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THE K I N G ’ S BUS I NE S S
Postwar World Peace
Every Stible believer
will be interested in
6y ROBERT L. EVANS
n p HERE is no subject so univer sally discussed today as the .A. problem of world peace. Inter national agreements or compacts are being proposed and considered by the world powers and by statesmen with the purpose of outlawing wars and making it impossible in the future for an aggressor nation to rise and plun der its neighboring people and throw the whole world into a state of war. It is but natural under the present world conditions that all right-minded men should long for the day of uni versal peace, providing social security and religious freedom for all peoples. But does this universal desire for cessation of war indicate that human nature has changed and become more kind and brotherly? War and blood shed have been the history of the race since the beginning. Does the present frantic effort to outlaw war mean that unregenerate human na ture has at last become generous, loving and unselfish?. And that race hatreds, national pride and animosi ties, the desire for revenge and selfish greedy ambitions will. no. longer dominate and rule men of every clime and color? Does it not rather mean that the present technical, scientific war has become too costly in human life and money to further pursue? With our modern high explosives and our command of the unseen forces of nature we can destroy an entire city within a few hours, burying thousands of innocent victims under its ruins. Even the devil might consider more humane methods of settling national disputes. Postwar Peace Hence, we find the great world powers planning a postwar peace that envisions all the nations dwell ing together in peace and harmony, with war entirely outlawed, and free dom guaranteed to every individual to live his life without fear. This all sounds very plausible and appealing. However, can this Utopian condition be brought about by the simple ef forts of fallible men, be they ever so sincere? There cannot be a world peace as
confess Him as Lord. A careful study of the Word of God reveals that a number of things must precede the setting up of that kingdom of peace over the earth. Divine revelation in dicates that there never will be per manent peace until His kingdom is established. Furthermore, our Saviour predicted that there would be wars and rumors of wars and that nations would continue to war against each other until He returned at the end of this age (Matt. 24). Before permanent peace can take place, all the forces of evil that have incited the wars of the world will be brought into swift judgment by the intervention of the Son of God from Heaven with His mighty angels (2 Thess. 1:7-10; Matt. 25:31-46; Rev. 19:11-21; Psa. 2). These passages en vision not the end of the world, but the judgments to take place on this earth when the Son of God establishes His kingdom at the end of this age. These judgments cannot be executed as long as the Church is still in the world witnessing for her Lord and preaching'His gospel of grace. When the Church has completed her testi mony among the nations, and the Holy Spirit has gathered the e l e c t number out of the nations, the Church will be taken out of the world. Then the way will be clear for the Lord to set up His throne of judgment and usher in His kingdom of peace. Lastly, we cannot conceive of a permanent world peace as long as the world as a whole continues to ignore and reject the claims of Jesus Christ as the only Saviour and Lord. He is never invoked or mentioned at the council table of nations when they meet to discuss international ques tions. The Church' of God will do more to hasten the day of universal peace by confining herself to her Master’s program, by pleading with men to be reconciled to God, and saving them out of the world to Christ, than by joining with the world in its social sehemes and seeking to patch and mend a broken world by international covenants (Matt. 28:19, 20; 2 Cor. 5:20; Gal. 1:4; 1 Thess. 5:1-5; Psa. 2:10-12).
long as the Jew is out of his in heritance and continues to be a sore problem among the nations. God’s kingdom of peace involves the author ity of the Lord firmly established over all other authorities and governments with Jerusalem as the center from which shall go forth the mandates of the King. The Lord shall judge and rebuke even strong nations, compel ling wars to cease and guaranteeing to all, justice, security and peace. The Jew must first be back in his land to make this possible. Read carefully Isaiah 2:1-4; Micah 4:1-4; Acts 3:19-21. Satan’s Fate Before nations will cease fighting, Satan, the prime instigator of all wars, must be bound and cast into Go,d’s prison. As long as he is loose in the world, wars and intrigues will con tinue among the nations. His last at tempt to frustrate God’s kingdom of peace will be to start a war on earth to completely destroy God’s ancient people, the Jewish race, and to set up a new religion with himself as the object of worship. Surely there can not be peace in the world while he is still loose (Revelation, chapters 12, 13, 19 and 20). We must not forget that in spite of all the war and confusion, man by his sin has brought into the world, God is still sovereign in His own world. He has a program for this world that will finally establish His will supreme throughout the whole earth, bringing it into a warless condition. This pro gram has been planned with full divine foreknowledge of all of man’s depravity and rebellion, and with full knowledge of Satan’s effort to thwart and undo the work of God. God’s pur pose will be carried •out to its final fruition when His chosen ruler as the Prince of Peace will establish the will of. God supreme. Every knee shall then bend to Him and every tongue
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