Editorial September 19, 1970 Issue

To End War

Carl J. Welz

The Bible gives us God's commandment, "Thou shalt not kill."^{Ex. 20:13;} The same Bible tells of many bloody battles in which God's direction plays a major part. And it is not unusual among these battles to read of one such as Joshua and the Israelites fought against Ai, wherein all the fighting men were slain and then "all the Israelites returned unto Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sword. And so it was, that all that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai."^{Josh. 8:24, 25;} The Bible also forecasts a time when there will be no war. And it gives us Christ Jesus' words, "Love your enemies,...do good to them that hate you."^{Matt. 5:44;}

When we look metaphysically at the many events of the Bible, we see them in a subjective light. The Biblical war narratives then present confrontations of thought—thought in obedience to God's guidance versus thought not in obedience to God—and the slayings of the families of the defeated represent the need in our own conscious experience for the obliteration of false thought in order to establish the reign of Truth.

To most of us the reign of Truth means the freedom of the individual to live and to think without being directed except by his own conscience or by laws agreed upon by those who live under them.

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