The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 12

Peacemakers In hIsTory

Resistance during World War I:
Implications for Today
by Andrew Bolton

art by Ryan Oliver

T

he US entered World War I (WWI) a hundred years
ago, this year. What are Baptists to make of WWI? How
relevant are stories about WWI for Christians today? War is a
test of discipleship, a test of true worship or idolatry. Is it god
incarnate in Jesus Christ or the nation that we really worship?
Baptists would begin with scripture about Jesus, and the
Sermon on the Mount is a good place to start. In the Sermon
on the Mount, the preamble Beatitudes include "Blessed are
the merciful... Blessed are the peacemakers... Blessed are those
who are persecuted for righteousness sake..." (Matt. 5:7,9-10).
Jesus also said turn the other cheek, walk the second mile,
"love your enemies...that you may be like the Father whose
grace is for good and bad alike" (Matt. 5:38-48).
It is also worth remembering something of Baptist history.
The words of one of the first English Baptists, Thomas Helwys,
about conscience are important:

nonites. While John Smyth stayed and moved toward Mennonite beliefs, Helwys and others began to embrace the concept
of adult baptism. They then wrote what was probably the first
Baptist confession. When Helwys returned to England, he had
been profoundly affected by the Anabaptists.
The first Swiss Anabaptists, in the Schleitheim Confession
of 1527, were clear that, for them, wielding a sword was "outside the perfection of Christ."
In 1534, a group of Anabaptists had seized power in
Münster, in the Westphalia region, by means of violence, and
founded a state called the "New Jerusalem." The town was
recaptured in 1535 and the Anabaptists who weren't killed in
the battle were tortured and executed.
Menno Simons, in a statement during the re-gathering
of Anabaptists in Holland and northern germany after the
bloodshed was over, made it clear what he thought about war:

Men's religion to God is betwixt God and themselves; the king
shall not answer for it, neither may the king be judge between
God and man. Let them be heretics, Turks, Jews or whatsoever,
it appertains not to the earthly powers to punish them in the
least measure.1

The regenerated do not go to war, nor engage in strife. They are
children of peace who have beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning forks, and know no war. ...Iron
and metal spears and swords we leave to those who, alas, regard
human blood and swine's blood of well-nigh equal value.2

Beginning with Helwys in 1612, Baptists believed
in limiting the power of the state. The king, the
president, Parliament or Congress cannot legislate conscience. god, and only god, is King
of kings and President of presidents and judge
o f
all. So conscience about worship
and war, life and death, is
something Baptists should be
very thoughtful about. This
is their tradition.
Thomas Helwys, with fellow minister John Smyth and
a number of others, fled
to what is now Holland
to escape persecution
for worshipping according to their
consciences.
While there,
they fellowshipped with
Anabaptist Men-

12 Baptist Peacemaker

jul-sep 2017

So, Baptists have these Anabaptist and Baptist voices to
draw upon in terms of war. Violence was an aberration, an
unfaithfulness. For me these stories illuminate faithfulness to
the teachings and example of Jesus.
Now, some background about WWI.
The United States entered WWI on April 6, 1917. The
great War, as it was also called, was savagely industrialized,
chemicalized and mechanized. And it was pitiless. It had been
raging since the summer of 1914 and US President Wilson
had kept the country out of it until this time. In total, more
than 100 countries in Africa, America, Asia, Australasia and
Europe were involved in WWI.
Jews killed Jews, Protestants killed Protestants, Catholics
killed Catholics, and Muslims killed Muslims, as people were
caught and divided by nationalism and empires. Seventeen
million died and 20 million were wounded. It is one of the
deadliest conflicts of all time. Among the dead were 117,000
Americans. A further 50 million died worldwide from Spanish influenza at the end of the war, an epidemic birthed and
exacerbated by war time conditions.
WWI is a glimpse of hell.
"The war to end war" was the battle cry of the Allied



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017

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The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 11
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 12
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 13
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 14
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 15
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The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 31
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 32
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/38-1
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/37-4
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/37-3
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/37-2
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/37-1
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/36-3
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/36-2
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/36-1
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/35-4
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/35-3
https://www.nxtbook.com/allen/peacemaker/35-2
https://www.nxtbook.com/allen/peacemaker/35-1
https://www.nxtbook.com/allen/peacemaker/34-4
https://www.nxtbook.com/allen/peacemaker/34-3
https://www.nxtbook.com/allen/peacemaker/34-2
https://www.nxtbook.com/allen/peacemaker/34-1
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com