New Protest Marches

In our Reformed circles here in North America, we shall, no doubt soon, be hearing pleas that we join in the peace and disarmament movements which are already so vocal in Europe. All throughout Western Europe the fall of 1981 was marked by large scale protest marches against the NATO Alliance and against the United States in particular. The protesters claimed to be demonstrating for peace, which they would define as the disarmament of the Western powers. The demonstrators were especially insistent that the nuclear defense shield in Western Europe should be dismantled. In the foreground of these marches, especially in West Germany and the Netherlands, were the leadership of the liberal protestant churches. In the Netherlands these protesters received aid and encouragement from certain segments of the Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland, a denomination with which the C.R.C. has ecclesiastical fellowship. Liberal European churches, which had long ago quit preaching the Gospel and consequently were losing members and influence, suddenly found new popularity by making pacifistic political pronouncements.

Campaign in Our Churches

The campaign to ally our churches with this socalled peace movement has indeed already begun. The Council of the Christian Reformed Churches in Canada had on its agenda in 1981 proposals to support officially such pacifistic, ecumenical organizations as Project Ploughshares. A report to that same Council proposed that “The endeavours of the Inter Church Committee on Human Rights in Latin America and of the Roman Catholic Church in oppressed countries are recommended for support by our government.” (Council Agenda 1981, Appendix H,7.08). It should be noted that this Inter-Church Committee on Human Rights is a liberal, ecumenical organization. It is organizations like this together with t he Church of Rome that we are being urged to recommend and support. A publication of the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee entitled “For Our Neighbors’ Good,” distributed here in Canada, openly attacked the government of the United States on the issues of the Law of the Sea and foreign aid. In the official weekly publication of the Christian Reformed Church, the peace and disarmament movement in Europe is frequently and sympathetically presented to the readers. It is evident that the church bureaucracy has a fervent desire to involve our churches in supporting (unilateral) disarmament and peace at any price, the ecumenical movement’s latest fad.

Time to Wake Up

We who desire to remain true to the Reformed faith and to keep our churches solidly based on God’s Word must come to realize what is happening. What will our stand be when proposals to agitate for disarmament are placed openly before the assemblies of our churches? We certainly are for peace. All sane men oppose the unthinkable tragedy of nuclear war. Does this mean, howe ver, that we as Reformed Christians must ally ourselves with the peace protesters of today and the left-wing machinations of various ecumenical organizations? My answer in a word is: No. As Reformed Christians we will not be seduced into conforming to the world’s idea of peace. We will not ask our NATO governments to remove the power that protects our life and freedom from the unspeakable tyranny of soviet communism.

Government’s God-Given Responsibility

Our answer to the pacifists comes from our Belgic Confession: “We believe that our gracious God, because of the depravity of mankind, has appointed kings, princes, and magistrates; willing that the world should be governed by certain laws and policies; to the end that the dissoluteness of men might be restrained, and all things carried on among them with good order and decency. For this purpose He has invested the magistracy with ‘the sword for the punishment of evil-doers and for the protection of them that do well.”

This is our Confession, and it rests on the sure foundation of the Bible. Pacifism is at its root misguided and has never been considered a valid option for Reformed Christians. We recognize the right and responsibility of a state to be armed for the protection of the people, which is the chief duty of government.

Pacifist Hypocrisy

Additionally, it may be said that the present day pacifists and disarmament protesters are clearly revealed by recent events to be utter hypocrites. The desire of the NATO Alliance to update its means of protection and defense brought out millions of protesters in Europe; but when the forces of the Communist, Warsaw–Pact government in Poland flexed their military might there was quite a different reaction. Time magazine reported in their Feb. 1, 1982 issue:

“Accustomed to portraying the U.S. as the chief threat to world peace, the leaders of the antinuclear crusade have been confounded by General Wojciech Jaruzelski’s move against the Polish workers that had evidently been ordered by Moscow. In all of Europe only a few thousand have demonstrated against Poland’s imposition of martial law, although more than two million people had turned out for antinuclear weapons rallies in major European cities last fall.”

The pacifists and their ilk who support them here in North America are acting on only surface issues and are reacting to the world situation in a way that can have only damaging consequences for the freedom that we presently enjoy in the Western world.

What Does the Bible Say?

In times like these we Reformed Christians are all the more called to come to a proper, Scriptural understanding of the place and duty of civil government. The Bible most certainly is not silent on this issue. With full confidence we can turn to the Word of God for wisdom and knowledge by which we can give an answer to those who would subvert the Church of Christ and the defense of the Western world.

The New Testament teaches us that legitimate government is God’s instrument—“He does not bear the sword in vain; he is the servant of God to execute His wrath on the wrongdoer” (Rom. 13:4). In the Psalms David speaks of his kingly task—“Morning by morning I will destroy all the wicked in the land, cutting off all evildoers from the city of the Lord” (Ps. 101:8). Thus it is the duty of the civil authorities to use whatever force is needed to protect the innocent and punish evil–doers. We must recognize that there is basically no difference between the individual criminal, who would murder or otherwise terrorize a community, whom even the pacifists would no doubt want restrained, and a host of evil-doers, e.g., an invading army or any force of tyranny that would seek to terrorize a community or nation. These too must be restrained. In his Institutes Calvin’s conclusion on this matter was: “Therefore, both natural equity and the nature of the office dictate that princes must be armed not only to restrain the misdeeds of private individuals by judicial punishment, but also to defend by war the dominions entrusted to their safekeeping.” (IV, xx, 11).

Bible-Believing Christians Must Speak Up

It would be well for each one of us as concerned Christians who are vitally interested in the truth and in the well-being of Christ’s Church to consider seriously our response to the peace and disarmament movements. This movement is already very powerful in Europe, and of all the European countries the Netherlands is one in which these pacifists have the most influence. As we well know, influences and movements popular in the Netherlands will sooner or later show up here among the Reformed Community in North America. The tip of the iceberg is presently visible; we can see it in the tone of articles published in certain magazines and in statements by committees of the Council of C.R. Churches in Canada. The floodgates of propaganda for this pacifistic campaign may open wide any day.

If we are faithful students of God’s Word and our Reformed Confessions, we shall have an answer to give when the time comes. With positive conviction based squarely on the Bible, we must declare that proposals for unilateral disarmament and peace at any price are contrary to God’s Will as He has revealed it. The time will soon come, I am convinced, when we will have to stand and be counted in the defense of our freedoms and of our governments’ duty to protect that freedom with the force of deterrence equal or greater to that of those who seek to destroy us and our way of life. In this day and age that clearly means a nuclear deterrent force.

Search the Scriptures, then, and learn what God says about the responsibility of government, as God’s instrument, to protect us. Let us not allow the shrill cries of the pacifists and their sympathizers to overwhelm our churches, nor let us allow them to go unanswered. We must answer on the basis of the Bible, that strong and sufficient defense is an obligation of a government to its people, and we must support all just and reasonable efforts by our governments here in North America to fulfill that obligation to us and to our allies.

Gregg V. Martin is the pastor of the Christian Reformed Church at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada.