There Is No Pacifism in the Bible

THERE IS NO PACIFISM

IN THE BIBLE

by Bertrand L. Comparet

Taken From Your Heritage

Prepared into a PDF file by:

Clifton A. Emahiser’s Teaching Ministries

Plus Critical Notes

It is reported that a Hindu recently undertook to rebuke all the Christian nations by asking, “How can you reconcile Jesus; doctrine of nonresistance with your military armament and with the wars you fight from time to time? Which of you will return good for evil?” In speaking thus, the Hindu smugly gloated over what he thought was an inconsistency between our religion and our national conduct.

Unfortunately, there are some Christians who are so ignorant of their own religion, they become embarrassed at such accusations and feel that we must be guilty of inconsistency, even of wrongdoing. The Hindu’s ignorance we can forgive, as he knows nothing of our religion beyond a few phrases quoted out of context. However, it is time for Christians to learn more about what they claim as their own religion. We could ask the Hindu in return, how he can reconcile Premier Nehru’s aggressive attack upon Portuguese Goa, which Portugal has held since the year 1510. How can he reconcile this aggressive warfare with Nehru’s proclamations of his devotion to peace, whenever peace consists of leaving white men in slavery.

We shall not be content to point out inconsistencies in the attitude of the Hindus. I want to prove to you today that our own conduct is not inconsistent with our religion. In the first place, it is false to speak of Yahshua’s doctrine of nonresistance. In John 2:13-16 the beloved disciple reports that the first act of Yahshua’s ministry, in the city of Jerusalem, was to make a whip and flog the money changers out of the court of the temple. Does this look like nonresistance, cringing submission to the triumph of evil?

Indeed not, nor was this all. Matthew 21:12-13 and Mark 11:15-17 both record that Yahshua repeated this cleansing of the temple of the evil anti-Christians who infested it, during the last week before His crucifixion. Yahshua never tolerated evil, never consented that it should be allowed to remain triumphant rather than to resist it. Only in His crucifixion did He allow the forces of evil to have their way. This was not through any doctrine of non resistance to evil, but only to fulfill the purpose for which He had assumed a human body. He came here for the express purpose of meeting death to pay the penalty for our sins, in order to save us. If He had not submitted to crucifixion, His purpose to save and redeem us would not have been accomplished. For this reason only did He submit and not because He ever believed in letting evil triumph without resistance.

What about in Matthew 5:38-39, “Ye have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth: but I say unto you resist not him that is evil: but whosoever smiteth thee on they right cheek, turn to him the other also.” No, there is no inconsistency here either. This advise was never given to the nation, that we should surrender to Russia and leave the world in slavery. It was only given to individuals and to particular individuals at that.

Yahshua was preaching to bring His truths before all who had the qualities to respond to Him and would become His disciples. These would be that first generation of Christians whose responsibility, above all else, was to spread His word. They were not to be distracted by petty quarrels with other people, they were to face ridicule, contempt and hatred. Every day they would be given provocation by insults and injuries, if they let themselves react with natural anger, they would be in constant quarrels and fights. They would be constantly arrested and in jail, not as noble martyrs to a great cause, but as brawlers constantly fighting in the streets over personal quarrels. This would not be a good recommendation for the new religion of Christianity.

Even if they did not fight, but looked to the law to vindicate their rights, this would make them spend all their time and energy in lawsuits instead of their missionary work. This was not the duty of the early Christians. Yahshua did not intend that they should tamely let themselves be slaughtered by ruffians, is clear. In Luke 22:36, He told His disciples that he that had no sword should sell his cloak and buy one.

So many erroneous religious doctrines come from the mistake of taking out of context words spoken for a certain time and place and trying to make universal, eternal rules of them. In Matthew 14:19 and Mark 6:39, when Yahshua was about to feed the multitude with a few loaves and fishes we read, “He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass.” This certainly doesn’t mean that it is a Christian’s duty to go around making people sit down on the grass. It was spoken only to meet the special circumstances of a particular time and place. No one should try to make a doctrine of it. This was the same with Yahshua’s instructions to the early Christians to stick to the job for which He had chosen them, and not waste time quarreling with the wicked.

