British historian C. J. Cadoux summarized the uncompromising position of the early Christians very well in his book, The Early Christian Attitude on War, on pages 245 and 246:

“The early Christians took Jesus at his word, and understood his inculcations of gentleness and non-resistance in their literal sense. They closely identified their religion with peace; they strongly condemned war for the bloodshed which it involved; they appropriated to themselves the Old Testament prophecy which foretold the transformation of the weapons of war into the implements of agriculture [Isa. 2:4] . . . With one or two possible exceptions no soldier joined the Church and remained a soldier until the time of Marcus Aurelius (161-180 A.D.). Even then, refusal to serve was known to be the normal policy of the Christians—as the reproaches of Celsus (177-180 A.D.) testify. . . . The application of Jesus’ teaching to the question of military service was in a way unmistakable.”

The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom.  October 1, 1966 p. 590

 

The Early Christian Attitude on War

In more recent times, religious views were adjusted. “The idea of some modern theological writers,” explains The Dictionary of the Apostolic Church published in 1916, is “that this world as we know it will develop under Christian influence until it becomes the Kingdom.” But has it?

During the lifetime of millions still living, so-called Christian nations have been responsible for the greatest bloodbaths in human history. Church historian Roland H. Bainton observed: “The churches in the United States particularly took a crusading attitude toward the First World War.”

 

According to American churchmen, Bainton explained, “this was a holy war. . . . The Germans were Huns. To kill them was to purge the earth of monsters.” Similarly, the bishop of London, A. F. Winnington-Ingram, urged the English people: “Kill Germans—do kill them . . . As I have said a thousand times, I look upon it as a war for purity.”

The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom.  January 15, 1980 p. 6

 

The Dictionary of the Apostolic Church

Ecclesiastical historian Joseph Bingham writes concerning the early centuries: “The discipline of the church consisted in a power to deprive men of all the benefits and privileges of baptism, by turning them out of the society and communion of the church, . . . and every one shunned and avoided them in common conversation, partly to establish the church’s censures and proceedings against them, and partly to make them ashamed, and partly to secure themselves from the danger of contagion.” “ . . . no one was to receive excommunicated persons into their houses, nor eat at the same table with them; they were not to converse with them familiarly, whilst living; nor perform the funeral obsequies for them, when dead, . . . These directions were drawn up upon the model of those rules of the apostles, which forbade Christians to give any countenance to notorious offenders.”—The Antiquities of the Christian Church, pp. 880, 891.

 

The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom.  September 15, 1981 p. 23

 

The Antiquities of the Christian Church External Link