In the Bible, in the Old Testament as well as the New
Testament, Christ was recognized to be the prince of peace [Isa. 9:6]. He was
never to be recognized as the promoter of war. And he even said, “Blessed are
the peacemakers, for they shall be the children of God” [Matt. 5:9]. He never
said blessed are the war makers. It was the peacemakers that we must honor and
protect.
Christ was very, very clear on how we should treat our
enemies [Matt. 5:43-48; Luke 6:27-36]. And some days I think we quite
frequently forget about that. Early in
the history of Christianity, they struggled with the issue of war and peace,
because Christ taught about peace. Did that mean Christ was advocating
pacifism? The early church struggled with this and came to the conclusion, at
least in those early years, that Christ was not a pacifist, but he was not a
war promoter.
And this is when they came up with the just-war principles,
saying, yes, war could be necessary, but only under dire circumstances, and it
should be done with great caution. All other efforts should be exhausted before
we go to war, and always under the proper authority.
- Ron Paul, Speech at the Value Voters Summit on 10/8/11,
at http://www.ronpaul.com/2011-10-08/ron-pauls-speech-at-the-value-voters-summit/.
