THE BIBLE AGAINST WAR

by Rev. Amos Dresser

Rulers are not a terror
to good works.

But another reason why Christians should be subject to all higher powers is that they are not “a terror to good works.”  By many this is considered as synonymous with saying that rulers do not persecute the good.  But is it so?  What then mean the many and oft repeated warnings of our Savior that Christians should be brought before rulers and many of them put to death?  That as they had done to the green tree so would they do to the dry?  That the servant should be content to be treated as well as his Lord?  If so, how shall we account for the fact that the great multitudes of Christians have been persecuted by the civil power, and many of them actually put to death?  That the apostles, with perhaps a single exception, died by the hand of violence?  That from the days of Nero to this day, it has generally been true that “he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey?”  If so, what cruel mockery was this language to the Christians, to whom Paul was writing – who were cut in pieces and thrown into Nero’s fishponds, and in every way tortured for the amusement of that ungodly debauchee?  What other construction, if this be the meaning, could they put upon the passage than that the blame of their persecutions was on their own head?  Did Paul intend to convey this idea?

The passage declares no such thing.  It simply states a universal truth, namely, that rulers, good or bad, on earth or in hell, are not feared by the soul who “dwells in God, and God in him.”  To all such our blessed Savior says, “Fear not, little flock, it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” – Luke 12:32.  “Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.  But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear.  Fear Him who after He has killed the body, hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, fear Him.  Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God.  But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  Fear not, therefore, ye are of more value than may sparrows.” – Luke 12:4-7.

“I will never leave thee or forsake thee.”  Therefore we may boldly say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” – Hebrews 13:5-6.  “The Lord is my light and my salvation.  Whom shall I fear?  Jehovah is the defense of my life.  Of whom shall I be afraid?  When the wicked, mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.  Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war should rise against me, here will I trust … for in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion; in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he will lift me high upon a rock.” – Psalm 27:1-3,5.  “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the heart of the seas … the Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.” – Psalm 46:1,2,7.  “Mine enemies would daily swallow me up, for they be many that fight against me.  O thou Most High, what time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee.  In God I will praise his word; in God I have put my trust.  I will not fear what flesh can do unto me…  When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back.  This I know, for God is for me…  In God have I put my trust; I will not be afraid of what man can do unto me.” – Psalm 56:2-4,9,11.  “The Lord is on my side.  I will not fear what man can to unto me.  It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes…  The Lord is my strength and song and is become my salvation.” – Psalm 118:6,8,9,14.  See also 1 Peter 3:10-18 and Isaiah 51:7-16.

Such is the heart’s ebullition of all who love and obey God.  To this, the experience of the righteous gives a universal amen.  Was Elisha afraid when encompassed with a great host of horses and chariots sent to take him prisoner?  “Fear not,” he replied, undaunted, “for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.”

Was Nebuchadnezzar a terror to Daniel or to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?  Were the “rulers” a “terror” to Peter and John, to Paul and Silas, or to the apostles generally?  True, they persecuted them to the death.  But were they a terror to them?  Was Martin Luther terrified by the rulers?  He says:

“I find that Charles has issued an edict to terrify me; but Christ lives, and we shall enter Worms in spite of all the councils of hell, and all the powers of the air.”  When told that he would be “burned alive and his body reduced to ashes, as was the case with John Huss,” unmoved he replied, “Though they should kindle a fire whose flames should reach from Worms to Wittenberg, and rise up to heaven, I would go through it in the name of the Lord, and stand before them.  I would enter the jaws of the behemoth, break his teeth, and confess the Lord Jesus Christ!”

When asked by an officer, “Are you the man who has taken in hand to reform the papacy?  How can you expect to succeed?” Luther responded, “Yes, I am the man.  I place my dependence upon that Almighty God whose word and commandment is before me.”

When his beloved Spalatin[43] sent a message to him to “abstain from entering Worms,” Luther, still unshaken, turned his eyes on the messenger and answered, “Go tell your master that though there should be as many devils at Worms as there are tiles on its roofs, I would enter it.”

