At that very hour some Pharisees came, and said to him, "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you." And he said to them, "Go and tell that fox, 'Behold, least out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. Nevertheless I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.' 0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is forsaken."
(Luke 13:31-35)
Christians are always tempted to accept the Pharisees 'belief that Herod is the chief threat to their mission and then change their course to combat his villainy. But instead of focusing on Herod, Jesus insisted that all needed to repent, and journeyed toward Jerusalem where the action was controlled by those who made the greatest claims to represent God.
In the United States today discerning Christians are asking what they can do about the monstrous evil of the nuclear arms race. They struggle with where to direct their efforts, conscious of their limitations. Time, money, and energy must be concentrated. What should be the strategy of the Christian nuclear resistance witness? Are there signs of the times which may give us a clue?
It would be hard to think of a place where support for nuclear armaments is more entrenched, insidious, or determined than in U.S. churches: Opposition to nuclear disarmament in the churches is entrenched in the God-and-country mentality which has characterized American Christianity for two centuries. It is insidiously wrapped in an aura of piety and Bible-believing religiosity. It is determined to prove that America's cause is God's cause and that America, like God, can be Number One.
Given this, it is time for the Christian anti-nuclear movement to move its focus from the military establishment to the religious establishment. To go to Wheaton, 475 Riverside Drive, and Notre Dame instead of Rocky Flats, Seattle, and the Pentagon. To challenge apostasy and leave atheism alone for a while. To go to the religious conventions instead of the arms bazaars. To strike at military recruiting in the churches instead of the schools.
Why hasn't the Christian nuclear resistance movement directed its campaigns more pointedly toward the church and the religious establishment? Two reasons come to mind.
On the one hand, some Christians have bypassed the church in their peace advocacy because they consider the church too weak to bother with, so devoid of power that it can be ignored at no loss by those who want to see God's will done on earth as it is done in heaven.
In this view the church (local congregation, TV evangelist, denominational structure, Christian neighbor, etc.) is so hopelessly compromised with militarism and nationalism that God has long since lost interest in its fate and has turned to other instruments to accomplish his will. Christians holding this view tend to have a very spiritualized doctrine of the church, believing (if they believe in the church at all) in some type of invisible church, a communion of like-minded but widely dispersed souls. It is a view of the church that has little in common with the New Testament, not to mention its contradiction with the historical and sociological evidence that the church is a very real, concrete community of influence in human affairs.
On the other hand, there are Christians who despair at addressing the Christian establishment about nuclear madness because they see the church as nearly all-powerful, virtually impregnable to any truth which contradicts its chosen direction.
These earnest Christ-followers view the local congregation as a ponderous glacier, undeterred by the rantings of maladjusted pacifist members. They see the TV evangelists as magicians who hypnotize their audiences, with no openness whatsoever to new truth which would affect the content of their message. In this view there is no faith that God could convert the believers, no hope that the awesome power of the Christian community could be harnessed for the goals of life and sanity.
As one who was born in a Christian home and has lived for nearly four decades in a denomination which seems not even to have heard of August 6,1945, I know that it is not easy over the long haul to take the church as seriously as it says it should be taken. The resistance to truths which should be obvious from the most cursory reading of the gospel is unbelievable. The tenacity with which the most deplorable myths of a militarized society are believed is frightening. The determination with which minor issues are scrutinized and important issues ignored is appalling. And yet, the church must be addressed for several reasons, all of them related to the fact that Jesus journeyed toward Jerusalem, the heart of the religious establishment.
The accountability of the church
The church should be the primary focus of the Christian anti-nuclear witness because it is accountable for the truth which it has received. Viewed in this light, the church's support of the nuclear deterrence doctrine is more reprehensible than that of any other segment of society. There is a scriptural principle which says, "To all whom much is given, of them will much be required" (Luke 12:48).
