Jesus preached an upside down philosophy. He said it is better to give than receive. Then he tells his followers that if they want to lead they’ll have to serve–the first will be last. That’s just crazy stuff. He says we are to love our enemies, do good to mean folks, pray for those who abuse us; those who take advantage of us. His teachings are absolutely contrary to everything we know about survival, getting ahead, ambition, success, and of course winning. Jesus said if anyone wants to gain their life they must lose it; to live we must die. This oxymoron gospel turned civilization on its ear. (See Rodney Stark’s book The Rise of Christianity).

There are two things I want to address here and then tomorrow I’ll move off the subject of war as a post. (Dialoging in the comments is still a go).

First, how do we protect ourselves from truly evil people if we do not fight? How do we protect the innocent from such evil if we do not engage in acts of war? The Civil War in the US was fought in part due to slavery. Right? And yes, because of economics. World War II was fought to stop Hitler and the SS from its Nazi war machine destroying Jews and trying to occupy all of Europe. And what about the Taliban in Afghanistan? For me there is just so much to unpack here.

First of all, wars don’t start overnight. There is a build up and signs of trouble usually manifest way before blood is shed on the battlefield. I wonder if followers of Christ are called to prevent war. Scripture says that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty to the pulling down of strongholds. For we aren’t battling with flesh and blood, but against principalities and spiritual powers of darkness in high places. (Ephesians 6)

William Wilberforce ended slavery in Great Britain without firing a single shot. He went through the system of government and worked hard to end slavery without bloodshed. He began his war less travelled in 1787 and sacrificed his health, his family, and his reputation to abolish slavery in the United Kingdom. In 1833 British Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act and Wilberforce died three days later. The weapons of Wilberforce’s warfare were not carnal, but they were mighty for the pulling down of slavery.

Hitler also could have been stopped by European and US Alliances as early as 1933. Hitler publicly overturned the Treaty of Versailles and boldly left the League of Nations at the London conference that year. Britain, France, Italy, and the Scandinavian nations could have boycotted Germany (which was already in economic turmoil). Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, blaming WW I enemies and Jews for his nation’s economic and social problems. Hitler spoke publicly and on an international stage of the German people’s need for more living space (Lebensraum) and his belief in the superiority of the Aryan race. He flagrantly announced to the world that Germany would begin to rearm itself, despite disarmament agreements Germany had signed in the 1920s.

In this hideous environment, the US adopted an official policy of neutrality. Between 1935 and 1939, Congress passed five different Neutrality Acts that forbade American involvement in foreign affairs. Americans wanted to be left alone and Roosevelt wanted to heal America’s reputation abroad. And even though FDR wanted to talk tough (see his famous Chicago speech of 1937) about needing to “quarantine” aggressors (i.e. Hitler) FDR did nothing about the imminent danger he saw. England actually got in bed with Hitler and signed an agreement to help him build ships. There were ways early on that nations could have banded together and cut off the oxygen that fueled Germany’s fire and actually could have prevented Hitler’s war machine and his horrific crimes against human kind. Hitler boasted that democracies around the globe were failing to respond to his aggressions.

Challenging as it seems and maybe a little pie in the sky I am not so sure that Christians around the world shouldn’t truly band together in prayer to stop violence, crimes against humanity, and insane leaders. Here’s an example: Rees Howells, a Welsh preacher from the early 1900s, testified that during WW II he and his small congregation prayed over every battlefield and spent long sleepless nights interceding for soldiers on both sides of the war to be saved from death and saved from the war and surprisingly they were able to document a shift in the war with a direct correlation to the times they prayed (see Norman Grubbs’ Rees Howells Intercessor). I am just wondering if there are alternatives that we as followers of Christ are missing. We certainly aren’t being taught these alternatives by church leaders. Not here in the US anyway.

Next, and this is the really crazy part. Jesus didn’t preach much about human or civic rights. Simon the Zealot, one of the twelve apostles, kept trying to figure out when Jesus the Messiah was going to overthrow Rome and deliver Israel. The Zealots were a Jewish political group committed to overthrowing Rome. By following Jesus, Simon Z was moved from hardcore patriotism to heartfelt evangelism. Jesus taught about dying to self and living for others. I don’t know if God is that concerned with my happiness. I do believe He is concerned with my holiness and His greatest wish for me is to be conformed to the image of His son. I am called to be crucified with Christ. Let’s be honest, that’s not a really happy picture.

