Is the Prince of Peacea Peace-nik?
Pacifism and World War II
in light of
Micah’s Vine & Fig Tree Vision
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If we take the Bible seriously, and try to follow the teachings of Jesus, will we be “pacifists?” Is that practical?
“Pacifism” is a vilified term in most conservative and Christian circles. The author of this paper is a conservative Christian: a six-day creationist and a five-point Calvinist. He is also a “Theonomist” or “Christian Reconstructionist” who holds that the entire Bible – including the Old Testament – is a blueprint for the reconstruction of all of society. This paper argues that taking the entire Bible seriously, treating it as a textbook of law, economics, politics, and foreign policy – even if that means being a “pacifist” – is the only way to avoid the deaths of hundreds of millions – maybe even billions – of people in the 21st century.
It’s not easy to understand the Bible, because we are part of a culture that is so far removed from the Bible. This was not always the case. America was once a Christian Republic. Our laws were based on the Bible. It is no longer Christian, nor is it a Republic. It is a secular empire. James Madison, “the Father of the Constitution,” said in his famous “Memorial and Remonstrance,” that any legislation should be vetoed if “the policy of the bill is adverse to the diffusion of the light of Christianity.” Today, if a legislator has a hidden hope that a bill might help further Christian morality or remove obstacles to faithfulness, the courts will strike down that legislation, such as legislation allowing a “moment of silence” in government schools, which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down when it discovered that some legislators had hoped students might use that “moment of silence” to pray. Students graduate from school knowing next-to-nothing about the Bible and how it was applied and how the Bible made America the most admired nation on earth.
The 20th century was for the most part a secular century. It has turned out to be a century of unparalleled evil. Secular governments murdered an average of 10,000 people per day each and every day during the century (not counting abortions, which would vastly increase that number). We can expect several times as many “legal” murders in the next century if these secular trends continue.
Most people feel that the Old Testament has little if anything to say to the modern world. Nobody these days reads Old Testament prophets unless they’re looking for clues to the identity of the Antichrist. Nobody in Washington, D.C. is looking in the Old Testament for policy recommendations. This paper presupposes the abiding validity of the Word of God in all of Scripture, and seeks to apply Biblical principles to today’s problems.
We believe, for example, that modern “fractional reserve banking” is the moral equivalent of theft, and that the Bible requires a return to what economists might call a “gold standard.”
We also believe that Jesus commanded us to observe principles that would earn the label “pacifist” for those who follow them. This paper explains why those principles are needed today, and how they would have prevented the murder of hundreds of millions of people in the 20th century, had they been followed.
Our goal is the Christianization of the entire planet, as spelled out by the Prophet Micah:
Micah 4:1-5
And it will come about in the last days
That the mountain of the House of the LORD
Will be established as the chief of the mountains
And it will be raised above the hills
And the peoples will stream to it.
And many nations will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD
And to the House of the God of Jacob,
That He may teach us about His ways
And that we may walk in His paths.”
For from Zion will go forth the Law
Even the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
And He will judge between many peoples
And render decisions for mighty, distant nations.
Then they will hammer their
swords into plowshares
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation will not lift up sword against nation
And never again will they train for war.
And each of them will sit under his
Vine and under his fig tree,
With no one to make them afraid.
For the LORD of hosts has spoken.
“Swords into plowshares” has become a bumper-sticker for left-wing anti-war protesters, but not Micah’s lines about obeying God’s Law. The phrase about not training for war is applauded by pacifists, but too many so-called pacifists are also socialists who don’t have much to say about Micah’s idea of individual families retaining private ownership of their “Vine & Fig Tree.”
Some issues are controversial, but on this issue there is consensus: everybody believes either (a) Jesus was a pacifist, or (b) Jesus said many things that, if taken “too literally,” could lead to pacifism.
Jesus said we are to love our enemy. It’s a cornerstone of His system of ethics. Jesus did not take up arms against the government when the government – in the most evil and unjustified infringement of human rights in all of human history – sought to arrest and execute the sinless Son of God:
John 18:36
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”
Then we are told to “follow in His steps”:
1 Peter 2:21-23
For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in His steps. {22} “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth.” {23} When He was abused, He did not return abuse; when He suffered, He did not threaten; but He entrusted himself to the one who judges justly.
David Koresh did not follow in Jesus’ footsteps when Janet Reno’s thugs pulled up in front of his church. And America’s Founding Fathers acted more like David Koresh than Jesus when they got out their muskets when the British IRS came calling. See our analysis of Romans 13 here:
http://start.at/July4th1776
This paper claims that the events that gave rise to World War II provide no justification for abandoning the straight-forward “pacifism” of Jesus and the command to “follow in His steps.” This is a very startling and even offensive proposition for most Americans. Many people have objected to or questioned the position taken by Vine & Fig Tree with regard to war and the military. Here is a representative email:
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Subj: / Question!Date: / 3/17/2003 6:02:34 AM Pacific Standard Time
From: /
To: / VFT
If America had not come to the defense of Europe, at what point would God have killed Hitler and stopped the slaughter of untold millions of human beings?
