Charles Gardner looks at the dangerous scenario unfolding in the Middle East and its implications for Israel.

The stage is being set for what could turn into an almighty battle in the Middle East. What are the implications for peace in the region - and especially for Israel, already surrounded by sworn enemies before Russia entered the toxic fray? We are now witnessing an extremely dangerous situation which could erupt into a major conflict that could even trigger World War III.

David and Goliath

The entire scenario needs to be seen through a biblical lens. With such a focus, we should be in no doubt that this is a spiritual battle as much as a physical reality.

Through the natural lens it may well appear as yet another young David facing up to the seemingly impossible task of slaying the nine-foot Philistine giant Goliath. But David, through whose line Jesus traces his ancestry, never saw it that way: "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied." (1 Sam 17:45)

David became the greatest king Israel ever had: today's re-born nation would do well to adopt their hero's total faith and trust in God.

David became the greatest king Israel ever had: today's re-born nation would do well to adopt their hero's total faith and trust in God.

Spiritual Awakening

True, today's Israeli society is as secular as Britain's in many ways. But Jesus said that nation would rise against nation and Israel would be threatened. The prophets foretold that before Messiah's return there will be a great spiritual awakening among God's people, whose hearts will melt as they recognise the One who declared his everlasting love with outstretched arms. The stage is now set for this great unveiling.

It is heartening to know that Prime Minister Netanyahu is a convinced Bible believer. A recent survey has revealed that an impressive 95% of Israelis have a Bible in their homes. The Jewish people may very soon welcome their Messiah. But the onus is not only on them. The Gentiles have a big responsibility to help in this mission through sharing love, support and the Gospel message.

Russia, Assad and Abbas

Meanwhile, Russia's presence in the region is intended to prop up the Assad regime, a key ally of Iran which has made no secret of its intention to wipe Israel off the map. Tensions in Israel itself are almost at boiling point, with seven children orphaned in recent attacks on innocent Jews. And now Jew-hatred is being exported to Europe, where many of the refugees fleeing Muslim countries will have experienced decades of anti-Semitism promoted through schools, newspapers and social networks. Worse still, some refugees will undoubtedly turn out to be IS fighters in disguise.

Tensions in Israel are at boiling point because of recent attacks. We stand in hope of the great spiritual awakening of Jews to the Messiah Jesus, foretold in Scripture.

Against this background the world continues to witness the deceit and hypocrisy of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas who, at the UN, compared Israel to apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany, and declared that the PA no longer considered itself bound by the 1993 Oslo Accords.¹ As bestselling author Jack Engelhard wrote last week, "The entire world is arming itself against radical Islam, and it was to support radical Islam that Mahmoud Abbas came to the United Nations."²

The word of God says: "The day of the Lord is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head." (Ob 1:15)

Persecution and Revival

Also in the Middle Eastern firing line are Christians, who worship Jesus, their Jewish Messiah. I have just received a shocking report (from California-based Assist News Service) of the beheading and crucifixion of a dozen indigenous Christian workers near Aleppo in Syria.³

Supported by US-based Christian Aid Mission, they had opportunities to escape, but chose to stay in order to provide aid and comfort in the name of Jesus amidst the carnage. All were ex-Muslims who refused to renounce Christ, and were badly brutalised before being executed, with the two women among them publicly raped. Yet they prayed throughout their ordeal. And in the midst of such unspeakable horror, the region's underground church has mushroomed since June 2014.

In the midst of unspeakable persecution of both Christians and Jews, Syria's underground church is mushrooming.

One former IS fighter fled to Jordan where he intended to kill Christian aid workers. But something stopped him from following through with his plan and that night he saw Jesus in a dream. He subsequently received Christ with tears, and now he's helping in the church. A spokesman said: "In the past we used to pray to have one person from a Muslim background come to the Lord. Now there are so many we can barely handle all the work among them."⁴

Jews and Christians are in it together because they share their Messiah - who is clearly coming soon, judging by the many signs of his imminent return. It's time to stand with the God of Israel and the Israel of God!

Charles Gardner is author of 'Israel the Chosen', available from Amazon; and 'Peace in Jerusalem', available from olivepresspublisher.com

References

1 Not that the PA has ever kept the agreement anyway, as though their former leader Yasser Arafat was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on the basis of dropping Israel's destruction from its charter, this never happened!

2 Engelhard, J. Op-Ed: Mahmoud Abbas - You Are Not That Important. Israel National News, Thursday 1 October 2015.

3 Christian Aid Mission. Eleven Christian Workers in Syria Crucified, Beheaded. Assist Christian News, Monday 5 October 2015.

4 Ibid.

God speaks not only in word, but also in deed. Edmund Heddle unpacks divine signs and their interpretation as part of his series on the prophetic ministry.

The writer of Psalm 46 invites us to come and see "the works of the Lord", while Psalm 105 instructs us to "make known his deeds among the people!" This is because in Bible times God spoke not only through his word, but also by his deeds. God still speaks today through the events and experiences of human history and it is part of the prophet's task to explain the significance of these happenings. For those whose eyes are opened by the Spirit they are 'signs'.

Shocking desolations

Psalm 46:8 tells us that along with other works of God we are to look into the desolations he has made in the earth. The word 'desolations' (Hebrew shammah) comes from a root which means to stun, to grow numb or to stupify. It describes the kind of event that causes shock and consternation. In the older versions of the Bible the word 'hissing' is also found which describes an event that causes a person to whistle through his teeth.

The later versions employ words such as horror or horrific (Jer 25:9). But however 'horrific' these things may be, we are instructed to look into them so that we can grasp what God is saying to the world and to his people through them. This is an important part of the prophetic ministry, both in Bible times and today.

We are instructed to look into the works of God so that we can grasp what he is saying to us. These works include desolations – events that cause shock and horror.

Loving intention

Although they appear awesome and frightening, the prophet Amos makes it clear that all the events recounted in his book (Amos 4:6-13) had as their objective to bring the nation to its knees in repentance; God's grief at the hardness and indifference of Israel is revealed in the constantly repeated phrase, "yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord." The events by which God sought to bring the nation to repentance fall into four categories:

1. Rain failure. The result of the failure of the rain was drought and famine, as is clear from what the Lord said to the people:

I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread in every town...I also withheld rain when harvest was three months away...I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another...people tottered from town to town for water (Amos 4:6-7).

As in the time of Elijah God used a drought to humble a wicked king, Ahab, whose wife was seeking to introduce the worship of Baal into Israel (1 Kings 17:1). In both cases men were reduced to searching the country for water to keep themselves and their cattle alive.

2. Natural calamity. The second category of desolation spelled out in Amos 4 is that of natural calamity. It needed only the wind to be blowing in a certain direction to bring into the land of Israel an invasion of locusts. They usually came from the Arabian Desert to the south or south-east. Locust swarms are driven along by the wind as they have little power of travel by themselves. But the prophet from Tekoa records, "Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees" (Amos 4:9) and it is clear that the Lord directed their invasion of Israel.

Every desolation sent by God – whether disease, war or natural disaster – is sent to bring people to their knees in repentance.

Another natural calamity is the effect of lighting or of a thunderbolt, similar to that which overthrew the cities of the plain. "I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah" (Amos 4:11). The word 'overthrew' may indicate that an earthquake was also involved. Certainly Amos has experienced one, as we see in the opening sentences of his prophecy (Amos 1:1). Some cities were completely devastated whereas others were partially burned, and were compared by the Lord to half-burned sticks saved from a fire.

3. War and bloodshed. The third category of desolation present in Amos 4 is that of war and bloodshed. Continuing to show the lengths to which he had gone to turn their hearts back to him, God said, "I killed your young men with the sword along with your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps". This particularly sad affliction involving what the old expositor Matthew Henry called 'the strength of the present generation and the seed of the next' must rank amongst the most devastating of all these terrible desolations.

Horses were an important part of ancient warfare and Israel's had been captured and killed. Whoever their enemy was at that particular time we do not know; what we are told is that the stench of corpses and decaying horse-flesh was unbearable and probably caused the pestilence to which the final reference is made.