During Rome’s tyrannical rule over the empire the early Church was persecuted. (See The Word Made Flesh: A History of Christian Thought by Margaret Miles). In fact, Rome loved having Christians as part of the coliseum entertainment lineup. Folks who would not deny Christ were literally thrown into the coliseum to face wild animals, gladiators, and to be burned at the stake. Nero wanted a new Rome built so badly that he set the old one on fire and blamed it on the Christians. The citizens in Rome were in an uproar and demanded the punishment of these strange followers of a religion they did not understand. So, in the early years of Christianity followers of Christ were senselessly and unfairly sent to their deaths in Roman coliseums with crowds cheering and reveling in their horrific and torturous deaths. But, little by little the crowds’ enthusiasm began to wane. And week after week (190 days a year were dedicated to deaths in the colesium), year after year the crowds came to the coliseums not to watch the bloody, gory details of the torture, but to watch these men and women (many of whom held their children in their arms) die. They died singing, and rejoicing and praising God. They died with the glory of God on their faces and it was this facing of death that brought thousands to their knees as pagan Romans cried out to know this God–this God that could hold His people in death and to give them such peace. The deaths of the saints in those coliseums were so glorious that Nero ordered their heads to be covered because he couldn’t bear to see their shining faces. Nero would scream at the saints to stop singing because the sound of their voices haunted him at night. He would wake up at night screaming for them to stop singing. He could not get the sound of their overcoming voices out of his head. It was not the way the Christians lived that won those coliseums filled with people, it was the way they died and none of the world had ever seen anything like it before. They loved not their lives even unto death. Christianity in Rome was built on the blood of those who died for their faith and that kind of spiritual awakening is contrary to anything we here in free, wealthy, churched America can even understand. Death for the Believer is not the end. Dying for Christ may mean for us not to take up arms, for us not to protect ourselves, for us not to defend ourselves but for us to trust God that in our deaths others may come to know Him. None of us has the right to take a human life…not even to protect ourselves or those we love. We do have the mandate of God to pray and to intercede; to call on the name of Jesus when we are in harm’s way. But we do not have the biblical or scriptural mandate to take a human life. Jesus said that those who live by the sword die by the sword. Even when Peter was trying to protect Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus scolded him. Remember how Christ picked up the ear of the soldier Peter had cut off in his attack and put it back on that soldier? This he did for the very man who was carrying him away to his death…AND Jesus knew this.

God has shown us that Jesus conquered death by dying. Jesus didn’t come to build a kingdom here on earth made with human hands. No. He came to build a kingdom in the hearts of men and women that would be built on principles such as loving our enemies, doing good to those who hate us and laying down our lives when necessary. Either Jesus said these things or he didn’t. As followers of Christ we have opted for an upside down Kingdom that says if you want to live, you must die.

In closing I want to make a point that some of the Church’s greatest growth has taken place under ungodly, wicked governments. Take China for example. The Church of Jesus is growing in China at an unprecedented rate never before known in history–under a communist regime that forbids human rights. In 1983 I went to live in China as a young woman fresh out of college. After several months of living in my city a man approached me and asked if I might be interested in attending an underground church meeting. I was, so I did. Here was a church that was made up of poor people. Most of them were elderly as well. Their thick winter coats were torn and cotton batting was oozing out of rips and holes in their clothing. The building where they were meeting was made of concrete blocks, no heat, little wooden benches with no backs on them. The floor was concrete and dirty from all the melted snow we had tracked in. The little band of men and women (children were not allowed and the government took children away from anyone who had a profession of faith in Christ so that they would not be raised by imbeciles and the mentally deranged Christians) gathered together women on one side, men on the other. Some had lost arms. Some had lost legs. Some had distorting scars on their faces and one man with a head like a slick, yellow peeled onion was missing a large part of his skull. They looked broken and poor and defeated and weak. But when they prayed the power of God came so strongly into that little building that I couldn’t even raise my head. I asked my companion what was wrong and she told me, “Shhhh. It is the Shekinah glory.” And it was. Because in that little group of broken and battered men and women I saw God’s power come down and clothe them. He clothed them with His very presence and He bathed them with His glory. I was forever changed. I know now what it means when Paul says that when we are weak then He is strong. Losing a war to a bad government isn’t the worst thing that can happen to a nation. The worst thing that can happen to a nation is to live in peace, prosperity and not know God.

Intercession, prayer, seeking God’s face and making sacrifices for His kingdom may be the war less travelled and indeed may be the one followers of Christ are commanded to choose.

He is the Prince of Peace and I am absolutely convinced that Jesus is a pacifist.