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CRAIGforCONGRESS |
| Missouri's 7th District, U.S. House of Representatives |
Why Americans in Particular Have Trouble Hearing God's LawAnyone attempting to prove that Biblical Law requires pacifism must come to grips with the fact that the United States of America may well be the most violent nation on earth. Americans take for granted the idea that if anyone gets in the way of your instant gratification, any steps -- including violence -- may be taken. Some patriots will chafe at that assertion, but the ideology goes back to the formation of the United States, a beginning splattered with blood. "Christian Reconstructionists" debate whether the colonists had legal basis for rebelling, whether they were rebelling against Parliament or against the king, whether it was a revolution or "a conservative counter-revolution," and on and on. This scholarly-sounding mumbo-jumbo is simply an evasion of the stark evil which was the Revolution. Blatantly in violation of Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2, the Revolution was also a plain violation of the commandment not to kill. Consider this excerpt from the blood-splattered link above:
The government levies a tax on you. What is your response as a Christian?
If you answered "c," you lose. Jesus says "all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword" (Matthew. 26:52). If human life means less to you than taxes, or less than a particular political theory, then you have missed the Gospel. America has missed the Gospel. Worse than that, America once had the Gospel, and threw it away. The conflict in 1776 was not a group of colonists who were told they could not preach the Gospel. It was a group of merchants who did not want to submit to "the powers that be." They would rather destroy property and kill government agents than pay a tax one-tenth the size of the taxes we routinely pay today. The casualties on both sides of this War were (are) staggering. How many Christians died? How many murders were committed over the issue of taxes? America was baptized in violence, materialism, and autonomous revolution. This baptism resulted in the creation of a reprobate nation whose violence has gone unabated. While Britain and most other Christian nations abolished slavery without resorting to violence, the Unitarian United States fought an incredibly destructive Civil War. And when the most recent 200 years of American history are compared with the first 200 years, a Christian can only shed a tear at the decline of a "City Upon a Hill" into the Sugar Daddy of international socialism and bastion of the fascist New World Order. Most Christians do not think of themselves as pacifists because they think of themselves as Americans. Unfortunately, America is an anti-Christian nation. America is a Secular Humanist Theocracy. For a Christian to think of himself as an American is as senseless as a Christian thinking of himself as an Islamic Fundamentalist. If you see the contradictions, you will be saying, "How can I become a better pacifist?" Well, you're in luck; the Bible tells you how. The problem goes back to the origin of America. Whereas the original colonies were more or less Christian Theocracies, much of the formation of the Federal Government involved an attempt to get away from Christian Theocracy. There may have been some Christians involved in the effort, but they were not consistent with the Scriptures. My goal as a pacifist is to follow the Scriptures even when it contradicts the reigning mythology of America. I trust that your goal - whether you call yourself a "pacifist" or not - is the same: God before country. The Biblical texts considered in the links above are sufficient to prove the case for pacifism. If you have digested those links, you might be ready to consider more Biblical evidence for Pacifism. The Prince of Peace and the Law of LoveJesus is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). "Pacifism" comes from the Latin word for "peace." This might be considered a prima facie case for pacifism in itself. But strangely, when the average conservative Christian is asked, he doesn't say "Yes, of course I'm a pacifist [and then clarify the term if need be]." The average American reacts quickly and angrily: "I ain't no pacifist." Jesus said the entire Law and Prophets might be summed up in the command to love God and love your neighbor, which Jesus taught included our "enemies." Under the Sixth Commandment ("Thou shalt not kill"), the Westminster Larger Catechism explicates the Biblical requirements of non-violence. One could hardly imagine a fuller statement of pacifism. But a clearer statement could be imagined: it would be obtained by removing three "exceptions" to the law of love which have crowded out pacifistic ethics since the time of Constantine. The Catechism teaches that "publick justice" (i.e., "capital punishment"), "lawful war," and "necessary defense" are all exceptions to the negative requirement not to kill, or the positive command to love one's "enemy." We should examine each of them, culminating in the death of our faith in the whole idea of the State itself. "Self Defense" and the Way of the CrossJesus says we are to love our neighbor, even our "enemy." Jesus also says that no greater love exists than to give one's life for another. Jesus did not defend Himself when His life was threatened. Peter writes that this is a model for us (1 Peter 2:21-23). Some say, "But Jesus was giving His life as an atoning sacrifice; I'm not the Lamb of God; I've got to be 'responsible.'" This analysis completely overthrows the ethical teachings of Jesus. Read the passages again. Some find a justification for lethal self-defense in Exodus 22:2-3. Indeed, some find here a mandate for killing. This is astonishing. The passage actually says that if you engage in lethal self-defense you are guilty of murder and must be executed! An exception arises at night, and one resorting to lethal self-defense