My definition of "pacifist" is simple: "One who obeys the commands of the executed Christ."
But for some church-goers, "pacifism" is a bad word. I've heard "pacifism" called "impractical," "unrealistic," "utopian," "perfectionist," "heretical," and
"pagan."
Jesus said
- "Thou shalt not kill." (Mark 10:19, quoting Exodus 20:13)
- "Resist not evil." (Matthew 5:39)
- "Love your enemy." (Matthew 5:43-44)
Astonishingly, there are many church-goers who say you can call yourself a follower of Christ even if you advocate intentionally killing your enemy.
Church-goers cheered as their sons (and daughters!) went off to Iraq to destroy the largest community of Christians in the Arab world, overthrowing a secular government that gave Christians
freedom of religion, and replaced that secular Christian-protecting government with an Islamic Theocracy under Shariah law, after killing, crippling, or making homeless millions of people ("Shock and Awe!")
James 1:27 says that true religion is taking care of widows and orphans.
How do church-goers justify creating hundreds of
thousands of widows and orphans through mass murder and destruction of their property?
It takes a Ph.D. to not be a pacifist.
Christian ethics -- the ethics of Jesus -- are light-years away from secular ethics.
To "love" your enemy means to be a "pacifist" with respect to your enemy.
How can you love your enemy if
you're intentionally trying to kill your enemy?
How can you love your enemy if you have de-personalized and de-humanized your enemy to the point where you can thoughtlessly, mindlessly shoot and kill your enemy?
It seems obvious to me that a follower of the executed Christ is a "pacifist."
The Bible gives
us the responsibility to rescue the perishing (Proverbs 12:6; 24:11-12), but also to love the wicked attacker.
Matthew 5:43-44
43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
You cannot love your enemy if you are intentionally killing your enemy.
You cannot bless your enemy if you've killed him.
And as for praying for your enemy, the Bible even prohibits praying for the dead (2 Samuel 12:21-23; 1 John 5:16).How can you pray for, bless, love, and do good for someone that you have killed or intend to kill?
But the question is always raised: "What
would you do if . . . ?" Surely, some would say, there are circumstances under which "Love your enemy" does not apply, and a follower of Christ is free to kill, and (some would say) should not hesitate to do so.
Here's an example of how to love an "enemy." Here's CCTV of someone getting ready to stab someone:
Obviously
if you saw someone being attacked, and the attacker was ready to plunge a knife into the victim, you would consider the attacker to be your "enemy," just as the victim does.
It's hard to "love" someone who is about to stab an innocent person.
Speaking as a pacifist, I would have no problem grabbing his raised arm and preventing
him from stabbing his victim.
But certain "self-defense" experts, especially those who promote "Second Amendment Remedies," will tell you that you should quickly, without hesitation, shoot the attacker and kill him. Don't even
shoot to wound. Shoot to kill.
How can that advice be reconciled with Jesus' commands not to kill, and to love the enemy?
Let me try to engage your imagination.
Suppose the attacker were your son. Or if you don't have a son, someone else you love dearly, or a respected public figure that you admire for his
contribution to society.
When I was a kid I read a weird book called The Day of St. Anthony's Fire. It was a scary book (at least it was for me at that age). It's the true account of a small town in France in the 1950's which experienced mass hallucinations and violent madness. The
flour that made the bread for the town had spoiled, and the mold turned into a form of LSD ("ergot").
Imagine that your son, whom you love dearly, eats some infected flour and hallucinates. He imagines that someone is attacking him, and he decides to
exercise his "Second Amendment Remedies." Maybe he only has a butcher knife. Maybe he is in your kitchen.
Your son is a good kid, and wouldn't intentionally do drugs, and certainly wouldn't stab anyone, but what if your son got some bad bread and went temporarily insane, and thought someone was a dangerous threat, and (since you didn't raise your
son to be one of those impractical, unrealistic wimpy pacifists) thought lethal self-defense was justified. Except it wasn't really "self-defense." It was aggression against an innocent person.
