that foments recycling this horror repeatedly. In scripture it was recorded that Israel attacked and conquered, and yet… they did not fully follow the instructions of God. As instructed, they did not kill every man, woman and child in the city, but instead enslaved many and carried them away. These slaves eventually polluted the purity of God’s people in blood and faith expression. Consequently, the Israelites are yet embroiled in strife with neighboring peoples.

Then entered Christians into the fray. Jesus lived, taught, healed, and died to pay the penalty of human sin. Being offered up on a cross to be the human blood offering made for everyone who would believe in him…Jesus freed his followers from the penalty of sin.
You see, only the "perfect" sacrifice would forever satisfy God, therefore God offered his own. Thus as Christians, we need not make necessary the expression of self-justifying violence. Jesus, the Risen Christ, the Prince of Peace, reconciles with God those who are baptized in his name. Jesus restores our relationship to God the Father, who is the Creator of all.
I fear however that the centuries since the crucifixion and Resurrection reveal that the Christian church also possesses this penchant for violence. The Church, though called forward for peace, has often made war with Muslim entities in European arenas, as is evidenced in our written history.

 So true therefore are the words that Saint Paul noted… “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23), and “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

Thus, given this checkered history, let those of us within the Christian church not rain judgment and eternal condemnation upon either Hebrew or Muslim, without

Black Robe Regiment-Allegany– August 2025

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truthfully looking in the mirror. Let us only be thankful that we have received grace upon grace through forgiveness made available in Christ Jesus.

Know with certainty! It is in the very receiving of this grace-filled guarantee that we Christians are set free to work for peace amid this sinful and turbulent world. And though forceful resistance of arms against evil powers in this modern society may also be needed at times, we are more so called to work very hard in order to keep the peaceful precepts of God’s immutable Law. To be sure, the keeping of the Law is not that we may fulfill the Law to progressively structure a new, grand society. The Commandments… the apodictic Law…simply condemns us. The Law rightly stated therefore drives us to know our need for salvation. It is through our inability to obey the Law and our hard striving toward its fulfillment that we show all humanity our collective need for salvation.

 Let it be known, we sinners cannot meet God’s perfect Law! The Law thus drives us to properly seek salvation in Jesus, as provided by God, the Father Almighty.

We might ask in prayer then, “Since Christ is the answer, when shall all this striving and death end?” The answer is found in our scriptural Christian inheritance.

 The witness made by John of Patmos comes to us from the book of Revelation. He told us truly. God related to us  through his lowly servant as he strengthened the Church laboring beneath the powers of ancient Rome. John said that we shall see eternal heavenly peace only when evil powers are defeated at the last by Jesus Christ. We read…