will not be executed under those circumstances. But this is far from advocating lethal self-defense! And once again, even if the passage seemed to teach exactly what opponents of pacifism said it did, the whole system of ethics taught by Jesus would be negated by one passage. Everything else in the Catechism's exposition of the Sixth Commandment -- commands which should govern most of our daily lives -- is overturned by one "exception" -- a hypothetical exception which never even occurs in the lives of most people. The willingness to give your life for another is not "impractical." I'd like to show you how it has worked for me. John Howard Yoder has edited a book entitled What Would You Do If . . ., which contains numerous accounts of how people have dealt with violent threats without themselves resorting to violence. But we must begin with the authority of Scripture, and admit that even if it doesn't "work," pacifism is still Christ's Command. "Capital Punishment" and Liturgical BloodshedAnother concept that has a tendency to overthrow everything else in the Catechism's exposition of the Sixth Commandment is the idea of "Capital Punishment." The Old Testament says nothing about "Capital Punishment." The Old Testament says that when certain sins are committed, there must be a shedding of blood to cleanse the land of bloodguiltiness (Numbers 35:33). This is a liturgy, not a penal sanction. Our ideas on "Capital Punishment" have been derived from Roman Law, not Biblical Law. In Deuteronomy 21, the response to an unsolved homicide is the killing of an heifer. No responsible expositor believes that in A.D. 1999 the State should kill a cow when a homicide occurs but the perpetrator is not convicted. I think this is quite Biblical. No blood should be shed in such a case (Hebrews 10:4). But if we can convict the perpetrator, should we then shed his blood (Genesis. 9:4-5)? If our society needs to shed blood in the case of a solved homicide (Numbers 35:33), why not also in the case of an unsolved homicide (Deuteronomy 21)? "Capital Punishment" is an issue of great consequence, and erroneous conclusions have been reinforced by centuries of Christian-Humanist syncretism. Accordingly, my page, The Death Penalty Debate, is a little on the long side. "National Defense" and Liturgical BloodshedThe thinking behind war also comes from Rome. The Bible says that Holy Wars were the execution of "capital punishment" on a national scale. Not just against one criminal, but against an outlaw nation. The Bible clearly says that the Canaanites polluted the Promised Land with their Leviticus 18-20 - type sins. The entire nation had to be dedicated to God as a sacrifice in order to cleanse the land. War in the Old Covenant was conducted by priests as a liturgical event. The objective was the shedding of blood. The pacifist says it is no longer theologically necessary to shed blood in "Holy War," but the Westminster Larger Catechism says otherwise, citing Jeremiah 48:10: "cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood." "Holy War" in the Old Testament was, with "capital punishment," a liturgical shedding of blood. War was an act of national "Capital Punishment." After Christ's work on Calvary, there is no longer a Biblical justification for "Holy War," and therefore no justification for war of any kind (Micah 4:3). Pacifism, Limited Government, and AnarchismIf there is no justification for "Capital Punishment," and no justification for war, is there any justification for the State at all? Have we abolished "the Sword"? If there is one thing that unites "Christian Reconstructionists" involved in politics, it is the ideal of "limited government." Undoubtedly more than 98% of the current Federal Budget would be eliminated in a Theonomist utopia. Welfare, Education, Foreign Aid to socialists, economic intervention, and the fire-bombing of "religious wackos" in Texas would all be eliminated by Theonomists as lacking Constitutional mandate, to say nothing of Scriptural mandate. But anyone who calls for an elimination of the remaining 2% of the Federal Government (criminal law and "national defense") would be called a "heretic" and denounced in scathing language by these same Theonomists. As close as Reconstructionists are to libertarians, they freak out at the idea of being mistaken for "anarchists." The Bible plainly teaches anarchism. Jesus said that the Gentile kings love to be "archists," but His followers are not to be so. That is the definition of an "an-archist": a servant, not an archist (Mark 10:42-45). The "chaos" we envision in a state of "anarchy" is really the chaos of lots of would-be archists attempting to impose their concept of order (or dis-order) on others through terrorist violence. There is no ethical distinction between these terrorists and the U.N.-approved "smart-bombs" that killed half a million women and children in Iraq. The Bible teaches that "national security" is more likely to result when there is no State at all than when there is a strong central government. Human beings were created by God in families, and there is nothing in the Bible to indicate that God intended human beings to leave patriarchy and pursue politics. The political paradigm has failed. We must return to the Edenic paradigm of Patriarchy. The Pacifism Debate: Selected E-mail and Newsgroup postsI don't claim to have the last word. I still have doubts and questions. I appreciate strong dissenting arguments. Mail them to me at Kevin4VFT@KevinCraig.us. Read some of them here. How to Become a PacifistO.K., forget the word "pacifist." Just ask, "How can I be a better Christian?" or "How can I 'be at peace with all men?'" (Hebrews 12:14) (Frankly, I think our sanctification has to come to a point where we don't care what other people call us. I would rather be called a "pacifist" than an "American." At least if I'm being called a pacifist [or, more likely, "stupid pacifist!"] it will be because I am perceived as different from a nation of people who will kill other human beings over a relatively small amount of money. There's an ancient and very wise proverb that I just made up which goes something like this: "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but emotion-laden labels are just a way of avoiding my argument.") Slowly but surely I am posting the steps toward pacifism. If you have your own suggestions, I'd love to hear from you. Pacifism is a critical issue in our day. "Pacifists" are often criticized for being willing to stand by and do nothing while their wife or daughter is raped. This is slanderous, a violation of the Ninth Commandment. Pacifists continually meet objections like those of Samuel Bacchiocchi:
