Politicians, Statesman, and Controversial Matters

The following is a guest article written by my good friend Det Bowers.

“The LORD your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior…” (Zeph. 3:17).

War is not always optional. Oftentimes, one war births another. The difficulty can be determining what war to enter and how to engage in that war (II Sam. 10:12). It is also essential to enter only those engagements wherein the mission is clearly defined and articulated, the time is ripe, the undertaking is achievable, and the exit provisions are agreed upon by those with the purest motives as well as the best knowledge and experience (I Chron. 14:15).

Americans seem to have continuing problems understanding that all societal values are not equal and all nations do not have the same values: Hitler’s Germany, 1941 Japan, Stalin and Putin’s Russia, the Islamic State, et cetera. Think through the nations that do not value life as we do in the western world or who disparage republican democracy, human rights and particularly the position of their own wives, sisters and daughters.

In our 21^st Century A.D., the international community is experiencing civil wars, ethnic wars, sectarian wars, regional wars, religious wars, cultural wars, ideological wars, territorial wars, et cetera. Some nations are positioned to address these wars and others are not (I Chron. 13:14). The problem is that a war in one country can have a significant affect upon other countries outside that region.

Your United States of America has matchless military might because we have developed the abilities gifted to us by “nature and nature’s God.” We have anticipated conflicts and cultivated the armaments vital to securing our own ordered peace (II Chron. 16:9). Other nations have not made the sacrifices necessary to order their own peace. 

There are many reasons why some are powerless to maintain peace and orderliness or address the wars going on within their borders. One of the primary reasons is their failure to apply themselves to the task of statecraft – crafting a nation-state requires all-encompassing sacrifice by her leadership. Therefore, when the sacrifice has not been made and is not being made, when there is a status of dependency, difficulties arise. A struggle associated with assisting less-powerful nations when the war is on their territory is the tendency to give the weak nation a central voice in how the powerful nation will engage on behalf of the unskilled nation.

Powerful nations establish world order and peace – weak nations do not. The weak nations do not have peace because they have been unwise and not made the very best of their human and natural resources (II Sam. 5:24). Sloth as well as the refusal to work early, hard and long must not be coddled by the more vigorous nations that expend scores of resources to make the world a better place for all peoples everywhere. The quandary is that if the strong nation continues to assist the weak nation without requiring it to discipline itself and expend its own resources to secure order within its own region, the strong nation shall strain its resources and can become as ineffective as the nation it is assisting (II Sam. 1:19).

At the close of World War II, Prime Minister Winston Churchill said it could have all been prevented if the western powers would have opposed Adolph Hitler earlier. Politicians rarely move early in controversial matters – statesmen consistently do. Moving early requires the resolve, vision and sacrifice so few will make (I Sam. 2:9). Not only should a wise nation move early, she should be committed to completing the task (II Chron. 26:5).

One of the difficulties of war is that it is not concluded until all agree it is over – including the losing party (I Sam. 15:32f.). Elections do not end wars – decisive victories do. When a nation, state or society is defeated, unless the victor addresses the conquered territory and people, there is a significant likelihood that other vexations worse than the first will assume positions of power in the land (Mt. 12:45).

“In those times there was no peace to him who went out or to him who came in, for many disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands. Nation was crushed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every kind of distress. But you, be strong and do not lose courage, for there is reward for your work (II Chron. 15:5-7).


de Treville F. Bowers, Jr. is the former pastor of Christ Church of The Carolina's in Columbia, SC and most recently was a candidate for the United States Senate from South Carolina.