PEACE IN OUR TIME?

January 2010 article by Len Iles

Another year is just beginning. Will it be better than the one just gone? That depends on how you view things, of course. If you have just lost your job, or lost a loved one you may not be feeling very optimistic. If you were a member of the recent Global Warming conference in Copenhagen, you would indeed be feeling very pessimistic, especially if one of the so-called Third World countries when up against superpowers such as America and China. Some agreement has been reached but not enough to satisfy everyone. Christmas has just gone and there were, no doubt, many people on their own on what is to some a family time, with the economic situation no better than it was a year ago. So what is there to look forward to?

A newspaper article recently commented that more religious cards had been sold this Christmas than for many years. Many of these cards have a dove on them with messages wishing people a peaceful New Year. At present that looks very doubtful. Many families are mourning soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and there is fighting in many parts of the world with man’s inhumanity to man reaching levels beyond comprehension. So are people looking for something better? Can anything better be found? When the angels sang to the shepherd on Jesus’s birth “Peace on earth, goodwill towards men” – does it apply to us today?

The daughter of Billy Graham, an American evangelist, in reply to someone asking why God permits things like hurricane Katrina to happen, replied: 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.  And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out.  How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?’

The American Jew, Ben Stein, reported recently: “In light of recent events... terrorist attacks, school shootings, etc.  I think it started when people said they didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.  Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school.  The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbour as yourself.  And we said OK. Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide).  We said an expert should know what he's talking about.  And we said okay. Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves. Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out.  I think it has a great deal to do with 'we reap what we sow.'” 

Christadelphians believe that God should be in our lives. He loved us so much that He gave His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to show us the way to live, to be our example, and by dying a cruel death but being raised to life again, showing us that we too could be raised to everlasting life by God’s grace if we die before He comes again. That isn’t to say those who believe in God will avoid earth’s disasters, but it does give a hope that there will indeed be peace on the earth in the future. Man alone cannot provide that. Older readers may remember Neville Chamberlain leaving a plane waving a piece of paper in his hand with the headline ‘Peace in our Time’, just prior to the Second World War. It obviously meant nothing. It needs intervention by God by sending His Son Jesus back to the earth again, just as the Bible has predicted before world peace can be achieved. Among the many references to this event are:

“So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation”. Hebrews 9 v 28.

“And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and to all men even as we do toward you: To the end He may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints”. 1 Thess 3 vs 12-13.

“...Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven”. Acts 1 v 11.

If we really want peace, security and happiness, there is only one place to go – the Bible, God’s Word. It has all the answers leading to world peace.