Would you depersonalize your son and intentionally shoot to kill -- without hesitation, without remorse?
Would you see an imminent attack, and say,
"Hey, that's my son! Oh well. He's toast now!"
Of course not. You would try something else. You might yell "STOP, [name of son]!!" at the top of your lungs, just to jolt him out of his pattern of thinking ("pattern
interrupt"). "The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood: but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them" (Proverbs 12:6). "Mouth," not "handgun." Maybe you're in a position to grab the knife or the arm that holds it. But because you LOVE your son, you wouldn't just kill him without second thought.
You
love your son. You don't have to try very hard to love him. You'll think of something besides just blowing him away.
Many "self-defense" gurus strongly advocate killing at attacker without a second thought. But Jesus requires a second thought. Jesus requires you to figure out how to LOVE this "enemy."
That's
relatively easy for you to do in the case of your son, or someone you already love and desire to protect.
But what if you see a perfect stranger getting ready to commit an act of violence. Someone who is not like you. A Samaritan, maybe. It's much easier to kill a stranger without giving it a second thought.
But Jesus requires more.
If you're a
Christian, and you think about the theological implications of your faith, you know that thoughtless killing is not consistent with what the Bible says about the creation of your attacker in the Image of God, and Christ's work to redeem that person.
You have a moral obligation to engage in creative thinking to LOVE your enemy by preventing
the attack without becoming an attacker yourself.
You would want everyone to think that way if the attacker were your son.
What a Christian cannot do is de-personalize his enemy, make the judgment that the enemy's life has no value and is not worth living, and intentionally, thoughtlessly, impersonally, kill the enemy.
"Love"
means trying your hardest to treat an unknown invader with the same benefit-of-the-doubt that you would give to your own son or to your best friend in the world, whom you love without having to try very hard.
Love means finding a way to love someone you don't know, as if he were a son or a brother.
Jesus sacrificed Himself to save His enemies;
enemies who were hell-bent on killing Him (Luke 23:34). When faced with a violent attacker, we are commanded to "follow in His steps" (1 Peter 2.21). Those who obey Christ try to save violent attackers who are hallucinating on LSD. Or are not. We must even love ungodly sinners who are in rebellion against God.
"Christ died for the ungodly."
"God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
"For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life."
Romans 5:6,8,10 |
Rebellion against God is a bad LSD trip. It is hallucination. It is madness.
A digression: many people say the Bible justifies war and lethal "self-defense." They say this based on Biblical accounts of insane people. I would argue insanity is not normative. Just because someone in the Old Covenant did X does not mean X is approved by God.
People in the Old Covenant were insane.They were, of course, rebellious, not hallucinating because of "ergot." But their rebellion was insane.
In Exodus 32, we read about the Golden Calf. Can you imagine a nation being enslaved by a pagan government, and being a part of a supernatural exodus from slavery, witnessing
- God imposing miraculous plague-sanctions on that government,
- God parting the Red Sea so that Israelites can escape the Egyptian imperial army, which God then drowns in the Red Sea.
- The surrounding nations hear about this, and even they -- in a moment of sanity -- are terrified [Joshua 2:8-11]. For example, when the Israeli spies entered the Promised Land, a Canaanite prostitute said to them:
I know that YHWH has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. 10 We have heard how YHWH
dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. 11 When we heard of it, our hearts melted in
fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for YHWH your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.
Rahab used the name "YHWH" or "Jehovah," the specific name of the God of Abraham and Israel, not just a generic god.
- God gives a miraculous provision of "manna" to help the Israelites stay alive in the desert on their way to the Promised Land.
- "And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night" (Exodus
13:21).
One supernatural miracle after another, only to melt all the jewelry-restitution received from the Egyptians into a barnyard animal, and bow down and worship this statue, saying, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!” (32:4)
That's insane. It's off the charts. A cow is God???
Rebelling against
God is insane. We should hesitate to emulate these people at every point.
We don't model them, but also we don't kill insane people.
