Easter’s Message Comparing the Pagan & Biblical Meaning of Peace

During Easter, we discuss how Christ provided peace with God by offering his blood salvation to conquer sin, and release the conquered. An intriguing fact from the history of ancient Rome was their theory of how the peace of God or Pax Deorum was the most important public policy of the empire. The Roman idea of god included foreign deities also entering the pantheon These all had to be mollified via a contractual relationship. Most important was the transparently superstitious nature of this policy and how it avoids the Christian sense of the love of God that can cover all human error. But between Rome’s contractual notion of the gods, versus the biblical belief of a covenant, which is more adaptive to human needs and divine mandates. And one can assert that the problem the ancient Romans had with their gods was largely resultant from a lack of covenant, and a simplistic idea of divinity, to begin.

Roman rites sought Pax Deorum, Peace of the gods, v. Ira Deorum, Wrath of the gods

See the foundation of Rome’s Peace of the gods in Nova Roma:

“Pax, though usually translated into English as "peace," was a compact, bargain, or agreement. In religious usage, the harmony or accord between the divine and human was the pax deorum or pax divom ("the peace of the gods" or "divine peace"). Pax deorum was only given in return for correct religious practice. Religious error (vitium) and impiety led to divine disharmony and ira deorum (the anger of the gods).”

Again, note in The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, Pax Deorum:

“Pax deorum (“peace of the gods”) denotes the central goal of Roman state religion: a mutually beneficial state of peace between Rome and its deities, with the gods safeguarding Rome’s public welfare and the Romans providing the gods their desired worship and cult. The maintenance of the pax deorum was the preserve of the magistrates and public priests, who ensured that all public religious actions were performed in accordance with the exacting specifications of Roman religion.”

The foundation of peace, in Roman eyes, was achieved through rites and sacrifices. Now consider how mistaken religious activities would put the Roman gods at odds with the people and the state. Errors in the performance of ritual or contraventions of religious law broke the pax deorum by rousing the anger of the gods (ira deorum), who communicated their displeasure through Roman military defeat, plague pestilence, or (more frequently) any number of unusual occurrences. So the relationship was not spiritual but a checklist of right and wrong in contract form.

Craige B. Champion’s The Peace of the Gods: Elite Religious Practices in the Middle Roman Republic offers Rome’s how pax deorum (Peace of the gods) was executed. Romans believed that “proper observance of religious spectacles could placate the wrath of the gods and thus help them avoid natural calamities and the destruction of their enemies.”

Pax Deorum: “the peace of the gods.” One would be hard pressed to come up with a conception more central to the ancient Roman commonwealth. All activities of the state religion were directed to this end. This peace with the gods had something of the contractual and the reciprocal about it: Romans provided the desired worship, veneration, and cultic observances; the gods in turn, it was hoped, safeguarded Rome’s public well-being.¹

But there was never any guarantee that deities would indeed reciprocate, and it was the job of the magistrates and public priests to maximize the chances that they would do so. The pax deorum was a fragile affair. It could be broken by any number of errors in the performance of ritual or by contraventions of religious law, and all public religious actions to restore it were carried out according to the most exacting specifications.²

Constant vigilance was required, as divine signs frequently indicated that the gods’ peace must be created in order to avoid impending disaster.”

So what could be done if a religious rite were done in error? Roman sacrifices for mistaken, improper, or interrupted rites called piacular sacrifices (piacula), designed to appease gods and fix ritual errors. When ceremonies were botched, Romans often repeated the entire rite (instauratio) or offered animals—commonly pigs, sheep, or bulls—to rectify the mistake and restore divine favor. For example, if a priest lost his hat during a ceremony,

In Rome, if a mistake had been caught and was a big enough one, the entire ritual had to be reperformed. Since a ritual could take place over a number of days, be required to be over by a certain day, and involve a large number of expensive animals, there was obviously a great incentive to get it right. The repetition would be accompanied by a piaculum, a piacular sacrifice (Ogilvie, 1969, 51). A piaculum could also precede a sacrifice, to make up either for whatever unexpected mistakes might be made, or for things that it was known would require expiation. For instance, iron was forbidden in the Arval Brethren's sacred grove, so if they had to bring it in they would perform a piaculum (Scullard, 1981, 23).

