God’s spirit led me out of the trick question. By Burkhard Vogel
Reading time: 3 minutes
“So when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you are to say, for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. For it is not you who speak, but it is your Father’s Spirit who speaks through you.” (Matthew 10:19)
Conscription was compulsory in our country. So I was also called to do my military service after the draft. However, I took the sixth commandment seriously, which states: “Thou shalt not kill”, and made use of the option to refuse military service with a weapon. I had to submit the reasons for my decision in writing. Then I had to appear at an oral hearing on a fixed date.
Interrogation by the examination board
Like a defendant, I stood before a panel of four men who began to ask me critical questions to find out what the real motives for my conscientious objection were. They wanted to find out whether my religious reasons were just a pretext. However, I made it clear time and again that I would never want to pick up a weapon and could end up in a position where I had to use it to kill someone.
The men kept trying to corner me. But I prayed in my heart that the Lord would give me the right words so that they would realize that I take the commandment in the Bible very seriously. But now the conversation took a turn that seemed to be dangerous for me.
The trick question
They constructed the following fictitious situation and asked me: “Imagine you are sitting in a fighter jet over your city, where your family, wife and children live. You see an enemy bomber approaching your town and obviously intending to drop bombs over it. However, you have the opportunity to shoot down the bomber before it reaches the city. If you do, you will kill people, but if you don’t, you will be partly responsible for the deaths of many people in the city, including your family, because you didn’t prevent it. What do you do now?”
I felt the pressure of this trick question and I was getting hot. They wanted to bring me down and make it clear to me: No matter what I decide, I can’t avoid the killing. But at that very moment, a thought popped into my head that I immediately voiced.
Inspiration at the most difficult moment
I said: “My image of God was shaped by the Bible. My image of God tells me that if God forbids killing in his word in the sixth commandment, he cannot at the same time allow me to get into a dilemma where I would have to kill in any case. Then I would only have to decide who I kill, not whether I kill. This contradicts the picture my Bible paints of God. So I am firmly convinced that the God I believe in would never put me in such a position.”
I immediately realized that God’s Spirit had given me this answer, so it didn’t come from me. As a result, there was suddenly a great silence in the room and no one asked me anything.
Request accepted
The men sent me outside to consult with them. After a short time, they called me back in and told me that my application for conscientious objection had been accepted.
I praised God in my heart and thanked Him for the inspiration of this answer and that I was able to experience the fulfillment of Jesus’ words from the Gospel of Matthew on myself.
