Monday: We Cannot Kill a Man for Whom Christ Died
WEEK 45
MONDAY
WE CANNOT KILL A MAN FOR WHOM CHRIST DIED
Isaiah 2:2-4
We are studying the mastery of war.
For the first three centuries, no Christian went to war, and no Christian became a soldier. Or if he was in the army when he was converted, he resigned. It was felt to be incompatible with the Christian way. “We cannot kill a man for whom Christ died” was the basis of their refusal to go to war.
Then came the great change. After the conversion of Constantine, no one but a Christian could get in the army. The cross was inscribed on the war banners. War was made in the name of the cross. It was naturalized within the Christian system, and yet not quite. There has always been the feeling that the whole thing is wrong, and this among the very ones carrying it on, especially among them. They loathe it. The only warlike ones are the comfortable ones past conscription age who carry on war by substitution—substitution of the younger generation for themselves—war by proxy.
Now, since we couldn’t take the way of our faith, we are confronted with a terrible dilemma. We have believed in force and leaned on it to settle our disputes, and now God has put us in a corner. With the discovery of atomic energy, such force has been put into our hands that we are appalled. God is seemingly saying, “You put your faith in force; I’m going to let you see into the heart of an atom. You wanted force, and now I’m giving it to you. But—and this is the terrible point—if you use it again, you will destroy yourselves.” That is the terrible dilemma; we got what we wanted—force—but if we use it, we annihilate ourselves. For no one can win an atomic-energy war. Both sides will be ruined, probably in twenty-four hours. Some may crawl out of the ruins as survivors but nobody as victor. So after a long bloody march through the warring centuries we’re back again where the early Christians started. They started with the renunciation of war. We, too, have come out at the same place, the renunciation of war. They did it by their faith; we have to do it by our fate. But war must go, or we go.
O Christ, you have been eternal patience, yet you are terrible too. For you have the hand of grace and the hand of judgment. We are now under the hand of judgment. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I am under the law of love, and today I shall not violate it.