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The Historic Faith
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Question 10
In Sattler’s trial he affirmed nonresistance even against a Turkish invasion (“we ought not to resist them…Thou shalt not kill”), yet said he would sooner fight the so-called Christians persecuting believers because they are “Turks after the Spirit”; what does this expose about how God evaluates “Christian” violence and state power, and what would it cost you—politically, financially, and socially—to live as if Christ’s kingdom is truly “not of this world”?
Another way to ask: Sattler refused to fight even invaders but said persecuting “Christians” were worse in a spiritual way. What does this say about how God views Christian violence and government power, and what would it cost you to live like Christ’s kingdom is not of this world?

Direct Answer Dean’s transcript shows Sattler exposing the hypocrisy of “Christian” state violence: persecuting Christians in Christ’s name is spiritually worse than open enemies, because it uses Christ as a cover for killing. Living as if Christ’s kingdom is “not of this world” would mean rejecting coercion and self-defense by violence, and accepting suffering, loss of protection, and likely social and legal hostility.

Support from Transcript:

  • One charge: Sattler taught that if “the Turks should invade…no resistance ought to be offered them.”
  • Sattler confirms: “If the Turks should come, we ought not to resist them…For it is written, ‘Thou shalt not kill.’”
  • He extends nonresistance to persecutors: “We must not defend ourselves against the Turks and others of our persecutors,” but instead “beseech God…to repel and to resist them.”
  • His shocking comparison: persecuting “Christians” are “Turks after the Spirit,” while “The Turks are a true Turk…you who would be Christians…persecute…pious Christians.”
  • In his Strasbourg letter he had already said Christians trust God “without any outward or worldly arms,” and that Christian “citizenship…is in heaven and not on earth.”
  • The trial shows the cost: sarcasm, threats (“The hangmen shall dispute with you”), and condemnation.
Discussion Follow-ups What protections (political influence, legal leverage, public respectability) do you assume Christians should have? How would your life change if you expected instead to be “chosen out of the world” and therefore hated?

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