A favor for me

I have a vast army of over 5 regular readers on this blog. So I would like to ask you to do some work for me please visit this site that I am building for my aunt & uncle. If you have a moral objection or are offended by the idea of hunting, don't visit.

http://DTSoutfitters.com

and look at it closely. Let me know about formatting issues, spelling errors, broken links. I need people to use different browsers, (although I have used the Opera browser, b/c I know no one else uses it) particularly safari for my Mac readers. Also, read it. I need to know if it suffers from doesn't-make-senseness

Here's stuff I already know is messed up

- The logo in the header is just a placeholder. the final (which will be similar) is coming in a few days and will be actually transparent rather than looking like it's showing through static

- The who are we page is incomplete

- I have another question or two to answer on the faq

- No sitemap (it's coming)

I am not a real web designer, I am self taught and don't have anyone else to do the proofreading and testing so I would appreciate your help. I will accept any general criticism, or commentary.

Also I am curious, do y'all think the colors on the site need to match the logo colors exactly, or does it look okay as is? it is a simple fix to make it match. Also, if they should match should I change the logo to match the site or vice versa? (in other words, which green and orange do you like better?)

You can send me an email or just comment here in the comments

Silent?

There is a sentiment that I often hear in Christian circles. It basically goes like this; We have all these problems because Christians have been silent for too long. I have never heard it questioned, but today I want to question your thinking about that statement slightly.

I will begin by saying that the “problems” that people are ranting about when these statements are made, are real and true problems. Allowing marriage to be anything other than between one man and one woman is wrong, abortion is wrong, the movement to push the Christian church out of every area of the public sphere is wrong. (E.g. kicking the Gideons out of public school or not allowing Churches to have booths at the Dogwood Festival. Fayetteville NC I’m talking to you.) Those things are wrong! I will unashamedly say so. (And there may be a future blog post about the death of the word wrong)

Secondly, there are some political things that American Christians are silent about. For example, we are often silent about genocide, I suppose because it happens far away. We are silent about the abuse and martyrdom of Christians in most of the world. We are mostly silent about the evil of divorce. (I should say evangelicals are silent about. Liberal Christians believe fixing this stuff is equal to salvation) However, we simply are not silent about the things I hear people complain about all the time. Most non-believers know Christians for their political activity more than anything else

You will not meet a non-Christian in America that doesn’t know the Christian position on marriage or abortion. In fact, research tells us that non-believers believe that what it means to be a Christian is to be judgmental and to hate homosexuals. <aside>This may be their view, but it is simply not true. The best thing that ever happened to me, ever, is asking Jesus to be my lord. I know that lost people are in fact lost and will act that way. It is to be expected.</aside> But we have lost our message somewhere. We can blame the news media, or the people who make entertainment, but if they were Christians they would know better.

The problem [if there is one] with all our political activism is that it is an attempt to fix consequences without taking care of the problems. Dr. Reid always says, "Jesus did not die to make bad people good; he died to make dead people live." The deplorable behavior of our nation will not be fixed by all the political rallies, petitions, or letters (and I write letters to my politicians regularly) that we can produce. They will only be fixed with a great awakening style revival in our nation.

So back to the original statement, we have all these problems because Christians have been silent for too long. I agree with this statement…but not the way most who say it mean it. We have all these problems because Christians have been silent with the gospel message for too long. I am convinced that unless my city councilman actually knows Jesus, there is no reason to expect him to vote like someone who does. (He does claim to be a Christian.) The same goes for my mayor, my Governor, and my president. You get the idea. Also, I know that hope for our world is not found in politics.

This is not a pessimistic post just to complain, I offer solutions. So, what can you, my reader, do to fix all the problems of society? For starters, I would say consider every single person you know at least casually. If you know that any of them do not know Jesus, and you have not witnessed to them, witness to them. That sounds convoluted, so I’ll say it a different way. Tell everyone you know that Jesus loves them and that He died for their sins. If you are reading this and realize that you don't know Jesus go here and watch the movie. Secondly, live differently from the world. Live with joy and your acquaintances will want what you have.

