“Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the LORD?” This is the question Jehu the son of Hanani the seer asked King Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 19:2. The prophet continued with this sobering declaration: “Therefore the wrath of the LORD is upon you.”
What was it that brought God’s fiery anger down on Jehoshaphat, one of David’s descendants? We find it in the preceding chapter, that the king of Judah had made an alliance with Ahab, the godless king of Israel. This was accomplished by the marriage of Jehoshaphat’s son Jehoram to Ahab’s daughter Athaliah. National alliances such as this often result in military involvement at some point, and this was no exception. Ahab asked Jehoshaphat to join him in taking back the city of Ramoth Gilead. This city had been one of Israel’s cities of refuge from the time of Joshua, where a person guilty of manslaughter (not murder) could flee for protection from vengeance by the victim’s family. Apparently it had come under Aramean control, and Ahab wanted to recapture it for Israel.
Jehoshaphat’s alliance with Ahab was an attempt to join together two dissimilar things: a king who loved and worshiped the one true God and one who loved himself and worshiped Baal.
Now the people of Judah and Israel were indeed brothers, descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob. So Jehoshaphat is not speaking falsely when he says in response, “I am as you are, and my people as your people; we will be with you in the war.” It was natural for Jehoshaphat to express his affinity with the rest of his Israelite brothers, and one might even call such sentiments noble.
The problem, according to God’s prophet, was that Ahab was wicked and hated Yahweh. Jehoshaphat’s alliance with Ahab was an attempt to join together two dissimilar things: a king who loved and worshiped the one true God and one who loved himself and worshiped Baal, the Canaanite god of fertility. Furthermore, it was an attempt to bring Israel and Judah together through marriage and political alliances, yet God had separated the two kingdoms as judgment for Solomon’s idolatry. Not only was Jehoshaphat usurping God’s prerogative in reuniting the children of Israel, he tried to do it using human means. The whole thing was misguided from the start.
Christian Co-Belligerency
Recently, I was listening to a podcast which spoke favorably of the political philosophy of Francis Schaeffer, specifically his view of co-belligerency. The term comes from the realm of military philosophy and describes States who are engaged with a common enemy, whether or not those States are formally allies. Schaeffer applied that principle to Christians engaged in the culture wars, believing that we could maintain a distinction between being co-belligerents and being allies. In other words, believers can fight alongside unbelievers to address social issues like racism, sexism, the right-to-life, parental rights, traditional marriage, etc. This does not mean that we are allies or that we share theological or philosophical positions, just that we happen to be opposing the same cultural trends.
In one sense this is really unobjectionable. We cannot help but oppose false and destructive ideas such as the recent transgender ideology which is spreading like a contagious disease, especially among young people who are strongly influenced by what they see on social media and what they are taught in the nation’s public schools under the guise of openness and equality. Can we help it that secular conservatives, many Roman Catholics, Mormons, and even Muslims stand opposed to the same things? That doesn’t make us allies, does it?
The problem, as I see it, is that the distinction between being co-belligerents and allies is nearly impossible to agree upon and maintain. This is true for those looking at Christians from the outside, where it is unlikely that many in the broader culture can distinguish Roman Catholics from Orthodox from Baptists from Mormons when it comes to our pro-life and pro-family views.
But it is also true for those who profess to be born again Christians, many of whom do not understand or appreciate the fundamental differences between Catholics and Protestants, for example. I think very few Americans understand that all who claim to be Christians should not necessarily join hands as brothers and sisters. “After all,” they reason, “didn’t Jesus say that the world would know we were Christians by our love for one another?”
The line between co-belligerents and allies very quickly becomes blurred or even disappears altogether in the popular mind. Part of what makes this hard is that we cannot easily separate issues into individual silos, although this is exactly what Schaeffer advocated. He believed that we could stand together as co-belligerents on single issues without compromising on areas which prevent us from developing full alliances. But is this really true? Can we, for example, stand with Mormons to oppose same-sex marriage without in some way having to address the fact that marriage in the Mormon church is quite different from Christian marriage? Or how do we stand alongside Roman Catholics and Muslims in demanding truth from government officials when we have radically different views of transcendent truth?
Practically speaking, the line between being co-belligerents and allies cannot be maintained consistently, nor can it be passed on from one generation to the next. This was true for Jehoshaphat with respect to Ahab. While he may have had noble intentions in restoring friendly relations between Israel and Judah, his actions ultimately put the Ahab’s daughter on the throne of Judah for seven blood-soaked years. Athaliah murdered her own grandsons in an effort to secure her position as queen mother. While God providentially spared Joash and protected the Davidic line of kings, that sad chapter in Judah’s history was brought about by Jehoshaphat’s failure to distinguish between co-belligerents and allies.
If we take a stand for important issues and publicly voice our convictions, we will inevitably find ourselves taking similar positions to those of other faiths and denominations, and some who are completely irreligious. If that is all that is meant by co-belligerency, then so be it, but we should be wary of any formal cooperation on the basis of co-belligerency alone for fear that we will be found helping the wicked and loving those who hate the Lord. True, maybe this time things will be different and we will be able to keep our distinctiveness as followers of Christ, but Jehoshaphat’s example is just one of many in Scripture and many more throughout history where foolish alliances bore bitter fruit. Christian, be wise!