A Farewell to Mars: An Evangelical Pastor's Journey Toward the Biblical Gospel of Peace

Before I saw this book I wasn't too familiar with Brian Zahnd. I had seem him on Twitter but that was it. I had read some quotes from this book and it was enough to pique my interest. Once I picked it up, I couldn't put it down.Zahnd is writing a book about Christian nonviolence, which he distinguishes from pacifism because one can reach the pacifist position apart from Christ. This book is part exposition of Scripture and part biographical journey.Zahnd's biographic journey in the book is very engaging. He started this journey like many Red-State Christians: supportive of war while praying to the Prince of Peace. But as he went on this journey he began to recognize that he was separating the Jesus who died and rose from the dead from the ideas that Jesus preached leading up to those history defining events. As he began to unite the Jesus who preached with the Christ who died he began to realize his theology ended up way too short of what Jesus was teaching. Jesus came to save the world, not save us from the world. Therefore, Jesus intends for us to take his ideas of love and forgiveness and peace seriously. This changed his entire world, including his politics. No longer did he endorse policies that went counter to Jesus' message of love and forgiveness—like war.Zahnd's exposition was really good, though could have been done better. He walks through the Gospels and Jesus' teachings and let's them inform and shape our understanding of his death. Too often, and I very much agree, Evangelicals let an overly spiritualized reading of Paul define our atonement theology, and then read that onto the Gospels. Zahnd explores Jesus on the terms of the Gospels and lets them explain Jesus' death—which changes how we should understand the atonement. His use of Cain and Abel as a myth to explore violence and its origins is exceptional, supported by anthropological studies. Zahnd I think should have done more to provide a bibliography for assertions like those in the field anthropology but the narrative he provides (assuming accurate) is persuasive.I want everyone who claims the name of Jesus to read this book. Brian Zahnd makes an excellent case for Christians to embrace and to advocate nonviolence. Zahnd pleads with Christians to take seriously that we are to be conformed to the image of the Prince of Peace. So why aren't we preaching peace, beyond mere inner peace?

I became a Christian in my late teens. I had grown up going to church and reading the Bible and praying but it was all meaningless to me until, like Paul on the road to Damascus, God revealed himself to me in his son, Jesus. It was an encounter that utterly transformed my life and the trajectory that I’d been on.As a newly minted disciple, I desperately wanted to know what Jesus thought. I devoured every book I could find about him – books about prayer and the Christian life by Andrew Murray and E.M. Bounds, books about Calvinism and Arminianism, books about Jesus and Paul and the Old Testament and everything in between. And I read the Bible. The year I became a Christian, I read the Bible cover to cover; starting in Genesis and ending in Revelation. My goal was to read this book that I’d been hearing about all of my life with fresh eyes – and I did. God revealed himself to me in ways that are inexplicable. He spoke to me through his word. Again and again.I’ll never forget one particular moment in time when God whispered into my ear. I was running the slides at our church on a patriotic holiday (I never can keep them straight because my family wasn’t particularly patriotic growing up). At the front of the sanctuary stood an American flag. A couple of boy scouts stood next to it and led the entire congregation in a recitation of the pledge of allegiance. Here’s what they said…I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America,and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation under God, indivisible,With Liberty and Justice for all.I’d heard it and recited it a thousand times. It was as familiar to me as the Lord’s Prayer (probably more familiar at the time). And yet, as I sat there running slides and watching as an entire congregation of people who had gathered to worship the risen Jesus instead saluted the flag of a temporal nation and pledged their loyalty to that flag and the government it represented, I felt uncomfortable. My mind was filled with an image that I’ll never forget: it was the image of a first century house church, the congregation was gathered, seating or standing wherever they could find a place, and Paul stood at the front of the room. To his right was a Roman standard, adorned with a golden eagle, the letters SPQR emblazoned in gold on the crimson cloth. And all of the congregation reciting a Roman pledge of allegiance…. “I pledge allegiance to the standard of the Empire of Rome, and to the Emperor for which it stands…” ‘Absurd!’, I thought. And it was. Paul would never have led those first century churches in a pledge of allegiance to the Roman empire. It would have directly contradicted the Gospel: a Gospel that recognized only one King, one Lord, and one Kingdom. And yet, there I was in a twenty-first century church doing what would have seemed incomprehensible twenty centuries earlier. Instead, today, not saying that pledge would seem absurd. What happened?Brian Zahnd had a moment like that. He opens his book, ‘A Farewell to Mars’ by naming his worst sin. It was the sin of praying a war prayer. After 9/11, he attended a prayer rally in his town where he was asked to pray. Rather than praying for peace or reconciliation, he prayed for God to bless America as she geared up for war. Years later, God spoke to him with the words, “That was your worst sin.” It was a moment of clarity for Brian Zahnd. Previously, he had been an average evangelical pastor: not bloodthirsty but willing to be bellicose enough when it was needed. He supported America’s wars with sermons and public prayers. But everything changed for him. He began walking toward a more pacifist (though he wouldn’t use the word) understanding of the way of Christ.This is what makes Brian Zahnd controversial within modern American evangelicalism. He isn’t conservative enough. He preaches a political Jesus but not a Republican Jesus. For that matter, he doesn’t preach a Democrat Jesus either. He talks in the book about how he believes that our left-right political spectrum cannot contain the politics of Jesus, Christian politics rightly informed by the Gospel transcends any worldly spectrum. In fact, he goes so far as to imply that you can’t apply the politics of Jesus to the systems of the world. As I read his thoughts on this, I was torn in two directions. I have a hard time squaring Jesus’ words about nonviolence and love for enemies with the way that many Christians speak and act. As a follower of Jesus, how can I have anything but hate for a weapon as destructive as the atomic bomb? And yet, what is a nation like America to do? Eliminate our nuclear arsenals and allow another (perhaps less restrained) to take our place? I don’t know the answer. But I know the Answer. And his name is Jesus.The fact is, in America, nationalism and the church practically go hand in hand. “God and Country” could be emblazoned in many churches across America as an apt motto. He advocates for one Kingdom – and it isn’t America. On top of that, he is, though he doesn’t like the title, a pacifist in many ways. This too is an unpopular position within modern American evangelicalism. This is why Brian Zahnd is controversial.I think that Zahnd has a lot of really good things to say. He is a prophetic voice calling the church to return to her first love – and not to have any other loves. He’s calling her to recognize that the Gospel means something right now for us. He’s calling the church to recognize that Jesus doesn’t just want to transform us when we die – he wants to transform us right now. These are all admirable calls that need to be made.On the other hand, I’m not completely convinced of some of his interpretations of scripture. For instance, he interprets the parable of the sheep and goats to be referring to the way God judges nations right now. On this passage, I agree with some of his analysis but felt that it was weak over all.Brian Zahnd has some very important things to say to the modern American evangelical church. My hope is that she will take the time to listen and wrestle with what he says rather than merely dismissing him as a ‘liberal’ or a ‘hippie’ or worse. These are big, important issues and they deserve to be thought through and meditated on. It’s an issue of life and death.

