Light Of The World, Chapter Fourteen: The Promised Peace cover art

Light Of The World, Chapter Fourteen: The Promised Peace

Light Of The World, Chapter Fourteen: The Promised Peace

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 My generation came after the end of world war 2 and during the end of the US involvement in the Korean Conflict. After Korea there was generally a time of peace and prosperity in America. We had emerged from this period as a major world power. Later when the government began sending our young men to fight in Vietnam, many in our generation did not see our involvement there as justified. By the late 60’s antiwar protests began along with the equal rights movement. As a teenager I was impacted by the hippie movement that spread from California to my area in the Midwest. Peace, Love and Freedom were major themes of that time in the hearts and minds of many of us. Songs were written and played on the radio about “A New World Coming.” The Beatles sang on the first world-wide satellite broadcast, “All You Need Is Love.” The time was ripe to question the value of killing one another with the ever increasing effectiveness of modern technology. This was not the first time in history when people became sick of war, but this movement definitely gained greater momentum than those before it. Sixty years later the dream of a new world full of peace, joy and love has been all but forgotten. Conflict persists among nations, races, cultures, religions, neighborhoods and families. War did not seem to make sense in the 60’s and it still does not make sense today. How can the human race continue to fight in its inherent inclination for self interest but not see that this tendency actually leads to its own self destruction? Can peace loving people do anything to change this situation? Well, in my opinion the first thing we must do is to reject the despair that creeps in as we consider these issues. Our God is a god of hope, not despair. (Romans 15:13) In the preceding chapters we have looked at the amazing and important connections between the Hebrew bible, which Christians call the Old Testament, and our New Testament. The Old Testament tells the story of the children of Abraham, who settled in a land to be called Israel. It also tells of the future of the entire world, and how the nations who did not descend from Abraham in a physical sense will later be connected to this same family. This will come about by the life, the ministry, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, a native of that land. You may have heard of the greeting used by Jewish people even today. I was told as a boy that “shalom” meant both “hello” and “goodbye” in Hebrew. It is used in a similar way that we say “hello” and “goodbye” today, but the word in Hebrew is literally “peace.” “Shalom” is a way of pronouncing a blessing of health, happiness, safety, prosperity and peace to a friend in both meeting and parting. It is about much more than just the absence of war. It harkens back to the time before sin entered into the world, before paradise was lost. In the garden, Adam and Eve were at peace with God, with one another and with nature. There was no death, no disease, no war. Outside of the garden, it was only a matter of time until war broke out. Their first born son killed his own brother, and violence continued to increase from that point forward. In the New Testament letter from James, he asks this question: James 4:1-3 4:1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. NIV The peace that God promises is one that includes health, happiness, safety and prosperity, but it is a peace that first must begin in the heart. The real source of war is in our struggles for things other than God Himself. Only He can satisfy our most basic needs. Our separation from Him and our resistance to Him will always result in discontent. The Beatles were right when they said all you need is love. Sadly, this knowledge did not save them from the conflict that broke them up. Jesus Christ came to repair the breach between God and humanity. He accomplished this by absorbing all of our sins and putting an end to them on the Cross. Those who trust in His sacrifice for us and trust Him with our lives can take part in that promised peace. Being reconciled to God they also gain the capacity to love in a way that is beyond normal, selfish human love. The enemy who started the trouble long ago was defeated by Christ on the Cross. Unfortunately he does not seem to realize this and sometimes we do not realize it as well. He continues to mislead people into doubting God and His love for us. He manages to pit us against one another instead of facing our own inner failures. When we do see our own failures he tries to press us into despair instead of trusting in God to heal us and empower us toward victory....
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