Called To Violence?

Below is a guest post from my Daughter, Azi. 

    “War, war never changes.” This line introduces us as an audience to the world of Fallout. From the first Fallout, all the way to Fallout 76 this little nugget of wisdom has haunted the footsteps of the player through the post-apocalyptic world.

          For those unfamiliar Fallout was released in 1997 as a point-and-click role-playing game, or RPG for short. Fallout takes the classic Dungeons and Dragons-style RPG mechanics and adds an end-of-the-world twist.

You see in 2077 the world was at war again as resources like petroleum and uranium were scarce enough to cause China to take Alaska and for the U.S. to annex Canada. Everyone feared the day the bombs might fall and prayed that they wouldn’t like in the Cold War so many years before. This time, however, the bombs would fall. Those that survived lived thanks to the Vaults, giant bomb shelters made to keep life sustained during the unlivable amounts of radiation that flooded the Earth. Like Noah’s ark, these vaults held what remained of humanity safe until it was time to leave and reclaim the world above.

Now of all the Fallout games I’ve played, Fallout New Vegas has to be my favorite. New Vegas starts with a slide show explaining a little about the world you are about to find yourself in. You are a courier tasked with delivering a package, a single poker chip, to New Vegas.

The game then begins with a cut scene, a man in a black and white checkered suit looms over you as you kneel tied up before him. He says some condescending things about the game being ‘rigged from the start’ and then shoots you in the head. Twice. Yeah, you heard that right, the game begins with your character being shot twice in the head.

Miraculously you survive and wake up in a small town called Goodsprings thanks to a security robot named Victor who pulled you out of your shallow grave and to Doc Mitchel the man who pulled the bullets out of your skull. After the tutorial, the player is given the quest Ghost Town Gunfight.

The town of Goodsprings is currently hiding a man named Ringo who was part of a trading caravan that got ambushed by a group of escaped convicts going by the name of Powder Gangers. Joe Cobb is a leader of the Powder Gangers looking for Ringo, though he doesn’t do much other than threaten the townspeople that if he finds Ringo, that Ringo will shoot. He’s not wrong either as Ringo doesn’t plan on going down without a fight.

The player is introduced to the conflict by overhearing Joe Cobb threatening the town barkeeper. Cobb then runs off and we can talk to the barkeeper about what happened. She informs us of Ringo and his situation and how the people of the town wish Ringo would leave and take the Powder Gangers with him. You are then given the choice between following the game’s intended route and helping Ringo or going off the beaten path and helping the Powder Gangers.

If you choose to help Ringo, the morally correct choice I will add, he will ask you to get the help of the town’s sharpshooter, dynamite expert, doctor, barkeep, and store owner in helping with the Powder Gangers. The sharpshooter will help no matter what and with a high skill in explosives, medicine, speech, and barter, respectively, you’ll get the help of the others. When everyone is gathered you go tell Ringo the town is ready to help him and then the Powder Gangers show up in a force of about six to try and kill Ringo and anyone who stands in their way.

Now that I’ve gone and spoiled the first half hour of content for you, we’re going to change topics for a moment.

In Mathew 25 Jesus is telling parables, the last one in the chapter is referred to by the NIV Bible as The Sheep and the Goats. It goes like this.

 31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Whenever you hear that parable talked about, I can nearly guarantee that it’s being mentioned in the context of giving to the needy. But why then did I introduce you to Ringo and Ghost Town Gunfight?

Sometimes in life, we are called to do things for God. For some of us that looks like giving money, or time to those who are in need. For others, it looks like praying for those who need God’s help. And I will add that we all need God’s help so this is arguably one of the more important ways we can help others.

But what about when you’re in a situation like the Courier from Fallout New Vegas. What does it mean to be called to violence for God?

John 15:13 of the NIV says, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” This is Jesus talking, the one who is so often quoted as saying to ‘turn the other cheek’. So, what is this? Well, like we should do whenever we have a question about scripture, let’s look for some context. In chapter 15 of John Jesus starts out with a parable, the vine and the branches.

