Spurgeon’s Top Eight Lost Quotes: On Christians & War

We are up to the hilt advocates for peace, and we earnestly war against war. I wish that Christian men would insist more and more on the unrighteousness of war, believing that Christianity means no sword, no cannon, no bloodshed…

The Lord’s battles, what are they? Not the garment rolled in blood, not the noise, and smoke, and din of human slaughter. These may be the devil’s battles, if you please, but not the Lord’s. They may be days of God’s vengeance but in their strife  the servant of Jesus may not mingle.

Long have I held that war is an enormous crime; long have I regarded all battles as but murder on a large scale.

What pride flushes the patriot’s cheek when he remembers that his nation can murder faster than any other people. Ah, foolish generation, ye are groping in the flames of hell to find your heaven, raking amid blood and bones for the foul thing which ye call glory.

The Christian soldier hath no gun and no sword, for he fighteth not with men. It is with “spiritual wickedness in high places” that he fights, and with other principalities and powers than with those that sit on thrones and hold sceptres in their hands.

Our kingdom is not of this world; else would God’s servants fight with sword and spear. Ours is a spiritual kingdom, and the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual, and mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds.

Why does a peaceful nation bluster and threaten for a few months, and even commence fighting, when in a short time it sighs for peace, and illuminates its streets as soon as peace is proclaimed? The immediate causes differ, but the abiding reason is the same — man is fallen, and belongs to a race of which infallible revelation declares “their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known.”

The church of Christ displays its banners for distinction’s sake. It desires not to be associated with other armies, or to be mistaken for them, for it is not of this world, and its weapons and its warfare are far other than those of the nations. God forbid that followers of Jesus should be mistaken for political partisans or ambitious adventurers. The church unfurls her ensign to the breeze that all may know whose she is and whom she serves.

I always rejoice to find a soldier a Christian, but I always mourn to find a Christian a soldier,..The followers of Christ in these days seem to me to have forgotten a great part of Christianity.

Spurgeon on True Christian Soldiers

Sermon

A Good Soldier Of Jesus Christ

Before I proceed fully to open up this metaphor, let me say that though we shall use military terms this morning, and stirring speech, it should ever be remembered that we have no war against persons, and that the weapons which we use are not such as are forged for the deadly conflicts of mankind. The wars of a Christian are against principles, against sins, against the miseries of mankind, against that Evil One who has led man astray from his Maker. Our wars are against the iniquity which keeps man an enemy to himself. The weapons that we use are holy arguments and consecrated lives, devotion and prayer to God, teaching and example among the sons of men.

Ours is battling for the peace, and fighting for rest. We disturb the world to make it quiet, and turn it upside down to set it right….We have no sympathy with any other war, but count it an evil of the direst sort, let it be disguised as it may. Now with that caution, whatever I shall seem to say will not sound as though I loved or excused ordinary warfare—for nothing can be more abhorrent to the Christian man than wholesale slaughter.

[A lesson I learned the hard way; My Story]

The Church As She Should Be

Spurgeon Sermon

No. 984

…Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners. Song of Solomon 6:4

WHY IT IS THAT THE CHURCH OF GOD IS SAID TO BE AN ARMY WITH BANNERS. That she is an army is true enough, for the church is one, but many; and consists of men who march in order under a common leader, with one design in view …She is the church militant here below, and both in suffering and in service …She is contending for the truth against error, for the light against darkness: till the day break and the shadows flee away, …But why an army with banners? Is not this, first of all, for distinction? How shall we know to which king an army belongs unless we can see the royal standard? In times of war the nationality of troops is often declared by their distinguishing regimentals. The grey coats of the Russians were well known in the Crimea; …No one mistook the Black Brunswickers for French Guards, …Quite as effectively armies have been distinguished by the banners which they carried….The church of Christ displays its banners for distinction’s sake. It desires not to be associated with other armies, or to be mistaken for them, for it is not of this world, and its weapons and its warfare are far other than those of the nations.* God forbid that followers of Jesus should be mistaken for political partisans or ambitious adventurers. The church unfurls her ensign to the breeze that all may know whose she is and whom she serves.

*Romans ’13’ In Context

Living our Resurrection Faith, Following our King

How shall we know to which king an army belongs unless we can see the royal standard? –Charles Spurgeon

First Published by Friends United Press

For more see the ‘look inside’ feature at:

For Nook or PC

Kindle

Kindle, UK 

$3

A Biblical view, a journey from U.S. Marine to Christian pacifist…

NEW Standalone Page for Book

This book is valuable. It was written by a former Marine which sounds strange considering its subject. But as a former Marine myself I firmly believe that those of us who have been to war are quick to reject it. This book answered many questions about the peace of God and the Old Testament. It was very helpful to me in that area.

–D. Morris’ Review on Amazon Kindle.

[Note: Both Barnes and Noble and Amazon have a free “look inside”/”read sample” feature. Follow the link/s above]

Other reviews on Amazon Kindle Books

[Originally published by Friends United Press (currently out of print, ebook ony, link/s above, some used print version copies can be found).  This is my personal testimony to the change wrought in my life when I began to examine it as I struggled to align my path with that narrow way charted by Scripture.   Aside from the obvious teachings of Jesus, there were many surprises in the Old Testament.

