Knowing God as a Pacifist

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  • Murderers and Liars? Us??

    Jesus was blamed and executed by the governing authorities (both Jewish & Gentle) because of the threat He presented to their nation & empire, respectively.  Jesus was a threat to Israel because He taught love of enemy to the masses. So the national leaders planned to silence Him one way or the other. Notwithstanding His miracles or His super-positive message of faith, hope & love and notwithstanding the Sixth Commandment of Moses (Thou shalt not kill), they felt entirely confident and committed in executing Jesus.  Why?  Because they were entirely committed and confident nationalists.  And the Scriptures are explicit about this:

    47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. “What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”

    49 Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! 50 You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”

    – John 11:47-50, NIV

    Similarly, Pilate’s final concern was to support – and be seen to support – the empire:

    ….Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.”  When Pilate heard this, he… (agreed to crucify Jesus).   

    –  John 19:12-13, NIV

    Nationalism was the real motivation of those who wanted to stop Jesus teaching the people – a nationalism that doubtless valued such things as ‘keeping the peace’, ‘justice’ and ‘national security.’  The problem is that Nationalism values these things above:

    • dying and going to God
    • obeying the commandment “Thou shalt not kill”
    • Jesus’ vision of a God of love & faithfulness despite persecution & death and
    • the faith to follow Jesus’ pacifist example.

    I would guess that a large majority of both Christians and non-Christians world wide are raised to be nationalists.  As children, we are typically indoctrinated and inspired to believe that fighting for one’s nation is an honourable and necessary duty. Nationalism has been the world’s No. 1 religion since the Tower of Babel.

    So how do modern day nationalists reconcile the fact that Jesus was killed by Nationalism and for typically nationalistic reasons?  The short answer is that they don’t because they cannot. You may as well ask how many murderers attribute their crimes to their own insecurity? or to their lack of faith in God?  or to their lack of experience of God’s love for them? and to their reprobate hatred for their victims? If they did correctly identify the problem, they would most likely call out to God & He would deliver them from their lostness. Murderers have rationalisations such as: ‘he deserved it’, ‘I needed revenge’, ‘they would have otherwise have testified against me (about an earlier crime)’, ‘he was going to kill me (it was self-defense)’ and ‘I just felt like it.’

    Likewise those who justify the use of lethal violence by the State ignore the fundamental spiritual malady and Jesus’ essential cure.  They focus instead on their nationalistic agenda as described above.  And so all of us – for as long as we actively dwell in the non-pacifist camp – will squirm under the Truth Teller’s analysis – that, in God’s eyes, we are murderers and liars! cf. John 8: 37-44, especially:

    40 ….you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. 

    42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me… 

    44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. 

    When it comes to saving our own skins,

    “There is no one righteous, not even one;
    11     there is no one who understands;
        there is no one who seeks God.
    12 All have turned away,
        they have together become worthless;
    there is no one who does good,
        not even one.”
    13 “Their throats are open graves;
        their tongues practice deceit.”
    “The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
    14     “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
    15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
    16     ruin and misery mark their ways,
    17 and the way of peace they do not know.”
    18     “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

    – Rom 3:10-18, NIV

    Which is why, when it comes to the Cross, we (specifically, our religious and cultural leaders) make up other reasons to explain the truth – as the prophet says:

    He was despised and rejected by mankind… (taking) up our pain and bore our suffering,

    yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.

    But he was pierced (by) our transgressions,
        he was crushed (by) our iniquities;

    – from Isaiah 53:3-5, NIV 

    [I have substituted ‘by’ instead of ‘for’, which makes more sense in context. Note that the Hebrew word ‘min’ is a vague preposition with wide application. The NIV translators translate ‘min’ both into ‘for’ and into ‘by’ in this very chapter; i.e. Is 53 as mentioned by Gillis.)

    In my view, Christ’s death on the Cross was not, as is widely supposed, an acceptable human sacrifice to God for our sin.  Jesus Christ was God’s loving & undefended invitation to experience reality as it really is. He is God come to change our fundamental perceptions & attitudes about Him, ourselves and the miracle of life. I see the Cross is God’s ultimate pitch to wake us out of our stupor of fear (of death and dying), of the myth of redeeming violence and out of every form of faithlessness (sin). Without Jesus’ pacifist (shalom) Spirit within us, we are bound to legalise State-sponsored murder and to justify it with lies.

  • Is my debt paid?

    I have noticed that the phrase “my debt is paid” pops up quite frequently in modern evangelical worship songs. Just google it and see for yourself.

    As a long time evangelical, I know (or think I do) that the “debt” being referred to is the “debt of sin”, which according to Augustine, Anselm & the Reformers, can only be paid if someone undergoes a just punishment for that sin. The problem is that there is scant evidence for this in the Scriptures.  For example, when I put “my debt is paid” into internet and Bible search engines I get ZERO results. Putting just “my debt”, “your debt” or  “their debt” also failed to produce any hits.

    Searching the Bible for the word “debt” by itself does get results. “Debt”, “debtor”, “owing”, “obligation” and “duty” are some of the ways the highest occurring Greek word for debt – opheilo – is translated.  Jesus used the word in three parables plus some other direct teachings. The clearest teachings include the following:

    “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty (opheilo).’”
    (Luke 17:7-10 NIV)

    Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should (opheilo) wash one another’s feet.
    (John 13:14 NIV)

    Likewise, in their NT letters, Paul and John only teach about owing it (Gk. opheilo) to God and to others to practically serve in love!