Surely “rulers are not a terror to good works.”  Luther was summoned to meet the higher powers at Worms, and he, “subject to” those powers, yielded to the summons.  See D’Aubigne’s history of the Reformation,[44] book 7, pp. 214-218, vol. 2.

Do you ask the secret of this boldness?  It is found in the conscious presence of God – the consciousness that the powers that be are so controlled of God “that he will cause the wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath He will restrain;” “that He maketh all things work together for good to them that love God.”  It is this that leads the soul exultingly to say:

God near me, and near me ever!
On the land and on the sea;
Thus the word that erreth never,
Thus my life assureth me.
Ask ye therefore, ‘Who is nigh thee?’
God is present – God is by me.

Death’s dark valley, depths of ocean,
Prison walls, hide not from God;
He observes my every motion,
While at home and while abroad.
Let me sit, recline, or stand,
Everywhere is God at hand.

God for me – my consolation,
All my soul’s desire is God;
Faint I’ll not in tribulation,
Under crosses and the rod;
Ask ye, ‘What consoleth thee?’
Listen – God upholdeth me.

Want, and pains of death I’ll conquer,
If my God be only near;
Satan’s snares I’ll burst asunder.
Triumph over every fear.
‘Thou do these things?’ question ye?
Nay, Nay, but my God with me.[45]

Then:

Why that look of sadness?
Why that downcast eye?
Can no thought of gladness
Lift thy soul on high?

O thou heir of heaven,
Think of Jesus’ love,
While to thee is given
All his grace to prove.

Is thy spirit drooping?
Is the tempter near?
Still in Jesus hoping,
What hast thou to fear.[46]

But this absence of fear is peculiar to good works, by which I mean the works of faith.  (“This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.” – John 6:29.)  Those who have no faith in God have cause to fear.  A goading conscience gives fear – hence “the wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a lion.” – Proverbs 28:1.  “The workers of iniquity are in great fear where no fear is.” – Psalm 5:3, 4:5.  “They flee when none pursueth, and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee as fleeting from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.” – Leviticus 26:17,36.

“While he who, attacked by the enemy, holds up the buckler of FAITH,” says Luther, “is like Perseus presenting the head of the Gorgon – whoever looks upon it is struck dead.  It is thus we should hold up the Son of God against the snares of the devil.”

“Wilt thou then not be
afraid of the power?”

“Trust in the Lord, and do good, and He will make even thine enemies to be at peace with thee.”  “Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same.”

It is said “praise” here means “protection.”  Yes, but saying so does not make it so in these days of investigation and inquiry.  The age now demands the why and the wherefore.  “If the passage means,” as Barnes says, “you shall be unmolested and uninjured,” the proof of course will be forthcoming.  There are multitudes who have complied with the condition – who have “done good” – and so are competent witnesses in the case.  Let us hear their testimony as to the protection they have received from the civil power.  And first, we summons the church at Rome, to whom Paul was writing.  Call forth the Christians accused by Nero of wrapping the city in flames, when “he himself had applied the torch.”  Let the fishponds bear testimony.  Go to the amphitheatre, and call forth the persecuted ones who were made to fight with wild beasts for the sport of their “rulers.”  O, their ghastly, bleeding wounds!  Charge cruelty upon Paul for calling this protection.  Yes, and what must Paul himself have thought of the protection of the sword as he felt its keen edge severing his head from the body?  Let us call from “under the altar the souls of them who were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held.” – Revelation 6:9.  “They had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover the bonds and imprisonments.  They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tried, they were put to death by the slaughter of the sword, they wandered about in sheep skins and goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented (of whom the world was not worthy).  They wandered in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth.” – Hebrews 11:37.  Sad protection!  If this is being “unmolested and uninjured,” when, in the name of humanity, could they be said to be molested and injured?  But this testimony comports with the intimation of our Savior when he said, “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.”  The undivided testimony of the prophets, the apostles, the early Christians, of the reformers of all ages, under any and every form of human civil (?) government, is that those who “do good,” receive the same protection from the sword that sheep usually receive from wolves.  And we can but pity the flocks that are advised – while we censure the shepherds who advise them – to leave the “fold” of the “Good Shepherd,” and go forth devouring wolves for protection!

