War is Criminal | 7

Category:
NON-VIOLENCE

7. War Is Criminal,
As It Is Inconsistent With Forgiving Trespasses As We Wish To Be Forgiven

Our Saviour said:

“If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive your trespasses.”

“Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.”

Here it is evident that the everlasting salvation of men depends on their exercising forgiveness towards their enemies;

for if they forgive not, they will not be forgiven of God, and with what measure they mete to others, it will be measured to them again.

To forgive is to pass by an offense, treating the offender not according to his desert, but as though he had done nothing amiss.

But do the principles of war lead individuals or nations to pass by offenses and to treat offenders as if they were innocent?

Do they not, on the contrary, require justice and exact the very last mite?

Has it the aspect of forgiveness for us, when an enemy trespasses on our rights, to arm with weapons of slaughter and meet him on the field of battle?

Who, while piercing the heart of his enemy with a sword, can consistently utter this prayer: “Father, forgive my trespasses, as I have forgiven the trespasses of this my enemy”?

But this, in reference to this subject, is the only prayer the gospel warrants him to make.

And professing Christian nations, while at war and bathing their swords in each other’s blood to redress mutual trespasses, are daily in their public litanies offering this prayer;

but is it not obvious that either their prayers are perfect mockery, or they desire not to be forgiven but to be punished to the extent of their deserts?

If individuals or nations desire that God would forgive their trespasses, then they must not only pray for it, but also actually exercise forgiveness towards those who trespass against them;

and then they may beat their useless swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks and learn war no more.

But it must be very criminal to engage in war, or to tolerate it in any way, if it is inconsistent with the forgiveness of injuries as we hope to be forgiven, and in this respect violates the precepts of the gospel.