But that's how we should view our enemies. Like we once were. Like our own son on ergot.
God, however, can view them as rebels deserving of death. But God says to leave vengeance to Him
(Romans 12:19-21). We, creatures, are commanded by Jesus to overcome evil, rebellious people with love, prayer, blessing, and good works for the benefit of the attacker.
Anger against rebellion is understandable. God was angry with the golden calf worshipers. David said he hated his enemies with "perfect hatred" (Psalm 139:22).
But there's
another perspective. A New Perspective. It's part of a New Covenant.
Jesus says we are to love the people we justifiably hate.
People who take the commands of Christ seriously will be called "pacifists" by the "Second Amendment" crowd.
Pacifism and Optimillennialism
The heartfelt desire of every true Christian is the
• Regeneration,
• Repentance,
• Restitution,
• Reconciliation, and
• Redemption
of "the enemy."
Our assumption should be that "Jesus is the Savior of the world."
Our assumption should be that the total stranger about to do violence to an innocent person is (like David) or will be (like Saul of Tarsus) a brother in Christ.
Jesus commands our love of the enemy.
Not the destruction of the enemy.
It is more like Christ to be killed than to kill.
It is more like Christ to love those we hate.
"Pacifism" is a Biblical worldview. A way of looking at the whole world, and a way of looking at the specific individual with whom you are in conflict, and a way of looking at what God is doing in history to bring both you and the attacker "unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ" (Ephesians 4:13).
The Word of God is more powerful than any gun or knife in the hand of an attacker. Have you ever thought of preaching the Word of God to an attacker rather than attacking an attacker?
"So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it."
Isaiah 55:11. See also Hebrews 4:12; 2 Corinthians 10:3-5; Isaiah 55:11; 44:26-28; 45:23; 46:10; 54:9; Deuteronomy 32:2; Matthew 24:35; Luke 8:11-16; John 6:63; Romans 10:17; 1 Corinthians 1:18; 1 Corinthians 3:6-9; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; Hebrews 6:7; James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:23; Ephesians 1:9-11
A Christian loves a single enemy, as well as an army of enemies.
The "Second Amendment" crowd wants us to spontaneously, thoughtlessly, impersonally, kill the enemy.
The military takes this to another level. They engage in brainwashing to prohibit good people from loving their enemies, by depersonalizing and dehumanizing the enemy, and instead to hate them and kill them with blood-lust passion and without regret. The philosophy of "self-defense"
leads logically to genocide of millions.
War is never just. It is always un-Christian.
Violent Revolution is also prohibited (Romans 13, 1 Peter 2, etc.). We are commanded to love the other political party. That doesn't mean we must agree with their policies, it just means (as a start) that we not kill them or burn down their businesses or invade
their front yard in the middle of the night to torment or threaten them.
In short: "Love your enemy." (Matthew 5:43-44)
"Thou shalt not kill." (Exodus 20:13)
You cannot obey Christ and love your enemy after you kill him.
The Bible is clear.
The logic is inescapable.
If you love your enemy, you oppose coercing your enemy through threats of violence.
Christians are not supposed to use the sword to make converts.
But "government" is the means whereby we impose our own will on everyone else by force and threats of violence.
The State is institutionalized, systematic
violence.
Every professor of political science in every university on planet earth will agree that the fundamental nature (or most basic definition) of "civil government" (or "the State") is
- an institution of systematic violence
- which maintains a compulsory monopoly of violence.
Proof:
Therefore, the opponent of violence is an opponent of "the State." The logically consistent pacifist says that "the State" should not exist.
The Christian pacifist would say that those who defend the violent monopoly of the State are sinning against God.
Every "government" in the history of the world has
eventually banned the Bible, believing it to be an Anarchist Manifesto, which it is. Even the government of the United States makes it illegal for public school teachers to endorse or promote the Bible as
a divine revelation.
Every pacifist is an anarchist.
"Anarcho-Capitalism" is 100% pure laissez-faire capitalism with 0% Socialism/Communism/Fascism/Keynesianism.
