Faith First Media

 This is chapter fifteen of the book A Theology of Peace by Matthew Elton, copyright 2010 Matthew Elton.

Click here to read the previous chapter: The Downfall of Nonviolent Theology Under Constantine

The Oxymoron of “Just War”

In the year 404 a church council was held at Carthage. It was a meeting of three bishops: Alypius, Augustine, and Fortunatas. It was a this council that Augustine introduced “Just War Theory,” the idea that war can, in certain cases, be justified, despite Christ’s command to love enemies. The Catholic church was facing serious troubles at this time, with dissension within and Visigoth invaders on the march towards Rome. The Visigoths posed a major threat to the survival of Rome, and to make matters worse, theological divisions in the Catholic church had weakened Rome’s now church-based government. With such a terrible threat approaching from outside Rome, internal disputes could no longer be put up with. The Emperor demanded that the church find a way to better unify itself, and put a final end to factions and strife.

Augustine was one of the most powerful church leaders of the time, but he faced many opponents. Among them were the Donatists, who had separated themselves from the Catholic church. By rejecting the Catholic church, the Donatists rejected the government of Rome, which the Catholic church was so closely intertwined with. For the Emperor, this was treason, and could not be tolerated. How could Rome stand against the Visigoths if her people were divided, and not fully loyal to the government?

Just War Theory was developed as a solution to this political problem. In countless theological debates, Augustine had tried for years to persuade the Donatists to rejoin the Catholic church, but his attempts were unsuccessful. Despite all of Augustine’s attempts to persuade the Donatists, their numbers continued to grow. The Emperor demanded that something must be done to stop them. But Augustine faced a moral dilemma. Mere rhetoric wasn’t persuading the Donatists, but the Catholic church couldn’t use military force on the Donatists without violating the teachings of Jesus. For the Donatists to be stopped, the Catholic church would have to modify Christ’s teachings and make an exception to his command to love enemies.

This modification of Christ’s teachings took place in 404 with the introduction of Just War Theory. With this theory, Augustine argued that it would okay for the Roman military to persecute the Donatists. Even though the use of violence against the Donatists contradicted the commands of Jesus Christ, Augustine argued that given the circumstances, an exception could be made. From its very beginning, Just War Theory was based on the compromise of Christ’s commands. In 404 the church council at Carthage decreed, “It is now full time for the emperor to provide for the safety of the Catholic church, and prevent those rash men from terrifying the people, whom they cannot seduce.” In the years that followed, the emperor commanded the Roman military to raid the homes of the Donatists and force them into exile through the use of violence and military force:

"We decree that the Donatists and the heretics, who until now have been spared by the patience of Our Clemency, shall be severely punished by legal authority, so that by this Our manifest order, they shall recognize that they are intestable and have no power of entering into contracts of any kind, but they shall be branded with perpetual infamy and separated from honorable gatherings and from public assemblies. Those places in which the dire superstition has been preserved until now shall surely be joined to the venerable Catholic Church, and thus their bishops and priests, that is, all their prelates and ministers shall likewise be despoiled of all their property and shall be sent into exile to separate islands and provinces."

--Emperor’s decree, 414

In the raids that followed, three hundred bishops, thousands of deacons, and countless ministers lost their churches, their homes, and all of their possessions. They were forced to relocate to distant islands, and their entire church congregations were denied the right of citizenship and required to pay large quantities of gold and silver as fines. Many were imprisoned and executed.

The introduction of Just War Theory changed the entire nature of Christianity with incredible speed. Less than a hundred years before, Christians met in secret, hiding from Roman persecution. Under Roman persecution, many Christians were imprisoned, tortured, burned at the stake, crucified, or eaten by lions. Yet as we have seen in previous chapters, these early Christians refused to fight back, refused to participate in any kind of military, and refused to even do so much as touch a weapon. These early Christians were the persecuted, not the persecutors. How quickly the entire nature of Christianity turned around with the advent of Just War Theory! In mere decades, Christians had gone from being the persecuted, to being the persecutor. Thanks to Augustine, Catholics who called themselves “Christians” were persecuting, robbing from, imprisoning, and killing fellow Christians who merely differed on a few theological issues. Augustine had transformed Christianity from a religion based on peace to a religion based on war. As their family and friends were being attacked and murdered by the Roman military, the Donatists pleaded Augustine for mercy, warning him that for every martyr that dies at the hand of Augustine’s oppression, Augustine himself would have to account for their deaths before the Lord Jesus Christ at the Final Judgement. Augustine replied to this plea for mercy with some of the most unchristian words ever spoken:

I know nothing about your martyrs. Martyrs! Martyrs to the devil. There are no martyrs out of the Church. Beside, it was their obstinacy; they killed themselves.