Good Bye Mr. Wildcat

I read this article this morning and it made me sad. Legendary Kentucky manager dies

This post will not make sense to you if you are not from Kentucky. But today I am genuinely sad about the death of a man I never met.

If there was a Mount Rushmore of Kentucky basketball three of the faces would be settled. They would be Adolph Rupp, the second winningest coach of all time who put UK basketball on the map, Cawood Ledford the long-time voice of the Cats, and Bill Keightley the equipment manager since 1962. (If you want to suggest the fourth in the comments, feel free. I would vote for Dan Issel.) I am sincere when I say that I think everyone in the state knows who these three men are. Even my Granny would know them.

So now all three of these men are gone. It is, sadly, the end of an era. Arguably the best program in the history of college basketball (certainly one of only 4 in the conversation) had always had this one commonality, Mr. Wildcat, Bill Keightley.

From UK Athletics:

Having just completed his 48th season on the UK sidelines, the Wildcats’ record over the past four decades with Keightley as equipment manager is 1,113-351. During his tenure, he served under six UK head coaches — Adolph Rupp, Joe B. Hall, Eddie Sutton, Rick Pitino, Orlando “Tubby” Smith and Billy Gillispie. Kentucky, which has fielded 105 teams, has played 2,588; meaning Keightley played a role in 57 percent of those games. In 1997, UK honored Keightley with a retired jersey in his honor. He joins veteran broadcaster Cawood Ledford as the only non-player or coach to have a jersey retired at UK. Keightley was also among 88 Wildcat greats inducted into the charter class of the UK Athletics Hall of Fame in 2005.

I thought this better than a silly April fool’s day post. And I wish it was a joke.

Here's a video from four years ago. It is sad now.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ughHkuHs1iM]

Commercials

I rarely watch TV live. I don’t even know when my favorite show, Lost, comes on. I watch it on Sunday nights whenever a new one shows up on my DVR. The only things I watch live are Around the Horn and PTI. I usually ride my exercise bike while I watch these and change it to Seinfeld during the commercials. So, even then, I don't see many commercials. I also watch sports live. It is very rare for me to put a game on the DVR.

So, because I have watched a lot of basketball, I have watched a lot of commercials over the last 2 weekends. This post is about the commercials. I would expect that advertisers would realize that they have to raise their game to make commercials something you want to watch. I cannot be the only person who has cut his commercial intake drastically since the invention of the Tivo.

I appears however that advertisers have not raised their game rather they take 2 tactics. First, repetition. Show the commercials so much that you want to smash their product with a sledgehammer if you see it again. (see apple computers) Secondly, and go with creepy. These are the commercials that make you feel uncomfortable in some way.

The rest of this post is just me reviewing some commercials. I’ll talk about the ones I like and the ones that make me want to refuse to ever buy the product.

First, the five commercials I wish were never made.

MacBook Air – Every human in the USA has seen this commercial at least 5,000 times. Initially I had nothing against it, but now I think if I hear “I’m a new soul…” one more time I could smash a mac into a million pieces.

Charles Schwab – These half animated, half live-action hybrid commercials give me the creeps. I have no money to be buying stocks with, (And guidestone already manages my massive retirement.) but these creepy commercials where people talk about their broker being money grubbing turds (because clearly, Schwab exists completely altruistically and their brokers are like charity workers) definitely make me want to stay away from Charles Schwab.

Taco Bell – All of the current Taco Bell commercials are stupid. Especially the one with the fake looking CG cheese. I’m disappointed, because Taco Bell has had very good commercials in the past.

Volkswagen - I despise everything about this commercial which runs during every single break. (The one where the man keeps approaching the car, and the lights flash and the horn honks) If your message is “Volkswagen, the car for either weird or annoying people”, mission accomplished.

Now my favorite commercials that run during the NCAA tourney

5. E-trade baby- I like the one with the clown. Mainly because of the following quote. “I really underestimated the creepiness.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdfvWAp5GUw]

 

4. Subway – I don’t particularly like the commercial, but the five dollar foot-long song is catchy

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiL8tafYcxc]

 

3. Holiday Inn express – The “Hot Bar” commercials are funny. The designated driver who gets a plate and starts loading up is the best one. (download it here)

 

2. Sonic – I really like the Sonic commercials. The husband and wife sitting in the car eating and talking about stupid stuff are pretty much all good.

