PacifismNoncombatancy

Conscientious CooperationCombatancy

Adventism - Quo vadis?

PacifismNoncombatancy

Conscientious CooperationCombatancy

Adventism - Quo vadis?

51 And suddenly, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword, struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.52 But Jesus said to him, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Matthew 26:51-52

“Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God.” Romans 13:1 (NLT)

"You have heard that it was said, 'Eye

for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the

one who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven (NIV, Matthew 5:38-45)

When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies…16 But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for

an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: 17 But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee: 18 That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God. Deuteronomy 20

Thou shalt not kill. Exodus 20:13(KJV)

This or This

THIS or THIS

“decline all participation in acts of war and bloodshed” third GC Session in 1865 “the bearing of arms, or engaging in war is a direct violation of the teachings of our savior” fifth GC Session in 1867

An American Adventist professor found that

about 90 to 95 percent ofthe college/university-age Adventist students he surveyed would be willing to serve as combatants

GEORGE R. KNIGHT, The Great Disappearance: Adventism andNoncombatancy - The Journal of Adventist Education • February/March 2008

This or This

• RESOLVED, That it is the judgment of this Conference, that the bearing of arms, or

engaging in war, is a direct violation of the

teachings of our Savior and of the spirit and letter of the law of

God.

– Fifth annual General Conference session in 1867.

Since 1972

“..in peace and in war we decline to participate in acts of violence and bloodshed.

We grant to each of our church members absolute liberty to serve his country, at all times and in all places, in accord with the dictates of his personal conscientious conviction.“

—F. M. Wilcox, Seventh-day Adventists in Time of War, pp. 346, 347.

• Richard W. Schwarz and Floyd Greenleaf, Light Bearers: A History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press Publ. Assn., 2000), p. 365.

Unanimity on this complex issue eludes the Adventist Church

In August 1862 with conscription approaching in the American Civil War James White, the co-founder of the church, wrote in an editorial entitled "The Nation”:

if Adventists were drafted, they should submit, letting the government assume responsibility for any violations of God's law.

James White, "The Nation," Advent Review and Sabbath Herald [hereafter cited as Review] (August 12, 1862), p. 84.

Some believers called for Adventist participation in

the Union's "crusade against traitors"--one

even wrote about an armed regiment of

Sabbath keepers that would "strike this

rebellion a staggering blow."

Other believers argued for total pacifism, including Henry

Carver, who maintained "that under no circumstances

was it justifiable in a follower of the Lamb to use carnal weapons to take the

lives of his fellow-men.“

White's editorial sparked vigorous debates in the pages of the Review.

Brock summarizes and gives key quotes from the debate in the pages of the Review in Freedom From Violence, pp. 234-236.

Mrs. White rebuked both the pacifists' enthusiasm as well as the zealousness of the pro-combatants. Then

she wrote "God's people . . . cannot engage in this perplexing war, for it is opposed to every principle of their faith. In the army they cannot obey the truth and at the same time obey the requirements of their officers.“Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church (Mountain View, Calif.:

Pacific Press Publ. Assn., 1948), vol. 1, pp. 357-361.

Until 1863 federal draft law allowed conscripts to purchase an 300

dollar exemption or provide a substitute. The church helped raising the money.

In July 1864, the North restricted these options to conscientious objectors with membership in a recognized pacifist church. The

church applied for that status and received it.

Two options were now available to Adventists:(1) accepting assignment to hospital duty or care of

freedmen (2) paying the $300 commutation fee.

Despite this government recognition, at the local level, many Adventist draftees were refused alternative duty, threatened with imprisonment

or court-martial, and harassed when they tried to claim their right to alternative duty.

Obtaining governmental recognition formalized the church's commitment to

pacifism, and articulated its position The General Conference session of 1865

declared:

“While we thus cheerfully render to Caesar the things which the Scriptures show to be his, we

are compelled to decline all participation in acts of war and bloodshed as being inconsistent

with the duties enjoined upon us by our divine Master toward our enemies and toward all man-kind.“ "Report of the Third Annual Session of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists," Review

25 (May 17, 1865), pp. 196, 197.

