The Church and the World

Yes, and the Caesars too would have believed on Christ, if either the Caesars
had not been necessary for the world, or if Christians could have been Caesars.

~Tertullian, Apology 21, c. AD 210

This statement by Tertullian, a lawyer by profession, is not an argument, but a simple statement of fact. To him, all Christians knew this to be true.

In case you're missing what he's saying, let's parse it a bit. This sentence is part of a letter written to the Caesar. In the letter, he points out that it seems impossible to stop the Christians. There are so many, he says, that if Caesar banished them all from the empire he would have no one left to rule. This is an exagerration, of course, but his point stands. There were many Christians, and Tertullian is famous for the statement made in this letter, "The more often we are mowed down by you, the more in number we grow. The blood of the martyrs is seed" (ch. 50).

His point in the statement at the top of this page is that if it were possible to convert the Caesar, it would have already happened. Two things would have to be true, though, for a Caesar to believe on Christ. Either, one, the world would have to have no need of Caesars, or, two, a Christian would have to be able to be a Caesar. Neither, however, according to Tertullian, are true.

It would be possible for a Caesar to believe on Christ if he could just quit being Caesar. However, the world has need of Caesars. Or, if a Christian could be a Caesar, then the Caesar could believe and remain Caesar. Alas, a Christian cannot be a Caesar.

Again, Tertullian is not arguing this point. He is stating it as something that apparently all Christians understood. There are two reasons that I can see in their writings for why this is so.

One, Christians have their own kingdom. Theirs comes from heaven. An early anonymous Christian letter stated, "As citizens we share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to us as our native country, and every land of our birth as a land of strangers" (Letter to Diognetus 5). "If my kingdom were of this earth," Jesus said, "Then would my servants fight for me." Their kingdom is from heaven, however, and their weapons are spiritual. Thus, the early church understood that the prophecy that we would beat our swords into ploughshares was fulfilled in the church, not in a future millennial kingdom. It is not the job of Christians to rule an earthly kingdom.

Two, Christians cannot use the sword, and the government must use the sword. Governments are the ministers of God, says the apostle Paul in Romans 13, to use the sword to correct evildoers. Christians, however, cannot do so. They must forgive, turn the other cheek, and pray for those who do them wrong. These two ministries are incompatible, and thus every person must choose one or the other. They cannot do both.

The early church did not lose this view until the 4th century, when bishops began to be appointed by and paid by the Roman government. Even as late as the Council of Nicea in AD 325, a council at which the Roman emperor presided, it was stated that Christians cannot join the military "like a dog returning to his own vomit" (Council of Nicea, Canon 12).

This did not mean that Christians were of no value in war. Justin's letter to the emperor contains an account of a victory accomplished by the prayer of a battalion of Christians that refused to bear the sword. The very heavens battled against Rome's enemies at their prayer; a withering hail drove them from the battlefield (Justin Martyr, First Apology 68, appendix, c. AD 155). Tertullion himself argued that "it is the immense number of Christians which make your enemies so few" and called the emperor to take into account "the important protection we afford you" (Tertullian, ibid. ch. 37).

Oh, that we had the same faith today, the ability to trust God for our safety and for the safety of the lands we dwell in; that we would call on the same weapons that the early church called on and that we, too, would believe in their power.