I did not die so that you could defeat, steal from, kill and destroy your enemies. I died so that you would love them as I loved you while you were My enemies.
What do you want, My children?
Do you want Me and My kingdom or do you want Barabbas and what he fought and killed for? You cannot have both.
Woe! Woe! Woe! My people are choosing Barabbas, following him, and teaching his ways! They reject Me for another ‘Jesus’!
Turn, My people! Turn from your ways and be saved! For the path you are choosing leads only to death!
I give life through the Cross —not through the sword! If you live by the sword, you will die by the sword.
*****
Ramone Romero is an artist based in Osaka, Japan.
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Pentecostals & 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!
(art: “The Release of Barabbas” and “Follow the Lamb”, by Ramone Romero)
This advent, Matthew 21 will be read in churches all over the globe, telling the story of when Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. Let us imagine Jesus instead approaching Gaza City… The Prince of Peace has heard the cries from over two million people, completely without future and hope. What happens when he rides into war-torn Gaza?
A gigantic humanitarian disaster is already a fact. Jesus knows this and therefore chooses to see reality with his own eyes during a few days of temporary ceasefire.
The disciples have rushed ahead to arrange permission through the now only possible border crossing at Rafah, a place that Jesus passed with his parents during their flight to Egypt. The disciples present Jesus as the supreme leader of the approximately 300 Christians remaining. They want to celebrate the advent of hope with Jesus’s radical message of peace at the center.
The stir is great at Rafah during the temporary ceasefire, with both prisoner exchanges and queues of long-haul trucks with aid. Like everyone else – diplomats, healthcare, and aid workers, truck drivers – Jesus must go through security procedures. Even his sandals are x-rayed. However, he is completely unarmed. Jesus and three of his disciples are allowed in.
Inside the Gaza Strip, which is no larger than Las Vegas, some young boys offer Jesus a donkey to ride on. Cars exist, but gasoline is now lacking. Lamps exist, but there is no longer electricity. Water exists in springs, but it is not drinkable.
Jesus’s path goes through a moonscape. Old monasteries and Christian memorials from desert fathers and mothers are now just grains of sand. Israeli military operations in 2008, 2012, 2014, and now 2023 have dropped tens of thousands of bombs, causing devastation of unimaginable proportions. Every teenager in Gaza has been traumatized multiple times.
The closer Jesus gets to Gaza City, the stronger the sewage stench from the Mediterranean. There are no longer any functioning purification plants. All sewage is flushed into the sea. Even the once beautiful beaches with fishing boats are now a ticking bomb.
Jesus rides slowly into Gaza City, which has become a “ghost town”. He recites aloud the old prophetic words: “Prepare the way for the Lord in the wilderness, make a straight path in the desert for our God…” Then Jesus begins to pronounce names of places where violence has triumphed in modern times: Guernica, Oradour, Babij Jar, Katyń, Lidice, Sharpeville, Treblinka, Hanoi, Rwanda… “And in advent 2023, we must add Gaza,” says Jesus with sorrow in his voice.
The remaining people in Gaza City have heard about the unusual visit and come running. In the absence of anything else, they lay their t-shirts on the ground. Some have made palm leaves out of bomb scrap. Some young men dance dabke in front of the donkey ride, and children sing along the way “Biladi, ya ardi” (“My homeland, my earth”). Jesus is hailed as a prophet, a liberator.
The disciples start to get worried. Surely Jesus shouldn’t be this political? He could be killed as a supporter of Hamas. Silence the children! They are singing the national anthem. But Jesus calms the anxious:
“Strangely enough, there is currently a unique space for action for all involved parties. I want to talk to the leaders of Israel and the Palestinians about their responsibility, and offer a vision of Gaza as a thriving free trade area in the Mediterranean – like Singapore in Asia. I want to meet with Netanyahu, and as a Jew, plead for the peace talks to be resumed for the sake of Israel’s own best.”
Jesus reminds that he has already delivered a speech to humanity known as the “Sermon on the Mount”. A message of bold kindness and radical mercy. It is now the mission of his disciples to turn this manifesto into socio-politics and broad popular movements. Violence must not obliterate politics! The Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt argued that “only through politics does real power and freedom develop.”
