Jesus said he will not bring peace on the world, but will bring conflicts on the earth: fire, sword, war. Does this mean believers removed the combat teachings of Jesus from the Bible?
Question:
Jesus said: “Perhaps people think that I have come to cast peace upon the world. They do not know that I have come to cast conflicts upon the earth: fire, sword, war.” Doesn’t it mean that later Christian writers removed the combat teachings of Jesus from the Gospels?
Answer:
This is an egregious example of taking a statement out of context. The relevant passage is Matthew 10:34. If we read what Jesus actually said, it is this: “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household. Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” (NIV)
First of all, the quote you supplied is not accurate. In fact, I doubt that any translation of the Bible is quoted here. The words, “fire, sword, war” are definitely NOT in the passage, nor are they in any translation. This is an unfortunate misquote of Jesus, and it is clearly being done on purpose (perhaps not by you, but by someone you are quoting).
Second, as anyone can see plainly from the context of this passage, Jesus is using the word “sword” metaphorically. He is talking about spiritual or religious division within families. We know that Christianity has produced this result in many cases, as people turn to Christ without the consent of their family members. Clearly he does not intend for a daughter to use the sword on her mother to kill her, which would violate everything the Bible and Jesus said about how children should respect and love their parents. Jesus was called the prince of peace for good reason. He told us to love our enemies—certainly not to kill them. (Matthew 5:43-47). Jesus said to Peter that “those who live by the sword will die by the sword.” It is absolutely irresponsible for anyone to imply that Jesus was calling his people to commit violent acts. Shame on anyone who makes this spurious and blatantly false charge. There is not a shred of evidence to support this spurious theory. No one, either near the life of Jesus, or even centuries later, ever described him as a man of violence or war,
This is very unlike Muhammad, who committed personal acts of war, raiding caravans and leading armies into battle, and who charged his people to kill in the name of Allah. This is a clear attempt to cast aspersions on Christianity because of the clear problem in Islam that its prophet promoted and practiced violent warfare on its enemies. Shame on the person who brings this false charge on, arguably, the most famous man of peace in the history of the world.
John Oakes
