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

Comparing Rome’s Pagan Peace of God versus Christ as God of Peace

Kelly O'Connell ——Bio and Archives--April 5, 2026

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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:

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

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.”

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,

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.

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

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.

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:

A biblical summary by Peter -- :

“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.

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”

Kelly O’Connell is an author and attorney. He was born on the West Coast, raised in Las Vegas, and matriculated from the University of Oregon. After laboring for the Reformed Church in Galway, Ireland, he returned to America and attended law school in Virginia, where he earned a JD and a Master’s degree in Government. He spent a stint working as a researcher and writer of academic articles at a Miami law school, focusing on ancient law and society. He has also been employed as a university Speech & Debate professor. He then returned West and worked as an assistant district attorney. Kelly is now is a private practitioner with a small law practice in New Mexico.

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