According to Bainton, Origen's pacifism was a redemptive pacifism. "It took cognizance of life on earth and of social consequences and responsibilities, but objected to war in part because there was a more excellent way.... The problem was set for [Origen] very pointedly by Celsus who claimed that Christians should either assume the full burden of citizenship [i.e. kill for Caesar] or else cease to have children and withdraw from the world. The Church was eventually to agree with Celsus, in that it allowed some Christians to take the one course [monasticism] and some the other [soldiering]. But Origen did not agree and argued that Christians might reject war and yet remain in society, because their prayers and their disciplined lives were of more service than soldiers to kings, since wars are fomented by demons who inspire the violation of oaths and disturb the peace. 'Men fight,' said he, 'sometimes because of hunger and more frequently because of avarice, the lust of power, an insane craving for vain glory and absence of a tranquil disposition' [James 3:15-16]. The greatest warfare, in other words, is not with human enemies but with those spiritual forces which make men into enemies.

"Christian warfare should supplant political warfare. Implicit in the concept of Christian warfare was a parallelism between the Church and the state. Both had similar objectives--justice and peace--but the Church had a better and more effective way of bringing them to pass." The Church's task (in Rome) was to make the counterfeit Pax Romana a "reality by overcoming dissension within. Even the barbarian foe without could be tamed by the persuasiveness of the Winsome Word which is Christ. Irenaeus looked upon the Church as the restoration of the lost paradise. Justin Martyr believed that the Church rather than the empire was the force restraining the powers of chaos. For these reasons Origen considered office in the Church more challenging than office in the empire" (Roland Bainton, Christian Attitudes Toward War and Peace 83).

While Tertullian’s explanation for the Christian rejection of public office was based on his critique of the internal mechanisms of Roman government itself, Origen’s explanation for the phenomenon was based on his faith in the power of God at work in the church. In Origen’s view, the church’s work is more accurately political and more effective politically than the machinations of Roman “peacemaking.” While the state had a very limited role in the view of Origen, the church (which means every Christian) has a much more important and extensive role to play in grand justice-making, peace-building narrative of history.

[Celsus:] "You surely do not say that if (in compliance with your wish) the Romans were to neglect their customary duties to gods and men, and were to worship the Most High, ... that he would come down and fight for them, so that they would not need any other help than his. For this same God ... promised of old this and much more to those who served him. Yet, see in what way he has helped the Jews and you! Instead of being masters of the whole world, the Jews are left with not so much as a patch of ground or a home."

[Origen's reply:] What would happen if, instead of only a relatively few persons believing (as at the present), the entire empire of Rome believed? They would pray to the Word, who of old said to the Hebrews, when they were pursued by the Egyptians: "The Lord will fight for you, and you will hold your peace." And of all the Romans united in prayer with one accord, they would be able to put to flight far more enemies than those who were defeated by the prayer of Moses.... However, he [God] had made the fulfillment of his promises dependent on certain conditions--namely, that they would observe and live according to his Law.... But if all the Romans embraced the Christian faith (according to the supposition of Celsus), they would overcome their enemies when they prayed. Or rather, they would not war at all. For they would be guarded by that divine power that promised to save five entire cities for the sake of fifty righteous persons. Men of God are assuredly the salt of the earth. They preserve the order of the world. And society is held together as long as the salt is uncorrupted.... When God gives to the Tempter permission to persecute us, then we suffer persecution. And when God wishes us to be free from suffering--even in the middle of a world that hates us--we enjoy a wonderful peace, trusting in the protection of him who said, "Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world." (Against Celsus 4.666)

Here Origen has the biblical savvy to call upon the most prominent tradition in the Old Testament, the Exodus tradition, in service of Christian pacifism. Origen sees a continuity between the weaponless victory in the Exodus and the nonviolence of Jesus in the Second Exodus: both are nation-defining events, both are based upon radical, national trust in God.

In the next place, Celsus urges us "to help the king with all our might, to labor with him in the maintenance of justice, and to fight for him. Or if he demands it, to fight under him or lead an army along with him." To this, our answer is that we do give help to kings when needed. But this is, so to speak, a divine help, "putting on the whole armor of God." And we do this in obedience to the commandment of the apostle: "I exhort, therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for all men; for kings, and for all who are in authority." So the more anyone excels in godliness, the more effective the help is that he renders to kings. This is a greater help than what is given by soldiers who go forth to fight and kill as many of the enemy as they can. And to those enemies of our faith who demand us to bear arms for the commonwealth and to slay men, we reply: "Do not those who are the priests at certain shrines ... keep their hands free from blood, so that they may offer the appointed sacrifices to your gods with unstained hands that are free from human blood? Even when war is upon you, you never enlist the priests in the army. If, then, that is a praiseworthy custom, how much more so that--when others are engaged in battle--Christians engage as the priests and ministers of God, keeping their hands pure.... Our prayers defeat all demons who stir up war. Those demons also lead persons to violate their oaths and to disturb the peace. Accordingly, in this way, we are much more helpful to the kings than those who go into the field to fight for them. And we do take our part in public affairs when we join self-denying exercises to our righteous prayers and meditations, which teach us to despise pleasures and not to be led away by them. So none fight better for the king [and the preservation of justice] than we do. Indeed, we do not fight under him even if he demands it. Yet, we fight on his behalf, forming a special army--an army of godliness--by offering our prayers to God. And if Celsus would have us "lead armies in defense of our country," let him know that we do this too. And we do not do it for the purpose of being seen by men or for vainglory. For in secret, and in our own hearts, our prayers ascend on behalf of our fellow-citizens, as from priests. And Christians are benefactors of their country more than others. For they train up citizens and inculcate piety to the Supreme Being. And they promote to a divine and heavenly city those whose lives in the smallest cities have been good and worthy. (4.667-68)

Celsus also urges us to “take office in the government of the country, if that is required for the maintenance of the laws and the support of religion.” But we recognize in each state the existence of another national organization founded by the Word of God, and we exhort those who are mighty in word and of blameless life to rule over Churches. We reject those who are ambitious of ruling; but we choose those who, through excess of modesty, are not easily induced to take a public charge in the Church of God. And those who rule over us well are under the constraining influence of the great King, whom we believe to be the Son of God, the Word. And if those who govern in the Church, and are called rulers of the divine nation – that is, the Church – rule well, they rule in accordance with the divine commands, and never suffer themselves to be led astray by worldly policy. And it is not for the purpose of escaping public duties that Christians decline public offices, but that they may reserve themselves for a holier and more necessary service in the Church of God – for the salvation of men. And this service is at once necessary and right. They take charge of all – of those that are within, that they may day by day lead better lives, and of those that are without, that they may come to abound in holy words and in deeds of piety – in order that, while thus worshipping God truly, and training up as many as they can in the same way, they may be filled with the word of God and the law of God, and thus be united with the Supreme God through his Son the Word, who embodies Wisdom, Truth, and Righteousness, and who unites to God all those who are resolved to conform their lives in all things to the law of God. (8.75)

One of the points that often eludes some readers is that the widespread abstention of Christians from military service and public office was a fact, or else Celsus’s accusation of political irresponsibility is entirely baseless, and Origen could simply refute it as baseless. In the U.S. today, there are hundreds of thousands of Christians who on principle refuse military service and public office, but they can go unnoticed because there are a dozen times more who happily participate. No secular critic in our climate could level a critique against Christianity itself for being politically irresponsible and lecherous. Patently, then, in the Roman Empire of the first few centuries, the practice of Christians was substantially different, and corresponded to the writings of the ecclesiastical authorities on the subject.