by Bob Faulkner

Created on: May 26, 2008

True or false: Jesus came to bring peace on earth. The answer is clear but not the same answer as the world gives.

Wherever there is a true church there is division. The struggle toward the light is relentless. God's people will always strive to know, believe, abd obey God's Word. Actors in the same group will balk. They will go only so far and then stop. Hence, division. Eventually, persecution. Rejection.

How we all long for peace. But wars among the children of men will always be. Jesus did not come to solve that problem. Not yet. As He looks into the future from His day He calmly declares, "There will be wars and rumors of wars." That problem is not going away.

The children of God have their own special set of wars. But for them, the true ones, a personal peace is promised. Apostolic writers speak of the peace that passes understanding. The prophet says that God will keep in perfect peace those that trust in Him. Jesus Himself said, "My peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you," the you being those who are His true disciples. This promise was not given to the disciples who walked away filled with their own agendas.

Peace on earth, you ask? No, this message of the blood of a crucified God continues to divide families, communities, nations. The World Wars were religious wars, Catholic powers against Orthodox powers. In our own continent, Rome sought to subdue by political and military force, the neighbor of its ally Mexico. That neighbor, the USA, has largely stayed free of religious domination but is threatened now by Muslim inroads which likewise threaten Europe and the civilized world. War will always be, triggered by false ideas about who God is and what He wants.

But the angels, what of the angels and their beautiful song on the night Christ became flesh in a little Jewish village? They sang of "peace on earth and good will to men." Was it only a song, a vanished dream? Is there hope for this planet?

Oh yes, but all in good time. Peace will come to the entire orb when the Prince of Peace forcibly exerts His will as returning Messiah. He invites now. So subtle is His voice at times. He truly wants man to choose Him, since he has already chosen to love and die for them. No power plays. No strong arm. Those who tried such tactics in the Middle Ages got what military might produces: outward conformity. Lukewarm religion. Paganism filling the church.

The Christ of the Good News comes on the inside and saves sinners one at a time.

But the same Christ of the Good News will one day invite no longer . The heavens will open and every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that He is Lord. Yes, Kim Jong Il and all dictators from Nero to Napoleon to Hitler will bow the knee to Christ. Then the world will be free and at peace. Until then we carry the song in our heart, the promise, the reality that a warring world around us cannot comprehend.

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