 

1. Pontiac – The Spy Hunter commercial is great in every way. It is, by far, my favorite commercial currently running.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W29zZXiBsPw]

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Did you ever get the idea that the preacher was talking about you?

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Sunday my pastor dropped this little off the cuff aside as part of his Easter sermon [audio http://lagrangeparkbc.org/audio/WebSavvy.mp3]

I'm pretty sure he's talking about me, and my blog where nobody gives a flip about what I think anyway. I hope he comments on this to express himself to the world.

Do yall think this is directed at me?

(This clip sounds like the chipmunks on some computers, I don't know why.)

Be Careful How You Read the News

Today I want to comment on two stories I’ve seen in the last few days.

The first is here. This story is about some rabbit bones recently found in India. Here’s the key quote:

The new bones also show that advanced rabbit-like features evolved earlier than thought

So let’s get this straight. It turns out that the oldest rabbit bones ever found look exactly like…(wait for it)…rabbits. It is fairly routine to see stories like this. Why are they never put up with headlines like, Another Blow to Evolutionary Theory? This story leads me to conclude that rabbits have always been rabbits. (Just like every other major animal kind.) It would be great to have some scientist say, “So you know all those semi-rabbits that we believe existed between other mammals, looks like we were wrong about that.” But that is never the quote. What is the conclusion? They must have just “developed earlier than expected.” Just for the record there aren’t any transitional fossils found. And the ones that are claimed are usually a tooth or a jaw that is used to reconstruct an entire animal

Then there’s this story about the seed bank

It seems that there is a seed bank created in case some horrible catastrophic event. Part of it also is to protect the diversity of plants we have now that is dwindling.

Here’s my nest question. How come no one ever says evolution has stopped? We regularly hear about how fast species are becoming extinct. It seems like since the belief in evolution has caught on so well, everyone should be looking for it. And we should have hundreds of new species popping up from all the animal and plant groups.

However, not only do we have no new species that evolved, (only those that were discovered or bred) but we consistently lose species. If this is the case, why have no evolutionists come out and said, “It appears evolution has come to a close. Life on this planet is much less diverse than it used to be, and we can only conclude that this is the result of the cease of evolution.”

The other coast 03.25.08

Easter, the New Christmas

This post by John McLamb plus a phone call from my friend, Brent, got me thinking about Easter and the subdued celebration we give it. Think of the incarnation. (a.k.a. Christmas) For some reason this holiday has become a worldwide phenomenon. I am not wanting anything like this for Easter, [almost everything about Christmas has gotten out of hand] but it would be great if Easter involved a little more celebration. As it is, it as become only an excuse for little girls to get new dresses. Remember that Christmas wouldn’t matter if there was no Easter.

Let’s read 1 Cor 15

17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. (ESV)

The fact is, if there is no Easter than our religion is hopeless. We really should have a greater celebration. Something better than just canceling pm worship, or maybe hunting eggs.

I think part of the problem is that it is a celebration of something we often forget to celebrate. We have a tendency to See Jesus as only the “Lamb upon the cross.” (Remember The Passion of the Christ, 127.5 minutes of beatings and blood, 30 seconds of the resurrection but people think it is the greatest film ever made.) Even on Easter day we have a tendency to speak about Christ’s death more than His resurrection. Don’t get me wrong His death is very important. But without the resurrection it would be wasteful.

So next year, at least on Resurrection day, let’s truly celebrate the resurrection:

I would like to start a movement to reclaim the name of Easter. Have it be called Resurrection day. I began to think about this on Thursday after leaving the following comment on Scott & Briana’s blog.

Much like the Chocolate & peanut butter bunnies, we have mixed up our paganism with our Christianity.

It starts with the name Easter, an englishification of a pagan word. From Wikipedia - The name refers to the Eostur-monath, a month of the Germanic Year which may have been named for the goddess Eastre in Germanic paganism. -

We should call it resurrection Sunday, or something similar to that.

