Doing Justice and Loving Mercy: Compassion Ministries, Mentor's Guide, MG16

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D O I N G J U S T I C E A N D L O V I N G M E R C Y : C O M P A S S I O N M I N I S T R I E S

b. Our responsibility is to receive Jesus’ call to take up our cross and follow him.

2. Just war: war can be justified, but its cause and process must be righteous .

a. Argues for a series of justifications that lay down a criteria for prosecuting a just war (1) A righteous cause (defending the vulnerable, to secure justice or remedy injustice, to protect the innocent as a last resort) (2) A controlled means (no unnecessary violence is permissible, the force should match the problem) (3) A predictable outcome (the prospect of finishing the job must be taken into account)

b. Anchors its arguments on the legitimacy of the state to use power and authority as an agent of God’s wrath on the evil doer, Rom. 12.17-13.7

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3. Relative pacifism: a new brand of nuclear pacifism

a. Based on the OT biblical prohibition of “ shedding of innocent blood ”

(1) Gen. 9.6

(2) Prov. 6.16-19

b. This view condemns the use of indiscriminate weaponry (and claims to refute the possibility of just war theory applied to nuclear conflicts ).

(1) Conventional weapons (e.g., saturation bombing)