Don’t ever think that if you see some ruffian trying to rape your wife or daughter, you should merely stand murmuring pious platitudes about the desirability of good conduct. Your duty, and I do mean duty as a good Christian, is to stop him, even if you have to kill him to do it.

So much for the individual. This Hindu was trying to place Christian nations, not Nehru’s India nor Russia, under the individual’s restrictions. Yahweh always distinguished between the rules for the individual and the rules for the nation. Particularly is this true of the laws of war. It is only when we have been guilty of evil conduct and disloyalty to our God that He has allowed wicked nations to oppress us until we repented of our evil ways. Then Yahweh used us as His own servant and agent to make war against those wicked nations.

Yahweh began our training for this early. When our ancestors came out of Egypt in the exodus, they were attacked by the Amalekites. For this, Yahweh said that He would have war with Amalek from generation to generation until He had utterly blotted out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. This duty He commanded His people Israel to perform, as we read in Exodus 17:14-16 and Deuteronomy 25:17-19. This is only the beginning.

In Jeremiah 51:20, Yahweh said to our ancestors and to us, their descendants, “Thou art My battle axe and weapons of war: and with thee will I break in pieces the nations; and with thee will I destroy kingdoms.” Is there anything pacifistic about that? Evil mustn’t be allowed to rule the earth in triumph. To those who are good, you can speak in a language they understand, the language of peace and reason. To those who are utterly evil, you must also speak in the only language they understand. Russia and China can’t understand platitudes, they can understand superior force.

We read in Judges chapter 7 how Yahweh sent Gideon, with only 300 men, to deliver Israel from the huge army of the Midianites and he routed the Midianites with the slaughter of 120,000 men. We are clearly told that this was by the sword of Yahweh and of Gideon.

Neither let yourself be misled by someone quoting, “They that take the sword shall perish by the sword.” Note that this speaks to two swords. The sword of the aggressor, who shall perish by the sword of the defender.

Lest anyone should say that this is only a characteristic of earthly men, a relic of the past, that we should look forward to a higher, nobler character to be attained in the future. Let’s examine the book of Revelation, in its description of Yahshua when He returns to reign over all the world as King of Kings.

Revelation 19:11 says of Yahshua, “In righteousness He doth judge and make war.” Yahshua recognizes that there can never be peaceful coexistence between good and evil. One must certainty conquer, the other must certainly perish. If good doesn’t have the will and the courage to be the conqueror, then evil will rule supreme. So long as evil exists, there will be wars. There will be wars of evil’s aggression against good, until good conquers and exterminates evil. This last great war to wipe out evil, will be led by no less a general than our Redeemer, Yahshua. When He comes, let Him find you, not hiding under the bed in abject terror, but marching resolutely in the ranks of His army.

Critical note by Clifton A. Emahiser: I would have to agree with Comparet that there is no pacifism in the Bible. He did, though, bring up some related subjects worth commenting on. For instance, when did the bad-fig-jews (not to be confused with the good-fig-Judahites) ever show any evidence of being Yahweh’s battle axe and weapons of war? The bad-fig-jew’s usual method of operation is to agitate the differences between two parties, and then quietly slip aside to leave the two to fight it out. This is exactly the method of operation used by them to provoke the Civil War, WW I, WW II and every brush-fire war or police action since. When addressing the bad-fig-jews, Yahshua proclaimed to them in no uncertain words, John 10:27: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me ...” Why is it, then, that the Greeks, Romans, German and related White peoples converted en masse to Christianity while the bad-fig-jews did not? As a matter of fact, Christ spoke only in parables purposely so the bad-fig-jews could not comprehend what He was saying. The reason being, He didn’t want them as converts! Here Christ plainly reveals to us who His Israel sheep are, while corrupt churchianity proclaims the bad-fig-jew wolf-people to be Yahshua’s sheep. The verse preceding John 10:27 (v. 26) says: “But ye believe not, because ye are not of my [Israel] sheep ...” Yet in spite of His plain words, the inept clergy continually insist that the non-believing bad-fig-jews are His Israel sheep, highly implying that Christ was a liar!