True Peace—Will It Ever Come?
RELIGION is often viewed as the chief advocate of peace. Especially during the Christmas season do the churches pay homage to the babe Jesus, the promised “Prince of Peace.” In religious circles throughout the world the Bible account is retold of the angels appearing to shepherds, and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”—Luke 2:14, Authorized Version.
How good those words sound in this war-threatened, yes, and in many places, war-torn, world! Humanity indeed yearns for a genuine peace. Thus the Bible promise regarding mankind ‘not learning war any more’ strikes a responsive chord in the hearts of many. (Isa. 2:4) But can the world’s religions be depended on to promote such a longed-for peace?
What History Shows
Well, what has been the record of the world’s religions? Have they been a force for peace, or have they in fact been supporters of war? What was the case in ancient times?
The Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, edited by James Hastings, notes: “Egyptian religion never condemned war. . . . In short, all war was moral, ideal, supernatural, and sanctioned by divine precedent.” Of Assyria, W. B. Wright says in his book Ancient Cities: “Fighting was the business of the nation, and the priests were incessant fomenters of war . . . this race of plunderers was excessively religious.”
‘But that was long before Jesus introduced Christianity,’ someone may protest. And that is true. Christ’s early followers did not support the nations’ wars. The book Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire by W. W. Hyde observes: “During the first three centuries . . . Christians were opposed to serving as professional killers in the Roman armies. This early spirit, however, gradually changed.” Yes, in time, Christendom’s churches failed to hold to Christ’s teachings. The Catholic historian E. E. Watkin acknowledges:
“Painful as the admission must be, we cannot in the interest of a false edification or dishonest loyalty deny or ignore the historical fact that Bishops have consistently supported all wars waged by the government of their country. I do not know in fact of a single instance in which a national hierarchy has condemned as unjust any war . . . Whatever the official theory, in practice ‘my country always right’ has been the maxim followed in wartime by Catholic Bishops.”—“Morals and Missiles,” edited by Charles S. Thompson, pp. 57, 58.
Similarly, the late Harry Emerson Fosdick, a prominent Protestant clergyman, admitted: “Even in our churches we have put the battle flags . . . With one corner of our mouth we have praised the Prince of Peace and with the other we have glorified war.” This has been particularly true within recent memory, when “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition” became a popular American song during World War II. But what was the situation in Germany?
Friedrich Heer, a Roman Catholic professor of history at Vienna University, explained:
“In the cold facts of German history, the Cross and the swastika came ever closer together, until the swastika proclaimed the message of victory from the towers of German cathedrals, swastika flags appeared round altars and Catholic and Protestant theologians, pastors, churchmen and statesmen welcomed the alliance with Hitler.”—“God’s First Love,” Friedrich Heer, p. 247.
A few years before, during World War I, the same situation existed: the churches on both sides promoted the war efforts of their respective countries in the most vigorous way. The respected church historian Roland H. Bainton observes in his book Christian Attitudes Toward War and Peace:
“American churchmen of all faiths were never so united with each other and with the mind of the country. This was a holy war. Jesus was dressed in khaki and portrayed sighting down a gun barrel. The Germans were Huns. To kill them was to purge the earth of monsters.”
The facts are all too evident to be denied. Religion has not been a force for peace. Rather, it has been a supporter, and, at times, even a promoter, of war. This is still true. The article RELIGIOUS WARS—A BLOODY ZEAL, in a recent Time magazine, noted:
“The scenes are macabre. Religious images adorn vehicles and guns as Christian soldiers, some of them wearing crosses around their necks, storm Moslem strongholds. Moslem soldiers, in their turn, strip or mutilate the bodies of dead Christian soldiers, tie them to cars and drag them through the streets. In the vicious war in Lebanon, religion is a palpable presence. . . .
“Fighting and dying under religious flags go on with a violent persistence elsewhere around the world. Protestants and Roman Catholics in Ulster trade killings in a kind of perpetual motion of futility. Arabs and Israelis stand tensely at borders of territorial, cultural and religious dispute. In the Philippines, Moslem separatists are in rebellion against a Christian majority. Greek-Cypriot Orthodox Christians confront Turkish-Cypriot Moslems across a sullen truce line. Pakistan separated from India because Moslems feared the rule of a Hindu Majority.”—July 12, 1976.