In the parable, Jesus compares himself to a vine and says that unless a person is connected to the vine, aka Jesus, they cannot bear fruit, i.e. be the person God wants them to be. Jesus says that those who will not connect to him will be gathered up and burned like dead branches.

Now this sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Jesus is taking two groups in two different parables and dividing them. In the first parable, we talked about He is taking sheep and goats and separating the sheep, and in the second He is taking vines and separating the living and the dead. Both the sheep and the living vines are the people of God, those who see the needy and act as they would if it were Jesus who needed help. The second group, the goats and the dead branches are those who see the needy and do not act, they are those who are not the people of God.

In the next part of John 15 Jesus begins to talk about love and hate. He tells us not to worry if we are hated by the world, for the world also hated him, John 15:18. Yet when it comes to love he has this to say in verses 9-17 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.”

Jesus says that there is no love greater than to die for one’s friends, and then calls us, that’s right us as believers, His friends. Even before His death, Jesus is telling us that He will die for us, as there is no greater love than the love He has for us. But he also says to love each other as we have been loved by Him. Jesus is telling us that for us to love like He loves us, we have to be willing to die for someone else.

Okay, you say, so I need to be willing to die for my friends like Jesus was willing to die for me, but what in the world does that have to do with Ringo and Ghost Town Gunfight? Why do you keep talking about your latest video game obsession in this post? And will you stop with the rhetorical questions? Firstly, no, I will not stop with rhetorical questions, thank you very much. Secondly, this all goes back to the question I asked earlier. What does it mean to be called to violence for God?

Well to answer that question I want to go back to the beginning, “War. War never changes.” The opening line from every Fallout game is back again to finally give some answers this time. War never changes, a truth that seems so hopelessly profound as to leave my mouth dry the first time, I heard it.

We know God is a God of peace, Mathew 5:9 says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” And in Romans 12:18, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” So, why is it that I say some of us are called to violence for God? War never changes, because, in truth, humanity never changes. As long as sin is in the picture, we are incapable of living at peace with our neighbor as God commands.

Let’s take a second look at those two verses, ‘children of God,’ a common expression used in the New Testament to refer to Christians. A child of God is someone who like in Mathew chapter 5, is a peacemaker yes, but also is poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, and those who are persecuted. And then in Romans 12:17-21, it says, “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.”

So, being a good Christian means to live in peace, so how can I say that as Christians we can be called to violence? That goes back to human nature as it is against human nature to live at peace with one another and this is acknowledged by Romans 12:18 by saying, “as far as it depends on you,” instead of saying you must always live in peace with others.

Going back to Ringo, he is a victim of a crime, where the caravan he worked for was robbed. In that robbery, he defended himself by killing some of the convicts. He then sought shelter with the town of Goodsprings to try and see if the Powder Gangers would leave him be. Ringo has done nothing wrong and yet is in a position where, if not for the interference of the Courier and the people of Goodsprings, he will die.

As Christians, we are called to act when we see those in need, the hungry, thirsty, those without clothes or shelter, the sick, or the imprisoned. So, of course, that extends to those who need help to save their lives. When we see someone walking onto the train tracks when the train is coming, we don’t merely pray for their safety, do we? No, we run to them and pull them off the tracks. This is what it means to be called to violence for God, to do what needs to be done to preserve as many lives as possible.

In Ghost Town Gunfight depending on how good the player is and a good bit of random luck not only can the Powder Gangers be killed, the only way to stop them by the way, but so can Ringo and the people of the town who come to his aid. In this fight everyone is given the chance to show Ringo the ultimate act of love, to die for him.

Unlike shooter video games like Fallout, God doesn’t tell us to seek fights. He doesn’t lay out a path for us to be warriors of righteousness. Instead, He tells us to live in peace as best as we can. For some God calls us to die, but for some God calls us to kill. Not out of hate, vengeance, or even justice, but instead to save the lives of those whom they would harm. For no greater love, has a man than to die for his friends, because, until the end, war never changes.