“Augustine’s Just War Doctrine …Jesus Followers’ Sinful Tradition”
Another Patton Associates S-M-A-R-TBriefing™
The “Just War Doctrine”, believed as gospel by Many Christians, is a heinous modern example of about what Jesus warns in Mark 7:7-9 with verse 9 quoted in the graphic below!
Since Jesus walked the earth, religious people, not His true Followers, have made-up rules and traditions to pervert what God clearly says in the Bible. The existence of so-called “Just War” in which Christians must fight in is one of those phony traditions!
A Man-made Doctrine Intentionally-Designed To Trump Jesus
“True Religion looks upon as peaceful those Wars that are waged not for motives of aggrandizement, or cruelty, but with the object of securing peace, of punishing evil doers, and of uplifting the good!” …NOT
~ Augustine, Roman Catholic Bishop of Hippo in North Africa, early 5th Century
Augustine wrote this, among other totally unbiblical statements, to justify his “Just War Doctrine”. He taught this unbiblical travesty in order to support the Roman Emperor’s need for soldiers from among the great number of Jesus Followers.
Augustine had to intentionally violate Newest Covenant Scripture because history clearly documents that Jesus’ first Followers refused to serve in the Roman army for about 400 years after their Saviour and Lord’s death on His cross for them. This refusal was a major reason for their martyrdom and slaughter in coliseums throughout the Roman Empire, before Emperor Theodosius I made a newly-named “Nicene Christianity” the sole religion of Imperial Rome in AD380.
Our Lord’s First Followers were taught by every “Church Father”, before Augustine, to obey Jesus’ command of pacifism …not docile, do-nothing passivism… throughout the Gospels, e.g., Matthew 5:38-48, plus His Apostles’ writings, e.g., Romans 12:14-21.
Augustine, on behalf of his Catholic Church Curia, abrogated, cancelled-out, and substituted their violence-promoting Doctrine, for Jesus’ clear, repeated commands to use only creative, “Third Way”, pacifism.
“Jesus’ Third Way of resisting all evil is to neither fight, nor freeze, nor flee …but flow in the power and wisdom of God The Holy Spirit!” ~ gfp ’42™
The Roman Catholic Curia substituted their man-made tradition for what Jesus said, and which His First Followers actually believed. The Curia promulgated their new Doctrine in order to assist the state in protecting the Roman Catholic Church’s vast estates and wealth. That great wealth was under attack by pagan throngs from every direction around the collapsing Roman Empire of Augustine’s time in the early 5th Century.
The Catholic Church’s unbiblical “Just War Doctrine” solved a major problem for both church and state at the time.
A Major Missed Reformation Issue
Horribly, this Doctrine remained untouched by the Protestant Reformers of the 16th Century despite their claim to “sola Scriptura”. (We teach only Scripture.) The early Protestant Church patriarchs, plus their disciples, then went on for years later to promote the murder of huge numbers of Anabaptists, Mennonites, Quakers, and others, who taught a return to Jesus’ pacifism.
These large groups of martyred pacifists believed Jesus non-violent commands, plus taught and did what he ordered re their personal participation in violence. They still do!
Most Protestant Church Leaders consciously-protected this disgusting Doctrine because, like the Catholic Church which they claimed to correct, they were Preachers paid as leaders of state-supported, and state-sponsored, churches.
The Just War Doctrine continues to serve the needs of traditional ‘churchianity’ in its unholy relationship with the state. It is also a core component of churchianity’s “Myth of the Christian Nation“. For these reasons, this anti-Christ, violence-promoting doctrine continues to flourish throughout Christendom.
Regardless of the several Catholic criteria for a war to be declared ‘just’ …criteria the existence of which most Christians, including many Pastors, are totally unaware… the Doctrine is still totally unbiblical for Jesus Followers to obey. It is the kind of sinful “tradition” against which Paul also warns us in Colossians 2:6-8 as well as here in Mark 7:7-9 .
God commands the state to protect true Jesus Followers in their Holy Spirit-commanded pacifism. (Romans13:4 in the context of verses 1-7) But he does not command the Son’s true followers to serve in them… except possibly in noncombatant, conscientious-objecting military roles.
In Conclusion
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Blessings in Jesus all …’till next we interact!
GaryFPatton
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