Nativity scene in the Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, Palestine, Christmas 2023
We, who in thought accompany Jesus into Gaza, probably find it hard to see a solution to the war that is now raging. But still, it is not only the violence and nationalism of the warring parties that prevent a just peace, but the self-absorption of many at political or at “biblical” and other religious positions. My question is therefore: Where are the broad alliances, built on respect for each other, where we dare to seek out the core of the conflict?
Gaza is a microcosm of evil and barbarity in our time, but also of simple people’s distress, courage, and resilience. To imagine Jesus riding into Gaza highlights the horrors of war: the arrogance of power, the ongoing displacement, and the vulnerable situation of civilians.
Sune Fahlgren is associate professor of practical theology at the University College Stockholm, Sweden. This is a modified translation of an article he wrote for the Swedish newspaper Dagen.
The film Jesus Revolution about the youth revival in the 1970s has done much better than expected in US cinemas – and now there are reports that some have even given their lives to Jesus after seeing the film. At a movie theater in Miami, a prayer and praise meeting arose after the film was over where some made the decision to become Christians.
Here I have made a video where I have collected clips from the revival meeting at the cinema:
People were saved even during filming. When Jonathan Roumie, who plays the hippie preacher Lonnie Frisbee in the film (and who also plays Jesus in the series The Chosen) filmed a scene where Lonnie baptized hundreds of people in the sea, some of the extras said that they had never been baptized but wanted to be born again in the name of Jesus. Thus, some of the baptisms that made it into the movie are not staged, but the cameras filmed people being baptized for real! 🙌
The film’s producer also said that many in the studio and on the production team who were not Christians were moved to tears when they saw the film and wanted to know more about Jesus. This is truly no ordinary Hollywood movie!
The Jesus Movement in the 1970s emerged as a unique blend of evangelism, charismatic spirituality, and activism for peace and justice. Participants were deeply engaged in anti-war protests, expressing their commitment to nonviolence and social reform. This countercultural movement also fostered a strong sense of community, with many followers living in communes and practicing a simple, communal lifestyle that emphasized shared values and spiritual growth.
As the Jesus Movement gained momentum, it attracted a diverse range of individuals, including disenchanted youth, disillusioned with the mainstream societal values of the time. These followers sought solace in the teachings of Jesus, interpreting them as a call for radical transformation of both individual lives and society as a whole.
The movement’s emphasis on charismatic spirituality, which included speaking in tongues, divine healings, and prophetic visions, created a sense of unity and transcendent experience among its members. This spiritual fervor served to strengthen their commitment to activism and social justice, fueling the movement’s impact on the broader culture.
The Jesus Movement’s anti-war stance aligned with the growing peace movement of the era, and its members often participated in protests and demonstrations against war and militarism. This commitment to peace extended to various social issues, such as racial and economic justice, environmental concerns, and advocating for the rights of marginalized communities.
Despite its countercultural roots, the Jesus Movement also had a lasting influence on mainstream Christianity. It contributed to the growth of contemporary Christian music, as well as the rise of non-denominational and charismatic churches. Ultimately, the Jesus Movement’s unique combination of evangelism, spirituality, and activism served as a powerful catalyst for change, both within Christian communities and in the broader society of the 1970s.
It’s amazing to see how the Holy Spirit is impacting people’s lives through this movie. Now sadly, I haven’t been able to watch the movie myself since I live in Sweden, but a Swedish friend of mine, Anders-Petter Sjödin, went to the premiere in Los Angeles and said that it was amazing. If you have the opportunity to see it, you should definitely take it.
Micael Grenholm is a Swedish church historian, author and an editor for PCPJ.
Pentecostals & 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!
This book has sold over 400,000 copies and has been translated into multiple languages. In it, Sider argues that Christians have a moral responsibility to actively work towards ending poverty and economic inequality and that prosperity theology, which teaches that wealth is a sign of God’s favor, is misguided.
Sider’s work has also had an impact on the broader society. He has been a leading voice in the Christian social justice movement for several decades, and has been influential in shaping the thinking of many Christians on issues of poverty, economic justice, and the role of faith in politics and society. He was the founder of Evangelicals for Social Action (nowadays called Christians for Social Action), an organization that works to mobilize evangelicals to advocate for social justice issues. Through his books, speaking engagements, and involvement with this organization, Sider has been instrumental in raising awareness of poverty and economic inequality and encouraging Christians to take action to address these issues.
