Whilst reading Origen’s Contra Celsus, I came upon his interpretation of Isaiah 2:3,4. From book 5, chapter 33 we read:
"Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob ; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in them." For the law came forth from the dwellers in Sion, and settled among us as a spiritual law. Moreover, the word of the Lord came forth from that very Jerusalem, that it might be disseminated through all places, and might judge in the midst of the heathen, selecting those whom it sees to be submissive, and rejecting the disobedient, who are many in number. And to those who inquire of us whence we come, or who is our founder, we reply that we are come, agreeably to the counsels of Jesus, to "cut down our hostile and insolent 'wordy' swords into ploughshares, and to convert into pruning-hooks the spears formerly employed in war." For we no longer take up "sword against nation," nor do we "learn war any more," having become children of peace, for the sake of Jesus, who is our leader, instead of those whom our fathers followed, among whom we were "strangers to the covenant," and having received a law, for which we give thanks to Him that rescued us from the error (of our ways), saying, "Our fathers honoured lying idols, and there is not among them one that causeth it to rain." (ANF 4.558 - PDF here.)
One of Celsus’ attacks against Christians was that they refused military service in the Roman army. An important aspect of his argument was that Christianity emerged out of Judaism, and accepted their writings (i.e. the Old Testament) as authoritative. He appealed to OT passages that clearly supported military service and warfare; as such, the refusal by Christians to participate in Roman military service was contradictory. Origen countered Celsus’ by demonstrating that Jesus Christ established a higher, spiritual law that superceded the Mosaic Law. He also applied a number of OT prophetic passages—e.g. Is. 2:2, 4—to the Christian dispensation, a dispensation that began with the advent and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In book 8, chapter 73, Origen relates that, “Celsus urges us 'to help the king with all our might, and to labour with him in the maintenance of justice, to fight for him ; and if he requires it, to fight under him, or lead an army along with him.’" (ANF 4.667)
Origen’s response is quite interesting; note the following:
To this our answer is, that we do, when occasion requires, give help to kings, and that, so to say, a divine help, "putting on the whole armour of God." And this we do in obedience to the injunction of the apostle, "I exhort, therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men ; for kings, and for all that are in authority ;" and the more any one excels in piety, the more effective help does he render to kings, even more than is given by soldiers, who go forth to fight and slay as many of the enemy as they can. And to those enemies of our faith who require us to bear arms for the commonwealth, and to slay men, we can reply : "Do not those who are priests at certain shrines, and those who attend on certain gods, as you account them, keep their hands free from blood, that they may with hands unstained and free from human blood offer the appointed sacrifices to your gods ; and even when war is upon you, you never enlist the priests in the army. If that, then, is a laudable custom, how much more so, that while others are engaged in battle, these too should engage as the priests and ministers of God, keeping their hands pure, and wrestling in prayers to God on behalf of those who are fighting in a righteous cause, and for the king who reigns righteously, that whatever is opposed to those who act righteously may be destroyed !" And as we by our prayers vanquish all demons who stir up war, and lead to the violation of oaths, and disturb the peace, we in this way are much more helpful to the kings than those who go into the field to fight for them. And we do take our part in public affairs, when along with righteous prayers we join self-denying exercises and meditations, which teach us to despise pleasures, and not to be led away by them. And none fight better for the king than we do. We do not indeed fight under him, although he require it ; but we fight on his behalf, forming a special army—an army of piety—by offering our prayers to God. (ANF 4.667, 668)
Origen continues his apologia in the next chapter (74):
And if Celsus would have us to lead armies in defence of our country, let him know that we do this too, and that not for the purpose of being seen by men, or of vainglory. For "in secret," and in our own hearts, there are prayers which ascend as from priests in behalf of our fellow-citizens. And Christians are benefactors of their country more than others. For they train up citizens, and inculcate piety to the Supreme Being ; and they promote those whose lives in the smallest cities have been good and worthy, to a divine and heavenly city, to whom it may be said, "Thou hast been faithful in the smallest city, come into a great one," where "God standeth in the assembly of the gods, and judgeth the gods in the midst ;" and He reckons thee among them, if thou no more "die as a man, or fall as one of the princes." (ANF 4.668)
Origen clearly understood that the real struggle for Christians (and the world at large) is not a physical battle, but rather, a spiritual one. His above response to Celsus brings to mind the following from Paul's second epistle to the Corinthians:
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; (KJV – 2 Cor. 10:3-5)
Shall end for now with a stern warning from Jesus Christ:
Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. (KJV – Matt. 26:52)
Grace and peace,
David