This is an unchristian thing to say. This is a "straw man." Such critics cannot name a single pacifist who would do nothing to try to prevent or stop a rape. Rape is violence. Pacifists oppose violence. Allowing rape to take place is not "keeping peace." I've never met a pacifist (and I've met hundreds and lived with several) who would say to a rapist, "Here she is. Go for it. And peace to you." A pacifist believes evil is real, and believes violence is evil. A pacifist would take prudent steps to stop evil, avoid evil, catch evil off guard, and evangelize evil, but would not—as many non-pacifists seem to advocate—start out immediately with lethal force. Many 2nd Amendment zealots would pull out their gun at the drop of the hat. At least that's the way they talk. Probably they are a bit more rational. Like Bacchiocchi. Here's a simple question that will prove you are a pacifist. Imagine you are "Star Trek" Captain Kirk of the U.S.S. Enterprise. You are walking down the street of a planet in the Deltoid Galaxy with one of your never-ending stream of beautiful women at your arm, when a large burly alien with the tattoo "I AM A RAPIST" across his forehead jumps out from a dark alley, grabs your female companion and says "I'm going to rape this woman!" You pull out your Phaser™ gun and . . . here's the question:
When given such a choice, only a sociopath would choose annihilation or lethal force. Everyone else is a "pacifist." It's that simple. What happens if you're consistent with this innate, conscientious pacifism? Answer: you will begin to change the world. In many ways the most violent world in recorded history. Christ is the Prince of Peace. His vassal-subjects must be committed to Peace. The Prince of Peace commanded us to love our enemies. True Christians are willing to follow Christ to the cross (Matthew 16:25; 1 Peter 2:21). But the religion of Secular Humanism (America's State religion) teaches vengeance. Modern Man believes it's better to make someone else die for you than to give your life for another. Entire populations are organized on the principle of institutionalized vengeance. The State was invented to replace Pax Christi with Pax Lamech, Pax Nimrod, Pax Pharaoh, Pax Babylonia, Pax Romana, and Pax Americana. “The Christmas Conspiracy” is a conspiracy to crush the “New World Order” into powder (Daniel 2:44). Biblical Law teaches us to pray and work for peace: personally, locally, globally. Obedience to Biblical Law will eliminate “the State.” Justice is altruistic, not adversarial. Jesus Christ was executed as a threat to the “New World Order.” His followers must be prepared to be punished as “anarchists.” The Chief End of Man: The Glory of God, not the Glory of the “Fatherland” Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: War is the Health of the State Militaristic Industrialism or Decentralized Harmony? Swords into Plowshares. The Christmas Conspiracy is the Discipling of the Nations As a third-party candidate since 2002, I have had virtually no realistic chance of unseating the third most powerful Republican in Congress. In 2012, it is still not good odds to bet on a Libertarian unseating any Republican in Missouri's 7th District. The main purpose of this campaign is not really to win an election, it is to persuade people to become libertarians -- that is, to reject the use of force and threats of violence as a tool of social change. Once they make that shift in thinking, of course, they can publicly declare that point of view with their vote, and seek to have that view represented in Congress.. A Google search shows that this denunciation of violence and coercion is a central theme of this website:
Wars
The Christian Conciliation Manifesto - Overview The Biblical History of the Rise and Fall of Violence
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| Myth: The Old Testament advocates war, slavery, genocide, and vengeful retaliation. |
Myth: The Teachings of Jesus are impractical, utopian, unrealistic, and should be relegated to the inner religious meditations of a Mother Theresa, but should be kept away from public policy, especially foreign affairs and military strategy. |
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Both sides of this coin are wrong. |
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| Jesus quoted the Old Testament. The prophets spoke of a day when we would beat our swords into plowshares and everyone would dwell securely under his own Vine & Fig Tree -- not because his property was being taken from him to fund the "military-industrial complex," which "keeps us all safe," but because nobody was training for war any more. | If we were to follow the teachings of Jesus in Washington D.C., we would experience security, peace, and economic prosperity. No war that the U.S. federal government has waged has ever made things better than they would have been without military intervention. |
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Conclusion: |
We should take both the Old Testament and the New Testament seriously. |
Biblical Pacifism is a comprehensive world-and-life-view. If you don't consider yourself to be a "Bible-believing Christian," or if you do but don't consider yourself to be a "Biblical pacifist," then the task is huge. It will take a year or more to convert you.