Ron Sider was also a devoted pacifist and his speech at a Mennonite conference in 1984 that pacifists needed to be as willing to make sacrifices for peace as soldiers led to the founding of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, an organization that sends nonviolent observers to conflict zones.
Ron Sider’s work on nonviolence and peacemaking is centered around his belief that Christians have a moral responsibility to actively work towards peace and justice. He argues that war and violence are not consistent with the teachings of Jesus and that Christians should instead strive for nonviolence and reconciliation.
One of his notable contributions in this area is his book “Just Peacemaking: Ten Practices for Abolishing War” which was first published in 1992. In this book, Sider outlines ten practices that individuals, churches and nations can engage in to work towards the abolition of war and the establishment of just peace. These practices include: nonviolent resistance, conflict resolution, economic alternatives to military spending, and the promotion of democracy and human rights. He also argues that Christians should actively work towards disarmament and the abolition of nuclear weapons, and that the just war tradition has been misused to justify violence and war.
Sider’s work on nonviolence and peacemaking has been influential in shaping the thinking of many Christians on issues of peace and justice. He has been a leading voice in advocating for nonviolence and disarmament, and his work has helped to raise awareness of the moral implications of war and violence.
I listened to him when he visited Gothenburg over ten years ago and I was struck by his passion to follow Jesus and his Sermon on the Mount no matter what it costs us. We need more disciples like Ron!
We live in a violent world. The war in Ukraine is killing thousands and causes huge waves of refugees, economic instability and food shortages. The war in Syria is still going on, and the conflicts in Yemen, Afghanistan and South Sudan no longer even make headlines. During most of the last decade, the world has become less peaceful.
In response to such violence, many people think that the solution is more violence. Conventional wisdom tells us that we need to arm ourselves so we become stronger and deadlier than the “bad guys”.
Christian pacifists, who just like most Christians for the first 300 years believe that Jesus’ words about loving our enemies and turning the other cheek mean that we should not use violence, are often accused of being naive. Some have even claimed that Christian pacifism is evil! While abstaining from violence sounds loving in theory, many argue that the practical consequences of such a stance is catastrophic with countless innocent people killed as the “good guys” refused to harm or kill those who were after civilian blood.
War and violence are thus portrayed as a necessary evil, a last resort that we unfortunately have to use to stop authoritarian, mass-killing regimes.
All this is intuition. It’s what seems reasonable. But when researchers started to compare violent resistance to nonviolent resistance, they were in for a chock.
It turns out that nonviolence is at least twice as effective.
I encountered this research when I was part of a program in peace and conflict studies at Uppsala University. The findings is a real game-changer, making scholars from all around the world rethinking the need and use for military violence in the modern era.
Erica Chenoweth
An influential study by conflict researchers Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan from 2012 showed that nonviolent movements are twice as effective as violent movements in achieving their goals. They expanded upon this research in the book Why Civil Resistance Works. They collected data from over 300 protest movements between 1900 and 2016. 53 % of the nonviolent movements managed to achieve their goal, usually a change of regime, within a year, compared with 26% of the violent movements.
This study was groundbreaking, as no one had compared the results of violent and nonviolent methods in such a comprehensive way before. In 2018, Chenoweth published a new study together with Evan Perkoski that examined how well nonviolence compared to violence counteracted mass killing, when regimes kill 1000 people or more. They found that nonviolent movements were five times more effective at avoiding this than violent movements.
What are the reasons for the effectiveness of nonviolence? Chenoweth points to several factors. Nonviolence is generally cheaper and can easily recruit many more, there is greater variety of nonviolent methods than violent methods, it is psychologically more difficult for loyalists to harm or kill nonviolent trainees than armed rebels, and it is easier for loyalists to change sides and unite with nonviolent protests and nonviolent sabotage.
Chenoweth’s work has made a significant impact on peace and conflict research in general. Even non-pacifists like James Pattison and Ed Cairns have gained greater respect for non-violent methods and warned against resorting to violence too quickly. Cairns wrote:
I’ve never believed that pacifism is an adequate answer to a world of atrocities that – in truly exceptional cases – call out for an armed response. But there’s an awful lot of evidence for caution – and reason to give peace a chance.
Note that Chenoweth’s research does not say that nonviolence leads to guaranteed success. Rather, nonviolence is more likely to succeed than violence. Even in countries where nonviolent campaigns have failed, people have been ten times more likely to move to democracy within a five-year period than if they protested with violence.
