True Religion—A Force for Peace
Religion—A Force For Peace Or For War?
THE Bible inspires peace not in words only. To those who follow its teachings, it is a powerful force for peace.
The early Christians not only talked about peace but also were known for their firm neutral stand in military and political affairs and for the mistreatment they endured because of it. “From the end of the New Testament period to the decade 170-180 there is no evidence whatever of Christians in the army,” writes historian Roland Bainton of Yale University. “It is quite clear that prior to about A.D. 174 it is impossible to speak of Christian soldiers,” adds Guy Franklin Herschberger.
What about in our day? Is the Bible still a force for peace in the lives of those who wholeheartedly follow its teachings?
In his book A History of Christianity, Paul Johnson wrote about the activities of the churches in Nazi Germany during World War II and said: “The bravest were the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who proclaimed their outright doctrinal opposition from the beginning and suffered accordingly. . . . Many were sentenced to death for refusing military service . . . or they ended in Dachau or lunatic asylums. A third were actually killed; ninety-seven per cent suffered persecution in one form or another.”
More recently the following remarks appeared in a leading newspaper in a South American country: “Religious freedom is denied to several thousand Jehovah’s Witnesses in this country because their religion does not allow them to salute the flag, sing the national anthem or bear arms. Members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses have, in consequence, been arrested, have complained that they have been beaten and their children have been expelled from schools and denied education.”
Last April the Arkansas Gazette published an article about the Cuban refugees in Fort Chaffee, Arkansas. According to it, one refugee, when asked why Jehovah’s Witnesses in Cuba were treated as outcasts, replied: “I know of no Witness in Cuba who was in the militia. . . . That’s not true with any other religion in Cuba.” He also said that the reason the Witnesses had so much trouble was “their neutral stand.”
Benefits of Pursuing Peace
What has been accomplished by their “neutral stand”? Some may feel that it has brought them nothing but troubles. However, their firm stand by Bible principles has also brought recognition and commendation. Here are a few such instances:
After reading an account on Jehovah’s Witnesses in Nazi concentration camps, a Jewish rabbi who survived the Sachsenhausen camps wrote: “Knowledge that there were men and women [Jehovah’s Witnesses] who chose death rather than sacrificing their innermost faith and their deeply held convictions will forever remain for me one of the truly inspiring and ennobling experiences of my life.”
The London Times published a letter from Dr. Bryan Wilson of Oxford University concerning the neutral position of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Zambia and other African countries. In part, Dr. Wilson said: “Jehovah’s Witnesses are among the most upright and diligent of the citizenry of African countries. Were the values that they endorse and by which they live so consistently more widely diffused in Africa, some of the worst social problems from which African countries suffer would be considerably mitigated.”
Regarding the Cuban Witness refugees in Fort Chaffee, the report in the Arkansas Gazette said: “They were the very first to be relocated into new homes because their American ‘brothers and sisters’—fellow Jehovah’s Witnesses—sought them out. . . . When Witnesses call their spiritual counterparts in any land ‘brothers and sisters,’ they really mean it.”
Jehovah’s Witnesses, by putting their trust in God’s kingdom, testify to the fact that true religion, based on the Bible, is a powerful force for peace when it is consistently followed.
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“The weapons of our warfare are not fleshly.”—2 Corinthians 10:4