Wars and Rumours of Wars
By Roger Carswell
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we walk in His paths … He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war any more." - Isaiah 2 v. 3 & 4
Sadly, we have grown accustomed to hearing of wars and rumours of wars. There are those which are daily headlines, and others that continue in far-flung corners of the world, which we rarely hear about. Over 400 years before Christ, Socrates said, "Wars are occasioned by the love of money."
However, the Bible teaches that there is coming a day when war will come to an end. God, in His message to humanity, teaches that the peace of God will reign throughout. The fate of the world will not be decided by the whim of a politician, dictator or monarch. Christ is going to return as King and Lord of all. What will happen when He does is remarkable: "God exalted Him (Jesus) to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord …" (Philippians 2 v. 9 - 11).
So the cycles and sadness of war will end. Christ will reign, and that which is right will be the world order.
If the peace of God is coming, it is important now to know peace with God. That is possible through the Lord Jesus, as well. He came to bring us to know God in a personal way. By Jesus' life and then death on the cross, paying the penalty for our wrongdoing, our sin (breaking the laws of God) can be forgiven. We can come to know God in a personal way. The sin, which separates us from God, can be removed forever.
Jesus said: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God." The greatest peacemaker was Jesus, the Son of God. Once we trust Him, our task is to tell others about Him so that they, too, may know the peace of God, which transcends all understanding.