Rob Arner

“The renunciation of violence by faithful followers of Jesus thus serves a crucial apologetic purpose in establishing the truthfulness of Christian claims. If the church of Jesus Christ is living without war and violence, then the prophecy is fulfilled. Without this embodied peace in the Christian community, such apologetic claims are destroyed and Christian claims about Jesus’ messiahship lose their credibility.”
― Rob Arner, Consistently Pro-Life: The Ethics of Bloodshed in Ancient Christianity

“Indeed, the whole of Christology is undermined if outsiders are unable to look at the life of the church and see in its nonviolence the fulfillment of Isaiah’s oracle, for if we are unable to point to a peaceable Christian church to substantiate our claims, how can we credibly say that Messiah has come, if wars and violence continue even in our own midst? Our claims about Jesus ring hollow and empty to skeptical ears if we do not embody the peace and nonviolence which Isaiah foretold that the Messiah would bring.”
― Rob Arner, Consistently Pro-Life: The Ethics of Bloodshed in Ancient Christianity