Thanks for your time,
Jim
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In response, there are two questions that need to be asked:
· If the whole range of political policies commanded by the whole Bible (including – but not limited to – pacifism) had been practiced both before and after the rise of Hitler, would more or fewer lives have been lost?
· Which was greater: the costs of military intervention, or the benefits?
The total cost of World War II was approximately 50 million deaths, including civilians. Details in Appendix A. The total economic destruction wrought by World War II is undoubtedly close to a trillion dollars in 1990 dollars, but the total loss is incalculable, because so many artistic and historic masterworks were lost, including centuries-old architecture filled with historic treasures. Many of these priceless creations were of a distinctly Christian character.
Many people believe that a greater number of people would have died if the United States had adopted the suggestions of pacifists and not entered World War II.
These fine people fail to consider what might have happened if all Biblical policies – not just pacifism – had been followed in the decades preceding World War II. This includes Biblical laws on banking and economics, as well as Biblical laws prohibiting “entangling alliances” with tyrannical governments.
The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible.”
— Washington, Farewell Address (1796)
[Washington’s emphasis]
I deem [one of] the essential principles of our government, and consequently [one] which ought to shape its administration,…peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.
— Jefferson, First Inaugural Address (1801)
The facts strongly suggest that those who really pull the strings in Washington have followed policies designed to achieve goals that are diametrically opposed to those of most Americans. As America mourns the death of Ronald Reagan and applauds the policies that led to the downfall of the “former” Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, we need to consider some facts that are not usually found in public school civics textbooks.
The Great Depression
If America had followed Biblical blueprints, the Great Depression would not have occurred. “The Roaring 20’s” were not just culturally, but in terms of banking and other economic policies, a repudiation of Biblical Law.
Henry Hazlitt and the Great Depression Appendix B
Five Books That Explain It All Appendix C
Departures from God’s economic laws in the opening decades of the 20th century led to America’s Great Depression, which had world-wide impact, including Germany, which also violated Biblical laws on economics, and suffered its own economic dislocations, and these crises directly set the stage for Hitler’s rise to power and the onset of World War II.
The Rise of “Scientific Socialism”
In 1892, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that America was a Christian nation. The court’s opinion was a conservative attempt to slow the accelerating secularism that had become noticeable, especially after the publication in 1859 of Darwin’s famous book with the not-as-famous full title: The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection; or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. During the early part of the 20th century, Darwin’s work became quite popular among certain political leaders who blamed the economic stagnation of their socialistic and anti-capitalist economies on certain un-favored races. These dictators called their policies “scientific socialism.”
Embarrassingly, many powerful people in America, the once-Christian nation, admired the ideas and policies of “scientific socialism,” and helped advocates of that position come into power, notably including Adolph Hitler and Benito “he-made-the-trains-run-on-time” Mussolini. Other notable advocates of “scientific socialism” – though not flying that banner by name – were Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
The early part of the 20th century saw the rise of “dispensationalism,” which encouraged Christians to wait for the “rapture” instead of working to build that “City on a Hill.” In 1925, the “Scope’s Trial” sent many Christians ducking for cover, and Christians have been in cultural and political retreat ever since. They are no longer the salt of the earth and a light unto the world, and America is no longer a City upon a Hill. Christians did not apply Micah’s Vine & Fig Tree Vision to the events of the day. They left control of America to secularists and “scientific socialists.”
But it’s not the case that Hitler emerged from Germany’s depression and hyperinflation without outside help. He received direct aid from Americans with a public reputation for being “capitalists.” If America had been a Christian pacifist nation, following the “Vine & Fig Tree” blueprints in the Bible, she would not have given military and financial support to Hitler and other dictators during the 1920’s and 30’s.
Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler Appendix D
American Swastika Appendix E
The “right hand” does not always know what “the left hand” is doing.
Senator Joe McCarthy – for all the invective against him[1] - was right: The U.S. Federal Government was infested with commies:
The Real McCarthy Record - Appendix G
McCarthy’s “Witches” Appendix H
McCarthy and His Colleagues Appendix I
The prestigious (and conservative) think-tank at Stanford University, the Hoover Institute, published a multi-volume study of de-classified State Department documents and other government records which proved beyond question that the Soviet Union would not have lasted more than a few years without technological and financial aid from the so-called “capitalist” West. Socialism does not work. It must be propped up by capitalism.
Wall Street And The Bolshevik Revolution Appendix J
About Antony Sutton Appendix K
Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1930-1945 Appendix L
The purpose and Grand Strategy of World War II – which was determined not by the brave men and women who fought and died in it, but by the Washington D.C. communists in the State Department and throughout the U.S. federal government – was to extend communism. Defeat for Hitler’s National Socialism meant victory for Stalin and International Socialism, which was at least 10 times as lethal as Nazism. Americans may have fought and died for “freedom” in their own minds, but the architects of the War only entered the war against German National Socialism in order to further International Socialism under Stalin. It’s a tragedy that pacifism wasn’t stronger in those days.