Some church-goers insist that we MUST have SOME socialism. 100% capitalism
(anarcho-capitalism) is sinful, they insist.
They would concede that we might be permitted to have a free market in computers, cars, housing, clothing and groceries, but there are some goods or services which MUST NOT be provided by businesses or non-profit organizations which are freely chosen by consumers. An "oligarchy" (a small group of men
relative to the size of consumers) must have a monopoly in the provision of these goods and services, without any competition. Consumers must not have a choice. Anyone going into business to provide these goods and/or services in competition with "the government" must be threatened with physical violence and driven out of business.
Of course, if
someone goes into business to compete with YOUR business, you are not allowed to threaten your competitors with physical violence in order to drive them out of business. Your only recourse is to serve your customers on a higher level than your competitors.
You may consider your competition as your "enemy," but Jesus commands you to
love your enemy and serve consumers at the highest level.
Anarcho-Capitalism is economic pacifism.
Consider the definition of the word "anarchist." The word means "not an archist." The word "anarchist" comes from two Greek words, a- meaning "not," and archein,
to rule, or to be an "archist." An "archist" is someone who believes he has the moral right to impose his own will on other people by force or threats of violence. See how Jesus forbids archism among human beings.
Every Christian should be an an-archist because Jesus condemns archists.
We've been brainwashed into believed that an-archists are bad people, while those who oppose anarchists (logically, "archists") are the good guys. This is the
biggest lie in the history of human political thought.
Every Pacifist is an Anarchist.
But there are other reasons why a Christian is an anarchist.
The Bible says
- don't hurt people
- don't take their stuff
and if someone does these things to you,
- leave vengeance to God
Point #2 means "Taxation is theft."
If you don't have taxation, you don't have "civil government." A society without "taxation" is a society without "the State." See the links above on "monopoly of violence."
"Taxation" is
unconsented theft and aggression. It is the moral equivalent of extortion. It is a threat of violence upon failure to "fork over the dough."
Point #3 means it is immoral not only to take vengeance by your own hand, but immoral to hire a contract killer or "hit man."
Would this not also mean it is immoral to "vote" for a
vengeance-taker?
Instead of "voting" for vengeance-takers, shouldn't we exhort vengeance-takers (and those who voted for them) to repent of vengeance-taking, and leave vengeance to God (Romans 12:19-21)?
But wouldn't these three obvious Biblical points logically result in the abolition of all "civil governments?"
- civil governments hurt people
- and pay their own salaries by taking your stuff
- They don't leave vengeance to God.
Some will say that this line of thinking -- taking these verses literally -- would lead to "anarchy," so this line of argument cannot be true because the Bible commands all human beings to create and maintain "civil governments."
Does it really?
Suppose I had supernatural powers of persuasion, and while your back was turned, I
persuaded every human being on planet earth to repent of vengeance-taking and repent of funding acts of vengeance through "taxation" (which is the moral equivalent of theft, violating point #2 above). In other words, all politicians repented, abdicated, completely abolished "the public sector," and got real jobs in "the private
sector." No "civil governments" were left on planet earth. Human beings lived in a social condition which economist Murray Rothbard called "anarcho-capitalism."
What Bible verse can you point to to prove that this stateless society is sinful, and needs to vote for vengeance-takers and tax-collectors?
What Bible verse would
you point to
to prove that any human being
has the moral authority to take money from other people by force or threats of violence ("taxation")
and use that money to fund acts of vengeance?
What Bible verse would you point to
to prove that any human being
has a moral obligation to "vote" for someone to take money from other people by force or threats of violence ("taxation")
and use that money to fund acts of vengeance?
I would say it is a sin to create a monopoly of violence. I would say Christians have a moral obligation to abolish all governments (using persuasion, not violent revolution). We should leave "government" to God.
As it stands right now (before I initiate my program of supernatural mass
persuasion), we do not live under "anarcho-capitalism." Suppose instead of advocating "anarcho-capitalism," I told you that God wanted ME to be your king, and I told you that you need to pay me "tribute" or "taxes."