--Augustine

In 412, Augustine’s contemporary Cyril became the Bishop of Alexandria. Cyril applied the evils of Augustine’s Just War Theory on a much larger and more destructive scale, attacking not only Donatists but also Novationists (another group of Christians who had left the Catholic church), Jews, and pagans. Cyril’s armies even burned down public buildings such as libraries, killing hundreds of people. In March 415, during Lent, Cyril’s army surrounded the chariot of Hypatia, a pagan philosopher and scientist. Cyril’s army then seized her, stripped off all of her clothes, and dragged her through the streets into the newly Christianized Caesareum Church, where they ripped off her skin with broken shards of pottery while she was still alive, then set both her and her scientific writings on fire. No one was ever arrested or charged for the murder. There was no trial or investigation. Cyril got off scot-free and even persuaded the Emperor to send the imperial Army to attack all the Jews and pagans in Alexandria.

After Hypatia’s death, a letter was forged condemning Christianity in Hypatia’s name. It was a sick attempt to justify the evil that had just been done, under the twisted notion that such evil would be justified if Hypatia had written the letter. Obviously, such a blatantly satanic murder is in direct contradiction to every command of Jesus Christ, and could never be morally justified under any circumstances. But by suggesting that acts of violence could sometimes be justified, Augustine’s Just War Theory had opened the door for some of the worst acts of violence the world has ever seen, committed by people who claimed, however vainly, to be Christians.

While Hypatia’s murder is an abomination, the evil brought about by the Just War Theory didn’t end there. On the contrary, it was just getting started. For the next 1,600 years, many political leaders used Just War Theory to persuade Christians to fight and kill for no other reason than their own greedy political gain. The evil that began with Augustine and continued with Cyril continued still further with the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Thirty Years’ War, and the rise of Nazi Germany.

Augustine must bear the fatal charge of being the first as well as one of the ablest defenders of the frightful cause of persecution and intolerance.... He was the first and ablest asserter of the principle that led to the Albigensian crusades, Spanish armadas, Netherlands’ butcheries, St. Bartholomew massacres, the accursed infamies of the Inquisition, the vile espionage, the hideous balefires of Seville and Smithfield, the racks, the gibbets, the thumbscrews, the subterranean torture-chambers.... It is mainly because of his later intolerance that the influence of Augsutine falls like a dark shadow across the centuries. It is thus that [persecutors] can look up to him as an authorizer of their enormities, and quote his sentences to defend some of the vilest crimes which ever caused men to look with horror on the religion of Christ and the church of God.

--F.W. Farrar, church historian

The Crusades are perhaps the best example of an unjust war that history offers. Thousands of Christians joined together to attack and conquer the Holy Land, killing thousands of Muslims, who were viewed as unhuman infidels, even though most of them had done nothing to provoke such violent persecution. Even by the standards of Just War Theory, finding a moral justification for the Crusades is impossible. The Crusades were one of the worst atrocities of the Middle Ages, and today, we cannot help but ask: How could people who claim to be Christians do such a thing?

The Crusades are an example of what happens when the church becomes too closely intertwined with the government. At the time, almost all the kings in Europe were loyal to the pope, giving the pope unchallenged political power over an entire continent. In a speech that changed the world, Pope Urban II claimed to speak for Jesus when he commanded all the Christians in the world to war:

On this account I, or rather the Lord, beseech you as Christ’s heralds to publish this everywhere and to persuade all people of whatever rank, foot-soldiers and knights, poor and rich, to carry aid promptly to those Christians and to destroy that vile race from the lands of our friends. I say this to those who are present; it is meant also for those who are absent. Moreover, Christ commands it. All who die by the way, whether by land or by sea, or in battle against the pagans, shall have immediate remission of sins. This I grant them by the power of God with which I am invested.

--Pope Urban II

At this, the crowed present began to shout “It is the will of God!” But was it the will of God? Pope Urban II claimed that it was the command of Christ that Christians destroy the Muslims in war. But Christ actually commanded, “Love your enemies!” (Matthew 5:44). Pope Urban II claimed that all who fight to kill the Muslims would automatically gain remission of sins and therefore eternal life. But Jesus actually taught, “Not everyone who calls out to me, 'Lord! Lord!' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.” (Matthew 7:21).

