Question:
"Was Jesus a pacifist?"

Answer:
According to Webster’s dictionary, a pacifist is someone who is opposed to violence, especially war, for any purpose,
often accompanied by the refusal to bear arms by reason of conscience or religious conviction.

While Jesus is the “prince of peace” (Isaiah 9:6), He was not, and is not, a pacifist.
Revelation 19:15, speaking of Jesus, declares, "Out of His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations.
He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty."

Ecclesiastes 3:1, 3, & 8 say,
There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heaven…a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build…a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.”

Daniel 9:26 says
that “war will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.” Matthew 24:6-8 says,
“You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen,
but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
All these are the beginning of birth pains.”

Jesus Himself said,
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
For I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law---
a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household’” (Matthew 10:34-36).
“From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing,
and forceful men lay hold of it” (Matthew 11:12).

We are commanded to hate what is evil and cling to what is good (Romans 12:9).
In doing so we must take a stand against what is evil in this world and pursue righteousness (2 Timothy 2:22).

Jesus did this and, in so doing, spoke openly against the religious and political rulers of His time
because they were not seeking a righteousness from God, but rather of their own making (Luke 20:1-2, Romans 9:31-33).

Zeal for God’s righteousness consumed Jesus,
and He was not afraid to stand up against those who opposed and dishonored His Father (John 2:15-17, see also Numbers 25:11).

“Those who hate Him He will repay to their face by destruction;
He will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate Him” (Deuteronomy 7:10).

“While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly,
as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:3).

The Old Testament is full of examples of how God used his people in war to bring judgment upon nations
whose sin had reached its full measure
(only a few examples: Genesis 15:16, Numbers 21:3, 31:1-7, 32:20-21,
Deuteronomy 7:1-2, Joshua 6:20-21, 8:1-8, 10:29-32, 11:7-20).

In raising the moral consciousness of the world,
God must take the people as He finds them and introduce principles of righteousness within the moral framework
with which the people can identify.

We can be assured though,
that it is always with justice that God judges and makes war (Revelation 19:11).
“For we know Him who said, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ and again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’
It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:30-31).

What we can learn from these and other Biblical examples is
that we are only to wage war when it is the will of God and not at our own discretion (John 18:11, Numbers 14:41-45).
It is God’s choice as to how and when He brings judgment of sin upon this world and its inhabitants,
to display His holiness.
We are simply called to follow Him (Matthew 16:24-25).

All of this may sound contradictory to the teachings of Jesus, God Himself,
in which He instructs us to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 19:19),
turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:39), as well as the command, “you shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13).

After all, we are told that God is love (1 John 4:16) and “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9).

The Bible also says in 2 Corinthians 10:4, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.
The weapons we fight with are not weapons of the world.
On the contrary, they have divine powers to demolish strongholds.“

While all this is indeed true,
it helps in examining these seemingly contradictory concepts from an eternal perspective,
that we may gain a more complete understanding for Jesus’ purpose in coming to this earth.

At the beginning of human history,
God commanded mankind to rule over the earth (Genesis 1:26-31; Hebrews 2:6-8).

When man disobeyed God,
sin entered the world (Genesis 2:17, 3:6-7).

By this one action,
man sold his right to rule this world to Satan and at the same time became captive to sin himself
(John 8:34, 12:31; Romans 6:6; Ephesians 2:2, 6:12).

As a result,
sinful men live in a world full of corruption, each person doing what is right in his own eyes,
the whole time being led astray by their own evil desires (Psalm 8:6, 51:5; Proverbs 14:12;
Genesis 3:17; Romans 8:20, James 1:14-15).

It isn’t hard to see that the whole world lies in Satan’s power (1 John 5:19).
Even Jesus did not dispute with him over the fact that he ruled the kingdoms of the world (Matthew 4:8-10).

Therefore,
there can be no lasting peace or restoration of the land until Jesus returns to redeem the land and man (Galatians 4:4-5).

Jesus came in the likeness of mankind,
while still retaining his full authority as God,
in order that He might redeem men from their sentence of death, and re-establish, for the believer,
man’s authority to rule (Philippians 2:6-8, 1 Corinthians 15:21-22, 54-57, Revelation 20:6).

When Jesus died on the cross,
He purchased back the land and men’s souls from the dominion of Satan through the shedding of His own blood,
the purchase price for redemption of man’s sin (Hebrews 9:22, Acts 20:28, 1 Peter 1:18-19, 1 Corinthians 6:20).

A day is coming,
after severe judgment upon the earth, when Jesus will break the seal of the deed and end Satan’s rule (Revelation 5:1-10, 6-18, 19:11-21).

