What Does God Really Think About the US Military-Industrial Complex?

The US Military-Industrial Complex Has Been Slowly Poisoning Us All for Decades (does the Bible say anything about this?)

Here’s what God Really Thinks About the US-MIC

by Rev. Paul J. Bern

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For this week’s message, I’m going to focus on the US military-industrial complex. To the best of my ability, I’m not sharing what I think today, I’m sharing what God must think about all our wars past, present, and to come. I’ve said it in past Sunday messages, and I will say it once again – there is an inherent immorality that accompanies waging warfare of all kinds. This will only be my latest diatribe against war and injustice, which together contradict the teachings of Jesus Christ. But this is especially true for nuclear weapons, the most destructive and deadly of them all. Because of the proliferation of these horribly destructive devices of various types, no part of the planet is truly safe from the lingering effects of nuclear warfare, no matter how brief it may be.

The Least Common Denominator of War is Greed

Why does war exist in the first place? I can whittle it down to a single least common denominator. Humanity has been fighting among ourselves ever since prehistoric times. War started out as criminal behavior through one clan or tribe attacking another to steal the other tribe’s stuff. As the earth’s population increased over the centuries, there was a little less land for each person to live on as the birthrate slowly began to climb. Consequentially, incidents of encroachment continued to rise. That’s why I say the first ‘least common denominator’ to the reasons for warfare’s existence is greed; pure, unadulterated and undiluted.

As the incidence of warfare increased proportionately with the slowly increasing population, starting about 10,000 years ago when the earth’s population exceeded the 1-million mark for the first time, the fatalities among the innocent onlookers began to increase substantially. Things got more and more out of hand until we are where we are today. The creation of nuclear weapons by the US during world war 2 spawned the atomic age. The following portion of an article posted this past Thursday March 23 has sounded the alarm bells of extreme danger regarding atomic weapons.

A nuclear physicist describes 7 things you probably didn't know about radioactive fallout from a nuclear bomb

Sourced from Yahoo Business Insider; Adam Barnes; Thu, March 23, 2023

• Fallout — radioactive material from a nuclear explosion — exists in every corner of the world.
• Nuclear fallout from a bomb is less dangerous long-term than from a nuclear power plant disaster.
• Fallout raining from the sky is just one way people are exposed — food is another common culprit.

1. Fallout can stay in the atmosphere for years

Nuclear blasts create dangerous fallout — residual radioactive material that travels high into the air, cools into dust, and eventually settles back to the ground, poisoning it in the process. Most fallout from a nuclear blast takes anywhere from one day to a week to return to the ground. But some fallout gets kicked so high into the atmosphere, as much as 50 miles up, it can remain for several months to years before falling back to the surface.

2. Radioactive fallout is at the bottom of the ocean

Researchers have found evidence of nuclear fallout in the muscle tissue of sea creatures that inhabit the deepest ocean trenches. Fallout that reaches the stratosphere can travel long distances, moving with wind and weather patterns. So if a large nuclear bomb detonated in the United States, for example, fallout could reach Russia, Europe, or China — it's a global event.

3. Most Americans carry traces of radioactivity

During the 1950s and '60s, the US government tested over 500 nuclear bombs by detonating them in the atmosphere. As a result, every single person living in the United States since 1951 has been exposed to at least some radioactive fallout, a study from the National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. You can view the entire article from this link.

War and Oppression

The Bible has some important things to say about war and oppression, which is what happens to war’s losers when the war is over. Sometimes the oppression also happens to the population of the victor as well. But if it continues excessively, such as the current state of military and law enforcement (even in the US), it is only a matter of time before there will come a huge backlash among the people towards those who govern them. History has ample precedent for this, such as the Magna Carta and the French and American revolutions.

The prophet Isaiah from the Old Testament warned about this very thing over 2,500 years ago, and I quote: “Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, 2) to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. 3) What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches? 4) Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives or fall among the slain.” (Isaiah chapter10, verses 1-4)

Prophecy Against the Rich and Powerful

The apostle James, the half-brother of Jesus, had this to say during the first century about those who accumulate the spoils of war through military and economic conquest: 1) “Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. 2) Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3)Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. 4) Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. 5) You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.” (James chapter 5, verses 1-5) These five verses underscore the extreme immorality of economic inequality, which is the economic scourge of war against the American populace waged by the federal government.

If That’s What the Bible Says About War, What Does It Say About Peace?

Now that we are all on the same page regarding God’s viewpoint on war and its accompanying greed, let’s look up a few verses about the Scriptural definition of peace. In the first place, those of us who follow Jesus are separate from the rest of the world, nor do we engage in any kind of warfare, as it is written by the apostle Paul, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.” (2nd Corinthians chapter 10, verse 3) Although I am well aware that not everyone would agree with me, I will have no part in waging war unless America is attacked first. Even if we are, we have more than enough firepower to shoot down anything that Russia, China or North Korea can throw at us. I am not afraid of any of those countries.

The Truisms and Prophecies of King David and the Prophet Zechariah

King David of Jerusalem, the same David who slew Goliath, wrote the Book of Psalms. This was actually a collection of song lyrics from the Temple at Jerusalem during the peak of ancient Israel’s power. I offer one quote out of dozens that I could have chosen, but this one expresses it best: “Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” (Psalms 34 verse 14) Every governmental body throughout the whole world must cease and desist from war and conquest. While conquest may have worked just fine in centuries gone by, King David of Jerusalem wrote this new command: “seek peace and pursue it.” It is the dawn of a new era, when the pursuit of peace is, for the first time in history, has become far more profitable than waging war.

Unfortunately, the Bible prophesied that humankind would ultimately be unable to do this. Like a junkie who has escaped from his or her detox program because their old drug habit keeps calling them back, the US in particular will be unable to wean itself from killing and conquest. The prophet Zechariah predicted this over 2,500 years ago in the following verse: “I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.” (Zechariah 9, verse 10)

Only Jesus himself Will Be Able to Stop All the Wars and Mass Killing

This is a prophecy that simply means that only Christ will be able to stop all the fighting. This will not happen until Jesus returns to rule the earth at the end of recorded history. All our weapons of war will be silenced forever by Jesus Christ himself. It will only occur after over half the earth’s population will be decimated by our incessant waging of warfare. It will only be at that point that humanity will finally learn the message of peace, just as the apostle Paul wrote nearly 2,000 years ago. “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4, verse 7).

How About You?

Not only am I an antiwar pastor, I am one who strongly disapproves the way organized religion has skimmed over tough topics such as warfare. While I think gay marriage and abortion are topics worthy of discussion, neither subject can hold a candle to war, oppression and mass murder that is routinely committed by our military, at the direction of Congress and the President. Like it or not, we find ourselves today as citizens of what has become a country run by criminals. I am hoping that, once Donald Trump is forced by the legal system to face the music for his crimes, a legal precedent will be set against all those would-be presidents of America’s future who think they can use our military for personal and political gain. Donald Trump was not the problem, but he is a symptom of a problem of much bigger proportions. It’s the US’ war-based economy. A peacetime economy for the long term is the only answer.

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