REWIND: Just War

**John Dickson** (0:05)
On Undeceptions Podcast.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:13)
It has long been assumed that the next World War would be sparked by a sudden single trigger that would divide the world into opposing camps overnight, said the eyepaper. But that is no longer how Western defense officials understand the situation. Instead, NATO officials and defense experts believe the world may be edging towards a form of conflict that is already underway, even if not yet fully recognized.
From the Middle East to Ukraine to Taiwan, crises are no longer isolated events, but increasingly interconnected by allies and enemies sharing military capabilities, intelligence, and motives.

**John Dickson** (0:56)
That's the opening of a recent editorial by The Week, titled, Is World War III Coming? And the answer is, maybe.
At the time of my recording this, the middle of 2026, things are feeling unstable. We've got conflicts that are raging across Africa, the Middle East, of course, Europe, Central Asia, and elsewhere. The current NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutter, went as far as to warn recently, and I'm going to quote, that the West must be prepared for the scale of war our grandparents and great grandparents endured. So there's no doubt people are anxious. A survey conducted by the YouGov poll in the UK found that in 2024, over half of the respondents believed that World War III was likely to break out in the next five to ten years.
Warlike rhetoric is also on the increase, and some Christians are joining in. Take the US Defense Secretary, or although I think he's called the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth. Here's his prayer, delivered recently at a worship service in the Pentagon. Now, I have no intention of being an impolite foreigner here, but the words kind of speak for themselves.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:31)
Almighty God, who trains our hands for war and our fingers for battle, you who stirred the nations from the north against Babylon of old, making her land a desolation where none dwell, behold now the wicked who rise against your justice and the peace of the righteous.
Snap the rod of the oppressor, frustrate the wicked plans and break the teeth of the ungodly. By the blast of your anger, let the evil perish, let their bulls go down to slaughter, for their day has come, the time of their punishment. Pour out your wrath upon those who plot vain things and blow them away like chaff before the wind. Grant this task force clear and righteous targets for violence. Surround them as a shield, protect the innocent and blameless in their midst. Make their arrows like those of a skilled warrior who returned not empty handed. Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation.
Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.
Preserve their lives, sharpen their resolve, and let justice be executed swiftly and without remorse that evil may be driven back and wicked souls delivered to the eternal damnation prepared for them. For the wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion. We ask these things with bold confidence in the mighty and powerful name of Jesus Christ, king over all kings, and amen.

**John Dickson** (4:07)
I think I'll just leave that there. But it raises the question, how has Christianity in its classical tradition approached the human reality of war?
There are certainly lots of examples of war in the Old Testament. There are rumors of war in the New Testament. But of course, Jesus complicated things by saying stuff like, the meek shall inherit the earth, or blessed are the peacemakers, or love your enemies do good to those who persecute you. So this was really complicated for the early Christians. Certainly for the first 300 years after Jesus, there was almost uniform rejection of any Christian involvement in violence of all types, whether warfare, judicial torture, capital punishment, and so on. Christians were just dead against it.
But as Christians became more numerous, and even started to fill government positions in the late fourth and early fifth centuries, Christian leaders had to do some really sophisticated thinking about all of this stuff. I mean, what sort of reply does a bishop give to a provincial governor, who happens to be a Christian, in, say, North Africa in the 390s AD, who asks the bishop about the Saharan raiding parties that are plundering the coastal towns, abusing women and children, making slaves or even killing the men?
The question, of course, was, am I allowed, as a governor, Christian, to send troops to meet the aggressors with violence? Or am I meant to let them just conquer us, kill us all, in the name of Jesus? And this was an actual question asked by an actual governor to an actual bishop in this period. Well, we grappled with the question of war back in episode 55 We titled it Just War. And as our guests, we had the Australian Special Forces commander turned politician Andrew Hasty, and the Oxford moral philosopher Nigel Bigger. With war on pretty much everyone's mind at the moment, it seemed like a good time to hit the highlights of that fascinating, deeply insightful episode. I'm John Dickson with an Undeceptions Rewind.