At the end of Jesus’ 1,000 year reign upon this earth,
Satan will be set free for a short time and war once again will be waged (Revelation 20:7-10).
It is only at the end of that war, once the murderer of man, Satan, is destroyed by Jesus
and His servants’ blood is finally avenged, that wars will cease
and peace will once again be established in the new heaven and new earth (John 8:44, Deuteronomy 32:43,
Daniel 7:13-14, 2 Peter 3:3-13, Revelation 21:1-4).

Until that time we are called to fight the good fight and keep the faith (2 Timothy 4:7).

http://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-pacifist.html

No God is not a "pacifist". He's a God of love, a God of compassion, and most importantly he is a God of righteousness.

"Jesus said, '...whoever does not have a sword must sell his coat and buy one.'" (Luke 22:36)
This verse was my authority for bellicosity but each time, the Spirit always told me to forgive and let go.
I now wonder if our battle in the spirit alone? Also, I agree that Christ should control our fight or flee responses which depends on what we've been called for. e.g.
David couldn't build the temple cos he was tainted with blood; but Elijah executed the prophets of baal and Simon cut off a man's ear....

Jesus tried to be a pacifist his time on Earth...but sometimes he had to punish children to teach them properly (money changers in the temple).

I find it interesting and cool that when Jesus said "Faith like this I have not seen in all of Israel", he was talking about a soldier. I'm not bashing Israel here, not by any means, it's just the topic of the thread made me think of the centurion story... :)

So, who has claimed that Jesus was a pacifist?
If nobody at Mingle2 has made such a claim, then why bring up the subject?

wow lol, I totally stand corrected. Don't know why it didn't click earlier the first time lol



Absolutely Jesus is a pacifist. He was totally against every bit of war and violence. He taught to turn the other cheek. He didn't teach us one thing that was not pacifist.

True, followers of Christ are to bear persecution with forbearance, but I can tell you right now, baptized or not, somebody messes with my daughter and I'm gonna go all Clint Eastwood. I think what these guys are saying is that when Christ returns, it will not be as a Lamb but as a Lion, conquering and vanquishing once and for all Satan and his children.

Good point.

My brother was a Jehovah's Witness, they are pacifists. He could never understand why we christians went to war & killed. I would kill in defence of freedom from tyranny by a corrupt nation. I would serve in a war, preferably as a minister to the soldiers.

Was Jesus a pacifist?


Matthew 5:39 (also Lk 6:29)
But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

Matthew 10:34

Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

Luke 22:36

He said to them, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one."

Matthew 26:52

"Put your sword back in its place," Jesus said to him, "for all who draw the sword will die by the sword."

John 18:22-23

When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby struck him in the face. "Is this the way you answer the high priest?" he demanded.

"If I said something wrong," Jesus replied, "testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?"

Did Jesus teach pacifism?
My understanding of Jesus' teaching is this: Jesus advocated love and patience as opposed to hatred and revenge, but not a total pacifism that forbids even self-defense. In Luke 22:36, Jesus seemed to be advising the disciples to use self-defense when necessary, but nothing more. He didn't advocate violence as a way of doing things, for he said that two swords are enough for the eleven disciples1 and in Matthew 26:52 rebuked Peter for attempting to start a violent revolt. Self-defense isn't contradictory to Matthew 5:39, for that passage refers to a slap or insult, not a hard punch that would constitute an attack. Since most people are right-handed, striking someone on their right cheek would typically be done by slapping them with the back of one's hand. Seen in the context of Matthew 5:38-42, Jesus' point is that we shouldn't take revenge, not that we cannot defend ourselves.

In Matthew 10:34, Jesus was referring to the fact that his coming forces people to choose sides: either they will choose to do what's right and follow Christ, or they will choose to avoid persecution and reject him. The result is that even families will be divided, as those who reject Christ turn on those who accept him.2 Since Jesus would rather have everyone repent and turn to him,3 he was not advocating this conflict, nor was he happy about it; rather it came about as a result of people choosing to reject him.

Did Jesus practice what he taught?

Did Jesus violate his own teaching by talking back after he was struck instead of literally offering his other cheek? Again, Jesus' original teaching in Matthew 5 was against revenge, and he was not trying to get back at those who had arrested him in any way. He was not even insulting those who had arrested him. All he did was raise a valid question: why had he been struck, if he were telling the truth? There is a difference between submission and prostration. While Jesus submitted himself to the authorities and did not fight his arrest and crucifixion, he was not obliged to not challenge the authorities when they did something wrong, such as striking him for no good reason.

I heard that back in that culture if you turned your other cheek when backhanded you were literally doing so.That signified to the assailler that you were an equal to them & that in itself was a silent challenge.A form of self defence in a silent question.

I cant post links, if anyone is interested in 'The true meaning of turn the other cheek', there is a great article by Marcus Borg. He explains the meaning of Mathew 5.39 as interpreted by Rev Martin Luther King, who protested non violently. Google it.