As for the bunny laying eggs. If you are a pagan and worship fertility, (as all pagan religions do) what is a better symbol for fertility than a bunny? How about an egg? If you mix the two, you get an Easter bunny.

Just don't teach your kids to worship fertility in the springtime when everything is coming to life after the long winter and you will be ok even if you eat Easter eggs, and get a visit from the bunny. :-)

But I'll leave that up to someone with more influence.

More Basketball

This is going to be a two post day. One I should have posted yesterday, because it is about Easter, but it is the more serious of the two so I will post it later. First a word about …

Basketball – I pull for the teams I like, rather than the teams that help my bracket. And there are a lot more teams I hate, than teams I like.  I pull for the SEC even if it costs me in my predictions.  I root against the ACC, Big 10, Big East, and Pac 10.  There is a pecking order within those conferences though.  I have no particular vitriol for Arizona St., or Wisconsin, for example. (I’m pretty neutral about the Big 12) I Loved watching Duke lose and would have loved to see UCLA lose.   (Apparently Kevin Love is immune from moving screen, or any other, fouls.)  I stand virtually no chance of winning any of my groups at this point, so I'm just watching for the enjoyment of it.

The teams I hate most in order are (1 & 2 could be reversed depending on the day) 1. UCLA 2. Duke 3. North Carolina

The teams I want to see win it all this year in order are 1. Western Kentucky 2. Tennessee 3. nobody, but I guess I'll take Kansas

Feel free to share your list in the comments

Beef Stew League By the Numbers

Breaking down our leagueHere’s the numbers in the Beef Stew league. Thought yall might find this interesting

Members – 15 (the largest ever) Mystery players – 1 Average age* – 32.7

By Occupation Accountants* – 4 Ministers* – 4 Students* – 2

By Family Status Single* - 5 Married* - 9 Parents* – 5

Picked Kentucky over Marquette - 11

Predicted in final 4 UCLA – 11 UNC – 10 Texas – 8 Kansas – 8 Memphis – 6 Tennessee – 4 Georgetown – 3 Duke – 3 Wisconsin – 2 Vanderbilt – 1

Predicted Champion UNC – 8 UCLA – 4 Tennessee – 1 Duke – 1

* Does not include mills120

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Clearly there is something wrong with me. Tomorrow is the beginning of the NCAA tournament and I am in full March madness mode.

It works out for me, because I am only partially employed, but I feel like Thursday should be a holiday. I could tolerate working on Friday because the basketball-fest on Thursday will satiate me enough to get through the day.

There is no event in all of sports that excites me like the first two rounds of the NCAA. And I really like…

The Super Bowl

The Daytona 500

The World Series

The college bowls (though they are ultimately unfulfilling)

The night race at Bristol

The PGA majors

The SEC tournament

All these are great events, but none of them are as enjoyable as the first 2 rounds of the NCAA tourney. I think its because of the fact that there is wall-to-wall basketball, sometimes 4 games on at once. Also because everybody picks the tournament.

The only thing that can make it better is when Kentucky is a contender

Just thought I’d share

BTW: my final 4 is UNC, Texas, Wisconsin, UCLA.

This Is Probably Too Heavy to Blog About

Have you ever just lain prostrate in the floor before God and cried over your sin?

Recently I found myself doing so. I was just weeping, because I know that my sin is offensive to a Holy God and slaps Him in his face. I sometimes feel as if Jesus wasted his sacrifice on me. That is really not what this post is about. I just wanted to get that off my chest. (And, really, what better way to do so than in a public forum where literally anyone in the world can read it.) I also wondered of that makes me a freak. Am I the only one who does that, and does it mean that I don’t trust in God’s forgiveness, or that Jesus died for all of my sin?

This post is a post about something that has been on my mind lately. This is actually only a lead up to that post as I think about it further.

This post is one of those that is begging for comments. (I wish I didn’t check my stupid stats every day, but I do.) Here is my question. The other night, I was crying over my sin. And most often when I find myself in this situation, I find that my mind goes to 1 John 1:9, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. This verse is comforting and reassuring. However on this night my mind went to an old hymn. (written 1772)

There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins; And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day; And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away.

E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply, Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.