The fifth GC Session in 1867 similarly stated that: “the bearing of arms, or engaging in war is a direct

violation of the teachings of our savior”http://h0bbes.wordpress.com/2008/12/

Global Expansion of Seventh-day Adventism The Crisis of World War I

Localized Interpretation of Church PolicyWith the global expansion of Seventh-day Adventism in the 20th century, and with its world wars, Cold War, weapons of mass

destruction, genocides, the Church faced challenges the founders of Adventism

could not have imagined.

Noncombatancy, Conscientious Cooperation, Combatancy

Three of many conscientious objectors in the American Army during World War I. Dick Hamstra, center, wears the Croix de Guirre (Cross of Gallantry Medal), awarded him for bravery by the French Government. Others shown are Julius Peters (left) and Henry Skadsheim

Journal of Adventist Education , Summer 2003, p.18

Conscientious objectors in the American Army during World War I

"From the first the Seventh-day Adventist Church has staunchly advocated noncombatancy for its members. . .”

'We hereby reaffirm the foregoing declaration.”North American Division Committee Minutes 1:517, Apr. 18, 1917. Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, Second Revised Edition, M-Z (Hagerstown: Review and Herald and Publishing Association, 1996), 184.

August 2, 1914, the Central European leadership of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Hamburg issued a circular letter recommending enlisted Adventists to “fulfill our military duties wholeheartedly and with joy," to bear arms, and also to serve on the Sabbath. 

http://eud.adventist.org/inspiration/commentaries/comment/date/2014/05/21/guilt-and-failure-statement-of-the-seventh-day-adventist-church-regarding-the-outbreak-of-th/

"the Bible teaches first, that participation in war is not against the sixth commandment; second, that fighting on the Sabbath is no transgression of the fourth law.“ J. Wintzen, Der Christ und der Krieg (Berlin: Selbstverlag 1915), p. 12; see also G. W. Schubert, Zionswachter,March 20,1916, p. 96. See also: Erwin Sicher, Seventh-day Adventist Publications and The Nazi Temptation, Spectrum 8:3 (March 1977)

Tensions - divisions within the German Adventist Church in World War I Era

Two percent of Seventh Day Adventist membership

in Germany refused military service and Sabbath work. These members were disfellowshipped

The Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement was organized as a church, separate from the main body of Seventh-day Adventists at Gotha, Germany, July 14-20, 1925.

SDA Reform Movement

Official German SDA Church

Stuttgarter Neues Tagblatt 26. September 1918

Emil Gugel Vorsteher der Württembergischen Vereinigung

Deckblatt der Akte über Adventisten – Untertitel „Dienstverweigerung“

Anarchist

Summary: In many Newspapers there are reports of antimilitarist individual Adventists who refuse military service. That gives the

impression we are not faithful citizens. That is far from the truth. Our young people have satisfied the military service from the beginning with the full approval of our

Church.

Many other Reform Seventh-day Adventist were also executed on direct orders of Heinrich Himmlers for the same reasons:

Carl Krahe, Alfred Münch, Gustav Psyrembel, Julius Ranacher Leander Zrenner

Eberhard Röhm: Sterben für den Frieden. Calwer Verlag, Stuttgart 1985 p. 213

Anton BruggerFoto: Daniel Heinz, Historisches Archiv, Friedensau

Anton Brugger simple Austrian Adventist from

Carinthia canvassed in Klagenfurt rejected combatancy and service

on Sabbath and was executed.

Anton Brugger

Günther Pietz (18), Reform-Adventist, rejected combatancy and service on Sabbath and was executed in 1943http://www.stanet.ch/apd/news/4128.html

Rejected Combatancy&Service on Sabbath Executed !

With the end of World War I, the German church leaders recognized the error of their policies; they confessed at the European Division meeting at Gland, Switzerland, on Jan. 2, 1923, that they were in complete

"harmony with the general teaching of their brethren ofthat denomination throughout the world."

