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Pastor Jay's Blog

Book Review: The Kingdom of God Is Within You - By Leo Tolstoy

What we have in this book is another example of the irresistible magnetism of Jesus. There is simply no else like Jesus.  While other men have changed the world by use of armies, overthrows of governments, or surprising inventions, only Jesus has changed the world by the word of truth, the power of miracle, the shock of holiness and the sacrifice of love.

It is because of this that people everywhere want to have Jesus on their side.  It is not uncommon for people to recognize the impact of Jesus and want to have that kind of change-maker attached to their cause.  But in order to do this, Jesus has to be rebranded.  Jesus has to be tamed and domesticated in order to get with the program.  For the psychologist, Jesus becomes the great therapist.  For the revolutionary, Jesus is the insurrectionist.  For the wounded and victimized, Jesus is the sympathizing judge.  For the progressive, Jesus is the courageous and compassionate breaker of traditions.  On and on the list goes.  But for every one of those rebrands, Jesus has to be neutered, edited and reshaped. 

Tolstoy has done this very thing.  His rebranding of Jesus is just one more version of a Jesus who fits with what someone wants.  What does Tolstoy want?  Tolstoy was a man who witnessed the horrors of war and other atrocities of government.  He was appalled by these and found something he liked in Jesus’s teaching; that particular thing was the statement from his sermon on the mount about not resisting evil but turning the other cheek.  That was the statement Tolstoy built his philosophy upon.  Unfortunately, Tolstoy became another in a long line of those who make Jesus into a patsy for their own ideas.*  (See footnote below addressing Historicity)

The tragedy of this is that Tolstoy has missed the heart of the message of Jesus.  Tolstoy wants a utopia and that utopia will be attained by people practicing love, patience, forgiveness and the necessary non-use of force against evil.  On page 26, Tolstoy says that a new doctrine appeared and was attributed to Christ.  This doctrine denied all deities and all human institutions and called men to an inward perfection.  As this perfection of love and truth was pursued there would be greater and greater blessedness and finally the Kingdom of God.  How Tolstoy dreamed this up and attached it to Jesus we are never told.  This is the farthest thing from what Jesus taught.  Jesus taught the exact opposite.  Jesus taught that from the heart of man came every evil thing (Mark 7:20-23)  On his own, man is dead in sin.  The one hope is not trying harder for inward perfection, but trusting that Jesus alone, as the God-man, can pay for our infinitely large sin-debt and change us.  Jesus called us to repent of self-effort and come to him.  Jesus condemned those who were trying for self-righteousness (Luke 18:10-14).  Only through him could we come to the Father (John 14:6) and bear the fruit of love (John 15:1-5).

A Misunderstanding of Jesus’ Teaching on Non-resistance

One of the worst things a person can do it take someone’s words out of context.  Today it is called a sound bite.  To detach a sentence from its context can allow that sentence to mean almost anything.  The call in the Bible is to accurately handle the word of God (2 Timothy 2:15).  The greek word used there means to rightly cut or divide.  Cutting something rightly means keeping the parts together that belong together and not separating them.  Tolstoy has cut out Jesus’ statement from the rest of what Jesus taught about living in a fallen world. 

Jesus did call for non-resistance, but in a particular situation; interpersonal conflict.  In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chap. 5-7) Jesus was confronting a misuse of God’s law (Matt. 5:38-42) in Leviticus (eye for an eye) that people were using for personal retaliation.  That principle was a community justice principle for the judicial system in the nation of Israel.  Jesus was saying that to use it for personal vengeance is wrong.  The heart-level righteousness of God’s people should be so desirous for the good of your neighbor that you turn their evil against you as new opportunities to show them good and blessing.  This is what the OT law was aiming for, but it was being perverted. 

There is nothing in Matthew 5: 38-42 that indicates that Jesus was wanting non-resistance in interpersonal matters to be a principle for every area of life, in every area of social systems and governance.  In fact, the rest of Jesus’ teaching has a number of examples that show the opposite of what Tolstoy advocated.