Zahnd does a marvelous job presenting the true Gospel as the Gospel of Peace. Most of us who have spent years in institutional churches have been trained to think in terms of nationalistic pride and justifiable war. I can no longer swallow that line. Toward the end of the book, the parable of the sheep and goats is presented as the main criteria for judging the nations- did you feed the hungry, clothe the naked, etc, etc.? This is the plummet, the measuring line of righteous judgment. "He judged the cause of the poor and needy...was not this to know me?" (Jer. 22:16) "Pure religion and undefiled is this- to visit the fatherless and the widows..." (James 1:27). THIS is proper politics. This is the true "right" and "left"- you either care for those in need, or you don't. As a nation, are we sheep, or are we goats?Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. (Ps. 34:14)"I pledge no allegiance to elephants or donkeys, only to the Lamb." (p. 172)

An absolute must read for all those who seek Peace whether Christian or not.The exegesis of Jesus' teaching is first rate and a real eye opener.A couple of caveats. One Zahnd doesn't deal at all with the Difficult Passages in the Old Testament where, certainly in traditional interpretation it appears that God tells Israel to wage war to gain territory. The second is that Zahnd writes this from a perspective of someone who is protected by the greatest military power this world has ever known. I would value insight from those disciples who live on the edge of existence never knowing what the next day will bring and whether violent death will catch up with them. I have certainly been humbled by the witness of those who live in Syria and Egypt and their commitment to non-violence.A terrific book though and should be at the top of everyone's reading list.

For Christians, this is an important read. Brian Zahnd highlights the danger of mixing up our identity in Christ with our national pride, supporting wars and demonizing the enemy. Zahnd certainty challenges us to think again. I didn't give this book 5 stars because it left me with a question - how should Christians deal with the issue of seeing our country go to war? Although Zahnd clearly points out the problem, he doesn't get to a solution. However, I do believe all Christians should read this as Zahnd clearly demonstrates that to just go along with the national view is often unsatisfactory from Jesus' point of view.

Jesus came to change things now, not just in the hereafter. Not everyone likes that idea, because in the here and now there’s no escaping politics, and people don’t think Jesus would dirty his hands with anything as earthy as that. But he most certainly did, and his teaching about the kingdom of God had—and has—huge political implications.This book examines the political ideas of Jesus, in particular his insistence that his empire (‘kingdom’) will grow through non-violence. In today’s world, with its many wars, this is a vital message. It rightly insists that, as Christians, we should emulate our Master in exercising non-retaliation and being willing if necessary to die rather than fight back—as he himself did. In this way alone will his enemies be defeated and turned around to God’s way of living.I love Zahnd’s explanation of the kingdom of God as presented in the Gospels (encouraging echoes of N.T. Wright here), plus his insightful analysis of the group dynamics and crowd psychology that lie behind the scapegoating of minority groups and the fearful readiness of so many to go to war.He writes well, too, with a colourful style loaded with striking metaphors. But this is no smokescreen for a dubious message; he is spot on with his analysis of what the Gospel and Jesus’ kingdom message is all about. A first-class book in every respect.

Simply amazingly. This book should be taught in schools, instead of teaching about passed wars. If we could live by these principles there would be any war. Easy to read. Powerful and profound.

Brian Zahnd opens your eyes to what Jesus and the new testament writers had to say about The Kingdom of God and how it should transform how we engage with a world ruled by selfish ambition and a "them and us" mentality. This book is the antidote to the faulty theology that put Trump in the white house!!