This book gives an overview of my journey and those Scriptures that confronted me. For an academic work on Scripture and war,  see Dr. Preston Sprinkle’s new book, Fight, published by David C. Cook, and the classic, Yahweh is a Warrior by Mennonite scholar Millard Lind. ]

To believe the promise of Jesus that his followers shall possess the earth, and at the same time to face our enemies unarmed and defenseless, preferring to incur injustice rather than to do wrong ourselves, is indeed a narrow way. – Dietrich Bomhoeffer (The Cost of Discipleship)

Jesus’ kingship is not something that remains in the future. Christ is King right this minute. —R.C. Sproul

Christ our Peace

Spurgeon Sermon

…The Lord Jesus Christ is our peace in a second sense, namely, in making peace between nations. That there are wars in the world at the present time is not the consequence of anything that Christ has said, but of the lusts of our flesh. As I understand the Word of God, I always rejoice to find a soldier a Christian, but I always mourn to find a Christian a soldier, for it seems to me that when I take up Christ Jesus, I hear one of His Laws, “I say unto you, resist not evil. Put up your sword into its sheath; he that takes the sword shall perish by the sword.” The followers of Christ in these days seem to me to have forgotten a great part of Christianity.

[See on Romans ’13’ ]

 

Now don’t be fooled again, if you hear of the English conquering in China, don’t go down on your knees and thank God for it, and say it’s such a heavenly thing for the spread of the gospel — it just is not….Hush thy trump, O war; put away thy gaudy trappings and thy bloodstained drapery, if thou thinkest that the cannon with the cross upon it is really sanctified, and if thou imaginest that thy banner hath become holy, thou dreamest of a lie. God wanteth not thee to help his cause. “It is not by armies, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord” (“Independence of Christianity”)

A Call to Holy Living, Spurgeon

The Foundation of Spurgeon’s quotes is clear.  Read his sermon, A Call to Holy Living, if you wish to understand.

A Sermon
[No. 1029]
Lord’s Day Morning, January 14th, 1872

Text: Matthew 5

A Call to Holy Living

…We are justified by faith, and not by the works of the law. The merit by which a soul enters heaven is not its own; it is the merit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ….At the same time, it is a dangerous state of things if doctrine is made to drive out precept,** and faith is held up as making holiness a superfluity. Sanctification must not be forgotten or overlaid by justification. We must teach plainly that the faith which saves the soul is not a dead faith, but a faith which operates with purifying effect upon our entire nature, and produces in us fruits of righteousness to the praise and glory of God….

However severely pure that law may seem to be which we have read just now from this fifth chapter of Matthew, our hearts agree with it, and we ask that we may be so renewed that our lives may be conformed to it. The regenerate never rebel against any precept, saying, “This, is too pure;” on the contrary, our new-born nature is enamoured of its holiness, and we cry, “Thy word is very pure, therefore thy servant loveth it. O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes.”

**This is the great error of many evangelicals of our day and in the past. [Spurgeon utters this same warning in Morning and Evening for Sept. 5th: 

“. . . The doctrines of grace should have the same weight with us as the precepts of the word, no more and no less; but it is to be feared that with many one scale or the other is unfairly weighted. It is a grand matter to give just measure in truth. Christian, be careful here.”]

Charles Spurgeon: Quotes

If there is anyone who should be opposed to strife and bloodshed it is the man that names the name of Christ. Spurgeon considered the spirit of war to be absolutely foreign to the spirit of Christianity….
Modern conservative, fundamentalist, and evangelical Christians, all of whom might claim him as one of their own, have much to learn from Spurgeon, not only for his example of an uncompromising and successful Christian minister, but also for his consistent opposition to war and Christian war fever.--Laurence M. Vance [extended quotes and citations]

Spurgeon Speaks to Today’s Christian:

1) The Lord’s battles, what are they? Not the garment rolled in blood, not the noise, and smoke, and din of human slaughter. These may be the devil’s battles, if you please, but not the Lord’s. They may be days of God’s vengeance  but in their strife  the servant of   Jesus may not mingle. (“War! War! War!” May 1, 1859)

2) Long have I held that war is an enormous crime; long have I regarded all battles as but murder on a large scale. [“India’s Ills and England’s Sorrows,” September 6, 1857]

3) Christ’s church hath been also miserably befooled; for this I will assert, and prove too, that the progress of the arms of a Christian nation is not the progress of Christianity,

4) Why does a peaceful nation bluster and threaten for a few months, and even commence fighting, when in a short time it sighs for peace, and illuminates its streets as soon as peace is proclaimed? The immediate causes differ, but the abiding reason is the same — man is fallen, and belongs to a race of which infallible revelation declares “their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known.”

5) The Christian soldier hath no gun and no sword, for he fighteth not with men.  It is with “spiritual wickedness in high places” that he fights, and with other principalities and powers than with those that sit on thrones and hold sceptres in their hands.

 6) The church, we affirm, can neither be preserved nor can its interests be promoted by human armies. We have all thought otherwise in our time, and have foolishly said when a fresh territory was annexed to our empire, “Ah! what a providence that England has annexed Oude,” — or taken to itself some other territory — “Now a door is opened for the Gospel” (“Independence of Christianity,” August 31, 1857) [This was also said by some American evangelical leaders** who endorsed the invasion of Iraq. Quotes Now, linked here  and here ]

7) Our kingdom is not of this world; else would God’s servants fight with sword and spear. Ours is a spiritual kingdom, and the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual, and mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds

8) A war against falsehood, a war against sin, is God’s war; it is a war which commends itself to every Christian man, seeing he is quite certain that he has the seal of God’s approval when he goes to wage war against God’s enemies. Beloved, we have no doubt whatever, when we lift up our voices like a trumpet against sin, that our warfare is justified by the eternal laws of justice.

[** In the Baptist Press ‘…a missionary wrote that “American foreign policy and military might have opened an opportunity for the Gospel in the land of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob….

‘…, both Franklin Graham, . . . and Marvin Olasky, the editor of the conservative World magazine and a former advisor to President Bush on faith-based policy, echoed these sentiments,’

The end result is that one of the oldest Christian populations in the world has been decimated. ]