  • Tolstoy held Adin Ballou as an example of one who taught and wrote about non-resistance to evil. On page 6 Ballou says that the OT prophets taught to resist evil with punishment, but that “Christ rejects all this.” And that “jesus forbids it.”  But this is setting Jesus against the Old Testament.  Jesus was emphatically not against anything in God’s word of the Old Testament.  Jesus upheld all of the OT law, including the ones that called for punishment of evildoers. 
    • Matthew 5:17 (NASB95) — 17 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.
    • John 10:35 (NASB95) — 35 “If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken),
    • Luke 24:25 (NASB95) — 25 And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
  • On page 7 Ballou says one should not pay taxes to the government, but Jesus explicitly taught that taxes should be paid, even to Rome as was Jesus’ case.
    • Matthew 22:17 (NASB95) — 17 “Tell us then, what do You think? Is it lawful to give a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?” 21 They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” Then He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.”
  • Throughout the book Tolstoy speaks of how Christ teaching and true Christianity will destroy government and armies. However, in the scripture Jesus and others are never seen telling soldiers to leave but instead are given instructions for good service and are even praised for faith.
    • John the Baptist, the prophetic forerunner to Jesus was asked by soldiers what they should do in their repentance. Luke 3:14  Some soldiers were questioning him, saying, “And what about us, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not take money from anyone by force, or accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages.”
    • Jesus gave his highest praise to a soldier who had “great faith” Matthew 8:9–10 9 “For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” 10 Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.
  • Tolstoy is clear that there is no kind of forceful resistance to evil that accords with the teaching of Christ. While force is something that Jesus said should not be a part of interpersonal interaction, and even demonstrated that when he rebuked Peter for taking the sword against soldiers who were arresting Jesus (Matt. 26:51-52), Jesus did speak of a need of a sword.  In Luke 22:36 Jesus said “And He said to them, “But now, whoever has a money belt is to take it along, likewise also a bag, and whoever has no sword is to sell his coat and buy one.”  What would be the reason Jesus told them to take a sword?  Because when Jesus sent his disciples on missions earlier he gave special divine supplies so that they weren’t even to take extra clothes or to take money bags (Mark 6:8).  But now things are changing.  Jesus is ascending back to heaven and they will not have supplies divinely given in this special way.  God will supply by normal ways of providence, not in special miraculous ways.  They are to be prepared and God will work through their preparations.  And one of the preparation is a sword.  There will be people who simply want to kill them and take their stuff.  Jesus is telling them to be ready for this and to protect themselves. 

The Old Testament and the New Testament on Government and the use of the Sword

Tolstoy is only interested in Jesus.  The only reference to Old Testament is a rejection of its key characters (pg 38).  This is another evidence that Tolstoy made a Jesus to his own liking.  Jesus believed the OT, preached the OT, quoted the OT, and most importantly fulfilled the OT.  If Tolstoy really wanted to hold up Jesus as the example, the OT would not be ignored.  And if the OT is examined, God makes many regulations about punishing people, warfare, and judicial issues.  But what is unique to the OT is that these are provisions for the nation of Israel.  In the OT God set up theocracy.  God was ruling over Israel with his very presence in their midst at the temple.  God mediated his rule through the priesthood, through kings, through prophets and through judges. Therefore this is a very different situation than we are in now.  We are not Israelites living in a theocratic kingdom.  Thus, there are many things prescribed in the OT that are only meant for Israelite people such as dietary laws, cleansing laws, temple practices and more.  Nevertheless, we still see that non-resistance to evil by force was not what God set up.  Evil was resisted by laws, by judges, and by kings and their armies.  Yet it is also true that in interpersonal matters there must be no violence or retribution. Leviticus 19:18  ‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.”  The same thing Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount was already taught in the OT law. 

Regarding the rest of the New Testament we have to remember that Jesus commissioned and sent out the 12 apostles to start churches and teach according to the divine direction they would be given.  Tolstoy rejects all of this and says that the insertion of made up miracles was propping up a system that Jesus didn’t start.  That is a big assertion and one that should be dealt with.  Suffice it to say, in the below footnoot I briefly addressed the authenticity and historicity of the New Testament.  If miracles were invented, it would have easily been exposed and shut down.  The early churches were insistent regarding the apostolic authorship of the letters and that they conformed to Christ and the OT.   The gospels and the letters of the NT were coming directly from the apostles who were teaching as commissioned by the risen Christ.  

As such, the NT does speak about the use of force and governments.  The summary word is as follows.  God is no longer working in a theocratic way in one nation.  God’s presence among his people is now in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in each truly born again Christian worldwide, which is experienced especially when his people gather in biblically sound local churches.  In the world at large, evil is now held in check by all levels of government and done so by the just use of force.

