Most (non-radical) people
I meet today, those who are family oriented, community-minded, and have a sense
of social fairness and decency would readily welcome world peace. No doubt,
many today pray for it. In fact, there have even been official religiously
backed events collectively begging God to bring peace on earth. It seems a
noble enough desire and request, why hasn't it come?
This topic is actually
much deeper than most would imagine. For the sake of brevity, I will touch only
on two major components.
First, God Jehovah will
bring peace. Jesus himself taught us to pray to “our Father,” and ask for his “kingdom to come on earth
as it is in heaven.” Jesus taught us the notion of God’s Kingdom taking
over earth’s affairs nearly 2,000 years ago. He would not have done so if it
were a mere rose-colored-glasses dream. It is sure to come and scripture has time-and-again
confirmed and reassured that hope. Since that is God’s way of bringing
peace, what about repairing and reforming the world’s governments today?
Jesus also spoke about
this world’s governments but not in positive light. First he spoke of an over-arching ruler
that controls all this world’s man-made systems. Who is that person? It is
the same one that offered Jesus all the kingdoms
of the world—none other than Satan himself. In time, just as the prophecy
in Daniel foretold, God’s
kingdom will destroy (not reform) earthly governments and replace it with
the rulership Jesus Christ told us to pray for—God’s Kingdom. (This belief is
not license for disobedience to civil authorities. The Bible indicates God
allows these for our
protection and a semblance of social order. However, their authority is
relative to God’s authority.)
See also this
illustration about prayers, and this expanded explanation of
Matthew 6.
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