The church has been given enough truth in Scripture and through Spirit-led prophets today that its default in the matter of the nuclear threat is culpable in the extreme. The failure of the church to lead in the right direction on the nuclear issue, and its commitment all too often to the opposite direction, requires repentance. The church must be told that it's not good enough to abhor the idea of nuclear war. Rather, the church is required to abhor the idea of nuclear deterrence, unless it can be morally right to threaten to do an immoral thing.
Jesus looked behind the act of adultery to the thought, behind the act of murder to the intention. Nuclear deterrence is to nuclear holocaust what lust is to adultery, and whoever condemns the latter cannot condone the former. Nevertheless, it is done all the time. Indeed, belief in nuclear deterrence prevails in the church. This signals a great apostasy, and the church must be called to account.
If lust were endorsed as widely and as publicly in the church as nuclear deterrence is, there would be an outcry of massive proportions, and rightly so. But the abomination of nuclear deterrence, the threat to destroy whole continents of people, the righteous and the wicked together, is accepted as if it were a proposal to mow the parsonage lawn on Monday instead of Friday.
The efforts of the Christian witness for nuclear resistance must be focused on the church because the church knows that God abhors evil intentions as well as
evil deeds. If nuclear holocaust ever destroys this beautiful world it will only be because millions of people first condoned the preparations for it. And the church will be held accountable for its members who paid for it without protest, or even planned for it in their business, political, and military positions.
The repentance of the church
The church should be the primary focus of the Christian anti-nuclear witness because the church believes in repentance. To repent is to change one's way of thinking and acting, to have one's mind turned around. This is precisely what is needed in the matter of the arms race. The thought that security, peace, and freedom come from violence and the threat of violence is wrong and must be replaced with a right thought. The mindset which believes that the threat of nuclear war prevents nuclear war is false. This mind must be turned around to see that love, justice, and the power of the Spirit of God prevent nuclear war.
It is obvious enough that the movement for nuclear moratorium and disarmament has as its goal to change people's minds. It is not considered good manners to state it so bluntly in an age of "I'm OK, you're OK," but the church didn't get its start on the premise of good manners. So it should come as no surprise to evangelicals, humanists, Republicans, or Democrats when the Christian peace movement comes on with a call to repentance.
This is not to say that we should expect the call to be welcomed, and particularly not by those who specialize in calling others to repentance for other sins. The prophets of God spent most of their time, and encountered most of their opposition, calling God's people to repentance. In light of this it is a bit surprising how quickly the prophets today turn their message and energy away from the church toward other audiences. One wonders, has the word of the Lord been giving the generals more discomfort than the bishops? Should it? Many are calling Jimmy Carter to account. Who is calling Jerry Falwell to account? And Word Books? And Fuller Seminary?
Some of the prophets of our time are like Jonah in reverse. They are running away from God's command to call the church to repentance, spending all of their time in Nineveh addressing the pagans. Is this, as it was for Jonah, out of anger at the thought that the church might repent if it heard the Word?
There is another dynamic which may divert us from focusing the call to repentance on the church. We all seek ways to absolve ourselves of responsibility for our most obvious failures, which tend to be those in our closest relationships. Sometimes we do this by turning our attention away from the failing relationship, as if to suggest that other, wiser persons will be more responsive to our efforts. Thus if our marriage is troubled we devote ourselves to the peace movement. If our children are wild we coach Little League to show that we are good with children. And if we are not succeeding in calling the church to accept Christ's way to peace and security we try to persuade the government to accept it.
The Christian nuclear resistance movement should be calling evangelists, bishops, pastors, deacons, and Sunday School teachers to repentance from believing the doctrine of nuclear deterrence. If success is its goal, it must succeed in this or it will not succeed at all. If truth is its goal, it cannot bypass those who claim to have the truth. If faithfulness to Christ is its goal, it must go with Jesus to the synagogue week after week to challenge the interpretation of the Scribes and finally to Jerusalem to confront the power of the high priest.
