With so much intense debate going on concerning the impending war with Iraq, I felt that the Spirit recently drew my attention to a matter that I have not heard raised elsewhere. I put it forth below for appropriate testing.
The Prime Minister of East Timor, Mari Alkitiri, has claimed that he was bullied by the Australian side in discussions on dividing the gas fields in the Timor Sea. The principal players from Australia are our Prime Minister John Howard and the Defence Minister Alexander Downer. Importantly, both of these gentlemen are confessing Christians and are the key advocates for Australian involvement in a U.S.led war in the Middle East.
What links the Timorese complaints with the Iraq context is the language of “bullying”. Repeatedly we hear complaints, mostly, but not exclusively, from Muslim nations, that America is trying to bully the world into war. Australia’s leaders however seem completely unable to appreciate the force of these assertions or to empathise with them in any meaningful way. (This seems true whatever the evidence of American economic or military threats or the outcome of the present scenario.)
In this context, I believe God led me to the words of Jesus: “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” (Matt 7:5). My conviction is that our principal Australian power brokers, John Howard and Alexander Downer, cannot see the offensiveness of the American position to many nations because they are in a state of blindness brought about by their own stand – over tactics. Our leaders are psychologically and spiritually blocked from seeing the dangers of American muscle because they have committed the same error against our impoverished neighbour to the north.
I believe that God has given these leaders “over” to the blinding consequences of their bullying tactics and that this is the judgement of God upon our nation (Rom 1:21ff.). It is not a personal matter, as if John H. and Alexander D. were especially bad people, they clearly are not. They, with our culture, are simply caught up in the western “prosperity at all costs” approach to life. We really are reaping in the Iraq scenario what we have sowed in other places. This surely calls for repentance (2 Chron 7:14).
Looking a little broader, I think it is highly significant that the standard bearers for war on Iraq are three English speaking men of Christian profession (George W., Tony B. and John H.) representing what has been the heartland of Protestant Christendom for the last few hundred years, at least in its most visible missionary dimension.
I feel like these men have been overtaken by a “crusader spirit” that expects God to be on our side no matter how depraved our nations have become. This spirit first rose up in the fourth century when the (then) pagan General Constantine had a vision just prior to his decisive battle at Milvian Bridge. It was a vision of a cross accompanied by the words “By this sign conquer”. By his legitimising Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire Constantine became the founder of the alliance between the Christian church and the state that has arguably plagued European and American spirituality for over sixteen hundred years.
I am wondering whether the present circumstances of military projection without manifest humility by traditional “Christian” nations is the Lord’s way of stirring up Christian people across the world to realize in their hearts and put to death there the myth of Christendom. The church was never meant to be the chaplain of the state. If this is God’s agenda, then the threat of war in Iraq could have consequences far wider reaching than any of us realize. Indeed, I pray that this is so, and that it heralds a day when Christians, especially in Australia, look only to Jesus for hope in this world.