See, Divine Harmony and Religious Order in Ancient Rome: The pax deorum, or "peace with the gods," lay at the heart of Roman religion and Roman political life. More than a vague sense of spiritual calm, it was a practical, contractual relationship between the Roman state and its gods. If humans performed the correct rituals in the correct way, the gods would grant protection, prosperity, and stability. If that relationship was disturbed, Rome risked famine, defeat, plague, or internal chaos. Unlike later religions that emphasized personal belief or moral salvation, Roman religion focused on correct action. The pax deorum was maintained not through faith alone but through scrupulous attention to ritual, law, tradition, and precedent. Religion was therefore inseparable from governance, military success, and social order. To understand how Romans explained their peace, was a day-by-day, tentative affair, steeped in use of the religious colleges of such activities as reading bird activities, as auguries, to stay in connection with the gods emotions.

CHRISTIANITY’S GOD OF PEACE

At Easter, in the death of Jesus we find all that is needed to establish the peace of mankind with God, as the efficacious and healing divine blood spilt down from the cross. Because, ironically, peace only comes to humans after the spilling of God’s blood! See Hebrews 9:22 which states that "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins".

Comparing the biblical source of Christ’s theology, versus the general humanistic approach of the Roman religion, consider 4 aspects of the biblical argument. First, the destructive and wholly injurious nature of sin. As begun in the Garden. Second, the longstanding embargo of sin against salvation. Third, the biblical predictions of a Messiah, ie Meschiac, to confront sin. And fourth, that a Christological approach to saving humanity which is based upon a sin-free, pristine sacrifice, resulting in a lily white sin offering, drenched in blood, that can save any human from eternal damnation.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” —(John 14:27)

Ultimate peace with God is made possible by Jesus's death on the cross.

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. (Colossians 1:19-20 ESV)

This principle, rooted in Old Testament sacrificial law, signifies that atonement for sins requires the sacrifice of life. The verse explains that blood represents life, and its offering serves to cleanse or purify, culminating in Christ’s ultimate sacrifice.

“…the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death,^[c] so that we may serve the living God!” (Hebrews 9:14)

For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.’

Hebrews 9 is an intriguing chapter where keywords such as blood, sacrifice and covenant appear a lot. In particular, verse 22 says:

Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. (Hebrews 9:22 ESV)

A biblical summary by Peter -- :

“Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation — if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. (Colossians 1:21-23, NIV)For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.” (1 Peter 1:18-20, NIV)

Now, about the differences between a simple contract, versus a biblical covenant. Daniel J Elazar comments-:

“Politically, a covenant involves a coming together (con-gregation) of basically equal humans who consent with one other through a morally binding pact supported by a transcendent power, establishing with the partners a new framework or setting them on the road to a new task, that can only be dissolved by mutual agreement of all the parties to it.

"The covenants of the Bible are the founding covenants of Western civilization. Perforce, they have to do with God. They have their beginnings in the need to establish clear and binding relationships between God and humans and among humans, relationships which must be understood as being political far more than theological in character, designed to establish lines of authority, distributions of power, bodies politic, and systems of law. It is indeed the genius of the idea and its biblical source that it seeks to both legitimize political life and to direct it into the right paths; to use theo-political relationships to build a bridge between heaven and earth -- and there is nothing more earthly than politics even in its highest form—without letting either swallow up the other…Thus the idea of constitutional or limited government is derived from the idea of covenant.“

¹⁹ For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” (Colossians 1:19-20)

It is exactly true that the real problem between man and God from a Christian perspective is because of the existence of sin. All humans are sinners and all humans are destined for hell unless there is an intervention. the Bible teaches that God himself intervenes for humans due to his own initiative and for those human beings who respond to this intervention God allows them to become the children of himself to receive the Holy Spirit and to have victory over sin through the death of Christ.

A final summary: “The Bible insists, however, that death is an enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26), a curse (Genesis 3:14-17) pronounced on all creation, including living creatures. That awful judgment was because of Adam’s rebellion (Genesis 3:17; 1 Timothy 2:14), and is not a part of God’s good creation”

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