What an awesome and reassuring song!

Here’s my question, especially for those of you who don’t go to churches that sing old hymns, or rarely sing old hymns. What song goes through your head in these times of trouble? Right off the top of my head, here's another situation when I found the words of a hymn very comforting. if I think of others I'll add it later.

After the death of a Christian brother I was deeply sad, and the only song that filled my mind was When We All Get To Heaven. (written 1898 this would have been a Contemporary Christian hit for my great-grandmother)

I'll lighten it up the rest of the week :-)

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Why the Internet is Great

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This will probably be an occasional post I make about why the internet is really useful. Today it is about overcoming geographical bounds.

Those of you who know me (I suppose you are the only ones reading this) know that I am a Kentucky boy living in the heart of ACC country. Although I didn’t graduate from there, I spent 4 years at UK. So needless to say, a day like this could be very depressing for me. When I turn on my local Raycom Sports affiliate, this is what is on my TV.

ACC tournament

I want to be watching the SEC tournament, not the stupid ACC tournament. (I hate every single team in the ACC tourney!)

Here’s the part about why the internet rules. Thanks to sports.yahoo.com, and my reasonably quick broadband connection from Time Warner, (I hate my Time Warner DVR, but the broadband is reliable and quick.) I am able to watch the SEC tourney streaming over the web. It’s even commercial free. (Unless you count the Raycom bug that never goes away, or all the brought to you by's, or the ads plastered all over the Georgia Dome.) If I am not downloading anything I can watch at the 700k setting and it has quite a reasonable picture. Good enough that I can stream it to my TV and be quite satisfied. Check it out.

SEC Tourney

My only complaint is the unspeakably horrible music that Raycom plays during the commercial breaks. I don’t know how people got by before broadband internet, I guess they had to read the newspaper or be satisfied to watch highlights on sportscenter or college gamenight.

A time for War? A time for peace (part 2)

Yesterday I answered the question, “Is war ever justified?” My conclusion; only the state can carry out war, and it can be the morally correct thing to do in certain circumstances. The corollary question to that one is, “Can a Christian be a combatant?” These questions are not mere abstractions. In case you haven’t noticed, the United States is in an ongoing war. And to have a war, you need people to fight. There’s probably a dozen us.army.mil addresses in my address book. So this question matters. For a Christian interested in doing the will of God, who also happens to be in the military this question is of paramount importance. So lets get to the answer.

Can a Christian fight in a war? The answer to this one lies in yesterday’s conclusion. The state can carry out a war. So how is a state to do so? What is a state? Is the US the land that we inhabit? If so do we expect the land to begin drifting and swallow up the land of our enemies. That is ludicrous, of course. The US is the people that make up the country. Remember that whole We the People thing? The citizens are the body of the United States. If the people decide to do battle through their duly chosen government, we are to support this decision.

Since the state needs to do things and has no anatomy of its own, it needs agents to carry out those duties. So what is an agent of the state? We have police officers, who patrol the domestic streets in order to keep order, we have engineers who design the infrastructure, to keep us moving. We have sanitation workers who keep our streets clean, and we have teachers to educate our populace. All functions that the state has decided are good and necessary.

Sometimes it is possible or even likely that one of these agents will be required to do something that under other circumstances would be immoral. Of course since we are talking here about war, the obvious example is the taking of a human life. A soldier may have to do so, a police officer may have to do so, an executioner fulfilling the penal system requirements may have to do so. In these cases killing is not equal to murder. Remember that yesterday we said that the state has the right, and possibly the duty, to do these actions. Someone acting as an agent of the state is not morally responsible for murder.

This can definitely be taken too far. The Nuremburg criminals all said they were just following orders. No Christian should be expected to become torturers or be involved in the slaughter of innocents. (I would argue that innocents are not necessarily the same as non-combatants.)

So what about Jesus’ turn the other cheek talk? I’ll take this paragraph directly from JP Moreland because I couldn’t possibly say it any clearer or better:

Jesus' teachings about forgiveness, loving your enemies and turning the other cheek were not meant as social ethics for the state but as private ethics for the individual. Moreover, they were guides to becoming a certain sort of person — kind and compassionate, ready to forgive; but they did not offset the need for justice and protecting the innocent with force as a last resort. After all, it is not "living by the sword" for genteel folk to kill an intruder who tries to murder their children. Jesus accepted the reality of hell and judgment, and He is depicted as a warrior when He returns again.