We have a program geared to do this: www.PeacemakerCoaching.org. We take you through the five most important works in the history of Western Civilization. You come out on the other end as a Christian pacifist.
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Christianity is not just religious devotionals.
Christianity is a worldview that affects every area of life.
In other words, Satan wins.
Pretty dismal story, isn't it?
Sure, God sent His Son, who died on the cross, so that some of the players can be forgiven for their rebellion and go home with God, but God's original purposes for man and the creation were thwarted by Satan, the ultimate victor.
The Bible doesn't teach this.
The Bible says our purpose as human beings is to turn a fallen wilderness into a Garden-City. The New Jerusalem is the "Vine & Fig Tree" society.
Hundreds of years before Christ, the prophet Daniel spoke of the first Christmas, the birth of the Messiah in the days of the Roman Empire. That barbaric, debauched empire was destroyed, and the Kingdom of Christ began growing like a mustard tree, like leaven, like a field (Matthew 13). The Emperor Justinian began Christianizing the Eastern Roman Empire, and in the West kings like Alfred and Ethelbert made the 10 Commandments the basis of new legal systems. The "Common Law" began, with a Christian foundation, and eventually found its way into the Constitution of the United States, "a Christian nation." Though there have been ups and downs, the progress of Christianity has been undeniable -- at least to those who have been taught the facts of history.
Most Americans in the 21st century have not.
If you enroll in the PeacemakerCoaching Program, you will learn the story of the "Vine & Fig Tree." You will learn that the Bible says the purpose of the first Christmas was that "the knowledge of the Lord should cover the earth as the waters cover the sea." (Isaiah 11:9; Habakkuk 2:14). This has been going on for 2,000 years now. This is a wonderful story that isn't being told.
Some people sincerely believe that the Bible says that everything is going to get worse and worse until God finally destroys everything and then starts over. (Why He would want to go through failure again is not disclosed.)
You will read a different story in the Bible when you enroll in the PeacemakerCoaching Program, and have a coach pointing out things in the Bible that you may have missed.
Perhaps you're reluctant to pay your tuition for a class that teaches something very different from what you've always heard. So we'll give you the entire year-long curriculum. We want to make it clear that simply reading the class outline in a week, or even a month, will not give you the same result as you will have if you enroll in the PeacemakerCoaching Program and study a little bit each day, think about it, study more the next day, pray about it, and take an entire year to complete your reading of the “Vine & Fig Tree” story. It just won't be the same.
But you wouldn't be a good shopper if you bought a product without knowing what it delivered. So if you're doubtful about our agenda, here are two ways to survey the story of the Bible that you'll learn in the year-long PeacemakerCoaching Program.
The first way is a 12-day study entitled "The 12 Days of Liberty." It's modeled after the "12 Days of Christmas, which take place from December 25 to January 6. You've never heard the Christmas message like this:
This study is obviously not a review of the entire Bible, though many other parts of the Bible are reviewed besides the Christmas narratives in the Gospels.
Here, then, is a review of the entire Bible. Again, it is no substitute for the Berean model of searching the Scriptures daily. And reading them all in an afternoon is not the same as reading one a day and thinking about it prayerfully over a period of time. But just so you can see an example of the worldview of the PeacemakerCoaching Program, here are 95 Bible Studies, patterned loosely after Martin Luther's "95 Theses," somewhat-humorously called “The 95 Days of Christmas”:
You need to go through the entire year-long program to appreciate these studies. You do yourself a disservice if you try to judge any one of the studies without studying the entire series. Real change will take place when you work through the entire Bible systematically, daily, prayerfully, thoughtfully, over the course of a year. The change in your thinking -- the change in your worldview -- will not come about because we forced you or tricked you. You will experience those "Aha!' moments when the lightbulb goes on and you're never able to look at the Bible the same way again.
The significance of most of these studies will become clearer after you become acquainted with the four other works that we'll be covering in the PeacemakerCoaching Program.
The retreat from Christianity and the advance of Secular Humanism has paved the way for total war and endless genocide. The religion of evolutionism is the religion of genocide:
"Religion" (Christianity, the Bible) is sometimes blamed for war. This is an outrageous lie.
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