On this webpage about pacifism and social justice from a Christian perspective, I cover a heck of a lot of ground. So much so, that it may be difficult for the reader to get a real clear idea of what exactly I am saying here. In response to this dilema, I hereby present the summary of this page: an essay which will give the reader the basic message I am proclaiming and which I discuss at greater length throughout this page.

There is no denying the cruelty and violence of the ancient world, a globe dusty and drenched with blood: savage and unyeilding. Yet this is only so because of the fallen nature of humanity. Originally, God had made the universe to be in unity... A good universe in ecological and scientific balance, not a universe of chaos and violence (Genesis 1:1-2:4). However, with the creation of humanity came the corruption of humanity, our free will being perverted so that instead of seeking unity with God, we chose instead to set ourselves against Him and eachother(Genesis 3:1-13). Disunity, and the violence and injustice that comes from it, is our curse (Genesis 3:16-24, Ecclesiastes 4:1-3, Psalm 120, Jeremiah 6:13-14, Micah 3:5-12).

And so the world became a place of warfare, red in tooth and claw. But God was not to be undone... He would not allow this fallen humanity to disrupt His plans. First God attempted to stop the cycle of violence before it started by preventing retribution against history's first murderer, Cain (Genesis 4:10-15). The appeal of violence is strong, however, so God began a long and painful process by which He would reconcile humanity to Himself, bringing them back to a relationship with Him. He wouldn't do it by getting rid of our free will, but rather by calling people to follow His way of peace and justice.

Because humans were dead set on getting into wars with eachother, God manipulated these wars so that no matter what happened, they would bring about the circumstances by which His true call could be heard (Numbers 31:7-18, Joshua 6:1-21, 24, I Samuel 15:7-19). He still hated war and rathered that people didn't get into them. His disapproval was so strong that He even prevented David from building the Temple to God because David was a soldier (I Chronicles 22:7-10 and 28:2-3). To get them to stop doing it, God proclaimed through special men called "Prophets" that a great teacher would come... A person would would be the servant of all, preaching a message of peace and sacrificial love. By following this person's teachings and example, humans would learn how to get along with eachother. Through him, they would be reunited with God because he would be God Himself (Isaiah 2:4, Isaiah 9:2-6, Micah 4:3-7, Zechariah 9:9-10).

Finally things got so bad that the time was right for this teacher, the Messiah, to come (Ezekiel 16:59-63). This Messiah was born miraculously of an unwed teenage mother, and His name was Jesus. Not long after He was born, Jesus and His family became refugees (Matthew 2:13-21), forced to flee His home because of a cruel king who knew that this Messiah would threaten everything about the way of violence and domination that human beings had created. After He came back and grew up a bit, Jesus entered into a synagogue and proclaimed that He was the Messiah that God had promised: the new age of peace and justice had come (Luke 4:16-21).

Jesus establishes a world order that is based on very unmilitary qualities of meekness, gentleness, mercifulness, and peacemaking (Matthew 5:3-12). He COMMANDS us to love our enemies and to do good for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:43-46). Jesus lays down a groundwork for non-violent resistance both in the Temple (Matthew 21:12-16, Mark 11:15-18, Luke 19:45-46, John 2:14-22) and in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:38-42). When Jesus predicted the denial of Peter, it was then that He suggested buying swords, for those who reject Him must use the ways of the world (Luke 22:31-39). Yet after that He refuses to allow the swords to be used for Him, as He teaches that violence only breeds violence and that to use violence is to ensure one's own destruction thereby (Matthew 26:50-52). And He states that His kingdom is not of this earth, THEREFORE His followers do not take up arms (John 18:36-37).

Paul the Apostle and posthumous follower of Jesus states that our battle is not against other human beings, but against ideologies, "powers and principalities", the spirit of the age (Ephesians 6:12). He points to Jesus as the source of the unity between traditional enemies which results in peace (Ephesians 2:11-18), and exhorts us several times to pursue those fraternal qualities which make for peace (Romans 14:17-19, Hebrews 12:14). James the brother of Jesus points out that the reason we go to war at all is because of our own covetousness and jealousies, and that to do so is to commit adultery against God (James 4:1-2, 4).

They also undermine every justification used for violence. On the matter of protection for one's own life and freedom to practice one's religion, Peter states quite clearly that we are to follow Jesus' example even to our own deaths (I Peter 2:21-24 and 3:8-17). Jesus also teaches that those who follow Him must be willing to forsake everything including life and worldly freedom (Matthew 10:38 and 16:24-26). He also states that love involves laying down one's life for others, as opposed to laying down other people's lives for oneself (John 15:13).

Jesus also undermines the justification that we must use violence to protect our families. Over and over and over again He declares that our obligation to God and the way of Christ must come before our familial obligations (Mark 10:29-31, Luke 14:26-27). He also states that this placing of Christian obligation above familial obligation will result in division and strife against the Christian, and that this corruption of the world's values againts Him displeases Him greatly (Luke 12:49-53).