“But if praise here does not mean protection, what does it mean?”  It means praise, such as Jesus Christ received from his executioner, the centurion, when he said, “Certainly this was a righteous man!”  Such praise as Jesus Christ received from Pilate when He said, “Ye have brought this man unto me as one that perverteth the people; and behold I, having examined before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse Him.  No, nor yet Herod; for I sent you to Him, and lo! – nothing worthy of death has been done by Him.  I will therefore chastise him and release Him.”  And he said to them the third time, “Why, what evil hath He done?  I have found no cause of death in Him; I will therefore chastise Him and let Him go.”  And yet he “gave sentence that it should be as they desired.” – Luke 23:14-24.  Praise, but not protection, is here given by the “ruler.”  So it was with Peter and John in Acts 4:21.  So also with Paul and Silas.  True, Paul at one time received protection from the mob as a Roman citizen, yet he was put to death as a Christian by the very power of which he spoke.  His citizenship saved him from the cross, but consigned him to the sword.  Joseph, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego received praise from the rulers by whom they were oppressed, but their protection came from Him who is “higher than the highest.”  See Genesis 39:4, 39:21-22, Daniel 3:15-30, 6:10-28.  So said the officer who had been confronted by Martin Luther, “Dear friend, there is much in what you say; I am a servant of Charles, but your master is greater than mine.  He will help and protect you.”  Thompson, Work, and Burr,[47] in the Missouri state prison, by doing good, received praise from their rulers!  The mayor of Nashville, in acquainting the mob with the decision of the committee of vigilance against me, prefaced his sentence of condemnation by saying, “Mr. Dresser appears to be a fine young man; he has evidently designed no evil,” etc.  And the secretary afterwards in defending the action of the committee, said, “Dresser had broken no law;” and then went on to show that it was necessary for the public good to resort to lynch law.  And though there was no form of law in my trial; yet I was tried by the “rulers” of the city.  Members of the committee who passed sentence upon me, with whom I had sat at the communion table three weeks before, said they believed me to be a Christian, etc.  Yet their praise did not protect my naked back from the cow-skin.[48]

We are then to be subject to the higher powers, because by “doing good,” we have not only God’s favor, and a conscious rectitude of heart that excludes all fear, but we have even the rulers’ conscience on our side; and the consciousness of this is sufficient to lift us far above their power to destroy our peace.  Yes, and what is more, this same persecuting power, as in the case of Stephen, develops the heavenly excellence of the Christian graces and often extorts praise from the persecutors.  Hence, it is said that several of Nero’s soldiers, who at his command beheaded Paul, were converted to Christianity by the patient spirit with which he endured his sufferings, and were themselves afterwards put to death as martyrs.  This is the praise that is received for doing good.

“For he is the minister of
God to thee for good.”

Again, Paul urges submission to the higher powers, from the consideration that they are simply God’s ministers for good to those who do good.  It is said, “This certainly means protection.”  Le us search and see.  Barnes says:

“The ruler is a servant of god … to protect you in your rights; to vindicate your name, person or property; and to guard your liberty and to secure to you the rights of your industry.”

And yet almost in the next paragraph he says:

“That the doctrine respecting the rights of civil rulers, and the line which is to be drawn between their powers and the rights of conscience, have been slow to be understood.  The struggle has been long; and a thousand persecutions have shown the anxiety of the magistrate to rule the conscience and to control religion.  In pagan countries it has been conceded that the ruler had a right to control the religion of a people; church and state there have been one.  The same thing was attempted under Christianity.  The magistrate still claimed this right and attempted to enforce it.  Christianity resisted the claim, and asserted the independent and original rights of conscience.  A conflict ensued, of course, and the magistrate resorted to persecutions to subdue by force the claims of the new religion and the rights of conscience – hence, the ten fiery and bloody persecutions of the primitive church.  The blood of the early Christians flowed like water; thousands and tens of thousands went to the stake, until Christianity triumphed, and the right of a religion to a free exercise was acknowledged throughout the empire.  It is a matter of devout thanksgiving that the subject is now settled, and the principle is now understood.  In our own land there exists the happy and bright illustration of the true principle on this great subject.  The rights of conscience are regarded, and the laws peacefully obeyed.  The civil ruler understands his province; and Christians yield a cordial obedience to the laws.  The church and state move on in their own spheres, united only in the purpose to make man happy and good, and divided only as they relate to different departments and contemplate, the one, the rights of civil society, the other, the interests of eternity.  Here, every man worships God according to his own views of duty; and at the same time, here is rendered the most cordial and peaceful obedience to the laws of the land.  Thanks should be rendered without ceasing to the God of our fathers for the wondrous train of events by which this contest has been conducted to its issue; and for the clear and full understanding which we now have of the different departments pertaining to the church and state.”

“Here every man worships God according to his own views of duty!”  Indeed!  Do you think that Mr. Barnes has taken lessons at Nashville?  Possibly a short residence there might prove instructive.  He should go there or to South Carolina and preach from Luke 4:18-21: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, He hath sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”  Doubtless, by the time he has proceeded as far as, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears,” he will learn by experience how “the rights of conscience are regarded,” have a “bright and happy (?) illustration of the true principle on this great subject,” and surely have occasion for “devout thanksgiving to God,” if he is ever permitted to preach again.

If he prefers to learn the “true principle” otherwise than by personal experience, let him ask counsel of the Ohio Synod of the Seceder Church, who some years ago sent one from their number to preach the gospel to the poor in the south.  He was tarred and feathered, rode upon a rail, and barely escaped with his life.  Let him ask Rev. J. W. Hall,[49] formerly of Gallatin, Tennessee, now of Dayton, Ohio, who told me in 1835, that it was his opinion that if slavery continued five years there would not be found a devoted minister in all the south; and added, “If I should preach the whole gospel to my people I could not stay with them three months.”

Let him ask the missionary of the A. H. M. Society, who, in a late issue of their newspaper, speaking of the curse of slavery, says, “But of this I may not now speak … to come out openly and avow hostility to the ‘sacred institution’ would be to thwart all hopes of doing good and insure us a speedy passport from the country.”

Or if he would prefer different testimony, let him ask the New Orleans True American, which in speaking of abolitionists, says if they come to Louisiana, “They will never return to tell their suffering, but they shall expiate the crime of interfering in our domestic institutions by being burned at the stake,” or of the Georgia Chronicle, which said, “Dresser ought to have been hanged as high as Haman and left to rot upon the gibbet till the wind whistled through his bones.  The cry of the whole south should be, ‘death, instant death to every abolitionist wherever he is caught.’”  The rights of conscience are regarded?!

Let him ask J. T. Hopper,[50] Rev. William T. Allan,[51] Jonathan Walker,[52] or George Thompson[53] & Co.  Let him call from the tomb the spirit of the fallen C. T. Torrey,[54] and learn how the “civil ruler understands his province.”  Possibly Senator Hale through his friend Senator Foote[55] could give him instruction as to proffered protection.

But enough of this.  It would be easy to fill a folio with facts showing the folly of such an interpretation, saying nothing of Mr. Barnes’ own contradictions, or of the “thousand persecutions” he mentions as coming from magistrates, the “ten fiery and bloody persecutions” of the primitive church, the “blood of the early Christians” that flowed like water, the “thousands and tens of thousands” who went to the stake, etc.

O how long shall the sword devour before we learn where we can lie down safely, and be satisfied with the protection of the good shepherd who has given his life for the sheep.

The literal meaning

But again, it is asked, “What does the passage mean?”  It means just what it says.  Rulers are God’s ministers for good to them that do good.  They are simply God’s servants and can neither bless nor curse except as God directs.  Their acts are so over-ruled of God that whatever may be their design, God causes them to work for good to those who love Him.  In this sense the sons of Jacob and Pharaoh were God’s ministers of good to Joseph.  “Ye meant it for evil,” said Joseph, “But God meant it for good.”  Nebuchadnezzar was thus a minister of God for good to Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; Haman to Mordecai; Babylon to the Jewish captives, who did good by repenting of their sins, exercising faith in God, and peaceably submitting to the iron yoke.  They were thereby so thoroughly humbled that God could make with them his “new covenant,” be to them a Father, and take them for sons and daughters.  (See Jeremiah 31 and context.)

In this sense the persecutions at Jerusalem were the ministers of God for good to the apostles and early Christians who were thereby scattered abroad, and “went everywhere preaching the gospel.”  In this sense Nero was God’s servant to the Christians at Rome.  By his most cruel and hellish persecutions he gave them an opportunity to show the power of the gospel.  It “turned to them for a testimony,” and when they were clad in wax garments and burned at the stake to illumine Nero’s gardens, they reflected the light of the cross, so that men could read upon it, “Behold the wonderful love of God.”  They understood the fullness and richness of the passage, “Unto you is given the privilege (for this idea is included in the original word) in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him but also to suffer for his sake!”  They counted it all joy to be placed in these trying circumstances just as Jesus Christ “for the joy set before Him, endured the cross,” and in view of his suffering, said, “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened until it be accomplished!”  O that there were more who, by their experience, could testify that nothing so ministers to their good as to be called to suffer for Jesus.  Those who have had experience on this point understand how wicked men, and wicked rulers too, are often ministers of God for good to them.  For further illustration on this point, see Fox’s Book of Martyrs.  See also Prison Life and Reflections of George Thompson & Co., and were it not for appearing egotistical, I should love to give my Nashville experience on this point.  I may sat least say that the Nashville Committee gave me the power to do a hundred times as much for the slave as I otherwise could have done.

We are then to be subject to the powers that be, remembering that all their acts are so controlled of God that he uses them as his deacon (for so the original word imports) in conferring favors upon whomsoever He will.

[43] George Spalatin (1484-1545), aka George Burkhardt, was a chaplain, advisor, tutor, and secretary to Frederick the Wise and John Frederick of Saxony and took part in many of the pivotal events of the Reformation.

[44] D’Aubigne, J. H.  History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century.  New York: Carter, 1846.

[45] Reference unknown.

[46] Why That Look of sadness, a hymn by Thomas Hastings.

[47] Thompson, George.  Prison Life and Reflections.  Hartford: A. Work, 1850.  Originally published in Oberlin, 1847.

[48] Dresser was arrested and publicly whipped in Nashville by a committee of prominent town citizens for being a member of an Ohio anti-slavery society and distributing anti-slavery literature.

[49] John Wortham Hall (1802-1886) was a Presbyterian minister and educator who established a women’s seminary in Gallatin and who was the president of Miami University of Ohio during the Civil War.

[50] Isaac Tatem Hopper (1771-1852), a Quaker, was an American abolitionist who is known as the father of the underground railroad.

[51] Rev. Allen (1810-1882) was the son of an Alabama slaveholder, the head of anti-slavery society at Lane Seminary, and an Oberlin graduate.

[52] Jonathan Walker (1799-1878), aka "The Man with the Branded Hand", became a national hero when he was tried and sentenced following his attempt to help seven runaway slaves find freedom. He was branded by the on his hand with the markings S.S. for "Slave Stealer".

[53] George Thompson (1804-1878) was a leader of the British anti-slavery movement and a friend of William Lloyd Garrison.

[54] C. T. Torrey was a radical abolitionist and the publisher of a newspaper called The Tocsin of Liberty.  He died of consumption in the Maryland penitentiary, having been convicted of helping a fugitive slave to escape, and was considered a martyr of the abolitionist cause.

[55] Henry Stuart Foote (1800-1880) was one of the three senators who drafted the Great Compromise of 1850 that resolved, at least temporarily, the major controversies between the North and the South.