Butthis declaration already contained a shift which will become an addition to our historic noncombatant policy:

"We grant to each of our church members absolute liberty to Serve his country, at all times and in all places, in accord with the dictates of

his personal conscientious conviction.,, "Declaration of Principles of the Council of the European Division Committee," in William A. Spicer, "Our European Brethren and Noncombatancy,“ Review and Herald, vol. 101, nr. 10, March 6, 1924, p. 4. p.12

The council of the European Division, SDA

Church, meeting in Gland, Switzerland, December 27, 1922–

January 2, 1923.

European Division, SDA Church, meeting in Gland

"From the first the Seventh-day Adventist Church has staunchly advocated noncombatancy for its members. . .”

'We hereby reaffirm the foregoing declaration.”North American Division Committee Minutes 1:517, Apr. 18, 1917. Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, Second Revised Edition, M-Z (Hagerstown: Review and Herald and Publishing Association, 1996), 184.

Most Adventists conscripted into the Russian army (about 500) were apparently allowed to serve in medical and non-combatant units. But they did bear arms and if necessary work on Sabbath.

Those who refused to bear arms, about 70, however,

received sentences of two to sixteen years imprisonment for refusing to bear arms or trying" to persuade fellow soldiers to do the same.Some, like A. Birulya, were regularly flogged for refusing- to work on Saturdays in the disciplinary battalion to which they had been sentenced.

Marite Sapiets, One Hundred Years of Adventism in Russia and the Soviet Union, p.266Dr. Eugene Zaitsev, http://www.adventisten.de/news/news/datum/2014/05/19/siebenten-tags-adventisten-im-ersten-weltkrieg/

Seventh-day Adventist Church in Russia

By 1916 130 young Adventists conscripted were inducted into the British military. Most claimed conscientious objector status. Sixteen young men from the Stanborough Park area were conscripted into the 3rd Eastern Non-Combatant Corps at Bedford Barracks on 23 May 1916, they

refusal to pick up rifles on the boat

over to France, they were court martial and received horrific treatment in Military Prison #3 in Le Harve. Two of them were to die early as a result of their injuries. – See more at: http://sec.adventist.org.uk/gain/news/2014/2014-buc/lest-we-forget#sthash.bf4ZMnua.dpuf

A 1917 photo of Adventist conscripts serving on the docks in France. By November of that year they were in Military prison - refusing orders for the sake of faith.

Alfred Bird

Adventist conscripts of World War I, photographed In 1917. Back row: J. McGeachey, W. Coppock, W. W. Armstrong (for several years British Union President), A. Penson, Jesse Clifford (missionary to West Africa.) Middle row: S. Williams,

D. Berm, A. F. Bird, H. W. Lowe (British Union President for several years before, and during World War II), F. Archer. Front row: G. Norris (Manager of Granose Foods, and pioneer factory builder in S. America), H. Archer, W. Till (missionary for many years in West Africa).

Alfred Bird

Alfred Bird, after War became pastor but died early in 1946 as a result of injuries received in prison

S.G.Joyce

British Adventist Conscripts

S.G. Joyce was court-martialed for disobeying orders of working on Sabbath etc, sent to a prison cell. First time

Sept. 9, 1916 and after that a half a dozen more imprisonments.

Conscientious objectors heading out from prison

for a day's work

British Adventist Conscripts

Tribunal for conscientious objectors WW1 in Britain

S.G.Joyce

From Noncombatancy to Conscientious Cooperation ,

We are "seeking to assist the government in every way possible, aside from the work of actually bearing arms.“ F. M. Wilcox, "Are Seventh-day Adventists Loyal to Their Government?" Review 95 (July 18, 1918), pp. 3-5.

