May 18, 1899

“A Divine Protest Against War” American Sentinel 14, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

“Present Truth.” (London, Eng.)

“Then Simon Peter having a sword, drew it, and smote the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus. Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath; the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?”AMS May 18, 1899, page 315.1

Jesus had said to his disciples, and to us as well, “I say unto you, That ye resist not evil,” and here he showed that his words are to be taken in their plainest signification. If there was ever a place in the world when right was oppressed by might, here it was. If ever in this world the sword was drawn in a just cause, this was the time; yet Jesus rebuked it. Nothing else can be learned from this occurrence than that there are no possible circumstances under which it is justifiable to use weapons of warfare. Such sentiments as the following we find given very frequent and prominent place in religious journals:-AMS May 18, 1899, page 315.2

In the last resort,-when insult has been wantonly inflicted, when the obligations of honor have been wilfully repudiated, and when every resource of peaceful diplomacy has been exhausted,-no self-respecting nation will be found unprepared to maintain its dignity and enforce its rights by appeal to arms.AMS May 18, 1899, page 315.3

Let that serve for those nations and peoples who have no other method of maintaining their honor and dignity than that which is common to the brutes. Jesus showed that there is a better way to maintain one’s dignity. He was insulted and abused, yet never did the native dignity of His character assert itself and shine forth more conspicuously, and so victoriously, too, than when He reproved Peter for using the sword. Unarmed, He stood before that crowd of armed men, and demonstrated Himself to be their Master. Every Christian who is such indeed, has the same armor that He had. Read Ephesians 6:13. For professed Christians, therefore, to take the sword in self-defense, or for any other purpose, is to admit that they know nothing of “the power of Jesus’ name.”AMS May 18, 1899, page 315.4