence, and tears of so many arguments and beatings in those early years can be readily re-lived in my mind's eye.

The way back is through a complex process of forgiveness, knowing that God had given me grace and forgiven my sins.  Equally, I needed to show grace to my father, now long dead, too.

It's a process of healing, as I've vented my feelings to God in prayer and trusted friends who you could confide in, which resulted in more tears, but now tears of healing.

It involves consciously letting it go as I realized the loss of human potential, and clinging to it meant, "the years that the locust has eaten away" (Joel 2:25) would mean more years being eaten away.

Why hang on to it at all?  I suppose there is a perverse enjoyment out of resentment and unforgiveness, re-living the injustice over and over, which causes me to relish the thought of how "in the right I am".  

I experienced wonderful relief as the days, turned into months and years, it became clear that the needle was moving, that the balance between dysfunction and function was perceptibly shifting.

And with those early results, hope and trust in God grows.

Building a Logos Bible Software collection

 

Logos is a great bible study tool.  One of its strengths is the access to thousands of books about all aspects of Christianity.

Once you have a set of resources you can use the program to search and research any topic.  The bigger your collection the richer the results because you get relevant material written from different points of view.

Only trouble is, it gives you too much choice, which means trying to figure out how to get started on building a collection is complicated.

Logos offers bundles to help make sense of it.

The bundles can contain a lot of material that you might not ever use. I would think carefully about what kinds of studies you intend to do. 

I expect that the needs of a lay leader, a teaching pastor, a home group leader, or a layperson doing self-study are dramatically different. And even within these roles, your points of interest will vary greatly too. For example, you may be interested in exploring Messianic Christianity or you are interested in Original Language study. I'm just an abnormally bookish layperson. I started with a bundle but found that much of it I never used. 

If I was starting over, I would think carefully about what my role and interests are and go from there. 

For lay people, I would suggest getting a base collection comprising:

• a couple of good bible dictionaries (which in Logos world means encyclopedias, I have Tyndale and Harpers), 
• a study bible (which in Logos world means the notes that comes with a study bible, not the bible text itself e.g. ESV study bible is like that, and you still have to buy the ESV separately) and 
• a couple of general purpose bible commentary sets like Tyndale or BKC. But depending on what tradition you come from none of these may be suitable from your POV. 

Bear with if none of this seems relevant to you. 

After you've got a base collection based on what I suggested above, then you can buy books relevant to topics you want to research. 

For example, I'm reading a lot around the Genderism topic at the moment as its an issue I'm having to deal with in the education sector. 

And for this topic, Faithlife's ebooks store is great. 

After all that, many of the books I wanted to make searchable, weren't in the Logos inventory so I made personal books out of them. 

Feature upgrades (not books) are worth looking at too because they can greatly enhance what you can do within the system.

HTH and YMMV!

Raising a 17-year-old daughter in Pornland

My daughter turned 17 last week.

Two or three years ago I went on a long walk with my then 15-year-old son and we talked about romantic relationships and what a healthy relationship looks like.

I'm also on the board of a Christian school and we have had to deal with lots of issues related to sexual relationships:

1. Gender identity
2. Promiscuity
3. Homosexuality
4. Sexualisation of anything and everything (well it feels like that)

And this experience has made me much more concerned about the risk that my children will become influenced by the wider culture and accept its dysfunctional norms.

Together, I was conscious that I hadn't had the same talk with my 17-year-old daughter.

Mama Bear

I've been reading "Mama Bear Apologetics Guide to Sexuality."  

And in that book, it refers to an eye-opening article from 2016 called "Growing up in Pornland".  That was seven years ago but there's nothing to suggest that the trends and behaviours mentioned in that article have lost their momentum.  If they have, then it's probably because the adoption of those behaviours has reached saturation levels.  

But nonetheless, the level of dysfunction on human relationships is considerable.  Perhaps its nothing new, perhaps its been like that for centuries but now the Internet has made it widespread and its the fact that Judeo-Christianity has made it unacceptable.  After all other societies have objectified woman for thousands of years.

Its only in relatively recent history that woman have been considered anything more than "chattels."  That is objects of personal property for men.

Still, I'd like to think that the biblical norm is the one we'd aspire to rather than regress back to the "good old days"!

Some notable quotes from Mama Bear:

"...what if these chemicals [e.g. dopamine] are released while watching porn?  Yes, the human brain becomes wired to actually crave a two-dimensional image over the real thing -- over a real person.  We literally bond to a screen.  This is actually one of the reasons porn usage decreases a person's likelihood to engage in real-life sex."

"So when we hear people complain about how sleeping with one person for the rest of their life sounds boring, what they're really lamenting is the damage they have created in their own brain that's preventing them from being comforted by the breast of the love of their youth (Proverbs 5:18-19)."

