ow have Christians through the ages dealt with the moral dilemmas associated with war and military service? While an ethic of non-retaliation, peacemaking, and love of enemies is central to New Testament theology, soldiers who appear in various biblical passages were not exhorted to abandon their occupation. The centurion Cornelius, for example, highlighted as the charter Gentile convert, received, along with his household, the gospel message and an outpouring of the Holy Spirit without being required to resign his commission.

On the other hand, the early Christians' passionate commitment to the nonviolence of the gospel message created a tension with requirements for military service. Hippolytus, in the early third century, describing moral standards for new converts (which by then were long-established), wrote: "A military constable must be forbidden to kill. If he is commanded to kill in the course of his duty, he must not take this upon himself . . ." (The Apostolic Tradition, cited in Eberhard Arnold, The Early Christians in Their Own Words [Farmington, Pa.: Plough Publishing House, 1997], p. 113).

One of Emperor Diocletian's first steps in his escalating efforts to eradicate Christianity included a decree prohibiting Christians from serving in the army because he suspected that they would not obey orders to fight. Several Christians were executed for resisting pressures to deny their faith so they could remain in the Roman army (see Justo L. Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, vol. 1 [New York: HarperCollins, 1984], p. 103).

When Christianity became the religion of the empire after the conversion of Constantine in the fourth century, an entirely new issue came to the forefront, one with which believers have struggled ever since. Christians were now in charge of the army, or later, in modern democracies, had significant influence over those who were in charge and how they should behave. For the most part, Christians since Constantine have been guided by the theory of "just war," first set forth by Augustine in the fourth century and refined by Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century. Just war theory holds that Christians may rightfully, even lovingly, engage in warfare, if

• the cause of the war is just,
• military action is initiated by legitimate governmental authority,
• this action is the last resort,
• it has a reasonable hope of success, and
• it is a proportional response to the evil it seeks to redress.

During the Reformation in the 16th century, the Anabaptist movement (which was the precursor of the various Mennonite and Amish churches), followed by the Quakers in the 17th century, revived the concept of pacifism as a core Christian value. The historic witness of these and other "peace churches" has gained a broader influence in the wider Christian community in recent decades through the work of scholars such as John Howard Yoder and Stanley Hauerwas.

Sources for Further Study
For information on recent events such as peace protests by Adventist college students, the church's official statement on the Iraq War, and the fate of church members seeking noncombatant status in Russia and North Korea, see the March 2003 news section in the official church Web site: http://www.adventist.org/news/data/2003/02/.

Bainton, Roland H. Christian Attitudes Toward War and Peace: A Historical
Survey and Critical Re-evaluation (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1979).

Cadoux, C. John. The Early Christian Attitude to War (New York: Seabury Press, 1982).

Carter, Jimmy. Talking Peace: A Vision for the Next Generation (New York: Puffin Books/Penguin Group, 1995).

"Challenge of Peace-God's Promise and Our Response, The." Statement issued by the United States Catholic Bishops, 1983: http://www.osjspm.org/cst/cp.htm

Clouse, Robert G., ed. War: Four Christian Views (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1991).

Cole, Darrell. When God Says War Is Right: The Christian's Perspective on When and How to Fight (Colorado Springs, Colo.: Waterbrook Press, 2002).

Fargo, Marilyn A. "Training Young Peacemakers," Journal of Adventist Education 64:3 (February/March 2002), pp. 10-17.

Flowers, Ronald B. "War and Peace: A Christian Response," Liberty 98:2 (March/April 2003), pp. 3-5.

Grossman, Lt. Col. Dave and Gloria DeGaetano. Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill: A Call to Action Against TV, Movie, and Video Game Violence (New York: Random House, 1999).

Hays, Richard B. The Moral Vision of the New Testament: Community, Cross, New Creation (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1996).

Hauerwas, Stanley. The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer in Christian Ethics (South Bend, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1984).

"Just War Theory," Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/j/justwar.htm.

McCarthy, Colman. I'd Rather Teach Peace (Mary Knoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2002).

"The Peace Making Commitment of the Mennonite Central Committee": http://www.mcc.org/peacecommit.html.

Stassen, Glen H. and David P. Gushee. Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2003).

Troeltsch, Ernst. The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches, 2 vol. (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 1992).

Walzer, Michael. Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument With Historical Illustrations (New York: Basic Books, 2000).

War, Terrorism, and Conflict Resources: http://circle.adventist.org/browse/?browse_node=270.

Yoder, John Howard. The Politics of Jesus (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1994).