So who are you going to believe: Pope Urban II, or the Lord Jesus Christ?

Fortunately, a small group of Christians did wake up to the fact that the Crusades were unbiblical, unchristian, and evil. These Christians protested against the Crusades, but were quickly persecuted. Thousands of people followed the pope blindly, believing that it was possible for even the most aggressive war to be justified if the pope said so. Once again, Just War Theory had opened the door to great evil. Hundreds of years prior, Augustine had been the first to suggest that a just war might be possible, under certain circumstances. This started Christianity down a slippery and dangerous slope. If war can sometimes be justified, where do you draw the line between just and unjust war? The Christians of the first and second centuries had drawn the line according to the standards of the Bible, which teaches us to live peaceably with all. These early Christians opposed all war, believing that a “just war” is inherently an oxymoron. It was not until Augustine that the concept of a “just war” was introduced, but if a just war is possible, who is to decide which wars are just and which are not? Most Christians of the Middle Ages left that decision up to the pope, rather than basing their standards on the Bible, which teaches us to abhor all war. As a result, thousands of Christians fought and died in a war that accomplished absolutely nothing except the deaths of thousands of people. In the end the Muslims succeeded in defending their territory, and the so-called “Christians” were defeated. The whole thing made the Catholic church look bad, and for years Catholics tried to find some way to justify the war. Eventually, they gave up. Once again, Just War Theory had been used to support a way that wasn’t just in any way. But the evils of Just War Theory didn’t stop there. Even after hundreds of thousands of people had died because of Just War Theory, it’s reign of evil was still just getting started.

The same racist religious nationalism that inspired the Crusades was demonstrated again in Nazi Germany, where the church was once again closely intertwined with a radically authoritarian government. The Nazis used religious rhetoric to make the claim that their cause was God’s cause, and that it was the will of God that Germany conquer Europe, and that the Jews be annihilated by genocide. Every Nazi solider wore a belt-buckle with the inscription “Gott Mit Uns” which means “God With Us.”

Today, we look back at the atrocities of Naziism and wonder why the Christian church didn’t do more to speak out against it. In Germany, the Christian church and the Nazis seemed to be allies for the same cause. How could Christianity condone the worst genocide that the world ever saw? Once again, it was because the church had become too friendly with the government. Nationalistic sentiment had overcome the church in Germany and transformed it into a tool for government propaganda. The church had become so swept up in patriotic fervor, so committed to the nation of Germany, that it had lost its commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. The same thing happened in the Crusades, when soldiers were more loyal to the Holy Roman Empire than they were to the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the same thing can and has happened here in the United States, whenever Christians compromise the commands of Jesus Christ in the name of national security.

Take, for example, the story of the Nagasaki Christians. The story began in December 1547, in Malacca, where missionary Francis Xavier met a samurai named Anjiro, who had fled from Japan after being found guilty of murder. Anjiro travelled with Xavier to Goa, India, where Xavier had established a Christian mission. In 1549, Anjiro asked Xavier to establish a Christian mission in Japan. Xavier asked if the Japanese would be willing to receive to the Christian message. “They would not do so immediately,” Anjiro replied, “but would first ask you many questions to see what you knew. Above all, they would want to see whether your life corresponded with your teaching.”

Xavier was not certain of whether a Christian mission in Japan was feasible, but he decided that there was only one way to find out. Unable to find any sea captains who were willing to sail to Japan (that area of sea was largely unexplored by Europeans at the time), Xavier hitched a ride on a pirate ship. He departed from Goa with Anjiro on June 24, 1549. They arrived at Anjiro’s hometown of Kagoshima, Japan, on August 15, 1549. Christianity spread quickly in Japan, and in the decades to come, thousands of Japanese came to know Jesus.

Then in 1603, the Tokugawa Shogunate came to power in Edo, beginning the “Edo period” of Japanese history that would last until 1868. This period is known for extreme isolationism. The Imperial government distrusted all foreigners and closed Japan off from trade. The Edo period is considered by many Japanese to be the greatest period in Japanese history. For the great majority of Japanese, the Edo period was a golden age of peace and prosperity. But for Christians in Japan, it was a time of terrible persecution. Since Christianity was perceived as a foreign religion, it was condemned by the Imperial government. Just fifty years after Xavier’s mission was established at Kagoshima, being a Christian in Japan became a crime punishable by death. Those who would not recant their Christian beliefs were tortured and even crucified. Just a few years into the Edo Period, Christianity in Japan had died out... or so it would seem!

