Why Do Jehovah Witnesses Refuse to Fight in Wars?

Question by Tiny: Why Do Jehovah Witnesses refuse to fight in wars?
This was a question raised by a yahoo member. Why do JW’s refuse to fight in wars when there were many wars fought in ancient times by holy people?

You are right there were many wars fought by God’s people. But there is a huge diffference between how those wars were fought opposed to how wars are fought today. Notice the difference.

According to the Bible, Israel fought other battles under God’s direction, usually to repel unprovoked enemy threats. When the nation obeyed Jehovah, the wars it fought ended favorably. (Exodus 34:24; 2 Samuel 5:17-25) But disaster usually resulted when Israel dared to do battle contrary to divine counsel. Consider the case of King Jeroboam. Ignoring a direct prophetic warning, he dispatched his huge army in civil war against Judah. When the mayhem finally ended, 500,000 of Jeroboam’s soldiers were dead. (2 Chronicles 13:12-18) Even faithful King Josiah once picked a battle that was not his. The rash decision cost him his life.—2 Chronicles 35:20-24.

What do these events show? That in ancient Israel, the decision to make war rested with God. (Deuteronomy 32:35, 43) He had his people fight for specific purposes. However, these purposes were long ago accomplished. Furthermore, Jehovah foretold that those who serve him “in the final part of the days” would “beat their swords into plowshares” and not “learn war anymore.” (Isaiah 2:2-4) Clearly, Biblical wars do not justify modern-day conflicts, none of which are fought under God’s direction or at his command.

This is why Jesus came preaching love. He said that the identifying mark of true Christians would be the love that they have for one another. We are told to love our neighbors which includes our enemies. How can you say you love them if you are willing to kill them? Jesus said that our love should be so strong for our neighbors, which includes everyone, that we should be willing to die for them if we had to.

Best answer:

Answer by Unsolved Miseries
Matthew 7:12. This is the same reason that I, as a non-denominational Christian, do not fight in wars.

A Murrieta man accused of beating his wife to death so he could collect $ 1.3 million from life insurance policies was “drowning in debt” and appears to have done Internet research on murder methods, the prosecution argued Wednesday during the trial’s opening statements in a French Valley courtroom.

Kelle Lee Jarka, 40, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of Isabelle Jarka, 40, his wife of nearly two decades and the mother of his two children, one of whom was still an infant at the time of the killing.

Jarka’s defense attorney, Erin Kirkpatrick, portrayed him as a caring friend and father and devout Jehovah’s Witness who loved his wife and had spent his younger years helping to build churches. Kirkpatrick suggested that Jarka took out the insurance policies because he and his wife had been rattled by the recent death of a close family friend.

According to police, Jarka said he came home after running some errands on the morning of April 28, 2008, to find his house broken into and his wife bludgeoned to death. Police say Jarka killed her and staged the break-in.

Prosecutor Burke Strunsky said Jarka is “preoccupied with money, status and image” and executed a “well-researched but sloppily executed murder.”

The burglary, according to Strunsky, was “transparently staged,” with valuable items such as a laptop and a wad of cash left behind and drawers removed and neatly stacked.

On a laptop that prosecutors say was used almost exclusively by Jarka investigators found records of incriminating-sounding Internet searches, including “poisons that cause instant death” and “how to medically suffocate” and “when to remarry after death,” Strunsky said.

On the morning Isabelle Jarka was found dead, a church elder had spent hours at their home discussing the couple’s marital problems and had not left until about 4 a.m., Strunsky said.

Forensic evidence suggests that Isabelle Jarka likely was lying in bed asleep when the first blow was struck and that the killer appears to have followed her, continuing to strike her in the head, as she struggled across the bedroom floor.

Isabelle’s mother, Tina Canchola, who lived across the street, described on the witness stand how her agitated son-in-law came to her door that morning talking to a 911 dispatcher on his cell phone and carrying his infant son. Canchola, realizing something was wrong, ran across the street and into the Jarka home where she found her daughter, face down in a pool of blood.

Canchola wept as she explained how she got down on her knees next to her daughter.

“I start touching her legs, her back, her hair,” she said.

“Isabelle, answer me,” Canchola repeated to her daughter. “She couldn’t … She was already dead.”

http://www.exjehovahswitness.net/2009/08/jehovahs-witness-killed-wife-to-collect-on-insurance

Answer by Steve P – JW
Jehovah is a God of love, not violence.

Steve

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