My name is Mike Southon. I am a lecturer at Youthworks College, a theological college focussing on training men and women for ministry to youth, children and families in Sydney, Australia. I lecture primarily in theology, New Testament and ethics. I am also the online education co-ordinator, and so oversee the Timothy Partnership, which teaches a Diploma of Theology online.
I studied my Bachelor of Divinity at Moore Theological College, Sydney, with an honours thesis on just war and pacifism. I am currently working on post graduate study (Masters or PHD to be determined) in theology, education, ethics and youth ministry. The working title is ‘A theological analysis of the educational theory of connectivism and its implications on Christian pedagogy, in particular youth ministry practice.’
Constantly Reforming 
Hi Mike,
My name’s John, we met at lunch yesterday. Having read some of your blog and thought a bit more about it, I wanted to respond to your thesis on war, not to attack or offend you, but hopefully to push you a bit more in your thinking.
Firstly, I still think that your ethic is not teleological but deontological. You have essentially defined war as evil in and of itself because of what it is, not why it’s done. I assume you do this because you cannot conceive of war being the loving action, but I think that if you’re defending the oppressed, it’s actually the most loving option. Laying down your life for them is only effective if it saves them, standing in the way of a bullet may be laying down your life, but not necessarily for them.
I’m still fairly shocked by what you said about allowing the evil of WWII because God is sovereign. It sounds like you’d rather let multitudes of defenceless people die because its more passive than fighting for them. Again, deontological ethics always chooses passivity when faced with evil options whereas teleological ethics chooses the lesser of two evils (Exodus 1:17-20).
Finally I don’t think that you can sweep the problem under your perceived tension of God’s sovereignty and our responsibility, especially because I don’t think they should be perceived of as being in tension. You mentioned where Isaiah recounts how God sent the Assyrians to war with Israel and then condemned them for it, but not that he sends them to judge Israel and then he condemns them because of their attitude in doing it. Again, a deontological ethic (right/wrong based on the what) sees the two in tension but a teleological ethic (right/wrong based on the why) explains the two perfectly.
Please feel free to push me back, I’m more than happy to keep the conversation going.
In Christ
John
John, do you think Jesus and his disciples mentioned in the new testament defended the oppressed?
John, Exodus 1:17-20 does not provide an example of choosing the lesser of two evils, which seems to be your point for the reference. They chose the option that was good. There was no evil in it, not even less. It is never evil to disobey an unlawful command.
M.A.B.
Great site – I’m doing an analysis of war for the WW1 centenary in 2014-2018 and you’ve done the first half of the research for me!! I’ve put in one link to your site already (but not yet gone online)
Derek J. Smith
Dear Professor,
I just want to say Wow and thank you for your research. Every time I arrogantly think all has been done in the study area of the Bible, something like your site comes up and exposes my naievity. Congratulations on such a fine work. I know I will refer to your site many times throughout my studies.
The way I found you is I was looking for instances where the tribe “Judah” went first in war. I know Judges 1 and 20 refer to Judah “going first” but I did not know if there were any other instances where Judah went first. I personally believe that Judah (Praise to God) is a key to knew levels of Holy Spirit visitation. The more we praise in Spirit and in Truth, the more God inhabits the praise and people are healed, delivered, and the River of God’s spirit rises. I think praise is the key and just wanted to study it out, how many times Judah went first in battle.
Thank you for such a great link and all the work behind it.
This is quite revealing. This study exhibits that prayer and fasting transforms secular warfare into spiritual warfare. In all these examples that Mike ably summarized the trigger to Jehovah’s action were Prayers and Praises. The results were catastrophic to the enemy. The COVID 19 war will be defeated through this This same enduring strategy. I am writing a Monograph on “Theocratic Security Strategy”. That is how I found this site.
I am looking to find the battle that Israel lost due to not consulting God’s strategy first. I remember the story as they went into battle based on a previous strategy and were defeated.
There’s a lot of them! Have a look at the notes on battles that I have on this page, and it might help you. https://constantlyreforming.wordpress.com/every-battle-in-the-bible/