Which Religion is the Peaceful One?

One objection I often hear from atheists is that Christianity promotes war. People claim that most of the wars in the world were started by Christians. But is this really true? And which sort of "Christians" waged war?

This assumption of Christian culpability is based on an erroneous belief that all who call themselves Christians are Christian. The truth is  that genuine followers of Christ obey his commandments. The second-most important one is given by Jesus in John 13:34 (BBE). "I give you a new law: Have love one for another; even as I have had love for you, so are you to have love one for another."

But somebody might ask, "Don't all religions teach that?" It is true that religions teach that one should love their families and friends. But Christianity goes much further by teaching we should love our enemies. As Jesus said in Luke 6:35 (BBE), "But be loving to those who are against you and do them good, and give them your money, not giving up hope, and your reward will be great and you will be the sons of the Most High: for he is kind to evil men, and to those who have hard hearts."

"But what about the crusades?" somebody will ask. Those happened two-hundred years after Islamic warriors invaded Europe. Many Christians were martyred for their faithfulness to Christ. And while many Christians went to help their siblings, others were unconverted glory-seekers. They lacked the love of our Saviour.

We know also that the Inquisition and the wars between Catholics and Protestants were political. In fact, many martyred saints who were called apostates were actually true followers of our Lord. As Jesus aptly put it to his disciples in John 16:2 (BBE), "They will put you out of the Synagogues: yes, the time is coming when whoever puts you to death will have the belief that he is doing God's pleasure."

Christ also gave a parable about a farmer whose field was contaminated with tares. Matthew 13:37 and 38 (BBE) says, "And he made answer and said, 'He who puts the good seed in the earth is the Son of man; And the field is the world; and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom; and the evil seeds are the sons of the Evil One;'"

So we know that our churches are infiltrated with false Christians. They do their best to make us look our worst. I'll write about this in my next book called You Think You're Going to Heaven? Far too many churchgoers aren't born again and therefore they sin out of the sight of real believers.

On Thursday, I'll post about what it means to be born again.