The basic needs and problems of mankind in this atomic, space-conquering age are no different than they were when our Lord was on earth, or even when the kingdom of Israel was established one thousand years before the Advent. Man first needs food and shelter, and, as men congregate in groups, there must be government and law enforced by that government. The needs of man’s inner life are expressed in the same words now as they were in the days of the Hebrew kingdom and of Greek culture—joy, love, self-control, hope, and peace. While often missing from life, these factors were longed for nevertheless.
Each of these basic needs of mankind, individually and corporately, is discussed repeatedly in the Word of God, and is promised to those who are obedient to His will. God who made man in his image stands ever ready to satisfy man in these areas of deep and constant need. One of the greatest and most persistent longings is for peace, first in the inner life of the individual, then between one nation and another, and ultimately for the world.
Before considering the biblical words for peace, we might look at the three major definitions of this word in the Oxford English Dictionary: 1. “freedom from or cessation of war or hostility; that condition of a nation or community in which it is not at war with one another”; 2. “freedom from civil commotion and disorder; public order and security”; 3. “freedom from disturbance or perturbation (especially as a condition in which an individual person is); quiet tranquility, undisturbed state.” Closely connected is a supplementary definition, “freedom from mental or spiritual disturbance or conflict arising from passion, sins of guilt, etc.;” and finally, 4. “freedom from quarrels or dissensions among individuals, a state of friendliness, concord, amity.” All these definitions contain the elements of conflict, animosity, and enmity that lead to war. Peace, then, prevails when those elements that cause conflict, confusion, and suspicion are eliminated or suppressed, and instead of enmity, we have a state of amity and reconciliation.
This condition of conflict in the human heart, and among nations, did not exist in the original state of creation. The term enmity first appeared at the time of the fall and is really a pronouncement of God, a condemnation on Satan, and an offer of hope to men: “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15). Related to this idea of enmity is the truth expressed by our Lord that “the enemy is the devil” (Matt. 13:39; Luke 10:19). The great enemy of God, Satan, in leading mankind into sin, which is anarchy, lawlessness, and rebellion against God, has brought us into the condition we find ourselves. As Paul says, we are “enemies in our minds by wicked works” (Col. 1:21).
From the fall of man at the beginning of human history to this very hour, “the mind of the flesh is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be” (Rom. 8:7). This spirit of war against God has its corollary in men at war with each other, in small groups or large, as individuals or nations. And at the root of this spirit is selfishness. Thus we find conflicts interpenetrating human history and the individual experiences of men. Brunner, in contemplating fallen man’s war against God, was led to title one of his larger works Man in Revolt. We view man’s cruelty to man, his spirit of possessiveness and lust for the things of others (termed covetousness in the Decalogue), and we can well ask with James, “Whence come wars and whence come fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your pleasures that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and covet, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war; ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it in your pleasures” (4:1–3).
In sharp contrast to this state of animosity, conflict, restlessness, and unsatisfied longings stands the great biblical truth that God is a God of peace (cf. Rom. 14:17; 15:33; 16:20; 2 Cor. 13:11; Phil. 4:9; Heb. 13:20). If men are to have any communion with God whatever, some effort must be made for the cessation of this conflict between a holy God and sinful men. Only God himself can provide the means by which such a reconciliation is obtained—a truth that is repeated frequently in the New Testament. Provision for reconciliation is found in Jesus Christ whom Paul refers to as “Christ our peace” (Eph. 2:14, 15; also John 16:33), and it is made available not simply in the person and character of Christ but specifically through his death. We have peace through the blood of his Cross. The Apostle Paul develops this theme with profoundest depth in Colossians 1:19–22: “For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in him should all the fulness dwell; and through him to reconcile all things unto himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross; through him, I say, whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens. And you, being in time past alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreproveable before him.” This reconciliation from God (Rom. 1:7) is what is known as “peace with God” (Rom. 5:1).
The Peace Of God
As a result of being reconciled to God, man begins to experience in his own heart the peace of God (cf. 2 Cor. 13:11; Rom. 12:18). This peace grows within us as one of the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22). Peace as thus “the calling and present possession of Christians arbitrating in favor of decisions and actions which produce freedom and love (1 Cor. 7:15; Col. 3:15) is to be pursued in company with fellow Christians (2 Tim. 2:22) and mounts guard over them and preserves them in their inner being until the Parousia (Phil. 4:7)” (Alan Richardson).
Living Peaceably With Men
Inasmuch as the God who reconciles us to himself is the God of peace, those who are his children by regeneration are, as far as possible, to live peaceably with all men (Rom. 12:18). Those who make peace between warring parties reproduce the character of God (Matt. 5:9). This peace of God is to rule in our hearts, and, as a result, Christians are to be of good comfort, to be of one mind, and to live in peace, “and the God of love and peace shall be with you” (2 Cor. 13:11; 1 Thess. 5:13; Phil. 4:9). Even in the Old Testament, the people of God are admonished to “seek peace and pursue it” (Ps. 34:14).