    Let no debt (opheilo) remain outstanding, except the continuing debt (opheilo) to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.
    (Romans 13:8 NIV)

    They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it (opheilo) to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews’ spiritual blessings, they owe it (opheilo) to the Jews to share with them their material blessings.
    (Romans 15:27 NIV)

    We ought (opheilo) always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.
    (2 Thessalonians 1:3 NIV)

    If he has done you any wrong or owes (opheilo) you anything, charge it to me. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will pay it back–not to mention that you owe (opheilo) me your very self.
    (Philemon 1:18-19 NIV)

    Whoever claims to live in him must (opheilo) live as Jesus did.
    (1 John 2:6 NIV)

    This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to (opheilo) lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
    (1 John 3:16 NIV)

    Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to (opheilo) love one another.
    (1 John 4:11 NIV)

    In summary, I can’t find anywhere in the NT anything about “my debt” (Gk. opheile) being “paid” by Jesus by means of the Cross. In fact, the only people in the NT to compare Jesus’ death with a legal payment of a debt were His Jewish enemies. They argued to Pilate that, according to their Law, Jesus ought (Gk. opheilo) to die because He claimed to be the Son of God! (John 19:7)

    So when song writers write “my debt is paid” it reminds me of how legalistic the evangelical doctrine of salvation is. We are first taught that God is legalistic, then taught that He loves us. It’s great that He loves us but a pity we have made the Lover out to be so legalistic!

    The love of God is so important, in so many ways! It would take a thousand pages to explain why I find appeals to the Law to explain the death of Christ to be so negative and depowering of the Gospel!  Suffice it to say here that the Law (as brought by Moses and many other statesmen & women in other nations) is always lacking in both Grace and Truth (cf. John 1:14).

    Now of course the Scripture does speak about Jesus ‘buying’ us:

     “YOU were bought with a price…. .”    – 1 Cor 6:20

    I have no problem singing about that! At the cost (or “price”) of His own life blood,  Jesus ransomed and bought – NOT  our “debt”, not our forgiveness – but us (ourselves).  We were enslaved to Sin (Rom 7:14) and by Christ’s condemnation of Sin in flesh on the Cross (Rom 8:2-4), He showed us the Truth by which we can be free of Sin (and therefore free of having to sin) and fulfill the spirit of the Law which is love. If we believe Christ, by that belief He sets us free.

    Being free of committing sin is obviously a hugely practical, attitudinal, behavioural, amazing and joyful state of affairs. To the extent that I, by faith, have been released from Sin, which once enslaved me, by the Son who endures forever – I am a walking demonstration of the transforming power of the Gospel in those who believe (Rom 1:16).  Being able to fulfill all of my and God’s moral expectations (Gk. opheilo) to love others… amounts to a display of God’s righteousness in the (new) way of Christ that He achieved “apart from Law” (Rom 3:20-22) in me!

    O Christ, our Saviour!  You are enabling us to pay our great debt of love, according to your gracious plan in which You created us, in Your image, to love like You do!

    Now that really is something for the whole world to sing about!!

     

     

  • Pacifism & violent criminality.

    I had a dream last night, which I share here along with a Christian Pacifist (CP) interpretation about applying the pacifist faith & love of Jesus to violent criminality. In my dream, I was making my way through a crowded, undercover market place. Suddenly, next to me I saw a brutal, potentially deadly assault on a member of the public start. The assailant was a shop-keeper, deranged and enraged for reasons unknown. In the dream, I racked my brain for a smart way to save the victim and keep myself safe by getting the lethal violence to stop, without contradicting this by engaging in potentially lethal violence myself.  But I could find no solution. Meanwhile the assault was continuing.

    Jesus’ example

    I awoke then and decided to think about how a Christian Pacifist (CP) – which I aspire to become – should address such personal and criminal violence. I thought of the Gadarene man in Mark Chapter 5; reading between the lines – was he mentally ill and potentially violent? Jesus commanded the evil spirit to leave in order to bring inner peace to that man and the man was very open to Jesus’ presence and intentions of love and peace and a wonderful transformation occurred.

    I think that a CP (Christian Pacifist), entering into a crisis of violent criminality hoping to bring peace, should focus on the hurt and inner chaos/anger/hatred of the person being violent and go to them with words of love and healing, audibly invoking the name of Jesus Christ in declaration and/or prayer.

    Possible Reactions

    I can imagine three possible reactions by the violent person confronted by a PC.  One reaction is that the violent person believes in the sincerity & love of the Christian pacifist immediately – and, like the Gaderene, experiences an epiphany of love undergoes a transformation of attitude and behaviour.

    Another possible reaction is ridicule and disbelief, expressed as verbal threat – up to the level of a serious physical assault or worse – but with the Pacifist Christian’s steadfastness despite the pain convincing the assailant of the truth and power of love.

    A third possible reaction is the targeting of the Christian Pacifist for violence equal or greater violence to the violence they are already engaged in – and for the CP (and their loved ones) to become themselves hapless victims of murderous hate.

    Resolve, commitment, communion with God

    As two out of three of these reactions put the CP at significant risk of serious injury or death, I believe the CP would do well to adopt the attitude of Daniel and his two compatriots in Daniel chapter 3, when the Babylonian king required everyone to workship his own statue. The three men said to the king that their God was able to deliver them out of the king’s punishment but that even if God chose not to, they would not worship the statue. This I feel is the answer to my dreamt delimma: don’t value your own safety so much! I feel that in today’s violent world, the CP would do well to resolve to not value his/her life above doing the right thing and to be resolved to do the faithful and peaceful thing despite possible violence, whether faced with governmental violence or the violence of a crazed criminal. And to daily walk in surrender to, and in communion with, God.