Adventists organized a program of pre-induction training

Everett N. Dick, initiated what was later called the Medical Cadet Corps (MCC) Thus prepared the Adventist recruit would have an easier time “"to fit into a place where he could serve God and his country conscientiously." Everett N. Dick, "The Adventist Medical Corps as Seen by Its Founder," Adventist Heritage 1 (July 1974), pp. 18-27.

As "noncombatants, we do not oppose war, we do not agitate against war, we do not organize against war, we make no protest against war, we are not unwilling to serve in the military organization when drafted, we are not opposed to saluting the flag, and we are not opposed to

wearing our country's uniform." Carlyle B. Haynes, "Conscription and Noncombatancy," Review 137 (October 10, 1940), pp. 16-18.

Toward World War II, World War II

Members of the Medical Cadet Corps practicing their drills on the Union College campus in Lincoln, Nebraska, circa 1938.

Everett Dick, front right, named director of the MCC by the General Conference in 1940

Medical Cadet Corps

Between 1954 and 1973 2,300 Seventh Day Adventist participants of Operation Whitecoat served at Fort Detrick and associated locations. Dr. Jonathan Moreno said in a History Channel documentary, ‘ ‘These Seventh Day Adventist research volunteers took a leap beyond where any human being had ever gone before. Testing man’s limits against the vision of science, these courageous individuals faced the danger of the dark unknown. These pioneers were the first to prove man could survive biological warfare.”

Department of Army photo

Whitecoat

subjects (wearing bathrobes)

Many “conscientious cooperators” (noncombatants) served with

distinction

Adventists and the German Armed Forces in WWII

Minister’s sonEduard K (Combatant)

All his Adventist Nephews were Combatants:

Hans JohannAlbertDavid WilhelmPaulRudolf

He had a gun, threw it in the lake. Was an excellent marksman. Had to go through training with arms

True and Free Seventh-Day Adventists of the

USSR Their young people would not serve in the Soviet military Their children would not attend school on Saturday

Hunted by the KGB  The leaders spent years in prison, Their children were taken from them

Three prominent leaders of the TFSDA were V. A. Shelkov, and two brothers named Murkin.

Seventh-day Adventist Church The Fifth All-Union Conference of

Seventh-Day Adventists in 1924

We recognize military service …and each SDA member serves in accordance with the dictates of his conscience. SDA members must carry out honestly and sincerely the duties they have agreed to assume.

One Hundred Years of Adventismin Russia and the Soviet Union by MARITE SAPIETS p.270Yezhogodnik Muzeya Istorii Religii i Ateizma,

Vol. 6 (1962), pp. 144-45.

Tensions & Divisions within the Adventist Church in the

USSR

Toronto University of Toronto Press, 2012.

In 1952, fourteen poor, barely literate Seventh-Day Adventists (Reformed Adventists) living on the margins of Soviet society were tried for allegedly advocating pacifism and adhering to the Saturday Sabbath.

The judge ruled that ten of the accused would serve twenty-five years of correctional labor, and the other four would serve ten years. Fortunately Stalin soon died and in the process of de-Stalinization that followed all but two were released.

Vladimir Shelkov (1895–1980)

In 1931 Shelkov was imprisoned for the first time by the Soviet regime and spent almost all his life in prisons and camps. His last confinement began in 1979, when a Soviet court in Tashkent sentenced him (than a delicate eighty-three-year-old man) to five years of hard labor camps. He died in a labor camp Tabaga near Yakutsk

“True and Free Seventh-Day Adventists” of the

USSR

Shelkov inspired: Alexander (Alik) Ilyich Ginzburg, Russian journalist, human rights activist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, Father of Russias Hydrogen Bomb and later human rights activist.

7,500 Adventists who serve in the U.S. military, virtually

all are enlisted as combatants—(excepting the 50 chaplains classed as

noncombatants by the Geneva Convention) Chaplain Gary R. Councell, the associate director of Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries at the headquarters of the world church.

PacifismNoncombatancyConscientious Cooperation

Combatancy Alive!

