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Following Jesus in nonviolent struggle for justice and peace, we love our neighbors and enemies as God loves us all, becoming a peace church to share in God’s work to save the world.

Terminating War - Part 1

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Terminating War
Daniel H. Shubin
Part One

The source of organized and premeditative warfare is nationalism and imperialism: the development and expansion of empires by zealous political leaders with an obsession for power and control. The Bible refers to these empires and nations as the Kingdoms of this World. The earliest historical record of an organizer of an army and his deliberate drive toward the building of an empire by militarily subduing smaller tribes and cities is Nimrod, the builder of the kingdom of Babylon. With this event there began the perennial self-destructive trend of warfare of the nation builders and nation defenders. Ultimate allegiance was now to the state, having developed into a living organism, a corporate body to be defended, and the resident was now an expendable commodity to the superficial benefit of the nation or empire. All of this nation building and nation defending occurred at the expense of the lives of the soldiers who died at the demand of their superior officers, recruited into the military of the nation builders and defenders, and at the cost of those innocent men and women and children who were killed in the process of the subjection of their small tribe and city by such political and military powers. This self-destruction trend of warfare has plagued humanity generation after generation, since the earliest era of national development.

God understood this quite well, and with the development of the nation of Israel, instituted laws to restrain the carnal nature of the person during such barbarian eras. War was fought to defeat the enemies of God, it was a manner for God to impose his judgment upon other nations for their sins against other nations: so it was with the Israelites against the 7 nations of Canaan on their entrance into the promised; kings Saul and David against the Philistines; and eventually Assyria and Babylon against Israel; and later Israel against the Greeks. It was not the good will of God for Israel to become a nation or empire, as the others during their existence in history. Israel was designed as a loose confederation of tribes, and purposefully in order to preclude their expansion. In later years, Israel became a nation, as the others, under King Saul, and this was not the good will of God, but an accommodation. God knew that once Israel became a nation, it would take the path of other nations with the development of nationalism and imperialism.

This accommodation by God to conduct warfare in Israel was temporary as a result of the barbarism of the people of earlier ages. Israelite prophets foretold the time when the Messiah of Israel would arise, the Son of God would be the Prince of Peace. Under this king and the rule of kingdom, war would exist no more.

It was about 2,000 years ago that God said enough was enough with the perennial self-destruction trend of warfare of humanity, and so God sent his Son onto the earth as the person of Jesus of Nazereth, to depict with his own life and message the manner of forever curbing war. But why was it at this point in history that God would state that enough was enough with warfare? The purpose for God sending his Son at this point in history was the future war of Rome against the Jews, with was accomplished 40 years later with the invasion of the Roman army under Vespacian and the destruction of Jerusalem under Titus. The salvation of God that Jesus preached to his people was their acceptance of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and himself at the Prince of Peace and so terminate war in the process, in order to deliver themselves from their own annihilation by the armies of Rome. This same gospel was to spread throughout all the world, that the era of warfare had now come to its conclusion.

It is through the forgiveness of our sins, to be born again, that we are sanctified

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