Forty-Fourth Annual Time of Prayer and Fasting for
The Truth of Gospel Nonviolence
July 1-August 9
Our Lamb has conquered. Him let us follow.
FAST FOOD 2026, Eighth Helping
The sentence, “Jesus saves,” may be the most agreed upon sentence throughout all of Christianity. Indeed, it may be the only sentence upon which the whole Christian ecumenical movement can agree. It is of course a true statement for Christians and some others.
However, the crucial question that immediately follows from this, which cries out for an objectively truthful answer because so much is at stake in time and in eternity in a correct answer is, “How does Jesus save?” Here the Church is divided into ten thousand pieces, often contradictory or incompatible. Each piece raises children within its orb to believe from birth and to live what the adults in that piece of the Church believe is the answer to the question, “How does Jesus save.” Each also emphasizes that the answers given by the other pieces are not correct in whole or in part and must not be chosen or followed because salvation through Jesus does not come by following untruth. But to be fair, there are pieces of Christianity that believe truth is irrelevant to salvation through Jesus. Jesus saves whether or not one teaches or believes what He taught in the Gospels for the wellbeing and eternal salvation of human beings.
This variety of answers is as it is today on many matters, but is also as it was in the first three hundred years of Christianity. Diversity abounded. Controversies galore arose. Disagreements, passionate disagreements, about all types of theological and spiritual matters existed all over the Church, or better in the Churches, of the first three hundred years. Everything was scrutinized in detail from the nature of God to whether a Christian could go to the theater. And, apparently, most of these controversies were not exclusively or even primarily academic but were engaged personally, socially and culturally in the various Churches.
Yet, in three hundred years, the three hundred years closest to the time of Jesus when the Greek of the New Testament was lingua franca in that part of the world “There is not a single Christian writer or theologian up to the time of Constantine who says that it is legitimate for Christians to kill or to join the military.” This was not a point of serious controversy for three hundred years in a Church where there was a plethora of controversies on a multitude of matters. This should be well noted. What also should be noted and underlined is that these three hundred were years of chronic and brutal Roman persecution of the Church and Christians, starting from in AD 65 and continuing until AD 313. Following the Nonviolent Jesus and rejecting violence and war was not a mere academic theological problem during these centuries. It was a choice with the threat of torture and death for oneself and one’s family inherent in it. Yet, not a single written sentence morally legitimating a Christian killing or joining the military came from the Christian community during these years.
Certainly, it would seem that if any Christians ever had the right to use violence in defense of themselves and their families, these Christians had it in full measure. The fact that under such circumstances that there is not a single sentence written in the Church or from a Church in these three hundred years morally legitimating such a right for Christians is a gigantic and unique spiritual event inhuman history, never before seen in the human condition.
For Bishops not to let every Baptized Christian know fully Christian history during this first three hundred years is gross episcopal pastoral negligence bordering on grave moral culpability, because there is truth held within this unprecedented historical-spiritual event of human history, which could reveal much to help Christians today see more clearly and more deeply how Jesus saved.
Emmanuel Charles McCarthy
www.emmanuelcharlesmccarthy.org
https://www.youtube.com/@emmanuelcharlesmccarthy3292
“Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Love.
Heaven and earth are full of Your glory!
Hosanna in the highest!
Blessed is He, Who comes in the Name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest!”