You would reply that I am not your king, and you are not under my jurisdiction. You are a citizen of
another kingdom: "The United States of America."
That's the wrong answer, from a Biblical perspective, for several reasons.
The first thing you should say is that you are a citizen of Christ's kingdom, which is the only morally legitimate government. You should tell me to repent of being an "archist" and become a citizen of
Christ's "holy nation" (1 Peter 2:9). Why would you say I am not your governor because Joe Biden is, rather than saying I am not your governor because God is?
The second thing you should say is that I have no verse of Scripture to support my claim that I have a right to engage in extortion to fund acts of vengeance. There is no verse of Scripture
which any human being anywhere on planet earth today can point to and say "This verse gives me the right and moral authority to engage in extortion of taxes to fund acts of vengeance. This verse proves that I can kill my enemies and take your money to pay for it. Plus, this verse proves that if anyone else tries to take vengeance on their enemies and fund
their vengeance-taking through extortion, I can initiate force against them and threaten them with physical violence for trying to compete against me and undermine my monopoly of violence." Not one verse can legitimately be used to support the creation of "the State," a monopoly of violence.
This is why every government on earth agrees that The
Bible is an Anarchist Manifesto.
I might reply that Donald Trump's government takes more than 2/3 of everything you earn. I, as your king, would demand much less. You would be a better steward of the resources God has entrusted to you by being subject to my tax collection instead of Trump's.
You would reply that Trump's army is bigger than mine,
and you and I would be crushed if we didn't pay them their extortion.
True point. But surely might does not make right.
What makes the State right? What gives Caesar the right? Why should all Americans rise up, like America's Founders did in 1776, and declare our independence, and demand that everyone who gets a paycheck from "the Public
Sector" resign and get a real job in the private sector?
You truly do not realize how ironic your allegiance to the United States is. It vastly exceeds the allegiance your government has for you.
- If you had been born in another country, you could not become a naturalized U.S. citizen (if you're truly a Christian)
- I know this because I studied law and passed the California Bar Exam, but was denied a license to practice law because the U.S. Supreme Court has held that Christians (whose allegiance to God is greater than their allegiance to the government, Acts 5:29) cannot take the oath to "support the Constitution" and become an attorney. Same with public
school teachers, certified elevator inspectors, and many other vocations in many federal cases. You cannot be a faithful Christian and an American.
- Your government has an "established church," and it's not your church. It's the public school system. A system of compulsory atheistic indoctrination. No serious political scientist or theologian would disagree with that claim -- except those who have never given
the claim any thought. Every political scientist and theologian alive in 1776 would agree that today's public school system is our nation's "established church." The First Amendment is dead meat. As the linked article above shows, serious thinkers on both the left and the right agree with that claim. Every single person who signed the Declaration
of Independence and the Constitution would engage in immediate revolt against the U.S. on this one issue alone if they could read the relevant court cases and sit through a day of public school classes.
- During my lifetime, the U.S. has killed, crippled, or made homeless tens of millions of innocent, non-combatant, non-white civilians around the world. Before I was born, the U.S. needlessly brought about the death of as many as 90 million people to make sure Poland and Czechoslovakia were ruled by Stalin instead of by Hitler, and China was ruled by Mao
instead of Hirohito. Mao went on to murder 40 million people. Today the U.S. drops a bomb somewhere every 12 minutes on average.
- Around the world, the U.S. has tentacles of atheism, homosexuality, abortion, imposing an anti-Christian agenda on weaker nations.
- This monopoly of violence known as The United States government is the enemy of God and humanity.
But you resist abolishing the U.S. government and allowing anarcho-capitalism to thrive because you believe "government" is good. Even though America's Founders -- who abolished their own government in 1776 -- would be horrified at how lawless, tyrannical, and anti-theistic your government is. Abolishing "civil government" is dangerous,
unpatriotic, and somehow unBiblical, you believe.