On a few occasions there were soldiers in the Bible, how are they treated? Let’s first look at when some soldiers came to John the Baptist, wondering what they should do. They seem willing to change their job. Here are his directions in Luke 3:

14Then some soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?" He replied, "Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely—be content with your pay."

There was nothing in his answer to suggest the being a soldier is incompatible with the kingdom of God. In Acts 10 Peter goes to the Roman centurion, Cornelius, and leads his family to faith in Christ. He never suggests that he should cease being a soldier. Jesus in Luke 7 encounters a Roman soldier and says:

9b"I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith."

Don’t forget Paul’s Words in Romans 13:

4he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.

Why all this scripture? To establish that the Bible is favorable to the soldier. There is no reason to believe that the Bible encourages the soldier to stop doing so. And certainly Jesus is pictured as a triumphant warrior upon his return.

At the end of this marathon 2-day post what is the conclusion?

  1. The state has the authority to conduct war
  2. The Christian may be a soldier

I hope that wasn’t overwhelming!

A Time For War? And A Time For Peace.

Recently I was asked a question by a friend, which really turns out to be two different questions. Those questions are; “Is war (or violence) ever justified?” and “Can a Christian be a soldier?”

I did my best to answer those two questions in conversation, but I was horribly deficient in the details. My answers contained no Scripture; they were merely based on principles from scripture. This post and tomorrow’s are essentially my attempt to answer those questions more thoroughly. Today I will begin with the answer to the first question, “Is war ever justified?” Before anyone begins to think me too erudite, you should know that there is nothing new to answer this question with. What I mean by that is that it has been answered thoroughly by many talented theologians. For the purpose of these two posts I have borrowed heavily from this article by JP Moreland. And I also had to break out my old ethics textbook. (I have another copy if anyone wants it.)

I’m going to answer this question first because there is so much on the subject already written. Also because it is the question the other stands on. If war is always wrong, then the Christian certainly cannot participate.

It seems like this question has been pondered since the beginning of Christian history. Augustine, Aquinas, Luther and Calvin all addressed the subject and all came to the same conclusion. After studying the scripture, I have also come to the same conclusion. Under certain circumstances war is justified.

In short, the argument is, that God is just, and expects his world to be just. This does not override His love, but goes alongside. As a part of the justice of God sometimes violence is demanded.

It is important to clarify at this point that the power to conduct war lies with the state only. The Church or family is not to be in the war business. (i.e. feuds, crusades = wrong)

The power for the state to carry out war is clearly granted in Romans 13.

3b Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. 4For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer

This passage about he power of civil authorities makes it clear that war is the right of the state.

Of course the Old Testament has many, many commands regarding warfare. From Abraham’s [military] expedition to save his cousin Lot, to God’s directions for Saul to destroy the Amalekites.

Remember this cheer from the Israelites in 1 Samuel 18?

7 As they danced, they sang: "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands."

David was viewed as a hero because of the way he executed God’s plans toward the peoples of Canaan, because he was successful in warfare.

The next question is; Are all these Old Testament passages binding on New Testament Christians? I believe Hebrews 11 speaks to this.

32And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, 33who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.

In this case these people are being celebrated, in the great faith chapter of the Bible, for their military victories, on behalf of the state.

I am making no statement about whether or not the state should declare war in a given situation, or even when it would be right for the state to participate in a war. (for more on that read about just war theory.) I am only saying the state has the right to do so. I will say though, that sometimes the state has not only the right to carry out a war, but the responsibility to do so. Particularly, it seems, when it comes to protecting its citizens or freeing the oppressed. (In this post I am making no statement about the current theaters of the war on terror, but if you want to know my position ask me in the comments.)

I hope at this point that I have established, that from a biblical perspective, the state has the right, and even duty, to carry out a war.

Tomorrow I will answer the corollary question, “Can a Christian be a combatant?”