Yesterday’s elections have thrown a spotlight on the ambiguous relationship between God, nation, and war. Though a significant proportion of my fellow-countrymen might disagree, Americans are not God’s chosen people. The majority of American evangelicals supported the war in Iraq, and I would venture to assert that most of them believed God had specifically directed Bush to launch the war. Of course the gradual decline in popular support for the war means nothing as to whether Bush’s discernment of God’s will was accurate. Still, even entertaining the idea that God would promote a pre-emptive war in order to protect the homeland is surely an Old Testament idea transported into New Testament times. Our individualistic, humanistic era clearly hasn’t extinguished the all-too-human instinct of powerful nations and rulers to invoke God’s blessing on its military exploits.

In criticizing Yahweh’s Old Testament violence it’s possible that we’re anachronistically imposing a more enlightened ethic on a more barbaric historical era. It’s also possible that God’s support of his own people may at times have required him to crush the other nations militarily. It’s also possible that, once Christ came, God stopped taking sides in wars. Practically any interpretation is conceivable. The overriding issue is whether the Old Testament writers are reliable in ascribing responsibility to God for human undertakings and outcomes. I have no new insights to offer on how best to answer that question. Hopefully the canonical authors received clearer signals than everybody else who has overinterpreted God’s intentions in human warfare down through the ages. (Maybe God really did tell Bush to go to war in Iraq, but now he’s punishing America for its corruption and hubris?)

The original post tied God’s O.T. violence with Wright’s theology, and perhaps there is a connection. Christ’s atonement and resurrection made it possible to graft non-Jews individually into the collective people of God: isn’t that Wright’s idea? We are dead to the Jewish Law and its severe system of punishments. But does God still act on behalf of his collective people in a way that’s continuous with his Old Testament dealings on behalf of Israel? If so, does that suggest that God might support holy wars, crusades, etc. in the New Testament era? Or perhaps I’m off the track here.