Category Archives: Pacifism

Pacifism: Suffering

[I need to bring this series to a close. To hasten the process, I’ll be posting two posts a day for a while.] In a series of posts, Tim Archer has pointed out the many passages that teach Christians are … Continue reading

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Pacifism: Whom Does God Defend?

There many passages in the Old Testament where God promises to defend his people without regard to the power of the people. (Judg 7:2)  The LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into … Continue reading

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Pacifism: Additional Material

Over at the Berean Spirit discussion group, a part of Yahoo Groups, several good folks, including Tim Archer and Bobby Valentine, are having a great discussion on pacifism. They even mention this blog now and again. They seem disagree — … Continue reading

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Pacifism: Just War and Christian Politics, Part 2

Frankly, I doubt seriously that many national leaders — even US leaders — give a lot of thought to just war theology when deciding whether to go to war. The churches don’t teach this in Sunday school or preach it … Continue reading

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Pacifism: Just War and Christian Politics, Part 1

I’m finding myself in the just war camp. I’m not 100% comfortable here, but it makes better sense to me than anything else I’ve heard. The doctrine defining a just war goes back to Augustine. Augustine was a bishop at … Continue reading

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Pacifism: Mere Discipleship, Dual Loyalties, and the Pledge of Allegiance

Lee Camp, a professor at Lipscomb University, has written a marvelous book called Mere Discipleship. It has a chapter arguing for pacifism. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that he’s the first professor at Lipscomb to agree with the founder, … Continue reading

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Pacifism: Police and Defensive War, Part 2

Another thought experiment Imagine a world where half the nations are almost entirely all Christians. The Christians all refuse military service, and quite consistently, they refuse to hire mercenaries. What will happen? If the non-Christian minority serves in the military … Continue reading

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Pacifism: In Answer to Tim’s and Guy’s Questions

As usual, Tim has posed a number of thoughtful, challenging questions. I post my answers here because he’s pushed me to address some questions I was planning on getting to in future posts. I add my answer to Guy’s post … Continue reading

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Pacifism: Police and Defensive War, Part 1

John Howard Yoder argues that Christian pacifism should reject service in the military but not the police. After all, until Jesus returns, it’s obvious that life would be pretty awful for everyone if there were no police. The difference between … Continue reading

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Pacifism: A Reply to Guy

Even though he and I disagree on several things, I have to say that Guy has posted very thoughtful, very godly comments throughout these posts. I prepared a lengthy reply to a recent comment of his, and decided it would … Continue reading

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