Introduction
Depending on the audience, the notions of Christianity and war seem to be opposites or go together all too well. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declared, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God" (Matt. 5:9). However, we must define the word "peace" before we continue on this topic. Many people think "peace" basically means a lack of warfare. Merriam-Webster defines peace as 1) "a state of tranquility or quiet," 2) "a state or period of mutual concord between governments," or 3) "a pact or agreement to end hostilities between those who have been at war or in a state of enmity." Likewise, we may understand the word "peacemaker" as someone who always looks for a peaceful solution to disputes or who stands up for the oppressed when peace seems impossible. Paul of Tarsus wrote, "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone" (Rom. 12:18).
A minority of Christians believe in pacifism, the conscientious objection to war and violence as a way of resolving conflict. They believe any war fought by one nation against another—even an individual's military service—is morally wrong in all circumstances. However, most Christians believe in the Just War Theory (Latin: Jus ad bellum), the ethical use of lethal force in national defense. Augustine of Hippo (354–430) first discussed the Just War Theory in his book The City of God, warning, "For even when we wage a just war, our adversaries must be sinning; and every victory, even though gained by wicked men, is a result of the first judgment of God, who humbles the vanquished either for the sake of removing or of punishing their sins" (19.15). Simply put, we Christians must regret the use of violence, not celebrate it for any reason. There must be fair rules of engagement in war (Latin: Jus in bello) and the just liability of belligerents after the war (Jus post bellum).
Early Christians & Military Service
The early church generally disfavored military service from the first to the fourth centuries. Tertullian of Carthage (c. AD 155–c. 220) wrote:
How will a Christian man participate in war? It is true that soldiers came to John [the Baptist] and received the instructions for conduct [see Luke 3:13-14]. It is true also that a centurion believed [see Luke 7:7-9]. Nevertheless, the Lord afterward, in disarming Peter, disarmed every soldier (On Idolatry 19; cf. John 18:11).
Likewise, he asked:
Is it lawful to make an occupation of the sword when the Lord proclaims that he who uses the sword will perish by the sword? Will the son of peace participate in the battle when it does not become him even to sue at law? (The Chaplet 11).
Other early church leaders such as Hippolytus of Rome (c. 170–c. 235), Lactantius of Cirta (240–c. 320), and Ambrose of Milan (339–397) wrote disparagingly of Christians serving in the military. However, they still allowed those men who converted while serving to stay commissioned or enlisted. The early church leaders took this lesson from Jesus very seriously: "But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles" (Matt. 5:39-41). One of the main reasons the Jews and Christians eventually parted ways was because the church refused to join the Judean war effort from AD 66 to 70, fleeing to Pella instead (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History Bk. 3, Ch. 5, § 3; see "Jew & Gentile: Parting Ways"). Nevertheless, Eusebius also recorded a story mentioning a legion of Christian soldiers from the Cappadocian city of Melitene who prayed to God for rain, granting them a miraculous thunderstorm to rout their German and Sarmatian foes and relieve the Romans from dying of dehydration (Ecclesiastical History Bk. 5, Ch. 5). The story reveals that Christian soldiers were common in the second century and that not every church leader objected to military service.
Military Service in the Bible
The first generation of Christians was Jewish, a culture that had seen much war and empire. The prophet Daniel mentioned a statute of four different empires that ruled or were about to rule over Israel (see 2:38-40). They were Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome in chronological order. The Jews were never an empire-building nation, as even King Solomon's dominion from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates resulted from peace treaties (see 1 Kgs. 4:20-21). Moreover, the Jewish feasts of Passover and Chanukkah commemorate the times God saved Israel from the militant Egyptians and the Seleucid Greeks, respectively (see Exod. 12:27; 1 Macc. 4:36-59 CEB; 2 Macc. 1:18-36 CEB). The Jews never maintained a large standing army, ready to expand Israel's borders at a whim. Instead, they hoped for the kingdom of heaven on earth, when every soldier would remake their weapon into a farm tool (see Isa. 2:4). Things changed when the Romans took over the Levant, especially in AD 6 when the Syrian governor Quirinius (c. 51 BC–AD 21) carried out the census of Judea (see Luke 2:1-3; Acts 5:37; cf. Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 18.1). The Zealot's insurgency began that year, culminating with the First Jewish–Roman War between AD 66 and 70.
However, we must consider Jesus' hypostatic relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit (see "Trinity: Jewish & Gentile Views"). In the Old Testament, God uprooted the Israelites from Egypt, ordering them to invade Canaan with general rules of engagement (see Deut. 20:16-18). The prophet Zephaniah wrote, "The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves" (3:17). We never see Jesus teach against this because his monotheistic Hebrew culture justified warring against pagans who exploited their people. To be sure, the same Jesus who said: "turn the other cheek" also made it clear that he was no pacifist: "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword" (Matt.10:34; cf. Luke 12:51). Jerome of Stridon (c. 347–c. 419) was the only early church leader who commented on this verse, otherwise a convenient lacuna in patristic literature. That said, the point of warfare in the Old Testament was never about conquest and colonization, as we often assume. God told the Israelites to dismantle the Canaanites' systems of oppression—it was not genocide. Think about how the Allies defeated Nazi Germany during World War II. Yes, Jesus was adamant about Christians seeking nonviolent solutions to conflict. However, he did use violence when angrily evicting the money changers from the temple, even utilizing a whip to drive away their sheep and cows (see John 2:14-15).