  • Romans chapter 13 is the most significant teaching about government. Even evil governments are better than no government.  While the evil perpetrated by governments will one day be brought into divine judgment, they still restrain other evil and this is a necessary thing in this fallen world.  These are the key statements:
    • 1 every person should be subject to government
    • 1 God is the source of all legitimate authority
    • 1 Every government is from God as a restraining influence, even though it may do it poorly
    • 4 the government bears the sword and does so to bring wrath upon evil. This is a God-given right of government to deal with evil.
  • Paul recognized the right of government to bring the death penalty and when he was brought to trial for preaching the gospel he said that if he had done something deserving of death he did not refuse it. Acts 25:11  “If, then, I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die; but if none of those things is true of which these men accuse me, no one can hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar.”
  • 1 Timothy 2 calls us to pray for kings and all in authority. Not to pray for their end but that they execute their authority wisely and in justice with the result that people can live quietly and peaceably.
  • 1 Peter 2:13-14 also calls for a submission to government and that it has the job of the punishment of evildoers
  • Titus 3:1 calls for submission to government

Just War Tradition

While the New Testament doesn’t speak of nations engaging in war, throughout the centuries the Christian church has applied the above verses to speak to what is called Just War Tradition.  This is the teaching that utopian ideas of peace and harmony are simply the dreams of the naive.  This world is a fallen world populated by fallen people who are truly evil.  If evil is not confronted and dealt with then it will overcome and destroy everything.  The restraining feature that God has instituted to stop that is governments.  But that is not to say that government should go to war whenever they want.  The Just war Tradition says that since government can bear the sword, they should only do so against another nation when several things are true.  1) War must be the last resort, after all reasonable alternatives have failed. 2) A lawful authority must authorize the military action. 3) Authority must be driven by an intention to establish a righteous peace--not to gain territory or claim the goods of another lawful nation. 4) Military action must be proportionate to the good that can be gained.  5) Care must be taken to protect civilians to the greatest extent possible. 

 

 (Footnote From Above)

* But how do we know for sure that Jesus was edited and reshaped by Tolstoy?  When we speak of rebranding Jesus and editing Jesus, this presupposes that we have his true words and a true historical account of his life.  But do we?  This forces us to deal with the historicity of the Bible.  Is it a trustworthy historical document?  Many say it is not, simply because it contains theological and spiritual statements and records of miracles.  But this is not a fair treatment.  When viewed as an ancient document, how does it stand?

  • It is unparalleled in its genealogy. The Old Testament contain extensive genealogies and the NT uses them as well.  These are actual people with actual history.  These would have been verifiable or falsifiable by those who read it. 
  • It is unparalleled in his archeology – There is no other book that archeologists turn to like the Bible. It is real places and real events that have been verified over and over again by archeologists in the field.
  • It is unparalleled in its textual accurateness – We have remaining ancient manuscripts of the new testament that date back to within 50 to 100 years of their writing. No other ancient copies get this close to the originals. That closeness in dates is key for knowing its authenticity.  The Dead Sea Scrolls proved the accuracy of the OT.
  • It is unparalleled in manuscript numbers. – We know we have what the originals contained because there are so many copies (over 5,000 manuscripts) that make clear what the source document said and they also show where the errors are and how the errors got there in the first place.  The science of textual criticism has done extensive work with biblical texts.
  • The appeal to verification – Paul appeals to eye witnesses of the resurrection, whom he says most were still alive (1 Corinthians 15:3-6); Luke says his gospel accords with the other accounts written from eye-witnesses (Luke 1:1-4); Peter appeals to his eye-witness account as opposed to clever tales (2 Peter 1:16-21); John the Apostle says that he has written about what he saw and touched (1 John 1:1-4). The writers of the Bible are emphatically wanting people to verify the historicity of what they say and write. 
  • The personal sacrifice of the authors – All the apostles died a martyr’s death, not simply because they were zealous, but because they held to an actual historical resurrection of Jesus. People do not give their lives for a lie or extreme exaggeration.

The Bible is written as historical fact.  Luke, who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, specifically wrote to make a clear, historical record that could be checked.  Notice how Luke starts his book by appealing to eyewitnesses, investigation, consecutive order, and to truthfulness. 

Luke 1:1–4 — 1 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, 3 it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus; 4 so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.