“Certainly, reverend councillor, this inconsistency seems to me irreconcilable. Then there occurs also the express command of the Decalogue, ‘Thou shalt not kill’.”
“Oh, yes, to a superficial judgment there is some difficulty in that, but on penetrating deeper all doubt vanishes. As regards the fifth commandment, it would be more correctly given (as it is actually in the English version of the Bible): ‘Thou shalt not murder’. Killing for necessary defence is not murder. And war is in reality only necessary defence on a large scale. We can and we ought, following the gentle precept of our Saviour, to love our enemies, but that does not mean that we are not to venture to defend ourselves from open wrong and violence.”
“Then does it not follow of course from this that only defensive wars are justifiable, and that no sword-stroke ought to be given till the enemy has invaded the country? But if the opposing nation proceeds on the same principle, how then can the battle ever begin? In the late war it was your army, reverend councillor, which first crossed the frontier, and——”
“If one wishes to keep the foe off, dear lady, as we have the most sacred right to do, it is utterly unnecessary to put off the favourable opportunity, and to wait until he has first invaded one’s country. On the contrary, the sovereign must, under all circumstances, have freedom to anticipate the violent and unjust. In doing so he is following the written word: ‘He who takes the sword shall perish by the sword’. He presents himself as God’s servant and avenger on the enemy, because he strives to make him, as he has taken the sword against him, perish by the sword.”
“There must be some fallacy in that,” I said, shaking my head. “It is impossible that these principles should justify both parties equally.”
“And as to the further scruple,” pursued the clergyman, without noticing my remark, “that war is of and by itself displeasing to God, this must depart from every Christian who believes in the Bible, for the Holy Scriptures sufficiently prove that the Lord Himself gave commands to the people of Israel to wage wars, in order to conquer the promised land, and He granted them victory and His blessing on their wars. In Numbers xxi. 14, a special ‘book of the wars of the Lord’ is spoken of. And how often in the Psalms is the assistance celebrated which God has granted to His people in war! Do you not know what Solomon says (Proverbs xxi. 31): ‘The horse is prepared against the day of battle, but safety is of the Lord’? In Psalm cxliv. David thanks and praises the Lord, his strength, ‘who teacheth his hand to war, and his fingers to fight’.”
“Then a contradiction prevails between the Old and the New Testament—the God of the ancient Hebrews was a warlike Deity, but the gentle Jesus proclaimed the message of peace, and taught love to neighbour and to enemy.”
“In the New Testament also, Jesus speaks in a figure (Luke xiv. 31) without the least blame of a king who is going to make war against another king. And how often, too, does not the Apostle Paul use figures from the military life? He says (Rom. xiii. 4) that the magistrate does not bear the sword in vain, but if God’s servant—a revenger on him that doeth evil.”
“Well, then, in that case the contradiction I mean exists in the Holy Scripture itself. By your showing me that it is present in the Bible you do not remove it.”
“There one sees the superficial and at the same time arrogant method of judgment which seeks to exalt one’s own weak reason above the Word of God. Contradiction is something imperfect, ungodlike; and if I show that a thing is in the Bible the proof is complete that in itself—however incomprehensible it may be to the human understanding—it can contain no contradiction.”