[Repost & Updated]
I’m not a ‘Pacifist’, however I’m pacifistic and sympathize with much of that position One of my friends and elders of my congregation referred to my stance as being a ‘peace-maker’. At first I thought this was sort of cheezy, and just as obscure. There is a pistol called a peace-maker! However, after some thought, perhaps this is the best description. It remains strictly within the life of Christ: “Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called sons of God”. As one who was near-military and had to do a lot of thinking on this matter, I’m going to lay outside some propositions. Feel free to add or critique them:
1) While similar to pacifism, being a ‘peace-maker’ is a specifically Christ conditioned position. This is not principle based or utilitarian pacifism. It is the attempt to take Christ at His word and be obedient to His command. I do not practice peace because of peace as some sort of Platonic Form. I do not practice peace because it is the ‘best’ or ‘most effective’ strategy to make a better world. I practice peace because that is what Jesus tells me to do.
2) This ‘I’ is for a ‘We’. The commands of Jesus are not a council of perfection for monkery and monastic practice. The commands are for each, and every disciple of Jesus. They are for the entire Church, for the Church is the community of the Disciples. It is the Body of Christ. The commands are therefore to be practiced by a ‘We’. Unlike Luther’s teaching, secular vocations do not overwrite clear gospel-ethics. We must be obedient, not out of law, but because we love our King.
3) The Church has failed in this endeavor. I do make a distinction between a true Church in allegiance to Christ, and apostate bodies that put nation, politics, philosophy or someone else at the helm of the Church. I’m talking about the unknown average congregation. We are sinners, we are learning to walk in the steps of our God and Lord. Learning to be truly human, we stumble. The call must be continued to be resounded to be faithful, the gospel must be preached. There’s grace for our failures, not to erase that they are failures, but that the Lord works regardless.
4) Since peace, and not violence, is the path set for Christians, the Church must actively question whether certain jobs or careers are available for the disciple. Peace-Making is embodying the love of Jesus, and this is shown in mercy, self-sacrifice, and love. Places that prohibit or discourage such a spirit must be questioned. Most clearly, in the US, this would be any work inside or for the military. Jesus people ought to considered and contemplate these things seriously.
5) ‘Peace-Making’ is an ethic for the City of God, and not the City of Man. We cannot expect Pagans, Atheists, or others to accept or understand our practice for peace. While I’m not advocating Sectarianism, the Church must be willing to be ridiculed and mocked for its allegiance to its Lord. They do not know the King of Glory, they have no established hope of resurrection, they have not heard the call to take up their cross and die.
6) However, the practices of the Church are FOR the World. ‘Peace-Making’ must not be a means for arrogance or a Pharisaical ‘purity’ culture. Some of the Anabaptist stream can and has fallen into this hole. We do not renounce violence because we are afraid of contamination. Rather, violence is dehumanizing for both the perpetrator and victim. We recognize that Christ is Humanity as it should be, His purity is contagious. Our loving our enemies, and forgoing retribution, is both to live ‘eternal life’ and proclaim the Gospel, both of which are knowing and following Jesus.
7a) Some reject that violence are off-limits for the Christian by pointing to the NT interactions of Jesus with soldiery. This cannot be used as Jesus came not for the Gentiles but the “sheep of Israel”. He did not offer any commands to the Gentiles He spoke to, though grace and love was always abounding. They were not yet accepted into the covenant of God’s new humanity. I won’t deal much with John the Baptist’s commands to the Jewish soldiery as the Kingdom was yet to be inaugurated. It must be noted that they are paired alongside Tax Collectors as specific groups enumerated. John’s response is one to focus on justice while they awaited Israel’s King.
7b) While the interaction with Cornelius is silent on both accounts (whether he remained a Centurion), there is a tradition that Cornelius became a bishop afterwards. This is interesting for the reason that even during and after the, slightly anachronistic, Constantinian shift, presbyters were not allowed to serve in the military. This should continue to raise questions about how Christians understand violence.
8a) Some point to the violence in the OT as a means for justifying Christian military involvement and participation in violent practice. My primary response is that the actions inside the story of Israel are not functionally normative but are types for life with the Messiah. That is to say, God didn’t need the sacrifice of animals, but it pointed ahead to God’s priestly sacrificial satisfaction as the Lamb. So too do the violence of the wars of Israel point to the victory of cross, where Jesus forgives His enemies and crushes the powers and principalities. Joshua’s conquest of Canaan is a type of King Joshua (Hebraic transliteration for the Greek transliteration Jesus) overwhelms the demons behind Pilate, Caiaphas, and all of sinful humanity.
8b) Hebrews mentions a list of the faithful in the OT, who placed their hope in Christ above and beyond their own situation. Some of these include military men (e.g. Gideon). It must be said that the list is to demonstrate faithfulness, not to vindicate the specific actions of individuals. That is to say, Rahab is praised for placing faith in the Lord by protecting the Israelite spies. However, she did this by a lie. Does this vindicate lying as a normative action? No, but it reveals the complexities of the world we live in.
9) Revelation is chock full of imagery and to be parsed carefully as a document for a Christ-confessing Church in a world of empires. Christ returns as a victorious and conquering King. The glory of our Lord was in His sacrifice. Thus it is in such that the cosmic war was won, and the demons behind all idols are defeated.
10) The destruction of the Wicked is in the Wrath of this same Lamb, it is the anger of a slain, and loving King who uproots Sin. Our understanding of Wrath and destruction must be tempered by the fact that God is love. This is not to say that Wrath is nothing, but that it is motivated in the very fabric of the Trinity’s being. Those outside of Christ, and remaining in Sin, will not stand, His withering love will destroy them.Why? Because they are with Satan and his angels. They have sided with Death. This is the extreme act of Peace-Making. The Cosmos will be re-newed, all tears and suffering will be gone, and peace will reign.
Ultimately ‘Peace-Making’ is about Life over Death. As the Didache, the apocryphal teaching of the 12 apostes, begins “There is a road leading to life and a road leading to death”. There is nothing redemptive about violence, nor should it ever be gloried in. ‘Peace-making’ is about living out the victory of Life over Death, of Resurrection over the Tomb.