Even if you can not guarantee that non-violence will succeed, you can also not guarantee that violence will succeed. The “necessary” in violence as “necessary evil” is difficult to prove scientifically.
This is great news! Loving enemies, like Jesus commanded us to, is actually more beneficial than killing them. Such love does not have to be at the expense of protecting the innocent. The question now is if the leaders of the world will take this research seriously and spend time and money developing nonviolent defense systems rather than military ones?
Micael Grenholm is a Swedish theologian, author, and editor for PCPJ.
Pentecostals & 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!
The topic of the pacifism in the early church is something I have written about before for PCPJ. However, in our world it often needs repeating and restating. The Church has often fallen into the temptations of politics and militarism. This is clearly seen in the Pentecostal/Charismatic Movement, which leaned towards pacifism in its early years, but became tolerant towards nationalism and militarism within only a few decades.
In the United States, we are in the midst of two events that make the topic of Christian pacifism relevant: 1. We are in the midst of a very brutal election season, and 2. We are approaching the 19th anniversary of the War on Terror, specifically the war in Afghanistan (which officially began October 7, 2001). It is the longest war in American history. Of course, PCPJ is an international organization, just as the Church is an international organization, but I think these are universal issues, and the war in Afghanistan includes many countries (including all of NATO). Additionally, PCPJ was founded in that time and context.
Considering that we have been in constant war for almost 20 years, I think it is time for Christians in the West to look back to our roots again and to not be seduced by politics or nationalism. What would Jesus say and do if He was here today? What would He say to a supposedly “Christian nation”? What would the prophets, apostles, and church fathers say in this time? Specifically, we should look at the early church. After all, Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity is primarily about revival – an attempt at recovering the Christianity of the apostolic age. Continue reading Was the Early Church Really Pacifist?→
We are called by Jesus to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9), resolving conflicts as we go forth to spread the Gospel about his love. Peace is always dependent on at least two parties, which is why we might experience conflict even when our intention is peace.
This is why Paul writes “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Rom 12:18). We try our best on our part, and pray that the other respond constructively.
What does this look like in practice? God seems to be very concerned with us asking that question, since the Bible provides us with several practical tools for conflict resolution and peacemaking.
One of my recent posts showed the local protest march in which my wife and I participated, and which our teenage daughter helped organize. One honest question has come up so often in response that I want to address it here.
Would Jesus have attended such a march, some have asked? Marching in parades aside, some feel that marching for racial justice, for the unborn or for other specific causes that suggest protest are inconsistent with proper Christian meekness. (I am assuming that those asking the question are also pacifists, since violence, and especially lethal violence, seems much less meek than nonviolent protests.) So, in consultation with my daughter Keren, I offer the following considerations.
The Keener family
Why march?
First, it may be helpful to note the purpose of marching. Marching commands public attention in the way that individual voices often cannot. It also provides solidarity for the hurting and fearful. It lets them know that they are not alone; for the sake of the unity of the church that has too long been divided by race, now is an opportunity for non-black Christians to stand with our African-American brothers and sisters. Continue reading Why Christians Should Support the Marches Against Racism→
While God condescended to working within the violent-prone, fallen framework of his people in the Old Testament (OT)—as I argue in Crucifixion of the Warrior God—the OT is also full of references to how God worked to preserve his non-violent ideal as much as possible. He did this by continually reminding his people not to place any trust in the sword, but to rather place all their trust him.
For example, as Judah was facing impending doom, the Lord told Hosea that he would save them “not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but I the LORD their God will save them” (Hos 1:7).
So too, through the Psalmist the Lord encourages his people by saying:
Do not put your trust in princes,
in human beings, who cannot save.
When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.
Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD their God (Ps. 146:3-5).
I am deeply troubled and grieved by Donald Trump’s order to kill by drone strike Iran’s second most powerful leader, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, together with the Iraqi Shia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
The Trump Administration’s killing of these two men on January 3, regardless of their offenses, is evil, going against God’s command: “thou shall not kill” and Jesus’ command: “love your enemies.” It also threatens to plunge the United States and the Middle East into a major war leading to far more death and destruction.
As we hear critiques and defenses, and brace ourselves for retaliatory violence and retributive counter measures, let us consider Jesus’ seeing Jerusalem and weeping over it, and practice something like this ourselves, remembering his highly relevant words:
“If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.”
PCPJ 