11. Prophecies of the Old Testament
respecting an era of peace
In an inquiry into whether Christianity allows war, there is a subject that always appears to me to be of peculiar importance:
the prophecies of the Old Testament respecting the arrival of a period of universal peace.
The belief is perhaps general among Christians that a time will come when vice shall be eradicated from the world, when the violent passions of mankind shall be repressed, and when the pure benignity of Christianity shall be universally diffused.
That such a period will come we indeed know assuredly, for God has promised it.
Of the many prophecies of the Old Testament respecting it, I will refer only to a few from the writings of Isaiah. In his predictions respecting the “last times,” by which it is not disputed that he referred to the prevalence of the Christian religion, the prophet says:
“They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks. Nation shall not lift the sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”
Again, referring to the same period, he says:
“They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.”
And again, respecting the same era:
“Violence shall be no more heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders.”
2 things are to be observed in relation to these prophecies:
first, that it is the will of God that war should eventually be abolished:
This consideration is of importance, for if war is not accordant with His will, war cannot be accordant with Christianity, which is the revelation of His will.
My business, however, is principally with the second consideration:
that Christianity will be the means of introducing this period of peace.
From those who say that our religion sanctions war, an answer must be expected to questions such as these:
By what instrumentality and by the diffusion of what principles will the prophecies of Isaiah be fulfilled?
Are we to expect some new system of religion by which the imperfections of Christianity shall be removed, and its deficiencies supplied?
Are we to believe that God sent his only Son into the world to institute a religion such as this – a religion that, in a few centuries, would require alteration and amendment?
If Christianity allows war, they must tell us what it is that is to extirpate war:
If she allows “violence, wasting, and destruction,” they must tell us what the principles are that are to produce gentleness, benevolence, and forbearance.
I know not what answer such inquiries will receive from the advocate of war,
but I know that Isaiah says the change will be effected by Christianity, and if anyone still chooses to expect another and a purer system, an apostle may perhaps repress his hopes:
“If we, or an angel from heaven,” said Paul, “preach any other gospel than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”
Whatever the principles of Christianity will require hereafter, they require now. Christianity, with its present principles and obligations, is to produce universal peace.
It becomes, therefore, an absurdity, a simple contradiction, to maintain that the principles of Christianity allow war, when they, and they only, are to eradicate it.
If we have no other guarantee of peace than the existence of our religion, and no other hope of peace than in its diffusion, how can that religion sanction war?
The conclusion that it does not sanction it appears strictly logical:
I do not perceive that a demonstration from Euclid can be clearer, and I think that if we possessed no other evidence of the unlawfulness of war, there is contained in this a proof which prejudice cannot deny, and which sophistry cannot evade.
The case is clear:
A more perfect obedience to that same gospel which we are told sanctions slaughter will be the means, and the only means, of exterminating slaughter from the world.
It is not from an alteration of Christianity, but from an assimilation of Christians to its nature that we are to hope.
It is because we violate the principles of our religion, because we are not what they require us to be, that wars are continued.
If we will not be peaceable, let us then at least be honest, and acknowledge that we continue to slaughter one another, not because Christianity permits it, but because we reject her laws.
The Christian ought to be satisfied, on questions connected with his duties, by the simple rules of his religion:
If those rules disallow war, he should inquire no farther,
but since I am willing to give conviction to the reader by whatever means, and since truth carries its evidence with greater force from accumulated testimony, I would refer to two or three other subjects in illustration of our principles, or in confirmation of their truth.