What is it that causes so many Christians to support war, in the name of the one they call the Prince of Peace? I watched an interesting documentary that explores this question, and looks at how Christianity morphed from an ultra-pacifist religion during its very first three centuries into the imperial religion of Rome. If this subject interests you, I would recommend checking it out - Prince of Peace | God of War. It does a fair job of illuminating the underlying reasons for this phenomenon of such staunch religious support for war in America since 9/11, comparing the beliefs of pacifist Christians with those who support ‘just war’ as a necessary means of fighting evil.
I’ve written on the pacifist beginnings of Christianity before, so I won’t go into too much detail here, but suffice it to say the original Christians understood the teachings of Jesus as a strict code of absolute nonviolence. So much so were the peace teachings of Jesus at the heart of this new ‘religion’ (more a way of life at first) that service in the military was strictly forbidden, and many early Christians were vegetarians, as the original 12 disciples and James the brother of Jesus had been. It was widely understood that Jesus had come to fulfill the prophecies of Isaiah, to usher in an age of peace upon the earth where the nations would turn their weapons of war into farming tools, nation would not “take up sword against nation,” and the people “would no more train for war.”
Furthermore, the peace teachings of Jesus laid out in the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ were crystal clear, and could not be misunderstood.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God ... Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who persecute you.”
His forerunner, John the Baptist, had similarly given the soldiers who inquired of him the simple injunction, to “Do violence to no man.”
These, and similar commandments he gave to his followers which seemed illogical and counterintuitive to the society of his time, and even to most societies down through the ages all the way to our present time. But he didn’t just teach this message of peace, he lived it and died for it.
The basis for such a seemingly radical message is an understanding shared by all the great proponents of nonviolent resistance to evil down through the ages, from the Buddha who preceded him to the more recent well known figures of Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr.
This universal spiritual understanding is that violence always begets more violence, evil cannot overcome evil, darkness cannot drive out darkness, and hatred can only be defeated by love. In other words, there will never be a war capable of bringing an end to war, and violence is never the means by which to bring about peace on earth.
The large number of various early Christian sects - Gnostics, Jewish Christians, and ‘orthodox’ churches among others - disagreed on many points of belief, but this philosophy of peace was universally held among them all. This fast growing peace movement quickly became one of the largest threats to the Roman Empire, a nonviolent force to be reckoned with. The Roman Empire quickly became the largest persecutor of the Christians, but martyrdoms only fueled the spread of the revolutionary message, and even Romans were beginning to sympathize with the brave men and women who would happily give their lives rather than take life, and who were willing to become martyrs for their cause rather than swear allegiance to the emperor and Roman Empire.
Then, at the beginning of the 4th Century, something changed when the Roman emperor Constantine saw a vision of a cross on the battlefield one day, and converted to Christianity. He then halted the persecution of Christians, made Christianity the official religion of Rome, and began waging the Roman wars under the banner of the cross, attributing military success to the newfound one ‘true’ God. But Constantine’s conversion wasn’t accompanied with a change of heart, so the new religion became the religion of the empire and but a political tool used to maintain his imperial reign. There was of course a newfound conflict of interest between the Christian teachings of nonviolence and the Roman imperialism built upon war, and Christian leaders began to make exceptions to the teachings of peace in exchange for political power and the ceasing of the persecutions.
The Roman Empire’s fall in the 5th Century was largely attributed to the pacifism of Christianity, spurring the church leaders to form an imperial doctrine which would encourage armed service and divinely sanction wars fought by the ‘Christian’ Empire. Augustine’s so-called ‘just war theory’ was the result, and from that point onward, the religion of the Prince of Peace was replaced with an imperial God of War, not unlike the deity frequently pictured in the Hebrew Scriptures who ordained all of the military campaigns of the Israelites and even sanctioned genocide.
The Roman Catholic Church became the new ruler over the Roman Empire, ushering in the millennial dark ages fraught with violent persecution of all religious and political dissidents, book burnings, and the Crusades. The wars being waged by the Empire were now openly religious wars, being fought in the name of the imperial God of war the Emperor Constantine and his cohorts in the church had created in his image. The Empire saw itself as God’s military hand, whose purpose was to wipe out all of God’s enemies - anyone who rejected the Roman Catholic religion - predominantly the Muslims and the Cathars of France.
When the Protestant reformation swept the European lands, bringing and end to these dark ages, the new breakaway churches carried with them for the most part the doctrine of war as the divine duty of the church. New Protestant churches which rejected the Roman religion were born, but they carried with them the doctrine of justice through war being a divine mandate, and remained political tools of the state. Church and state remained as one, and so the church remained a political driving force behind war, as the church upon which the state was built must necessarily support and sanction the wars of the state. So it was with the Church of England, which was really nothing more than the political structure by which the King of England reigned.
And so it is to this day, that many Christians still defend war as a necessary evil, a divine mandate and force for justice. The evangelical church is but a political tool for the US empire, offering blanket support for the Zionist war(s) of aggression waged in the Middle East following 9/11, perpetual imperial war raging on for two decades now.