In actually, several thousand Christians continued to meet in secret at Nagasaki. They are known as the Hidden Christians, or Kakure Kirishitan in Japanese, and they have become an almost legendary part of Japanese history. Their numbers continued to grow until they were discovered by the government in the 1850s. Immediately the persecution began once again, but with the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the Edo Period came to an end. Under Emperor Meiji, Japan opened itself up to foreign trade, technology, and missionaries. Christianity experienced a revival in Japan, and in 1917 a giant church building called St. Mary’s Cathedral was constructed in Nagasaki. By the time World War II began, Christianity had grown to become an influential religion in Japan, with many thousands of followers.

World War II was the worst era in Japan’s long history. All Japanese air defenses were destroyed in the war, allowing Japan to be bombed without mercy. By 1945, every city in Japan had been destroyed by bombings except for three cities: Hiroshima, Koukora, and Nagasaki. For comparison, imagine the destruction of all the major cities in the U.S. - New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington D.C., and the list goes on.

The three cities that were spared from conventional bombing were spared for a purely strategical reason. The U.S. Army was eager to test out the newly invented atomic bomb in actual combat. Some generals even argued that if the atomic bomb were not used in combat, then all the millions of dollars spent to develop the bomb would be wasted. Since dropping an atomic bomb on a city that had already been destroyed would be useless, the U.S. military saved three Japanese cities as potential atomic bomb targets. On August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, leading to the deaths of over a hundred thousand men, women, children, and infants, the destruction of thousands of homes, and innumerable injuries.

By this point in the war, Japan was a wasteland, and had little ability to defend herself. Almost all of the cities in Japan were in ruins, and even much of Japan’s farmland had been destroyed in bombings, resulting in a terrible famine that led to the deaths of thousands of civilians - men, women, children, and infants. At this point in the war, the U.S. military had the ability to fly in and bomb whatever, wherever, and however much they wanted. By God’s grace, the Christian community in Nagasaki had thus far been spared from the bombings. But in literally less than one second, the story of the Nagasaki Christians would come to an end.

On the morning of August 9, 1945, a few Christians from another part of the world met with two chaplains - one Catholic and one Lutheran. They prayed together, then began their daily work assignments. In a B-29 Super Fortress bomber, they took off from Tinian Island with orders to drop the second atomic bomb on Kokura. The bomber approached Kokura, but the city was obscured in smoke from the firebombing of Yahata a few miles away. Yahata had been bombed a few days before, but so much smoke was still rising from it that the B-29 pilot was unable to see the target at Kokura. Instructed not to drop the atomic bomb unless the target was in plain sight, the pilot turned the bomber away from Kokura and headed for Nagasaki instead. The crew of the bomber received commands to look for the St. Mary’s Cathedral at the center of Nagasaki. The cathedral’s tall steeple made it taller than the surrounding buildings, making it an excellent target for the bombing. At 11:02 a.m., the Christians in the B-29 bomber (if we dare to call them Christians) spotted the cathedral and dropped the atomic bomb. In less than one second, Christianity in Nagasaki was annihilated by people who called themselves fellow Christians. What the Imperial government had struggled to do for over three hundred years was accomplished in a split second by “Christian” soldiers. Over a hundred thousand more men, women, children, and infants died from the blast or the subsequent radiation. Thousands of homes were destroyed, and the injuries are too many to calculate. Here are two ariel photographs comparing what Nagasaki looked like before and after the dropping of the atomic bomb.

Today, a monument to the Japanese Christian martyrs - consisting of a huge stone wall embedded with over twenty-five statues - stands in Nagasaki. But Christianity in Nagasaki, and in Japan in general, has almost completely died out. Today, less than one percent of Japanese are Christians.  Who in their right mind would join a religion that commits genocide against its own people?