When our Lord had risen from the dead, having dealt a mortal blow to death itself, and obtained eternal redemption for us by his sacrifice, he could say to the disciples, “Peace be unto you”—a peace purchased with his own blood. And he could promise that in the midst of tribulation and persecution they would still have peace (Luke 24:36; John 14:27; 16:33; 20:19, 21, 26).
When the peace of God rules in our hearts, we naturally seek to maintain peaceful relationships with others. The true Christian seeks for peace in the home, with his neighbors, in the organization in which he labors, in his own community, and in the state of which he is a citizen. He shrinks from quarreling and from going to law. The officers of the church are to be free from the spirit of quarrelsomeness (1 Tim. 3:3, margin ARV; Titus 1:7; 3:9). The so-called Wars of Religion of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries can only be counted as marks of disgrace on the escutcheon of the Christian Church. And if a Christian longs for peace in every relationship of life, he will long for the day when peace shall prevail throughout the world.
The Bible And World Peace
The question must be asked, since the subject of war is on the front page of every major newspaper of our land, what hope does the Word of God give for world peace? In considering this subject, we must take the whole of the Bible for our examination, not some fragment of it. I believe there are two lines of approach to this subject: the peace that was obtained in biblical historical events, and the peace that is prophesied for the world. In the Old Testament, peace between Israel and other nations was generally the result of a military victory, such as that which involved the Amorites (1 Sam. 7:14), or the king of Syria (2 Sam. 10:19). Sometimes it was the result of arbitration, as we see in the peace that was made with the Gibeonites (Josh. 9:15), or the peace which temporarily prevailed between Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and the king of Israel (1 Kings 22:44). God not only commanded Israel to wage war against certain peoples occupying their promised land or threatening their national security, but he himself fought for Israel.
Now, there is nothing like this in the New Testament. At the time of our Lord’s Advent, the earth was enjoying an unusual period of peace. We see no command in the New Testament for Christians to go to war, nor, for that matter, to abstain from war. “The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds” (2 Cor. 10:4). Our wrestling is not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers, and the world rulers of this darkness, for which conflict we have a sword, but it is the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:12–17).
It is strange, as Roux has reminded us, that the subject of peace occurs very rarely in the Gospels, and “it is certain that Jesus neither brings nor promises His disciples peace as the world sees it” (“Peace,” in A Companion to the Bible, edited by J. J. Von Allmen, New York, 1958, p. 320). But the statements that our Lord did make on this subject are generally ignored by those who refuse to take their conception of world peace from divine revelation: “Think not that I came to send peace on the earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword” (Matt. 10:34; cf. Luke 12:51). The question of defending Christ with weapons of war arose in the Garden of Gethsemane when one of the men with him drew his sword and cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest. We observe that our Lord said on that specific occasion, “Put up again thy sword into its place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword” (Matt. 26:52). There is certainly no promise of world peace in this command, any more than there is a command to use the sword at another time when Christ’s disciples said, “Lord, behold here are two swords,” and he replied, “It is enough” (Luke 22:38). Actually, the only specific reference our Lord makes to world peace is in the Olivet Discourse in which he emphatically says that there will be wars, and talk of war, down to the end of this age. He predicts the destruction of the city of Jerusalem by her enemies (Luke 19:42–44), and warns that nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom down through the ages. We should note that this prophecy is not followed by a promise of cessation of war (Matt. 24:6; Mark 13:7; Luke 21:9).
Righteousness And Peace On Earth
There is a promise of world peace, however, in the Word of God. We find in Isaiah this passage: “The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of Jehovah’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many peoples shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we shall walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. And he will judge the nations, and will decide concerning many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (2:1–4). Almost the same words are found in Micah 4:1–3. We observe that this condition of world peace will occur when two things have taken place on the earth; the establishment of the kingdom of God, and obedience to the laws of God. God will be recognized as supreme and pre-eminent.
Over and over in the Old Testament, peace is related to righteousness: “Mercy and truth are met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (Ps. 85:10). “And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence for ever” (Isa. 32:17). Peace belongs to the upright in heart (cf. Ps. 37:37; 119:165). The writer to the Hebrews concisely expresses this in referring to “the peaceable fruit … of righteousness” (12:11). It is a fundamental of biblical anthropology that “there is no peace … to the wicked” (Isa. 48:22; 57:21).
It is utter folly to talk about the possibility of world peace when such lawlessness as we now see on this earth prevails. How can one talk of world peace when one third of the entire population of the globe has succumbed to the cruel, God-defying system of Marxian communism? President Eisenhower, in his State of the Union address on January 9, used these words: “We can have no confidence in any treaty to which Communists are a party except where such a treaty provides within itself for self-enforcing mechanisms. Indeed, the demonstrated disregard of the Communists of their own pledges is one of the greatest obstacles to success in substituting the rule of law for the rule of force.” There is no more possibility for this earth to have peace when it wars against God, than it is for the human soul to have peace when it is at war with God. While we are not successors to Israel in the particular promises given to her, and have no promised land assigned to us, still there are some fundamental principles in God’s dealings with that nation which abide throughout the ages in his dealings with the peoples of the earth. A good illustration is in the 26th chapter of Leviticus where the Lord says he will give peace in the land “If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them.” “But” he warns, “if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments … I will appoint terror over you … and I will set my face against you, and ye shall be smitten before your enemies: they that hate you shall rule over you … and I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute the vengeance of the covenant.” Lawlessness on the part of men will lead only to wars of aggression and the terrible things that accompany war as we have seen in our twentieth century.
