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To those who ask about our origin and our founder we reply that we have come in response to Jesus' commands to beat into plowshares the rational swords of conflict and arrogance and to change into pruning hooks these spears that we used to fight with. For we no longer take up the sword against any nation, nor do we learn the art of war any more. Instead of following the traditions that made us "strangers to the covenants" (Eph 2:12), we have become sons of peace through Jesus our founder. (Against Celsus 5.33) Denying to the Jews of old, who had their own socio-political system and their own territory, the right to march against their enemies, to wage war in order to protect their traditions, to kill, or to impose some kind of punishment on adulterers, murderers and others who committed similar crimes would have been nothing short of consigning them to complete destruction when an enemy attacked their nation because their own Law would have sapped their strength and would have forestalled their resistance. But Providence, which in an earlier time gave us the Law and now has given us the Gospel of Jesus Christ, did not want the Jewish system perpetuated and so destroyed the city of the Jews, and their temple along with the divine worship that was celebrated thew through sacrifices and prescribed rites. (Against Celsus 7.26)
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