More or

le

ss Dead

The number of Adventists serving in the Persian Gulf War was estimated to be 2,000-2,500, a large majority in combatant roles (“Adventists in the Gulf,” Spectrum 21 [March 1991], p. 7).

Today more Seventh-day Adventist young people have voluntarily joined the military than in any previous generation of the Church's history.

Barry W. Bussey

More or less Dead

http://www.stanet.ch/apd/news/archiv/3404.pr.html

Ramon C. Ojeda 84th Engineer Battalion,

25th Infantry Division 

American Adventists dying as Combatants TodayVietnam Forty-three Adventist deaths among regular infantry and another 17 from the Marines indicate that many young men either didn't agree with the church's official recommendation or felt that carrying a weapon was crucial to their hope of surviving the war.

http://archives.adventistreview.org/2002-1521/story1.html

Gary Rodrigues killed in Vietnam

Jeungjin Kim2nd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery of the 2nd Infantry Division

In Iraq

Combatants who convert to a church espousing noncombatancy can not claim noncombatant status after conversion. If they insist on it and refuse carrying arms and work on Sabbath they are frequently subjected to harsh treatment and possible court marshal.

George R. Knight 1961, was threatened with a court martial by a

military chaplain in 1961 for asking for noncombatant status after conversion

Combatants can’t change to noncombatancy in the Service

After embracing Seventh-day Adventism in 2002, U.S. Marine Joel Klimkewicz informed his commanding officers that he was a conscientious objector and could no longer killOn May 12, 2003, he was thrown into a military brig after refusing orders to pick up a weapon.  In December 2004, he was sentenced to seven months in prison and received a bad conduct discharge and felony conviction record. 

GEORGE R. KNIGHT, “The Great Disappearance: Adventism and Noncombatancy “- The Journal of Adventist Education • February/March 2008

Veteran’s Celebration in

Churchprogram at the Albuquerque

Central Church.http://archive.swurecord.net/news.php?storyid=1574

Military veterans at

the Albuquerque

Heights Church on

Veteran's Day Sabbath.

Growth of Nationalist Fever

The rate of Adventists enlisting as combatants

outside the U.S. has climbed

Philippines

Many African countries Uganda

Karen National Movement

http://archives.adventistreview.org/

article/1191/archives/issue-2007-1516/young-adventists-in-a-

world-of-war

http://archives.adventistreview.org/article/1191/archives/issue-2007-1516/young-adventists-in-a-world-of-war

Dr. Samson Babi Mululu Kisekka, prime minister in 1986 and vice president from 1989 to 1994He helped found the National Resistance Movement with Yoweri Kaguta Museveni ,

Was involved in the war that deposed Idi Amin Dada, ending his rule in 1979, and in the rebellion that subsequently led to the demise of the Milton Obote regime in 1985

"My army," says Kisekka, "had to pick upsome very young men and women." The boys and girls who were armed were as young as 10 years of age.

When Kisekka was challenged in the Sabbath School class, as to how he could justify leading an army revolution in the light of Romans 13 and its admonition to obey government, he chuckled and said, "provided that it is a government." Uganda had not had governments."When I elect you to be my leader," explained Kisekka, "I don't expect you to kill me, rape my wives, and kill my workers.“ Under Obote and Amin, 1 million of Uganda's population of 14 million had been killed.

Spectrum, Volume 17, Number 4

“On the other side of the spectrum were those National Service draftees who objected to bearing arms, to doing duty on Sabbath, or to both”

Stefan Höschele, Christian Remnant-African Folk Church: Seventh-Day Adventism in Tanzania, (Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands: 2007), p. 426

“Church members did join the professional army, Jeshi la Wananchki Tanzania (“ Tanzanian People’s Defence Force”), in increasing numbers. It is obvious that many of them had to make compromises in the Sabbath keeping.

“Missionary Richard Munzig among Sukuma Adventists who revere him until today for having fought on their side against the Maasai during World War I”

The Draft and Seventh-Day Adventism in Tanzania

After the Karens declared independence from Burma in 1949, devout Seventh-day Adventist Bo Mya quickly rose to a position of pre-eminence in the Karen movement, earning a reputation as a hard and ruthless operator.

