THE GOD OF JUSTICE AND THE REVELATION OF PEACE

Under the Law of Moses, the Cities Glowed with Outward Fire: Under the Law of Christ, the Cities Glow with the Internal Light of the Holy Spirit! 

A Western Orthodox Catechesis on Divine Violence, the Fulfillment of the Law, and the False Zeal of Fundamentalism

By Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West)

The Question

A young Christian recently asked: “If God commanded violence in the Old Testament, how is Christianity different from Islam, which also claims divine sanction for violence? Doesn’t this make Christianity equally harsh or intolerant?” This is a sincere question, and one that deserves a careful, orthodox, and compassionate answer; because the God of Scripture is neither cruel nor inconsistent, and Christ did not “negate” the Old Testament but fulfilled and transformed it.

The Nature of Divine Violence in the Old Testament

The acts of violence recorded in the Old Testament are among the most troubling passages in Scripture: the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the conquest of Canaan, the flood, and divine judgments upon wicked nations.

To understand them rightly, we must distinguish between God’s justice and human violence. God is the Author of Life and the Judge of all flesh. When He acts in judgment, it is not out of hatred, vengeance, or cruelty, but out of the necessity of preserving creation from corruption. The Canaanites, Amalekites, and Sodomites had descended into practices so vile (including child sacrifice, ritual sexual violence, cannibalism, and demon worship), that they had become a plague upon the human race.

When God commanded Israel to act, it was not as a call to conquest, but as an act of divine surgery, cutting away what was fatally gangrenous from humanity. As St. Basil the Great wrote: “The wrath of God is not a passion, but a movement of His goodness whereby He puts an end to evil.” (Homily on the Psalms 7:12) In this sense, divine violence in the Old Testament was not a command to human cruelty, but a temporary dispensation, and a hard medicine administered to a dying world.

The Law as a Schoolmaster

St. Paul teaches that “the Law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ” (Galatians 3:24). The Mosaic Law, with its commands, wars, and punishments, was designed to reveal both the reality of sinand humanity’s inability to heal itself. It exposed the sickness of human nature, restrained evil temporarily, and prepared the world for the coming of the Physician of souls. As St. Irenaeus of Lyons wrote: “God did not destroy the nations because He delighted in bloodshed, but that through judgment He might teach righteousness, and through mercy restore mankind.” (Against Heresies, IV.20.4) In short: the Old Testament shows us the necessity of grace, while the New Testament reveals grace itself.

The Revelation of Christ: Fulfillment, Not Negation

The Incarnation changes everything. When Christ came, He did not abolish the Law, but He fulfilled it (Matthew 5:17). What was shadow in the Old Covenant became light in the New. The justice of God was not erased, but transfigured through God’s sovereign mercy.

At the Cross, divine justice and divine mercy meet. The violence of the Old Testament was humanity’s mirror, and showing what sin deserves. The Cross is God’s answers this sin: He takes that violence upon Himself. St. Gregory the Theologian says: “What was not assumed was not healed. He took upon Himself our curse and violence, that He might end both.” (Oration 45) In Christ, every sword of divine wrath is turned inward upon the Lamb who was slain. The blood of vengeance becomes the Blood of redemption.

Why Christian Faith Erases the Foundation of Violence

Christ’s teaching leaves no room for holy war, forced conversion, or vengeance. The Kingdom of God advances not by the sword, but by the Cross. When Peter struck Malchus, Jesus rebuked him:“Put up again thy sword into its place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” (Matthew 26:52)

Christianity recognizes that the true enemy is not flesh and blood, but sin, death, and the powers of darkness (Ephesians 6:12). The weapons of the Church are truth, prayer, and sacrificial love. The Fathers were unanimous that coercion in religion is blasphemous. As St. John Chrysostom declared: “The Church is not cleansed by the shedding of blood, but by the tears of repentance.” (Homily on Matthew 46.2) Thus, the revelation of Christ abolishes the very root of religious violence. The idea that we can serve God by destroying others was overturned by God’s sacrifice of Himself. Instead, we are commanded to destroy evil within ourselves, to “pull out the beam” in our own eyes, before taking the splinter out of our brothers’ eyes.

Why Islamic Violence Differs Fundamentally

Islam emerged six centuries after Christ and consciously rejected the Christian revelation of divine love. The Qur’an commands believers to “strike terror into the hearts of the unbelievers” (Sura 8:12) and to fight until all submit to Islam (Sura 9:29).

In contrast, Christianity calls us to lay down our lives rather than take the lives of others. Martyrdom, not jihad, is the Christian path to victory. The violence of Islam is theological, not incidental. Its goal is external submission (everyone knows that the word “Islam” means “submission”), enforced by law, not transformed by grace. Christianity seeks inner transformation, conversion of the heart, and the free assent of love. Whereas Islamic violence is driven by fear and domination, lust for power and lust for sexual conquest, the Old Testament’s divine violence was driven by protection and purification, and the New Testament fulfills both through mercy and love.

From Justice to Love

God’s justice did not vanish at Calvary, but it was revealed in its perfection, balance, strength and self-sacrifice. The same God who rained fire upon Sodom also stretched out His arms upon the Cross to save the world from sodomy - both ritual abuse and pagan worship! As St. Augustine wrote: “The New Testament lies hidden in the Old, and the Old is unveiled in the New.” (Quaest. in Heptateuchum, II.73)

The God who once judged through fire now redeems through uncreated flame, which is the fire of the Holy Spirit. What was once external warfare is now internal: a war against pride, lust, greed, hatred, and every false idol in the heart.

The Final Word

The difference between Christianity and Islam, therefore, is not merely one of interpretation: it is ontological. The God revealed in Christ is Love Himself (1 John 4:8). He conquers by suffering, reigns by humility, and saves through self-giving mercy.

No true Christian may ever take up arms in God’s name to destroy unbelievers. The only permissible battle is the inner one, where the heart must die to sin and become alive to God through the self-sacrifice of Christ Jesus Our Lord! As St. Maximos the Confessor reminds us: “He who loves God cannot hate his brother, even if that brother is his enemy.” (Four Hundred Chapters on Love, 1.23)

Thus, in Christ, the sword of judgment becomes the plowshare of peace, and the Old Testament’s thunder resolved in the still, small voice of the Incarnate Word, Who was elevated above all the world on the rough wood of the Holy Cross, to signify the Way of the Spirit and the conquest over Death, Sin, and the Devil! 

COLLECT 

Almighty and most merciful Father, who in times past didst smite the nations for their wickedness, yet in Thy Son hast revealed Thyself as the Prince of Peace: Grant us to behold in Thy judgments both Thy holiness and Thy love; that, knowing Thy wrath against sin, we may flee unto the Cross of Thy dear Son, where justice and mercy are reconciled. Deliver us, we beseech Thee, from the spirit of vengeance and of false zeal; fill our hearts with the charity of Christ, that we may overcome evil with good, and conquer hatred by forgiveness. So bring us, purified by Thy love, into that kingdom where all war shall cease, and peace shall reign for ever; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Summary Points

• God’s violence in the Old Testament was just, surgical, and protective, and not arbitrary.

• The Law was preparatory, showing sin and need for redemption.

• Christ fulfilled and completed the Law, turning divine wrath into divine mercy.

• Christianity renounces holy war and coercion; Islam institutionalizes them.

• True faith defends the innocent, not by destruction, but by transformation through grace.

• The revelation of Christ erases the foundation of religious violence, replacing fear with love.