Category Archives: Nonviolence

Nonviolence, Spirituality

Hijacked Pentecostalism

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by Sam Lee. Originally published at his blog.

Pentecostalism is one of the fastest growing Christian movements in our world today, especially in the global South. Some Christians in the West admire this growth.  Most of them witness the decline of the organized Christianity in their own countries, while Pentecostalism attracts millions of people in the global South.  As I have been observing, the Western Christians often romanticize the growing Pentecostalism in the South!

As a full time Pentecostal (Non-Western) pastor and a sociologist I have several reasons to be concerned about the current condition of Pentecostalism in the South:

There is an emerging radicalism among the Pentecostals in the South. This radicalism does more harm than good, especially in the Non-Western world. Radicalism that is proclaimed from the pulpits of the fundamentalist Pentecostals offers no room for dialogue, and communication with those who are different. Such Pentecostals do not easily accept peoples from other Christian denominations, let alone those from other faiths.

Continue reading Hijacked Pentecostalism →

History, Nonviolence

The Biblical and Apostolic Foundation of Pacifism

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Quite consistently in my life the issue of Christian pacifism has been a subject of interest. Even well before I became a Christian, I held to a deeply pacifist morality. I distinctly remember one conversation at a family gathering when I expressed disagreement with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. My brother (an enthusiastic Charismatic Christian at the time) said something that stuck with me; he called me “the family Democrat”. To him at the time, pacifism was not a Gospel or Biblical issue. Pacifism was entirely partisan (despite Democrats engaging in just as much violence as Republicans).

For many people, this continues to be the case. Regularly with my work in the church and wider community, the issue of Christian morality comes up, and this inevitably leads to a discussion about pacifism. As I observed with my brother many years ago, pacifism is often understood as a somehow disconnected from Christian values. For many, there is simple ignorance about the teachings of peace found in the Gospel, and for many others, they are aware of such teachings, but find them unrealistic, and do not believe that they are relevant for post-New Testament Christians.  Continue reading The Biblical and Apostolic Foundation of Pacifism →

History, Nonviolence

Free E-Book on Early Christian Pacifism

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Hopefully, you’ve already discovered our resource pages filled with free articles, book recommendations, and links to other great ministries and podcasts. We’ve just added our first free e-book on the Books section: The Early Christian Attitude to War by Cecil John Cadoux.

Published almost 100 years ago in 1919, Cadoux did the first – and many argue still the best – comprehensive review of basically everything early Christian leaders and church fathers said regarding war, violence, soldiers and peace. His conclusion is that most of them were pacifists, and that the strong Christian commitment to nonviolence was overturned by the Constantinian influence in the fourth century.

cadoux
Cecil John Cadoux (1883-1947)

It’s amazing to see how Cadoux debunks arguments still used today by non-pacifist Christians, for example the idea that Tertullian only became a pacifist after he joined the “heretic” Montanist movement, or that Origen supported Christians becoming soldiers even though he wrote:

“You cannot demand military service of Christians any more than you can of priests. We do not go forth as soldiers.” (Against Celsus VIII.7.3)

Cadoux’ book is a well-worth read if you want to understand how the earliest Christians interpreted the Sermon on the Mount. Also, it’s very interesting to see that when Christians abandoned pacifism in the fourth century, the charismatic gifts and ministries also faded. The Holy Spirit clearly doesn’t like when God’s children start killing others.

ska%cc%88rmavbild-2017-01-06-kl-21-17-02Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice is a multicultural, gender inclusive, and ecumenical organization that promotes peace, justice, and reconciliation work among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world. If you like what we do, please become a member!

Nonviolence, Politics

Waking Up from My Fantasy About Israel

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by Heather Goodman, originally posted on her blog.

As a Jew, I love Israel. There’s no way around that. In fourth grade I remember being assigned to write a report on any country in the world, and it was a complete no-brainer as to which country my report would be about. With great pride I decorated the blue-and-white report cover with the Israeli flag. Although seemingly irrelevant, I sprinkled some family recipes for things like matzo ball soup into the report, although now I see that the ethnic pride in recipes and that nationalistic pride in my peoples’ country really are not that far apart.