What Bible verse gives the U.S. Federal Government the right to exercise political sovereignty over your state?
What Bible verse gives your state government the right to exercise political sovereignty over your county?
What Bible verse gives your county government the right to exercise political sovereignty over your city?
What Bible verse gives your city government the right to exercise political sovereignty over your neighborhood?
What Bible verse gives your neighbors the right to exercise political sovereignty over your family?
(For the words "exercise political sovereignty" think: "send the tanks," "send armed marshals," "taze, handcuff, and imprison.")
Every civil magistrate -- every monopoly of violence -- eventually declares outright war on God and the Bible, just as the United States of America has banned the Bible from its
established church, the public school system.
But if you reject my claim to be your sovereign to whom you owe taxes, why do you accept the claim of Joe Biden to be your sovereign? And, again, which verse in the Bible gives "The United States of America" the moral right to tax you to fund acts of vengeance, violence, and promotion of atheism,
homosexuality and abortion?
Imagine an anarcho-capitalist society, living on an uncharted island in the Pacific, unknown to any current government, population 144,000. There are 12 families in this society. Each family is headed by a very Godly patriarch like Abraham, Noah, Job, the Prophets or the Apostles, or Godly kings like Hezekiah or Josiah. Just as
Abraham had as many as 12,000 people in his "household,"1 each of these 12 families are equally large. You would agree it is the most just society in human history -- except for one thing.
There is no "civil government."
Whenever there is a crime, it is adjudicated following the principles Jesus
laid out in Matthew 18:15-17, and the appropriate Biblical response to that crime is executed by the island's family heads, and judges are chosen on a Free Market basis, if they are needed.
But there is no "civil government." No monopoly of violence. No tax collectors. "Anarcho-capitalism."
Where
is the verse which says
that someone has the moral right to demand that this patriarchal society
vote for him to be the "civil magistrate," and empower him to seize property
to fund acts of vengeance, and threaten violence against competitors?
Which verse says Caesar was morally justified in invading and conquering Israel, and putting Israel under tribute?
When Jesus said, "Resist not evil," "Go the second mile," and "Render unto Caesar," He was de-legitimizing violent revolution by the "Second Amendment" crowd of His day, who wanted to take up swords against conquering invaders, but He was not legitimizing conquest, murder,
and enslavement by archists like Caesar.
And beyond that, where is the verse which says that someone
has the moral right to say to Abraham or Noah or Job or any Godly family head,
"You may no longer administer justice. I have a monopoly on the provision of legal services,
and I will enforce my monopoly with violence."
Why is it insufficient to be a citizen of the "holy nation" mentioned in 1 Peter 2:9 (see also Philippians 3:20).
People who are not anarchists and pacifists silently condone the killing and
destruction of tens of millions of people, and the atheistic indoctrination of those that remain alive. They deny that Jesus is the only legitimate Archist.
Think about one of those dull statistics above: Today the U.S. drops a bomb somewhere every 12 minutes on average.
Imagine that someone detonates one of these bombs in your neighborhood. Down the street a bit, so that
the only damage that is done to your house is maybe some particulate matter is dropped on your lawn. No big deal, right?
Are you kidding? Your house would be rocked, even if not damaged. You would look out the window in horror to see several of your neighbors' homes in rubble. Every decent and humane psychologist would say you have experienced the kind of trauma
that one experiences through the death of a spouse or child. Not only would your house be rocked, but your whole world (psychologically speaking) would be rocked. "What is going on in our world?"
The U.S. government does this to millions of people every year.
The people in Washington D.C. are sociopaths.
The people in your
city ("law enforcement") who enforce the diktats of the violent atheistic federal government are also sociopaths.
If you are not an anarcho-pacifist, you are experiencing a form of PTSD without realizing it.
1. F. Willeson, The Yalid in Hebrew Society, 12 STUDIA THEOLOGICA 192-210 (1958) (Estimates that Abram's household in Genesis 14:14 numbered near 12,000 people).