"What happens when you flood your brain regularly with too much dopamine?  Your body says, "Oh!  I guess we don't need all these dopamine receptors.  Let's get rid of a few.""

"...regularly viewing porn decreases the dopamine receptors in a person's brain -- which means, like in all addictions, that the person has to increase their consumption in order to get the same amount of euphoria."

Some notable quotes from Growing up in Pornland:

"Asked, “How do you know a guy likes you?” a eighth grader replied: “He still wants to talk to you after you suck him off.” A male high school student said to a girl: “If you suck my dick I’ll give you a kiss.” Girls are expected to provide sex acts for tokens of affection. A 15-year-old told me she didn’t enjoy sex at all, but that getting it out of the way quickly was the only way her boyfriend would settle down and watch a movie with her."

"I meet girls who describe being groped in the school yard, girls routinely sexually harassed at school or on the school bus on the way home. They tell me boys act like they are entitled to girls’ bodies. Defenders of porn often say that it provides sex education. And it does: it teaches even very young boys that women and girls are always up for it. “No” in fact means “yes,” or “persuade me.”"

"Will I ever find the ONE"

Instead of progress, pornography is taking us back.  Back to a time when woman are objects, pieces of property, instruments of gratification.

I said to my 17-year old daughter, a real, healthy relationship is one where there is not just a physical attraction but also a meeting of minds and hearts.  Your physical attributes will age over time.  Then what's left?  A life-long relationship with your husband ultimately rests on his respect for your heart and mind.  

Delayed gratification brings long term rewards, because it will show whether he has the maturity to engage with your heart and mind.  If not, you must show enough strength of character and self-respect to step back, and no matter how much you got your hopes up that he is the ONE, there is a better person out there.

At our church, there was a delightful presentation given by another 17-year old girl and she mentioned that she often wondered "whether she will ever find her life partner."

I laughed:  With over 7 billion people in the world and over 2.2 billion of them Christians, I don't think any 17-year-old should have a problem finding someone.  The real problem is:  How to choose wisely.

Get stuck in

Instead, I said to my daughter, 

• get stuck into what God has given you to do, 
• get involved in your youth group, 
• plan mission trips, 
• organize soup kitchens for the poor, 
• join bible studies, 
• join Christian groups on campus, 
• build a Christian business or career.  

As you get stuck in, you will meet other Christans of like mind and the rest will naturally follow.

In the meantime, use the time wisely to think through stuff like, how would you like to raise children, where would you like to live, what is God's calling on your life (at least for now)?

Nothing is more attractive than someone who looks like they have got their life together and they know where they're headed.

Here's hoping the answer to the last one, that is, "what they want", is that whatever they end up doing, they bring glory to God and inspires people to want to follow Him too.

Deism and Experiencing God

 

Four months ago, I was asked, "You are an extraordinary person, how did you come to be?"

Surprised, I told them the story of how God had intervened in my life. I finished by saying that "you have heard about God second hand through this story, but when you leave this place, and you are alone, so there is no chance of being embarrassed in front of each other, ask God to speak to you, and when he does, you  will truly have a decision to make."

A few weeks ago, I was in Columbus Ohio, and an African American porter took my bags up to the fourteenth floor to my hotel room. After she put down my bags, she turned and said, "God told me that you have something to tell me, what is it?"

Taken aback, I told her a few of my many encounters with God and she burst into tears. 

"I have been running from God for the last three years."

"In that case, if God has reached out to your in such a special way then if you decide not to run with God, then don't be surprised if he doesn't speak to you again for a long time."

"Why?"

"Because God doesn't like to be taken to be a fool. If he has respected you by reaching out in this way then don't be surprised.

If you had a boyfriend and he treated you with disrespect, wouldn't you step back?

After all, we are made in His image."

Two weeks ago, I was interviewing a candidate for a job. During the interview, he said, "You're a Christian aren't you?" 

 Realizing God was at work, I put aside the interview and we talked about our experiences with God. As we heard each other's stories, he began to weep.

I said, "God is touching you through the Holy Spirit, what is he saying to you?"

"I have realized that my conception of God is too small."

"In that case, we should pray."

Afterward, I said, "you have been through the most extraordinary job interview in your life, go home and pray about what you should do with your life. Find out what God wants you to do. And if you decide not to work here, I will not be offended."

There is a theological school of thought called "Deism," which holds to the idea that God created the world and then steps back to watch how it turns out.

I think that you can tell that I do not support Deism.

In fact, the bible records how God has intervened in the world's affairs, and he continues to do so today.

Jesus said that he knew what to do because he saw what God was doing and then he joined him in it.

God is at work all around you. Watch carefully and when you see him at work, then drop everything and join him.

If you haven't seen him at work in a long time, you may even be doubting that you can even see if him at work at all. Then pray to God who can make physically blind see, that he may give you spiritual sight.