Based at Manerplaw ("victory field") close to the Thai-Burma border, the KNU under his control, and its military wing the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), was probably the most successful of the ethnic rebel organizations fighting Rangoon in the 1970s and 1980s.Karen Soldiers

Bo Mya Longtime Adventist leader of Myanmar guerrilla

group

Karen National Movement

Involuntary Military Service KOREA: MANDATORY MILITARY SERVICE

Adventists in these countries face strict conscription laws, opposition to which more often than not lands them in prison, where Sabbath keeping is extremely difficult.

ISRAEL

Citizens are required to serve as reservists subject to call until age 50.

Several Adventist students, including Young-chul Yoon and senior theology student Hwi-jai Lim, have been imprisoned for their conscientious objector stance.

In July 2003, Gwang-il Han, a 25-year-old Seventh-day Adventist, won the right to serve as a medic in

the Korean Army.

“… the European attitude toward serving in the military

in combat roles more reflects Adventist tradition than in the (United) States…The kind of shift in attitude among Adventists—in which you serve your country by fighting—is largely an American phenomenon.”

Reinder Bruinsma, president of the Adventist Church in the Netherlands.http://archives.adventistreview.org/article/1191/archives/issue-2007-1516/young-adventists-in-a-world-of-war

European SDA attitude toward serving in the

military

Frank Hempel – Former East German Adventist noncombatant doing alternate service as „construction soldier (Bausoldat), 1984-85“ an later German SPD politician and first

Adventist member of the German Diet 1998-2002.

http://www.sta-forum.de/theologie/christentum-und-konfessionen/siebenten-tags-adventisten/53-weltbekannte-mitglieder-der-adventgemeinde/

Even in Former East Germany90 % served as construction soldiers

"http://www.stanet.ch/apd/news/archiv/4880.pr.html

Before the Vietnam War Adventist educators hammered home the ethical problems of combat

Larry Roth, a former Navy chaplain said :”With near zero training on the subject… it is fully understandable why today very few of our youth see

combatancy as an issue. They are not getting any counsel on the topic—at school, at church, and probably not at home. It is too late once they sign

up with the recruiter.”http://archives.adventistreview.org/article/1191/archives/issue-2007-1516/young-adventists-in-a-world-of-war

"In the void of education on the topic and lack of information about the denomination's historic position against volunteering for military service, slowly but steadily Adventist young people began to enlist with hardly anyone noticing what was happening. And with that transition Adventism lost what had truly been an important aspect of its Christian heritage.“ George Knight, http://www.atodayarchive.org/article/2489/news/may/adventists-and-world-war-i-symposium-day-one

Lack of education about the denomination's historic position

Consequently, young people enlist

1. the Seventh-day Adventist Church began as a peace church with a pacifist stance

the SDA Church would “decline all participation in acts of war and bloodshed” 3rd GC Session in 1865

2. Then came conscientious objectors. 3. Then Conscientious Collaborators4. Recommendation of noncombatancy, but with each

Individual having free Choice5. Individual Choice led today to most enlistees

becoming combatants

Was the horrific sacrifice of so many for our historic position in vain?

“…with that transition Adventism lost what had truly been an important aspect of its Christian heritage”

George Knight, http://www.atodayarchive.org/article/2489/news/may/adventists-and-world-war-i-symposium-day-one

Conclusion:

Conscientious Objector memorial in Tavistock

Square Gardens, London — dedicated on 15 May 1994

51 And suddenly, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword, struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.52 But Jesus said to him, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Matthew 26:51-52

“Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God.” Romans 13:1 (NLT)

"You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away

from the one who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. (NIV, Matthew 5:38-45)

When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies…16 But of the cities of these people,

which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: 17 But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee: 18 That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God. Deuteronomy 20

Thou shalt not kill . Exodus 20:13 (KJV)