What Christ Must Think
What do you suppose the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, thinks of these religions, especially those that claim to represent him? Surely he is not pleased with them! No doubt he had such religious hypocrisy in mind when he said: “Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will.”—Matt. 7:21.
During the Christmas season, for example, the churches pay a lot of lip service to Jesus, the Prince of Peace. They say that they are celebrating his birthday. Beautiful songs are sung, and artfully contrived nativity scenes are displayed to memorialize the event. But then celebrants commonly go out and engage in wild revelry, drunkenness and immoral living. What are they really celebrating?
“The Christmas festival is the Christian revision of the Roman day of the winter solstice,” explains the Encyclopædia Britannica. The Roman December festivities were terribly licentious, and putting Christ’s name to them did not change the situation. Says the book Curiosities of Popular Customs by W. S. Walsh: “The wild revels, indeed, of the Christmas period in olden times almost stagger belief. Obscenity, drunkenness, blasphemy,—nothing came amiss. License was carried to the fullest extent of licentiousness.”
When the churches attach Christ’s name to such riotous festivities, imagine how displeased Christ must be! But consider how the Christmas celebration, in a more subtle way, undermines Christ’s position as the Prince of Peace.
A Baby or a Reigning King?
At the Christmas season, how do the churches depict Jesus? Is it not as a babe in a manger? As a result, many people seem to think of Jesus only in such terms, as a baby dependent on the care of others. But is this a true picture of Christ’s position?
Not at all! Christ is a prince, being the Son of the Almighty King, Jehovah God. Yet he is more than a baby prince. He has been given rulership and authority. The ancient Bible prophecy foretold: “The princely rule will come to be upon his shoulder. And his name will be called . . . Prince of Peace.” (Isa. 9:6) To fulfill this prophecy, after his death on earth Jesus was raised to heavenly life, and he was eventually enthroned as God’s king there in the heavens.
So Christ in no way resembles any longer a babe in a manger. He is God’s reigning king! How inappropriate, then, to focus primary attention on him as a baby! We thereby miss the whole point of his role in connection with the present world situation, and with the crying need for peace. And what is Christ’s role?
He is the appointed Ruler that God will use to bring peace to earth. But this will not occur in the way that many may expect. Please open your Bible to Revelation chapter 19 and read verses 11 to 16. It is vital that we get the picture of Christ’s position here described—as a mighty ruler at the head of God’s angelic forces. Notice the scripture says that Christ, who is “The Word of God,” will ‘strike the nations with a rod of iron,’ removing them to make way for God’s government of peace.
This, then, is how true peace will be realized. It will not come by any efforts of men—they have totally failed. But it will be realized by means of God’s Kingdom government. We are now living at the time when this Bible prophecy will be fulfilled: “In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be brought to ruin. And the kingdom itself . . . will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it itself will stand to times indefinite.”—Dan. 2:44.
A Time of Decision
In view of the foretold destruction of all these present governments, including the religions that support them, it is vital that we examine our own situation. Jesus said: “My kingdom is no part of this world,” and he also said of his true followers, “They are no part of the world.” (John 18:36; 17:16) Does your religion adhere to these statements of Jesus? There is one religion that does. Pointing to it, the Roman Catholic St. Anthony Messenger of May 1973 observed:
“Jehovah’s Witnesses stand outside the ‘establishment’ and accept no responsibility to bless whatever the secular government decides to do. Thousands of good people find such aloofness from political and economic interests closer to the spirit of the New Testament than the present sometimes cozy arrangements between Church and state. Too close an identification of one with the other stifles the prophetic voice of the Church and turns priests and ministers into spiritual cheerleaders. The Christian churches often convey the impression that they will bless any war or adventure the leaders of the state decide to launch.”
Clearly, Jehovah’s Witnesses are different from the churches and religions of the world. For true peace, they have put their hope and trust, not in the governments of men, but in the rule of the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ. If you agree that violence does not make sense, and you would like to live on earth when peace is universal, contact Jehovah’s Witnesses. They will be pleased to help you to learn more about how true peace will soon be realized under the rule of God’s kingdom.
“O God, give your own judicial decisions to the king, and your righteousness to the son of the king. In his days the righteous one will sprout, and the abundance of peace until the moon is no more. And he will have subjects from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.”
[Picture on page 11]
How do you view Jesus—as a reigning king or as a little baby?