For many, Bush’s wars which have continued through two successive administrations to this day, were (and to many still are) viewed as a religious crusade against Christianity’s sworn enemy seen as the world’s greatest evil - Islam - and indeed many evangelical pastors preached their war sermons based upon this rhetoric, and Bush himself proclaimed his imperial wars of aggression to be a mission given to him by God himself.
”I’m driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, ‘George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan.’ And I did, and then God would tell me, ‘George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq’...and I did.” - George W. Bush, in a BBC Report - October 6, 2005
At the heart of this imperial crusade mentality is both a strong sense of patriotism and a strong allegiance to the ideology of Zionism. Muslims and indeed the entire Arab population is viewed as the enemy by such churches, not just because Islam is depicted as the arch-enemy of Christianity, but because Arabs are seen as Israel’s biggest enemy, and most evangelicals are staunch Zionists who believe that those who stand and fight for Israel (the US) are fighting for God, while those who stand against Israel (majority of the Arab world) are God’s enemies. These evangelical Christian Zionists have been more ardent supporters of the state of Israel, Zionist expansionist policies, and the US imperial wars being fought for Israel than most Jews.
But in the end, the specific surface reasons given as to why the church stands behind any given war is irrelevant; the underlying reason is that this form of Christianity is the imperial religion handed down from the Roman Empire in which it was born. It was used as a political tool by the Roman Empire and it is now being used as a political tool by the US Empire. Even today, two decades after Bush first declared war in the Middle East, Zionist warmongers in the US government such as Mike Pompeo and Lindsey Graham continue to espouse the same religious rhetoric parroted by Bush and a host of contemporary evangelical preachers used to drum up support for war on Afghanistan and Iraq. Only now, they are pushing for war on Iran, sanctions on Lebanon, and the prolonged occupation of Syrian territory.
At the end of the day, the root of the problem is an imperial religion which teaches war is just, so long as it is being waged by the ‘good guys’ to eradicate the ‘bad guys’; and so long as it is war being fought on behalf of Zionists and Christians against their enemies, then it is a divinely sanctioned military campaign agains the very enemies of God.
The problem is, that each side in every war believes they are the ‘good guy’ and the enemy is the ‘bad guy’; that God is on their side and the enemy is the devil’s army. This is the problem with war, that on both sides of every war are those who have chosen to kill their enemies rather than pray for them, who are bombing them rather than loving them.
Most wars are waged with noble aims, at least this is how they are depicted when sold to the population being asked to take up arms against the enemy. Most Christians who support war see violence as inherently evil, but believe that war can act as a last result to stop a greater evil (such as the Nazi war machine) and be a means to achieve peace.
The Christianity which supports war sees peace as a goal to be achieved, the state as the keepers of the peace and arbitrators of justice, and war as one of the means to achieve these two. The teachings of Jesus on the other hand portray peace as something to be lived, with the goal being a lifestyle of peace, where the individual rather than the state or religious establishment is the true point of power in the world, and the means to achieving justice being nonviolent resistance. The former is an imperialist construct, the latter staunchly anti-imperialist in nature.
So long as men find justifications for using violence against their ‘enemies’, there will always be war. And as history has shown, there is no war that will ever bring about peace, no matter how lofty the goals of those proclaiming otherwise. The movements of both Ghandi and MLK demonstrated that nonviolent resistance is capable of bringing about radical positive change in the face of occupation, oppression and injustice. The story relayed at the end of the documentary linked above also demonstrates that even on a small scale, fearless nonviolent intervention against evil is capable even of stopping the most ruthless, powerful war machine on the face of the earth; where one brave Bulgarian pastor and several hundred of his followers stopped the Nazis from taking any Bulgarian Jews to the concentration camps with the simple nonviolent act of standing between the Nazi soldiers and the imprisoned Jews. Nonviolent resistance is effective because it is not driven by fear, it is not a fear-based reaction or ‘solution’ to the problem.
On the day we choose to treat even our ‘enemies’ as we would have them treat us - when we choose to feed them rather than starve them through sanctions, give medical aid to their needy rather than taking up arms against them, and begin to trade with them rather than dropping bombs on them - on that day, the age of peace will be upon us.
What's your course for original teaching of Jesus? Because the first known bible is from about 500Ac.... lol with a wrong picture made of a white dude... hahahahahaha
Not too mention, many version are clear modified so the ruling class can rule them as sheep.
Westerners are funny, don't like Arabs, but love their religion.
I believe in the ancient Irish river gods & Valhalla myself.. 🤣
I understand there are no complete manuscripts from before the Roman Empire took over the religion, and I see much evidence for tampering and corruption of the Bible by the Roman Empire, so agree with you that much of what we have in the modern Bible is modified to suit the ruling class.
My understanding of the original teaching of Jesus is based off the Sermon on the Mount, the writings of the pre-Constantine early Christians, many of whom quote sayings of Jesus found in the gospels we have (and other lost sayings), and the tradition of the early Jewish Christians reflecting the teaching of James the Just, the brother of Jesus, of which there is much more historical record than Jesus himself.
