Discussion No. 1: “The Bible Teaches Non‑Violence”?

How it came up

This one started nowhere near the Bible.

A friend of mine was talking about all the ugliness in the world. One thing led to another, the way conversations do, and somewhere in there we landed on the military. She told me people can just be so mean and evil, and that the Bible taught her about non-violence. Jesus was non-violent, she said, and she just couldn't see herself joining the military.

Now, I served. United States Army. So I explained my military service to her, and the part people outside of it don't always understand: we all don't go out and kill other people. The military is a lot of things before it is ever that.

But then I said something that caught her off guard. I told her the Bible she was standing on has had violence in it from the very beginning, and armies in it almost as long. Militaries, military organization, military strategy, it has always existed, even in the Bible. She said she didn't realize the Bible mentioned anything about a military or an army, and that she was going to go back and look into it.

So let's look into it together. That's what this House does. A topic comes up, and the book gets opened.

Opening the book

Start at the beginning, because the violence does. Four chapters into the whole Bible, one brother kills another:

“And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.” (Genesis 4:8)

Let's be exact here, because exact is the whole point of this study: Cain and Abel is violence, not military. One man killed his brother in a field. No army, no weapon even named. But it tells you the book does not open on a peaceful world. The first family in it buries a son because of the other son.

Israel’s armies come in with Egypt. When Israel finally walks out of that land, listen to how the text talks about them:

“These are that Aaron and Moses, to whom the LORD said, Bring out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their armies.” (Exodus 6:26)

“And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 12:41)

Armies. Hosts. And then there’s this one, worth slowing down on because of what sits under one old word:

“But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea: and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 13:18)

“Harnessed.” That’s the King James talking, 1611 English. Pull up a modern translation of the same verse and the English Standard Version says they went up “equipped for battle.” The New International Version says “ready for battle.” These people did not stroll out of Egypt. They marched out in formation.

And it keeps going. The book of Numbers opens with God telling Moses to take a census, and look at who gets counted:

“From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies.” (Numbers 1:3)

That is a draft registration. That is military organization, written into the book. And Deuteronomy goes further and gives rules of engagement:

“When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses, and chariots, and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them: for the LORD thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 20:1)

Not “if” thou goest out to battle. When.

But hold on, because she wasn’t wrong either

Here is where this study is different from an argument. My friend didn't make that up about non-violence. Her verses are in the book too, and they're just as real as mine:

“But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” (Matthew 5:39)

“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;” (Matthew 5:44)

That's Jesus talking, and he meant it. And the same Jesus, the night he was arrested, said to the follower who had just drawn a sword (Matthew 26:51):

“Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” (Matthew 26:52)

So she had a real foundation under her feet. But now watch what the text does with actual soldiers, because this is the part that caught her off guard, and honestly it catches most people off guard.

When soldiers came to John the Baptist asking what they should do to get right, here was his answer:

“And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages.” (Luke 3:14)

He told them how to be soldiers. Don't abuse your power, don't shake people down, don't lie on anybody, be content with your pay. What he did not tell them was to stop being soldiers.

And when a Roman centurion, a professional military officer with soldiers under his command, came to Jesus about his sick servant, the man described his own life in military terms: “For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth” (Matthew 8:9). And Jesus’ response?

“When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” (Matthew 8:10)

He marveled. He praised the man’s faith above everybody’s, healed the servant, and sent him on his way. The text says nothing, not one word, telling that officer to leave the military.

And for one more wrinkle, the same Jesus who said put up thy sword also said this, the same night:

“Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.” (Luke 22:36)

Sell your coat and buy a sword, said at the supper table in Luke's telling. Put your sword away, said at the arrest in Matthew's telling. Both of those are in the book, both in the story of that same night. I'm not going to pretend I can flatten that out for you, and this study doesn't do that. Questions stay questions when the text doesn't settle them.

Where it landed

So no, I didn't tell my friend the Bible is a war manual, because it isn't. What I told her is what I'm telling you: Israel's army has been in the book since it marched out of Egypt in battle order, violence has been in it since the fourth chapter, and non-violence is preached in it by Jesus himself, and all of that is sitting in the same Bible. The book is not as simple as either side wants it to be.

She said she was going to go back and take another look. That's all this House ever asks of anybody.

Come as you are. Bring the question you actually have.