I went to the forum at our University last night between Jim Wallis and Greg Boyd. Both have written books recently about religion and politics. CNN was on hand filming the event. Here are some thoughts about it.
Boyd is on solid logical ground. He explained to the nation that demonic forces of evil are in control of the governments around the world. For those of you who don’t believe this, the Bible is very clear. In the story of the temptation of Christ by Satan in the wilderness (one of the most reliable and trusted stories in the Bible) Jesus does not question Satan’s ability to give Jesus control of all the governments in the world. The only conclusion we can draw from Jesus’ silence on this issue is that Satan was telling the truth. Paul also talks about “principalities and powers in high places” which, if read in the correct context of Greg Boyd’s teachings, obviously refers to demons.
I’m glad that someone is finally putting the true Christian Biblical position on this out there in a forum that the nation will see. If the world doesn’t know that we believe that evil demons are in control of all of the governments of the world, they will dismiss us as a wacky cult with no answer to the problem of evil.
Boyd also made a fantastic point about the acceptability in the eyes of Jesus for governments to go to war. He said that Jesus made “no exception” to his law of love and non-retaliation. Boyd again pulls the truth out of Jesus’ silence on the issue of exceptions to that rule. Boyd clarifies that war is inevitable and that we are not opposing Jesus when we support a government that spends 70% of its income on building machines that are wasted if they don’t kill half a billion people every year. War is inevitable. Boyd goes on: “would a nation that practiced Jesus’ law of love and non-retaliation survive? I don’t know.” He’s being modest in pretending not to know the answer to this question. We all know that it wouldn’t survive. And where would Jesus’ “kingdom of God” be without warring governments? Now I’ll be modest and pretend that I don’t know the answer to that one.
“Jesus makes no exception to the law of love and non-retaliation” says Boyd, but that doesn’t mean that Jesus believed that there were no exceptions. We can say a lot based on Jesus’ silence once again.
The inevitability of war has been known for a long time. I’m reminded of the writings of Camille Doucet who wrote in the early 1890s:
“During my life I have heard a great many good people protest against this frightful custom of international butchery, which all admit and deplore; but how is it to be remedied?
“Often, too, there have been attempts to suppress dueling; one would fancy that seemed an easy task: but not at all! All that has been done hitherto with that noble object has never been and never will be of use.
“All the congresses of both hemispheres may vote against war, and against dueling too, but above all arbitrations, conventions, and legislations there will always be the personal honor of individual men, which has always demanded dueling, and the interests of nations, which will always demand war.”
War is inevitable and no amount of legislation or any other force can change that.
Wallis, on the other hand, did not have such a firm logical foundation. On the contrary, he doesn’t even seem to care about logic. He motivates people by emotional appeals. He appeals to our compassion. This is obviously dangerous. In my village we have a saying, “there’s nothing more dangerous than an armed, scared man.” The point of this saying is that motivating people by emotional appeals is very, very dangerous.
Well, I’ll write more later but I had to get that off my chest.
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[...] to air Boyd-Wallis forum CNN will be airing a report on this Wallis-Boyd discussion tomorrow morning. I’ll bet they don’t show Boyd’s comments about demonic powers [...]