Whether based on the true original teaching of Jesus or not, the early Christians understood the Christian message as one of peace and practiced lifestyle of pacifism, contrary to the later organized religion that rose up out of the Roman Empire.
It may be impossible to know with certainty what those original teachings were, but it seems the core message is found in the Sermon on the Mount, and it is a spiritual message that closely aligns with other ancient teachers and philosophies such as the Buddha, Pythagoras, and the Essenes who were even around at the time Jesus is said to have walked the earth..
Regardless of the true author(s) of this message of peace, it is the message much more so than the messenger that matters to me...
I am personally no fan of organized religion, but do consider knowledge of spirituality and metaphysics a mysterious reality worth pursuing.
I never knew those facts, i didn't know he had a brother "James the Just", cool... then in modern times, we know that by DNA the bloodlines are linked, so that's really cool, so I'm guessing their family is still with us now...
I like your logic and respect for the truth, agreed 100%!
Will be looking into this in the future, interesting new facts I didn't know. Yeah, all the "gods" bring something good I feel.
Great article and analysis. I was raised as a seventh day adventist, though not one now, I have a keen knowledge of the bible.
It is interesting how the teachings have been twisted to support whatever aim the nation state decided to pursue.
It is no different in the muslim world. Just recently watched the doco Hyper-normalization which portrays as part of it the corruption of the koran by extremist Muslim sects to include the allowance of suicide as an acceptable service to god.
It is a strange world we live in. The crux at the end of the day is the same as it ever was - self-responsibility.
Not allowing beliefs to blindly direct us or the misinterpretation of them by the leaders of nations.
Thanks! SDA, interesting... I’m not too familiar as I grew up evangelical churches, but I’ve always been fascinated with Ellen G. White ever since stumbling upon her teachings, especially her vegetarian stance, and I can’t disagree with her assessment of Rome as the ‘beast’, though I think Zionism has risen in its place since the Vatican fell and lost most its power in the 1700s...
Crazy how much change the muslim religion went through as well since the death of Mohamed, the Sufis have amazing teachings that don’t align with establishment Islam which they claim to be the original Muslim traditions handed down from Mohamed himself.
I agree, most important is self-responsibility, truth, and living a moral life free of mind manipulation by the various powers that seek to keep us enslaved, whether religious or political (usually a combination of both, historically).
Take care and stay free, these are most interesting times indeed!
E G White certainly has some interesting perspectives, when I was 15-16 after being a rebel in school and getting drunk at parties as young people do, I joined a reformed SDA movement in the sticks and became a full on believer in its teachings. I figured if this is the right way, I'll do it with all my heart. I became the most righteously indignant individual lay person to the point that even my own parents were questioning if my conversion was a good thing.
This reformed group take E G White's teachings to the extreme saying in the last days ALL animal products will be unsafe to eat and so only eat plant based foods. Also things like only praying on your knees because you are in the presence of God and very conservative dress standards; keeping the sabbath holy only thinking thoughts of god on the sabbath as the jews keep it etc. These kind of things can be taken to their utmost extreme. Seeing so many hypocrites in the church, I decided if I was going to do it, I was going to do it amazingly well. I burnt myself out hard and long story short, after about two years I then decided if I was going to burn in hell I was going to do it well. lol
I'm 34 now, so this part of my history is long behind me. In the process I memorized entire tracts of the bible including the entire book of James which speaks of the last days and has a lot of very practical truth.
I've also had a spell with Sufism a few years ago I attended a Dergah that ran a Sema (whirling dervish event) which ran for 114 days. These are traditions inspired directly by Rumi.
There are many pacifists and activists within the Sufi world of today, there is also much corruption and elitism. Take note there are numerous types of Sufism though they have a similar undercurrent in combining their efforts for a singular God and a singular united religion, recognizing all walks of faith as one (again, not the explicit teaching of all Sufi sects).
I attended this Sema for three weeks and was able to play music there as part of the Sema which ran non-stop for those 114 days (non-stop music and whirling - not all the same person, don't worry lol), this was my inspiration into Turkish traditional music which led to the recording of this freely downloadable album kindly produced by a studio owner in Skopje for 200 euros. lol, there are some good people out there.
It seems it doesn't matter how well meaning a sect, religion or belief system; when they isolate themselves from the rest of the world, this act in itself is a form of auto-elitism - then when eventually coming back into the world they try to project this elitism onto other people and vulnerable people pick it up, it gets a momentum - you've got a cult, sect, a religion and if it gets far enough this gets ingrained into the long-term culture of a people as the habits of everyday life maintained for thousands of years.
So many religions, dogmas, prophets have teachings based on individual accounts had in isolation then later let out and projected onto the world.
What if we realised the nature of a belief system, understanding it as a part of our psyche necessary for self development, and we simply developed a shared belief system from scratch that includes shared input and referenced collective spiritual teachings not based in authoritarianism?
Belief systems also expose the nature of the mind, that beliefs control and create our reality. To truly see this and understand this is a very sobering thing indeed.
I wish you luck also... what a world we live in today.