Tertullian and the other early church leaders oversimplified Jesus' lessons about retaliation for insults, theft, and abuses of power. When he wrote about Jesus' meeting with the centurion, Tertullian glossed over the apparent realization that the man would report back to his unit. Jesus never told the centurion to be a deserter, nor did John the Baptist. When Simon Peter baptized the Roman centurion, Cornelius, he did not mention desertion (see Acts 10:1-33). Instead, Luke of Antioch witnessed, "We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people" (v. 22). Even with his disciples, Jesus warned, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one" (Luke 22:36), once their safety became an issue. "Turn the other cheek" (Matt. 5:39; Luke 6:29) is a lesson forbidding revenge, neither self-defense nor national defense. Of course, believers must de-escalate all types of conflicts without using violent means offensively. Just War Theory prohibits a nation from invading another on offense.
Conclusion
Ever since the Roman emperor Constantine I (c. 280–337) legalized Christianity in AD 313, the church has endorsed many wars, from the Crusades (1095–1291) to the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) to the Global War on Terror (2001–2021). We do well remembering the early church's nonviolent resistance in our time. Around 4 BC, Jesus was born during the "Roman Peace" (Latin: Pax Romana), a successful campaign by the emperor Augustus (27 BC–AD 14) to enforce law and order across the Mediterranean. It endured from the start of Augustus' reign, ending with Marcus Aurelius (AD 161–180). In contrast to Augustus, a title meaning "God revealed," Jesus did not come to us with soldiers to enforce peace. The angels in Bethlehem sang, "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests" (Luke 2:14). The Romans applied the Greek noun euaggelion (G2098, "good news") to the "gospel" of the Pax Romana. However, Jesus came to bring "the peace of God, which transcends all understanding" (Phil. 4:7). He alone is God revealed, and only his gospel is actually "good news." Instead of a peace achieved through war, Jesus tells us, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid" (John 14:27). War followed by the terms and conditions of peace is how the world gives it to us. However, Jesus gives us peace without terms and conditions, which is good news for the world.
In his letter to the Romans, Paul admonished us:
For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God's servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer (13:3-4).
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945), a Lutheran pastor who ministered in Nazi Germany and took part in an assassination plot against Adolf Hitler (1889–1945), noted:
There is no doubt that the church . . . is not encouraged to get involved directly in specific political actions of the state. The church neither has to praise nor censure the state's laws; instead, it has to affirm the state as God's order of preservation in this godless world (pp. 362–63).
He transitioned from a pacifist to a civil resister, leading the Nazis to execute him on April 9, 1945—two weeks before the United States Army liberated the Flossenbürg concentration camp where Bonhoeffer stayed.
As Christians, one of our main objectives is to resist evil. In this fallen world, there is "a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build" (Eccl. 3:3). Remember that there is an ethical and legal difference between murder and killing. The sixth of the Ten Commandments does forbid us from murder (see Exod. 20:13), but it does not extend to warfare—it is a civil law, not a law of armed conflict. One of the unspoken reasons the early church leaders could be pacifistic was because Jews and most non-Italian Gentiles were exempt from military service due to their lack of Roman citizenship. For better or worse, the early church lacked the political power or cultural influence to consider ethical reasons for warfare. The Roman army was largely pagan and very nationalistic, so criticisms of idolatry and blasphemy like those of Tertullian were understandable in context. The same Jesus who said, "Turn the other cheek" also warned, "Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth" (Rev. 2:16).
Epilogue: Lessons Learned for Peacemakers
Let the tragedy of Operation Turquoise in Rwanda be a lesson learned about strict pacifism. The United Nations (UN) tasked the French military with protecting Tutsi refugees. However, they still let the Hutu génocidaire militias slaughter about 800,000 Tutsi men, women, and children between June and August 1994—the "100 days of death." The following year, in July 1995, the UN promised 60,000 Bosnian Muslim refugees protection against the Bosnian Serb army. Yet, when the Serbs attacked, the UN let them systematically machine-gun 7,079 Bosnian noncombatant men of all ages, forcing over 50,000 women and children to flee to Tuzla without their husbands and fathers. The mass graves of Srebrenica were comparable to those made by Nazi Germany during World War II. The UN "peacekeepers" did not keep the peace that day, refusing to value human life. War and violence are sometimes necessary to stop evildoers from stealing our peace. Philosophically, the situation of rescuing human lives from destruction outweighs the virtue of conscientious objection.
Pacifism is an immoral stance in which individuals choose to let the victims of violence suffer due to mere abstractions based on narcissism and sociopathy. No, the early church leaders were not pacifists, nor did they teach pacifism. Since the Radical Reformation (1525–1632), sects like the Anabaptists have overstated the early church's disfavor with military service as a general stance for pacifism. However, there is no patristic literature that discusses matters of self-defense or using violence to defend other people. We know the early Christians did not resist the Roman Empire during persecution, consistent with Paul's warning in Romans 13. However, there is a significant difference between not resisting law enforcement officers versus resisting criminals. Pacifists often conflate the two in their arguments. Ultimately, pacifism is immoral because it suggests allowing evil to triumph over good. Look no further than Mohandas Gandhi's (1869—1948) advice for the Jews after the Holocaust: "Hitler killed five million Jews. It is the greatest crime of our time. But the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher's knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs. As it is, they succumbed anyway in their millions." Pacifism is what led Gandhi to downplay genocide and conclude, "Hitler is not a bad man."
Prayer
Blessed are you, LORD our God, King of the universe; for by the sacrifice of your only-begotten Son, Jesus the Messiah, on the cross, all who turn to him in the tribulation of war will find their peace with him in paradise. Amen.
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