The mission of the church
The Christian pacifist's witness should be aimed toward the church because God's mission in the world is hindered by an unfaithful church. The early church did not evangelize the ancient world by endorsing the militarism of the Roman Empire. If you can imagine the early Christian deacon Stephen calling on Roman soldiers to fall upon his persecutors with spears and swords for his defense, then you can imagine a TV evangelist saying that America's military power protects the church from godless communism. If you can imagine Isaiah describing a Servant of the Lord who kills rather than suffers, then you can imagine Christian pastors blessing war in Memorial Day sermons. If you can imagine Jesus taking a sword and joining in the fight which Peter started in the Garden of Gethsemane, then you can imagine a born-again Christian as commander in chief of the armed forces.
For 300 years the Christian movement repudiated the use of the sword, declaring that its power resided in prayer, faith, and the Spirit of God. Those were years of miraculous growth for the church. The blood of the martyrs was indeed the seed of the church. The cross of Jesus defined the life of the disciples, and the power of the resurrection was turned loose all around. "The Way" is what they called Christianity in those days. But today The Way has been turned into The Experience, and the Christian life has been changed from a journey into a psychological state. The Bible's preoccupation with the direction of our lives and the use of our energies has been replaced with the American dream of peace of mind and material success.
When the Jesus of this new Christianity enters the synagogue at Nazareth and reads from the Scriptures, he does not proclaim release to the captives or liberty for the oppressed. Instead, his words are: "I'm OK, you're OK. I preach the gospel, you make nuclear bombs, she oppresses the poor, he destroys the balance of nature. I'm OK, you're OK."
There is no wrong and there is no right. The world ignores such a vapid message, as it should; or it joins it in large numbers and nothing is changed. Everything is as it was before. The Christians in the U.S. aim their nuclear bombs at the Christians in the USSR, who aim theirs back. The Christians in France do the same and the Christians in a score of other countries vie for a piece of the action.
Jesus weeps.
And the world goes to hell without even a decent guess of what the gospel is really about.
The spiritual power of the church
The energies of the Christian nuclear resistance movement should be channeled toward the release of the spiritual power which is latent in the church through the indwelling Holy Spirit. The power which must replace bombs and missiles is spiritual power, the power of the Holy Spirit.
God has chosen to bestow his Holy Spirit in a special way upon the church. History and experience attest to this fact. This is not to claim that the Spirit of God is not at work elsewhere than in the church, for God's Spirit certainly is. But the awareness of the freedom and universality of the Spirit's work in the world should not obscure the fact of God's choice to give his Spirit freely and specially to the church.
The constituency for the way of peace will not be drawn together by talk alone. The focus of evil will not be overcome by barrages of pamphlets or itinerations of speakers. The message we have is that of the prophet: "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts" (Zechariah 4:7).
An empty soul is no match for a loaded gun, as much as we might wish it were. We shall have to be filled with the Spirit of the living God to confront the dead works of a church compromised by militarism. Life in the Spirit is nurtured in the fellowship of a caring community. We must function as the church in order to speak to the church The message we take to the church has come to us through the church. We play back what the church has canonized in Holy Writ. The Spirit, the Word, and prayer are our weapons.
The same Spirit who enables the prophet to speak to the church will empower the church to speak to the world. Let no one underestimate the power of a Spirit-filled church.
Imagine people from every tongue, tribe, and nation standing together saying that the way of the Lamb that was slain is their way; that they will have no truck with weapons of destruction. Imagine them going before presidents and generals, bishops and evangelists, bureaucrats and technicians to say that death holds no fear for them and that they will take no life to save their own. Imagine them joining hands in China, India, South Africa, Venezuela, Mexico, the United States, and Canada declaring that God is their defense and that they renounce all violence, from nuclear deterrence to revolutionary war.
Imagine yourself going to visit your pastor to talk about the way of peace. Imagine yourself walking with Jesus toward Jerusalem, because that, in the end, is where you have to go.
The cross is near Jerusalem. But so, too, is the resurrection.
When this article appeared, John Stoner lived in Akron, Pennsylvania, with his wife and five children. He was executive secretary of the U.S. Peace Section of the Mennonite Central Committee and a minister in the Brethren in Christ Church.
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