We must never lose sight of this great vision for world peace which these prophets present to us. At the same time we must not ignore the teaching of other prophets, especially that of the Apocalypse which is directly concerned with the concluding chapter of human history. Revelation 12 describes an actual “war in heaven,” Michael and his angels warring against the dragon and his angels, followed by a loud voice saying, “Now is come the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, who accuseth them before our God day and night” (v. 10). In the chapter presenting the final world ruler, a warlike being, we learn that “it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and there was given to him authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation” (13:7). Of the final world federation of 10 kings, to whom the beast gives his power, we read: “These have one mind, and they give their power and authority unto the beast. These shall war against the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings; and they also shall overcome that are with him, called the chosen and faithful” (17:13–14). In his familiar description of the battle of Armageddon, John says he saw the beast “and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat upon the horse, and against his army” (19:19). This portion of the oracles of God, rather than promising world peace, assures us that to the very end of the age, there will be no abiding peace on the earth.
Reign Of The Prince Of Peace
Another elemental prerequisite for world peace is in the glorious title which the prophet Isaiah gives to our Lord—“the Prince of Peace.” How many foolish things have been said about this title in the vain hope that the world is through with wars. The title concludes the assertion that “the government shall be upon his shoulder … of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this” (Isa. 9:6–7). Note that Christ is “the Prince of Peace,” a word having to do with power, sovereignty, and rule (cf. Ezra 7:28; Dan. 12:1; Hosea 3:4). Christ is the Saviour of the world now, but he is not yet exercising his authority as Prince of Peace: this he will do when he establishes himself as Ruler of the kings of this earth (cf. Rev. 1:5). The time is coming when Christ will bring peace to this earth; but, as the Scriptures repeatedly declare, this will only be when he has put all enemies under his feet, and peace is enforced by his omnipotent power (cf. Ps. 110:1; Matt. 22:44; Mark 12:36; Acts 2:35; 1 Cor. 15:25–26; Heb. 1:13; 10:13).
The many terms of struggle, subjection, and antagonism involved in the description in 1 Corinthians 15:24–28, where the establishment of Christ’s reign is set forth, are often overlooked. There is nothing in this paragraph about a universal peace brought about because all men have been redeemed by the Gospel. Peace will come, and when it comes, it will abide; but it will come only through the Messiah, the One who has reconciled us to God.
It would seem that peace on earth will be directly related to that city Salem (the early name of Jerusalem) which means “city of peace.” We are exhorted to pray for the peace of Jerusalem in Psalm 122:6–9, and the Old Testament prophets associated world peace with that city (cf. Jer. 29:7; Isa. 66:12; Hag. 2:9).
The Church has often succumbed to the same delusion that Judah knew as the destruction of Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar drew near. The prophets faithfully warned the apostate and idolatrous Israelites that unless they repented and turned to God, their city was doomed. But false prophets assured the inhabitants of the holy city that they were the recipients of special providential care, and this destruction would be impossible. The true prophets warned them about listening to “peace, peace,” when there was no peace (Jer. 6:14; 8:11; 12:5, 12; 16:5; 28:9). And the Apostle Paul gave the Church a similar warning: “When they are saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall in no wise escape” (1 Thess. 5:3).
Therefore, while we are not to look for world peace brought about by the efforts of unregenerate men, nevertheless we who believe the Word of God do have grounds for a hope that world peace will someday prevail. We have the Word of God, and in this we hope: those without such divine revelation are without hope in the world. In the last few years, books on world peace have been few in number. We are now witnessing an enormous sale of books on peace of mind, peace of heart, and peace of soul. Around the beginning of the twentieth century literature on world peace was very plentiful. Not os now. Pessimism is settling down upon the human race—and rightly so. We who have the Word of God in our hands are the only people in this world who have a throbbing, living hope in a final and glorious peace to prevail on the earth, for in Jesus Christ we know the Prince of peace, and King of kings who will someday reign in the righteousness that humanity today disregards.
END
We Quote:
DIMITRY E. MANUILSKY
Comments in 1931 by the well-known Communist leader Who Later Headed the Russian Delegation to the United Nations Organizational Conference in San Francisco in 1945:
War to the hilt between communism and capitalism is inevitable. Today, of course, we are not strong enough to attack. Our time will come in 20 or 30 years. To win we shall need the element of surprise. The bourgeoisie will have to be put to sleep. So we shall begin by launching the most spectacular peace movement on record. There will be electrifying overtures and unheard-of concessions. The capitalist countries, stupid and decadent, will rejoice to cooperate in their own destruction. They will leap at another chance to be friends. As soon as their guard is down we shall smash them with our clenched fists.
Wilbur M. Smith is author of many books and a distinguished Bible expositor and conference speaker. He is Professor of English Bible at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena.
