It was called “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” Freedom from what and for what? On the surface the answer seems obvious-to many Americans anyway, freedom from the oppressive tyrannical rule of a mad regime, freedom for all citizens to participate in choosing who will govern them.
Interestingly, first century Christians lived under oppressive tyrannical rulers with no opportunity to vote them out of office. Nevertheless, those Christians were instructed to submit to, and honor, these rulers. Never did Jesus or any of his apostles or prophets instruct believers to participate in the overthrow, by “whatever means necessary,” of evil rulers. On the contrary, they were told to live as “free” people in spite of their circumstances (1Peter 2:13-17).
Why? Because they knew the truth, Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, who freed them from the tyranny of sin and its consequence of death (John 8:31-36; Romans 6:22-23). What could a mad king do to them? They served “the King of kings, the Lord of lords,” who rules an eternal spiritual kingdom of peace and life, not a temporal carnal kingdom of chaos and death. Freedom does not come through armies taking life in a desert; it came through one man giving his life on a hill.