Jesus Came to Bring a Sword?
Category: General
Tags: Conflict, Jesus, Non-Violence, Peace
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
Verse: Matthew 10
Jesus said: “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Mt 10:34). Some, both modern scholars along with church leaders…
Why Did Jesus Curse a Barren Fig Tree?
Category: General
Tags: Jesus, Non-Violence
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
While no one argues that the NT advocates violence explicitly, many allege that some passages reflect violent attitudes toward outsiders, and especially toward non-believing Jews, while others detect an element of violence in some of…
Violent Parables?
Category: General
Tags: God's Character, Jesus, Non-Violence, Parables
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
Some try to argue that Jesus did not make loving enemies and refraining from violence an absolute mandate. They make their case on the basis of several passages from the Gospels. The first concerns the…
Was Jesus Unloving Towards the Pharisees?
Category: General
Tags: Enemy Love, Jesus, Love
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
Some claim that Jesus spoke to religious leaders in ways that did not reflect the love of the cross. In his climatic encounter with the Pharisees in Matthew 23, Jesus’ words were undeniably harsh. He…
The Cleansing of the Temple and Non-Violence
Category: General
Tags: Cross, Love, Non-Violence
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple is the most commonly cited example of those who allege that he did not absolutize loving enemies or refraining from violence. I submit that this episode implies nothing of the…
A Non-Violent Creation
Category: General
Tags: Creation, Non-Violence, Peace, Warfare Worldview
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
A biblical teaching that we often overlook regarding the centrality of non-violence concerns God’s original vision of creation. We have grown so accustomed to the violence we experience as a part of nature that we…
Anabaptist Response to the Attacks in Paris and Beirut
Category: Essays
Tags: Anabaptism, Bruxy Cavey, Non-Violence, Peace, Violence
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
https://youtube.com/watch?v=paUtIl-oRpM&feature=youtu.be Our friend Bruxy Cavey, the pastor at The Meeting House in Toronto shares some thoughts on how to respond to the violence that is going on in the world. He writes: The Meeting House…
The Heresy of “Just War”
Category: General
Tags: Cross, Faith, Just War, Law, Non-Violence, Old Testament
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
Since the time when the Jesus-looking kingdom movement was transformed into the Caesar-looking “militant and triumphant” Church, there has been a tradition of Christians by-passing the enemy-loving, non-violent teachings of the NT and instead appealing…
Did God Want a King for Israel?
Category: General
Tags: Divine Accommodation, Moses, Old Testament, Power
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
Verse: Deuteronomy 17
By the time God was ready to form a nation for himself by delivering the Israelites from the oppressive rule of the Egyptian Pharaoh, every nation was ruled by someone and existed in tension with,…
God’s Way of War
Category: General
Tags: God, Non-Violence, Old Testament, War
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
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 by the LORD their God” (Hos 1:7). So…
Does the Old Testament Justify “Just War”?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Augustine, Cruciform Theology, Just War, Kingdom Living, Non-Violence, Old Testament, OT Violence, Violence
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
Since the time of Augustine, Christians have consistently appealed to the violent strand of the Old Testament to justify waging wars when they believed their cause was “just.” (This is Augustine’s famous “just war” theory.)…
How Are We To Love the Soldiers of ISIS?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Enemy Love, ISIS, Jesus, Kingdom Living, Love Your Enemies, Non-Violence, Sacrifice
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence, Ethical, Cultural and Political Issues
Over the last several weeks I’ve received some form of this question almost every day. In some cases the question is asked rhetorically, as though the very question exposes the absurdity of suggesting we are…
Is A Non-violent Jesus in Revelation A New View?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Non-Violence, Sermons
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
In this Q and A from Greg Boyd’s series on the book of Revelation, someone asked if the view that Jesus is a non-violent “lamb” a new view? You can view the full Q and…
Memorial Day
Category: Essays
Tags: Essay, Jesus, Kingdom Living, Non-Violence, Pacifism, Self-Sacrificial Love, Soldiers, War
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence, Ethical, Cultural and Political Issues
For Memorial Day, we thought we would repost Greg’s thoughts from 2007. In this post, Greg expresses his conflicted feelings over this holiday and gives a brief defense of Christian pacifism. *** Hope you all had a…
Was Jesus Violent in the Temple?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Jesus, Mennonerds, Non-Violence, Violence
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
Many adopt the attitude depicted in the picture above, saying that Jesus used violence when he cleansed the temple. But Jesus’ stance on nonviolence is clear not only from how he responded to threatening enemies…
Is Non-Violence a Key to Christian Discipleship?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Mennonerds, Non-Violence, Peacemaking, Violence
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence
For the first three centuries of the church, Christians understood that forgoing the use of violence and expressing God’s self-sacrificial love was central to discipleship. However, this mindset changed after the Church acquired power in…
Greg’s Response to Driscoll’s “Is God a Pacifist” Part III
Category: Essays
Tags: Essay, Lamb of God, Mark Driscoll, Non-Violence, Pacifism, Revelation, Violence
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence, Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
This is the last of a three-part response to Mark Driscoll’s post, “Is God a Pacifist?” We’ve seen that, to prove that Jesus was not “a pansy or a pacifist” (meaning that Jesus was okay…
Greg’s Response to Driscoll’s “Is God a Pacifist?” Part II
Category: Essays
Tags: Book of Revelation, Essay, Jesus, Kingdom Living, Lamb of God, Literalism, Mark Driscoll, Non-Violence, Pacifism, Sacrifice, Word of God
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence, Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
Waiting For The Word via Compfight To prove that “Jesus is not a pansy or a pacifist,” Driscoll by-passes the Gospels (understandably, given what Jesus has to say about the use of violence) and instead cites…
Responding to Driscoll’s “Is God a Pacifist?” Part I
Category: Essays
Tags: Bible, Book of Revelation, Essay, Jesus, Love Your Enemies, Mark Driscoll, Non-Violence, Pacifism, Peace, Sixth Commandment
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence, Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
I’m sure many of you have read Mark Driscoll’s recent blog titled “Is God a Pacifist?” in which he argues against Christian pacifism. I’ve decided to address this in a series of three posts, not because I think…
Why do some of Jesus’ parables depict God in violent ways?
Category: Q&A
Tags: Bible, Bible Interpretation, Cruciform Theology, Jesus, Parables, Violence
Topics: Enemy-Loving Non-Violence, Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
Greg deals with the question of what it means that some of Jesus’ parables seem to depict God in violent terms. In addition to getting an answer to this question you’ll be treated to a…