Once World War II ended, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur looked back on it in hindsight and realized that with advances in technology enabling humans to kill each other in larger and larger numbers, war no longer threatened the survival of only the nations engaged in it, but war now threatened the survival of the entire world. For the first time in history, human beings had developed the technology to destroy all life on Earth. In the words of J. Robert Oppenheimer, who invented the atomic bomb, “The atomic bomb made the prospect of future war unendurable.” In hindsight, MacArthur realized that no military alliance, no political negotiation, and no balance of power would ever put an end to all war. Human beings had tried these approaches for millennia, and while they were effective in preventing some wars, they never fully solved the problem of war. One way or another, war always returned, as if it were inseparable form human nature itself. MacArthur realized that what was needed was something spiritual that would overcome national boundaries, would unite people in the cause for peace, and would improve human nature.

Military alliance, balances of power, League of Nations all in turn failed...We have had our last chance. If we do not now devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door. The problem basically is theological and involves a spiritual recrudescence and improvement of human character that will synchronize with our almost matchless advance in science, art, literature, and all material and cultural developments of the past two hundred years. It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh.

--General Douglas MacArthur

The spiritual power that MacArthur describes - capable of changing the nature of human character itself - is Christianity. True Christianity has nothing to do with Crusades, Naziism, or the dropping of atomic bombs. True Christianity means following Jesus as the Lord of all. Throughout the last two millennia, nations, kingdoms, and empires have all risen and fallen, but through it all, the true disciples of Jesus who seek to actively follow his teachings have been united in a brotherhood of love and peace. Though they come from many different nations, they all share the unity of citizenship in the Kingdom of God. By a common faith they have transcended the barriers of nations and cultures. With the Holy Spirit at work in each and every believer, they have the spiritual power to overcome the sinfulness of human nature. Christianity - discipleship to the Lord Jesus Christ - is the answer to the problem of war. It is the spiritual solution that General Douglas MacArthur was looking for.

The root cause of war is when people are more loyal to human institutions - governments, militaries, leaders, etc. - than they are to God. The question we must ask ourselves is: Where do our loyalties lay? Are we more loyal to our country than we are to the Lord Jesus Christ? We must seriously consider this question, and remember that Jesus died to break down the dividing walls of hostility that stand between people of different nations. Nations are human institutions, and their governments are as corrupt as any other human institution. Nations rise and fall, and throughout history hundreds of millions of people have fought and died for them. But when God looks at the world, he does not see the borders between nations, for in reality, such borders exist only in our minds. Jesus died to break down those barriers between us, and unify all people under one government: not a corrupt human government, but a heavenly government established by God himself.

For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.

--Ephesians 2:14-16

In this new life, it doesn't matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.

--Colossians 3:11

There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.

--Galatians 3:28

Because of what Jesus accomplished for us, all followers of Jesus are God’s chosen people, no matter what country they are from. It doesn’t matter what human country you have citizenship in. As Christians, we all have citizenship in a greater country: the Kingdom of God.

But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior.

--Philippians 3:20

The prophet Isaiah foretold the government that Jesus Christ would establish - a government unlike any other. Jesus will rule as the King over kings, and the Lord over lords. When he returns to rule the world, all human governments will cease fighting each other and begin obeying his commands. When Jesus returns, the world will at last see eternal peace:

The boots of the warrior and the uniforms bloodstained by war will all be burned. They will be fuel for the fire. For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!

--Isaiah 9:5-7

Speaking about some of the greatest men and women of faith who ever lived, the writer of Hebrews tells us:

If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

--Hebrews 11:15-16

Where is our citizenship? Where is our allegiance? Is it with God, or with men?

As we have seen, history is filled with examples of Just War Theory being used in an attempt to justify actions that are in direct contradiction to Christ’s command to love enemies. Just War Theory has caused millions of people to compromise the teachings of Jesus, to water them down, or to disobey them entirely. Just War Theory has been used and abused by countless governments for the purposes of political gain. When we are tempted to compromise the Word of God in order to right for a human government, we must remember where our true citizenship lies.

But Peter and the apostles replied, "We must obey God rather than any human authority.”

--Acts 5:29

Click here to continue to the next chapter: The Example of the Anabaptists

See also:

• Pacifism: Following Christ's Example
• Conquering Evil by Doing Good
• A Theology of Peace: Introduction
• The Kingdom of God
• The Sermon on the Mount
• Turning the Other Cheek
• Giving the Coat Also
• Going the Extra Mile
• The Example of Christ
• The Example of the Apostles
• The Resurrection of Jesus
• The Holy Spirit
• The New Covenant
• The Kingdom Lifestyle
• The Testimony of Early Christians
• A Return to Christian Nonviolence

Have questions, comments, criticisms, or concerns?

Email the author at: matt@faithfirstmedia.com