What Does the Bible Say About Terrorism?
In the eerie quiet of a choir practice room, an injured student stumbled in, bloody from the outside quad. She assured her worried classmates that she would be OK. A teacher dressed her two bullet wounds with supplies from the classroom's gunshot wound kit, lamenting only that she didn't have a second kit.
The mere idea that classrooms today need gunshot wound kits bothers me deeply. But that's our new reality in this country.
No school or neighborhood is immune.
Proverbs 3:31: “Do not envy a violent man or choose any of his ways”.
In this case, these students in Santa Clarita, California have grown up in a community considered one of the safest cities for children in America. They went to school with kids they'd known all their lives. In the aftermath, they were walking off campus in a single-file line, many in tears, with their arms above their heads like criminals being herded away from a
crime scene. They felt scared, confused, grateful, angry, stunned. As their parents anxiously waited for them, finally being able to hug them and whispering "Thank God you are OK."
Friday Night, Yesterday – in PLEASANTVILLE, N.J.
There was another shooting, this time at a high school football game. In this situation, there were no student shooters.
I’m not sure that fact is any less comforting.
CNN – reported in 46 weeks this year, there have been 44 school shootings.
This report just came out Friday November 15, 2019. The standard CNN set for a school shooting was the following:
The shooting must involve at least one person being shot (not including the shooter).
The shooting must occur on school property,
As of November 15th, in 2019 there have been 3,704 mass shootings in the United
States.
What does the Bible say about terrorism? This is a question I am getting asked more and more.
Modern day terrorism is different from the terrorism of ancient days. First of all, what is terrorism? Let’s define it. “Terrorism” is an attempt to incite fear, shock, and panic into a target population through the use of violence”. In some cases, death and destruction are purposely
inflicted as a punishment or as an act of revenge.
Obviously, many of the weapons used in modern terror attacks did not exist in biblical times, such as explosives, chemical weapons, and firearms. However, if one reads the last chapter of Zechariah, one will see that the Bible knew these modern day weapons were coming.
In ancient times, news of an attack would travel slowly. It was sent by oral or written descriptions. The ability to inflict sudden, catastrophic damage combined with the rapid spread of news—especially in graphic pictures and videos—has made terrorism what we know it as today. The internet, cell phones, and real time streaming has changed how the world communicates. We can now see any event in real time, anywhere around the world.
Technology which will be required for the 2 witnesses in Revelation 11.
God, in the Old Testament clearly directs Israel’s responsibilities during war. Scripture comments about those who target the innocent, and what we would today define as “terrorists.” Ancient armies were far more likely to deliberately target innocents. In fact, in the
ancient near east the idea of saving women and children during war was unheard of. However, Israel was given explicit instructions for warfare that directed their military operations. Israel was commanded to offer peace — and with it a warning—to a city prior to any attack (Deuteronomy 20:10). This action not only left room the possibility for peace, but it gave non-combatants, especially women and children, an opportunity to flee before the battle began.
Israel was not encouraged to go out of their way to attack civilians. Israel understood their orders to attack were based on the wickedness of their enemy. It had nothing to do with their own righteousness. (Deuteronomy 9:4-6)
The Bible expresses a strong condemnation for the shedding of innocent blood. Repeatedly Scriptures condemn those who use violence against the helpless (Deuteronomy 27:25).
Proverbs 6:16-18 “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: 17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18 a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil,”
Those who use common terrorist tactics such as attacking non-combatants, desiring
to hurt or kill as many as possible, and trying to inspire terror, are rebuked by the Lord, (Jeremiah 7:6, 19:4, 22:3, 22:17). Which means they will be held accountable by the Lord.
In Scripture, using ambush tactics in order to kill those one hates is treated as murder (Deuteronomy 19:11).
Terrorism is a global phenomenon. On Tuesday, terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired hundreds of rockets at Israel in retaliation for Israel’s targeted killing of the senior commander of Islamic Jihad in Gaza. Many of the rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system, but
quite a few got through, and some even reached as far as Tel Aviv. Following those rocket attacks, Israeli tanks and aircraft pounded Islamic Jihad positions in the Gaza Strip, and Israeli officials are pledging to continue to respond to any additional attacks.