A Christian has no business getting involved in any doomed system. Here are the scriptures that prove this:

Mat 5:43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
Mat 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
Mat 5:45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

This one simple command of our Lord and Master, prohibits any “child of God”, from supporting any government that would have him to defend his country by physically killing his country’s enemies. Peter thought he was doing the right thing when he took out his sword to defend the very Son of God. Now listen closely to what Christ told Peter. There are few indeed who have been given the spiritual “ears to hear”, what Christ told Peter at this very juncture:

Mat 26:52 Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
Mat 26:53 Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?
Mat 26:54 But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?

Have you ever wondered why Christ never suggested that anyone should demonstrate against the Romans?

In Rom 13 we are told that we are to submit ourselves to “the higher power”. Pastor Adrian Rogers used this scripture to encourage Christians to both vote and to be willing to fight for and defend their country. The intimation is that we are a righteous nation under the God of Abraham and the Islamic terrorists are from evil nations under the God of Islam.

Dr. D. James Kennedy quotes Christ Himself to “prove that we should both vote and fight for our country”. This is the scripture that, to Dr. Kennedy, proves that we are to kill our enemies and vote in our elections:

Mar 12:17 And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. And they marveled at him.

It is most instructive that ‘Caesar’s things’, like fighting for your country and voting in its elections, take precedence over the “things that belong unto God”, things like “Love your enemies” (Mat 5:44, Luk 6:27, Luk 6:35) and “Resist not evil” (Mat 5:39).

I witnessed on T. V. the bombing of a Christian Church in Baghdad, Iraq. Now under the ‘sound advice’ of these two spiritual “princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown” (Num 16:2), what should these Iraqi Christians have done if Saddam had told them to take up arms and to fight for their country against the invading Christians? Pastor Rogers, Dr. Kennedy??? I don’t mean to single out these two men; they are simply the two I have heard make these statements. They are not saying anything contrary to what the entire orthodox Christian church is saying. I remember well watching and hearing Jerry Falwell make the statement before his entire congregation at the Thomas Road Baptist Church: “It may be legal to burn our flag, but if you do it next to me, I will whip you if I can”. And He was applauded by his Christian congregation.

Put all this carnal advice from these “princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown”, up against these words of our Lord and Master, and “choose ye this day whom you will serve”:

Mat 5:38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
Mat 5:39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

There you have it: “Fight for your country against your fellow Christians”, and “I’ll whip you if I can”, versus “Love your enemy”, and “Resist not evil”. Where these ‘men of renown’ go wrong is that they do not believe in a sovereign God. They actually believe that we should defend this nation as if it were the kingdom of God on earth. It is not the kingdom of God on this earth. Germany and Iraq are as much a part of “the counsel of His own will” as this Nation is.

Christ told the Pharisees that “the kingdom of God is within you”. How then can an American Christian kill an Iraqi Christian? Well, the way that is done is the same way that American and German Christians killed each other. Like Peter, they all did it with zeal. But it is a “zeal that is not according to knowledge”.

Here is how Paul tells us we are to view all men:

2Co 5:16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh [Jew or Gentile, Christian or Muslim]: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
2Co 5:18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
2Co 5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
2Co 5:20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.

Those witnesses of Christ, who have received a “love of the Truth”, take these inspired words seriously. “We are ambassadors for Christ” and Christ told Pilate that “My kingdom is not of this world”. Where then is Christ’s kingdom? Here is where Paul tells us that our ‘citizenship really should be’. It is this Truth only that will keep Christians from killing each other in the name of ‘obedience to God’.

Php 1:27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;
Php 3:18 (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
Php 3:19 Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
Php 3:20 For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Greek word translated ‘conversation’, in Php 3:7 is politeuomai – Strong’s #4176. According to Strong, this word means, “To behave as a citizen”. Then, warning us against those who are the “enemies of the cross of Christ”, we are warned that “they mind earthly things”. Things like fighting and voting in this world?

Then Paul comes right out and tells us “Our conversation is in heaven…” The Greek here is politeuma , Strong’s # 4175. He defines this word as “A community, that is citizenship“. So “Our citizenship is in heaven” and “My kingdom is not of this world” and “We are ambassadors for Christ”. So should a Christian fight for His physical country? Should he vote in the elections of the nations of this earth? Here is Christ’s own answer to these questions:

Joh 18:36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.

Christ also told us this:

Mat 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Neither can any man be faithful to two countries, especially when one is natural and the other is spiritual. What country in all the history of the nations of this earth would ever tolerate its ambassador getting involved in the political affairs of the country to which he was sent as an ambassador? How can he possibly represent the country that sent him there while at the same time be involved in the affairs of the host country? It cannot be done. The question of military service just serves to amplify this point. How could our ambassador to Iraq have joined the Iraqi military and still retain his American citizenship? It cannot be tolerated, not even in the flesh realm. It certainly will not be tolerated by a just God.

Here is the proper attitude for those Christians who are truly “living by faith”. It will not make you popular in this world. You will be especially hated by the ministers of orthodox Christendom. In fact the Truth is:

Mat 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all [men] for my name’s sake: but he that endure the to the end shall be saved.

Apparently those who are “living by faith”, are few and far between. But wherever they are, this is their attitude toward life on this earth:

Heb 11:13 These [all the O. T. faithful] all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth [Heavenly ambassadors].
Heb 11:14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
Heb 11:15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out [gave up their earthly citizenship], they might have had opportunity to have returned.
Heb 11:16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.