There is also the propertry issue. Contrary to the spirit of the age, we have no right to property. Jesus tells us not to store up things here on earth (Matthew 6:19-21) and to place our possessions beneath following Him, that we should be willing to forsake property if it becomes necessary to do so (Mark 10:21-25, Luke 12:32-34). Jesus says that we cannot serve both God and wealth (Luke 16:13) and that it is for love of wealth and earthly pleasures that we refuse to follow Him (Luke 8:11-15).

And then we come to the Christian's obligation to the State. This idea is, in fact, much overblown. I already pointed out how Jesus said that we do not fight because His kingdom is not of this world. Jesus states that our only obligation to the State is to repay to the State that which is its own property (Luke 20:21-25). As for us, just as the coin bore Caesar's image, we bear God's image (Genesis 1:27) and thus our lives and loyalty belong to Him and not the State. Paul reaffims this when, in talking about how Christians should submit to the State, he speaks only of paying taxes and giving only what honor and tribute is due to the ruler (Romans 13:1-14).

To submit to the authority of the State does not mean to serve the State. Instead, both Peter and Paul affirm that it means to deliver oneself to the punishment of the State for disobeying it. Peter speaks of submitting to the government and in the same breath talks of how our being killed by the State for being Christian is a noble thing (I Peter 2:11-25). Just before Paul talks about how the State is given authority to punish evildoers, He speaks quite eloquently on how we are to follow Christ. He tells us that we are not to be conformed to the ways of the world (Romans 12:1-2), gives us a list of Christ-like attributes, and tells us that we are only to return good for evil done against us, noting that it is only through good that evil will be overcome (Romans 12:17-21). Everything Paul says here in relation to the State makes serving as a soldier for the State impossible.

Peter and Paul knew full well that as Christians they were called to disobey the ordinances of the State, and both men were executed for doing so. Often, in fact, the early Church disobeyed the civil authorities and were punished for it (Acts 4:1-21 and 5:17-42). Jesus Himself states that we will be brought before rulers as criminals for following Him (Matthew 10:16-20) and that we are blessed for enduring persecution (Matthew 5:10-12).

Jesus rebukes Satan with this while being tempted in the desert, saying that we are to serve God alone and not the State (Matthew 4:8-10). When the nation of Israel clammored for a king so that they could be like the other nations, so that they could "deal with the realities of the world", God expresses His utter displeasure. He states that to desire the human-led hierarchical structure of the State is to reject His leadership: to desire authority rather than ethics as an ordering principle for society, they are forsaking Him (I Samuel 8). For those who follow the path of Jesus, no government is necessary.

Does this sound all terribly idealistic? The Israelites thought so, and that's why they wanted a king... They wanted to get in on the game of violence and domination, rather than risk being violated and dominated. And so to have we acted out of this fear, believing the great myth of Redemptive Violence. The wisdom of the age tells us that "there are evil people out there that we have to kill because we're good people and they want to take our stuff and kill our families."

Sure it is all idealistic, but so is a man ceasing to stay dead! The violent people of the world hated Jesus and everything He stood for, so they captured Him, tortured Him and killed Him. They put Him up on a foregone trial and a fake charge (Luke 23:6-16). The leaders offered to release a violent revolutionary rather than Jesus (Luke 23:17-19), because they knew that a violent revolution is more easily crushed than the idea of peace. They would constantly take Him back and beat Him horribly, only to haul Him out again so the Roman governor could mock Him, saying that he could find no wrong in Jesus and asking the religious leaders if they really wanted Him dead (John 18:28-19:16): they were trying to completely destroy Him psychologically as well as physically. They made Him carry His own instrument of execution and then nailed Him to it, where He suffered immensely. But even then, He bore no malice towards His enemies, asking God to forgive them in their ignorant use of violence (John 23:34).

This was violence at its most cruel and cold and calculating, its most rational and terrible. These were politicians securing their own power against the spirit of peace, and soldiers who were just following orders in service to their nation. This is what violence does, what violence looks like. This is the depravity of those who use violence. And this is its greatest condemnation, for truly it was not Jesus on the cross, but violence.

The greatest and only power violence has, though, is to kill. And that power was rendered moot when a group of Jesus' female followers went to His tomb and found that it was empty (Matthew 28:1-10). Jesus had ceased to be dead! If the only power violence has is to kill, and Jesus stopped being dead, then violence has no power at all! The way of peace and justice and sacrificial love has won, now and forever, no matter what anybody does! So strong was this victory and the power of it that Paul cited it as the whole centre of the Christian faith, saying that we do not live this new way of life through logic or proofs, but through the acknoweldged idealistic absurdity of Jesus' sacrifice (I Corinthians 1:20-25).

And this is the greatest thing of all. Violence has lost. Peace has won. The meek WILL inherit the earth, and the peacemakers ARE the children of God. Everything will be reconciled to God! Jesus sends us out to live this way of life He taught with fearlessness, knowing that He will be with us always. We are to bring others into this way of peace and justice and love, and the victorious Jesus will never ever leave us, even to the very end (Matthew 28:18-20). And what can we expect at the end? The glorious unity of all Creation and all humanity, reunited with God (Revelation 7:9-12). God has already won!