Years later, I’d get to take my first trip to Israel, and tour dozens of ancient Biblical archaeological sites. And where our Israeli tour guide could not take our group, but instead handed us off to a Palestinian tour guide, we also got to tour the ancient sites of the West Bank. As I came to realize how many places in my peoples’ history and my Bible were not under Jewish ownership but instead Palestinian, I started to realize that this did not sit well with my fantasies of what the “Jewish homeland” should be. My inner child wanted a complete restoration of what once was – I was living a fantasy of having walked back through the pages of the Bible, into the land of my Fathers and Mothers and into the “Kingdom of Israel” — with King David or Solomon, take your pick, ruling from Jerusalem, the Shekinah glory of God sitting on the Temple Mount in the Jewish temple, and every ancient parcel of land firmly a land for me, for us, the Jews. Continue reading Waking Up from My Fantasy About Israel →

Nonviolence

Why American Pentecostals Stopped Being Pacifists

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By Roger E. Olson, originally published on his Patheos blog in 2015. Reposted with permission.

In my opinion, many evangelicals have neglected, if not denied, the supernatural due to a general search for respectability. Nowhere is this evangelical search for respectability more evident to me than among Pentecostals. All Pentecostal Christians pay lip service to miracles, but how many actually believe in and pray for miracles? Many do, but I would guess their number is fewer than fifty years ago. To a very large extent, according to my observations, American Pentecostals have blended in with American society and lost their particularity—except on paper.

One notable feature of Pentecostalism that is gradually changing is its anti-intellectualism and that I consider a positive sign of maturation. In the past, intellectually inclined Pentecostals had to work outside their tradition (in non-Pentecostal evangelical organizations and institutions) or leave Pentecostalism altogether. Today there is a rich and growing intellectual subculture among American Pentecostals evidenced by the large and flourishing Society for Pentecostal Studies and its scholarly journal Pneuma. Pentecostal leaders are far less devoted to anti-intellectualism than fifty years ago. It’s not difficult to identify Pentecostal scholars with reputations beyond the movement’s borders: Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Amos Yong, Gary Tyra, Frank Macchia, Gerald Sheppard, Russell Spittler, Cheryl Bridges Johns, Stephen Land, Gordon Fee, Craig Keener, James Smith. Continue reading Why American Pentecostals Stopped Being Pacifists →

Nonviolence

A Pentecostal Alternative to Dispensationalism

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by Tony Richie. Part 3 of 3 (part 1, part 2). Read the whole article as a PDF here.

A Provocative Theology

R. Hollis Gause, a prominent Pentecostal theologian (Church of God, Cleveland, TN), elucidates an alternative to fundamentalist dispensationalism through a careful comparison-contrast of dispensational theology and a theology of progressive revelation. Gause explains that progressive revelation does not divide up biblical history as dispensationalism. It does not hermeneutically distinguish between the Church, Israel, and the kingdom of God. The nature of God, the history of salvation, and the character of the people of God are progressively revealed. Earlier events anticipate and predict later events. The inspiration of the Holy Spirit gives Scripture a progressive and even prophetic or predictive quality.

In stark contrast to the hermeneutical compartmentalizing of dispensationalism, progressive revelation affirms a more unified approach to biblical interpretation and understanding. Gause concludes that “the view of progressive and unified revelation of the history of salvation offers the better interpretation of Scripture.” For Gause, considerations of the unchangeableness and unity of God and God’s Word consistently lead to this conclusion.[12] Continue reading A Pentecostal Alternative to Dispensationalism →

Interviews, Nonviolence

Greg Boyd: How the Violent Portraits of God Can Point to the Cross

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Greg Boyd is a charismatic Anabaptist with a passion for theology, preaching, writing and playing the drums. He is the Senior Pastor of Woodland Hills Church in S:t Paul, Minnesota, and has authored several best-selling books, including Letters from a Skeptic and The Myth of a Christian Nation.

His most recent books are Crucifixion of the Warrior God and Cross Vision, both of which argue that we need to reshape our view of the violent portraits of God in the Old Testament. PCPJ managed to interview Boyd on

What have the main reactions been to the books?

So far the responses have been overwhelmingly positive.  Some of the testimonies I’ve received have been so awesome – and so humbling!  For example, I have had a number of people tell me that they felt like Crucifixion of the Warrior God (or Cross Vision, which is a popular version of the more academic Crucifixion of the Warrior God) finally set them free to fully trust that God is as beautiful as he’s revealed to be in the crucified Christ. Continue reading Greg Boyd: How the Violent Portraits of God Can Point to the Cross →

Nonviolence, Politics, Spirituality

A People Without a Temple: Pentecostals, Nonviolence and the Chilean-Mapuche Conflict

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by Elvis Castro Lagos.

On June 9, 2016, while a small Evangelical congregation in a rural area, about 2 miles from Temuco, La Araucanía, in Chile, was celebrating an evening service, a group of at least 5 people broke in, and shooting in the air with heavy guns drove the parishioners violently out of the building, proceeding to put it to fire. A note left in the site stated: “Christianity, accomplice of repression to Mapuche people”. It was the third evangelical temple burnt, but this case was special since the congregation (most of them Mapuche people) was in the building in the moment of the attack. The suspected perpetrators were imprisoned and are still being prosecuted. Up to this day, near 30 Catholic and Evangelical church buildings have been burnt in different rural sites in La Araucanía.

Continue reading A People Without a Temple: Pentecostals, Nonviolence and the Chilean-Mapuche Conflict →

Gender Equality, Nonviolence

Mutual Submission in a Christlike Marriage

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One of the most challenging issues in the church is this idea that marriage involves a husband having authority OVER his wife.  I can’t tell you how many marriages have been harmed by this teaching and how often a marriage is reduced by teachings such as this.   Marriage is not a business or a corporation in which one person is leader over the other and decides what is best for another person.  Marriage is about two human beings being in an intimate relationship with one another within which each one is honored and respected.  It is in the family that we and our children learn how to live justly in community.  That is why mutual submission is so important.

This idea of husbands being in authority over a wife comes from the patriarchal ideals common in the first century when women were given to further the honor or wealth of a given family.  She was more of a traded commodity than a person.  In the first century women were considered less human, imperfect or less formed males, and inferior beings with less rational abilities.  They were also considered more easily deceived and childlike, therefore in need of a ruler. Continue reading Mutual Submission in a Christlike Marriage →

Nonviolence, Politics

To Whom Has God Given Authority To Kill Donald Trump?

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I was holding my breath the other week when Kim Jong-Un and Donald Trump – probably among the most unreliable political leaders of this age – were waging a war of words. Trump said that if Kim continues to threaten the United States they will be met with “fire and fury”, a statement he later said “wasn’t tough enough” (but what could be tougher?). The North Korean leadership almost immediately responded with threats of nuking the American colony of Guam, which likely would start the first nuclear war ever.

Thankfully, Kim later announced that he’s standing by, waiting for the next move by the “stupid yankees”. And I was able to breath again. But I’m taking short breaths, and pray that these madmen will come to their senses.

And then I stumble upon the comments by Southern Baptist Megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress, who as this crisis was at its peak boldly proclaimed that “God has given Trump authority to take out Kim Jong Un”. So how does Pastor Jeffress defend this claim?

“When it comes to how we should deal with evildoers, the Bible, in the book of Romans, is very clear: God has endowed rulers full power to use whatever means necessary — including war — to stop evil. In the case of North Korea, God has given Trump authority to take out Kim Jong Un.”

Trump, Jeffress and Kim
Trump, Jeffress and Kim

Now, it’s important to understand that Jeffress isn’t claiming any personal revelation here: he claims that based on the Bible alone, specifically Romans 13, one can reach the conclusion that God wants Trump to kill Kim. But Romans 13 emphasizes that all governments have the same authority: Continue reading To Whom Has God Given Authority To Kill Donald Trump? →