It has long been a tactic of the enemies of Christ's Church to lump Christianity in with the rest of the world's religions when they claim that religion has caused nothing but trouble for the world.
When I say that this has long been a tactic, I mean it. Arnobius of Sicca, a Christian apologist who died in 330 AD, responded to this very accusation when it was raised in his day. He writes:
"There
have actually been fewer calamities since Christians appeared.
"Actually,
regarding the wars which you say were begun on account of hatred for our religion,
it would not be difficult to prove that after Christ was heard on earth, not only
did they not increase but in great measure were reduced as a result of the
repression of fierce passions.
"For
when we, so large a number as we are, have learned from His teachings and His laws
that evil should not be repaid with evil; that it is better to suffer wrong than
be its cause, to pour forth one's own blood rather than to stain our hands and conscience
with the blood of another: the world, ungrateful as it is, has long had this benefit
from Christ by whom the rage of madness has been softened and has begun to withhold
hostile hands from the blood of fellow beings.
"And
if all without exception who understand that are men, not through the
form of their bodies but through the power of reason, would for a little while
be willing to lend an ear to His wholesome and peaceful commandments, and would
believe not in their own arrogance and swollen conceit but rather in His admonitions,
the whole world, long since having diverted the use of iron to more gentle pursuits,
would be passing its days in the most placid tranquility and would
come together in wholesome harmony, having kept the terms of treaties unbroken."
Arnobius of Sicca, The Case Against the Pagans, Book I, Chapter 6
Source: Ancient Christian Writers, Volume 7, The Newman Press 1949
Arnobius of Sicca, The Case Against the Pagans, Book I, Chapter 6
Source: Ancient Christian Writers, Volume 7, The Newman Press 1949
