Doing Justice and Loving Mercy: Compassion Ministries, Mentor's Guide, MG16

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D O I N G J U S T I C E A N D L O V I N G M E R C Y : C O M P A S S I O N M I N I S T R I E S

5. The “unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking; and thus we are drifting towards unparalleled catastrophe.” ~ Albert Einstein

6. The root of this malice is spiritual, Titus 3.3.

B. Finding common ground: what all Christians tend to agree upon regarding difference, violence, and war

1. Jesus Christ as Lord represents God’s Kingdom of righteousness and peace.

2. Jesus’ ethic involves an “upside-down” way of living: hungering for righteousness, loving enemies, pursuing peace, forgiving wrongs done, loving one another.

3. The end of righteousness will come at the completion of God’s kingdom program, when war will be destroyed forever, Isa. 2.4.

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C. Three historical positions of Christians to the issue of mass violence and war (see John Stott, Involvement: Being a Responsible Christian in a Non-Christian Society )

1. Total pacifism: modern day obedience to the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5.38-48; Luke 6.27-36)

a. Commitment to nonviolence and non-resistance based on Christ’s teaching in the Sermon, and his way of the cross