"God is a Man of War" by Fr. Steven De Young

God is a Man of War

 o   It’s Great, Read it Now!

o   It’s Good, Read it Soon!

o   It’s a Mix of Great and No So Great Passages

o   It’s Only for Niche Audiences or Select Passages

o   Read Something Else, Not Worth Your Time

Does God punish mankind by ordering the death of countless innocents? What does it mean to have a “Holy War”? Does Jesus Christ, the Son of God, nullify the Old Testament?

God is a Man of War, written by Orthodox Christian Protopresbyter Father Stephen De Young of Louisiana takes its name from Exodus “Yahweh is a Man of War”. The book is broken up into five chapters which wrestle with the themes of the Old Testament and its relationship to the New Testament, plus one final chapter which applies these Orthodox Christian perspectives to so called “problem passages” which may trouble modern readers and skeptics.  

I confess that I am guilty of often neglecting the Old Testament, which has left a gaping hole in my relationship to the Holy Trinity. Yet since my perception was led by a lack of understanding, rather than outright apathy, I knew this book would grip me from the beginning.

The internet is filled with countless resources to study the faith in greater detail, more resources than all of the Church Fathers had put together. And of course, there are mediocre and not so canonical materials claiming “Orthodoxy” to find online as well, but thankfully, this book was published by “Ancient Faith”, the publishing arm of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdioceses.

Fr. Stephen De Young argues the Old Testament should not be read with a modern, secular historical lens, which often misinterprets its violent passages. Instead, we should view it more as a story of stories that were told to audiences of that time, explaining the “why” rather than the “how”.

I was intrigued from the first chapter. Fr. Stephen De Young’s telling of “justice as a divine form of order” helped me understand the concept of justice in a more ancient, yet pragmatic way. When God created the world, He placed every living creature and the environment in which they live into a perfect order, to where all things were correctly related and functioning as intended. Fr. Stephen De Young goes into incredible detail of the differences between our modern understanding of justice, one of punishment and retribution, whereas the Old Testament understanding is the act of returning everything to perfect order. In fact, the Hebrew verb for “to judge” Shafat, means to take what is out of order and put it back in order. Therefore, if something has been out of order, and eventually placed in its proper place, it becomes “justified”. Eventually, the Last Judgment is understood as the moment when the entire creation is finally and permanently restored to its intended, perfect order, one that will never be put out of place again.

When the first humans Adam and Eve ate from the tree, they already had the knowledge of good, as they were made in the image of God. Contrary to modern Western scholarship or popular belief, they were not given the “death penalty.” It was not good that man should live in the state they were in (the knowledge of evil), lest they become like the demons (immortal creatures who chose evil). Being casted out, therefore, allowed humans to have a limited life in material bodies, which serves as a necessary opportunity for repentance. St. Issac of Ninevah (the Syrian) said, “This life has been given to you for repentance; do not waste it in vain pursuits.”

Therefore, sin became an infection lasting unto generations through today:

“Though Genesis presents Adam’s choice to eat from the tree of knowledge as the first trespass of a divine command that brings about death and curses, Genesis does not describe Adam’s action with the word sin. This term is not used until Genesis 4:7, which describes sin as a crouching animal or a malicious power seeking to master Cain, not as a transgression of a commandment per se. Cain is also the first agent of human death in the murder of his brother. Though his parents were mortal, neither had died at the time of Abels’s murder, making Able the first human to fall victim to death. These distinctions led to a vast swathe of early Jewish and Christian interpreters understating Cain as the primary human agent of sin and death in the world.” Pg. 45

Fr. Stephen De Young explains that early interpreters see the curse of Cain in the context of God’s order, now placing it out of order.

“God curses the ground because of Adam’s disobedience, making it burdensome for him to work the land (Gen 3:17). Cain, by contrast was cursed “from the ground”. Early interpreters understood the reverse phrasing to indicate Cain’s sin was more serious than Adam’s. Others observed a continuity between the two, an element of Cain’s curse fell upon the Earth itself furthering the corruption set in motion by Adam’s disobedience.” Pg. 47

These thematic commentaries may seem familiar to some Orthodox audiences, yet there was a treasure trove to be found on the nature of war and violence, once the discussions of sin and restoring order were orderly explained. I most found interesting the chapter on “Holy War” to which Fr. Stephen De Young explains that we as an American culture are often fixated on the ideas of “just war” theology and reasons to go to war. Yet, he explains that the Old Testament’s thematic intentions of Holy War often are fixated on how the civilization must maintain holiness (or “set aside” or “set forth”) for God, which include detailed laws on armies in a sort of ancient  “rules of engagement” with local populations and adversaries. It was not justified for a man to slaughter innocents and take advantage of defenseless women, as one may feel tempted to give way to the animalistic and demonic impulses of war and booty.

I will leave the rest to the reader to engage with for themselves. Above all, Fr. Stephen De Young reminds us that, “unlike the demonic beings with whom this rebellion began, humanity was granted a reprieve. Life in this world, with all its darkness, represents divine grace and a chance for repentance.” The world is unjust, sure, and God the Son is not here to protect us from the God the Father, for as he explains, that would make the two different and therefore not one God. God the Son comes to fulfill (or “fill up to the top”) the law (the Torah) following centuries of the Israelites attempts at restoring order.