WHY .... doesn't Jehovah God consider warfare ... murder?

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

WHY .... doesn't Jehovah God consider warfare ... murder?

It seems clear to me that Jehovah allows civil governments to run their own affairs as they see fit, and even has no objection to them judging and executing wrongdoers ... and even commands us to be in subjection to these governments, as even the very worst of them are better than anarchy.

People generally misinterpret the scripture that say " Thou shalt not kill." where the scripture more actually says "Thou shalt not murder".

There is a very real difference.  A sovereign government, executing a wrongdoer is implementing the political will of that government ... whether it be a government the size of a continent .. or an extended family sized tribe of Jewish sheepherders living way out in the middle of nowhere, living in tents, governed by a patriarch.

I have not been able to find in the Bible where actual warfare, committed by any sovereign group, is considered to be murder ... either by the perpetrators of the war, or the defenders of the war against them, except in the case of "war crimes" against non combatants and other cases.

Did you know it is legal to drop napalm on civilians in war, from an aircraft ... but not from a flame thrower from a soldier on the ground?

....but I digress.

Even people that warred against the Jews  were not considered murderers..... they were considered warriors.

I am working on getting this all straight in my mind now ... as there seems to be a profound truth buried in this stream of thought, somewhere, but I cannot get it to crystallize, or perhaps it is approaching 3AM, and I am too tired to think about it.

But whatever it is that is ... what profound basic principle that I am missing ...is based on having a correct answer  as to WHY ... WHY does God NOT consider warfare to be murder.

I suspect when I figure it out, it will be like driving down a road in a southerly direction, thinking you are going North ... and then you see that landmark or sign that indicates you are really going South ... and that feeling you get when your whole frame of reference rotates in your head, like the world just rotated 180 degrees.

It's like deja vu, and geography, combined.

Perhaps my premise is faulty, but I don't think so.

Please feel free to destroy my premise, or my stream of thought, or my conclusions.

I try to be "loyal" to whatever is true, and not an agenda of defending an agenda.

Knowing "WHY?" things are the way they are, is the key to good philosophy.

Bad philosophy will waste our lives, which are pitifully short.