4. Pestilence and disease. The fourth and final category of desolation which God brought upon Israel was that of pestilence and disease. He says, "I sent plagues among you as I did to Egypt" but he also referred to their fields and trees when he added, "I struck your gardens and vineyards with blight and mildew" (Amos 4:9-10). As Amos mentions some nine terrible afflictions brought about by God himself he repeats again and again, "yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord".

The series of disasters that befell Israel were not chance or accidental incidents. It had been revealed to Amos that these desolations came about by divine action and intervention. We have here a striking picture of the persistence and forcefulness of God's loving purpose. The heathen king Nebuchadnezzar was right when he said: "How great are his signs, how mighty are his wonders" (Dan 4:3).

The disasters that befell Israel were not chance or accidental incidents. They came about by divine action, displaying the persistence and force of God's loving purpose.

Prophets and Signs

It is both interesting and informative to study the relationship between signs and prophets.

Samuel was the prophet who asked for a sign to confirm his warning when the people were determined to appoint themselves a king. Samuel said to the people:

"Is it not the wheat harvest now? I will call upon the Lord to send thunder and rain. And you will realise what an evil thing you did in the eyes of the Lord when you asked for a king". Then Samuel called upon the Lord, and that same day the Lord sent thunder and rain. So all the people stood in awe of the Lord and of Samuel (1 Sam 12:17-18).

Normally in that region there is no rain from April to October, so to have rain at wheat harvest, from the middle of May to the middle of June, was a miracle. The sign which Samuel requested gave divine approval to his words of censure.

Elijah was the prophet who after prayer announced that a sign would take place. He confronted King Ahab with the statement: "There will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word" (1 Kings 17:1). He had sought God in prayer concerning the growth of heathen idolatrous worship under the auspices of the wicked queen Jezebel and had asked God to withold rain, "and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years" (James 5:17).

Moses was the prophet commissioned by God to bring into effect a series of signs in Egypt designed to force Pharaoh to release the children of Israel. One of the 'plagues' was a devastating hailstorm. We read:

...when Moses stretched out his staff towards the sky, the Lord sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground...it was the worst storm in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation...the only place it did not hail was the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were. (Ex 9:23, 26)

Joel had the happier experience of seeing people repent after the sign of an invasion of locusts. He urged the priests and the people, the children and even a bride and her groom to join a solemn assembly (Joel 2:15-17) to beseech God to spare his people. He was able later to assure all who had joined in the humbling that God would repay them for the years the locusts had eaten: "You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God" (Joel 2:25-26).

Haggai was the prophet who explained the meaning of the disappointing sign to a group of people who had returned from exile in Babylon.

Now this is what the Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat but never enough. You drink but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it" (Hagg 1:5-6).

Haggai then was able to interpret the signs when he complained, on God's behalf, "My house remains a ruin while each of you is busy with his own house, therefore because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops" (Hagg 1:9-10).

The first Bible sign

In contrast to the signs that provoke shock and horror, the first sign in the Bible is one of beauty and mercy. After the evil generation of Noah's day had been destroyed, God began again with Noah and his family. As they emerged from the ark to begin a new life God showed them a beautiful sign and said, "I have set my rainbow in the clouds". It was not left to a prophet to explain its meaning for God himself revealed its significance when he said,

...this is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you...whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures...on the earth. (Gen 9:12-16)

There are good signs for today's prophets to interpret, just as there are horrific desolations that need explanation.

What do today's events mean?

When questioned about some Galilean pilgrims whose blood Pilate had mixed with the sacrifices they were offering in the Temple, Jesus refused to accept the popular idea that this crime proved they were greater sinners than other Galileans. He then went on to draw his questioners' attention to an accident in which eighteen people had been fatally injured when a tower in Siloam had collapsed and fallen upon them (Luke 13:1-5). Again he stated categorically that they were not worse offenders than the other citizens of Jerusalem.

The right way of reacting to these signs - Jesus insisted - was to repent, otherwise they too would perish. As we seek to discover what God is saying through today's shocking events, the call to repentance - both in the way we live and in the message we proclaim - remains a constant word from God. Alongside this, we need prophets to help us learn the other lessons which God reveals to us through his deeds.

As we seek to discover what the Lord is saying through today's shocking events, the call to repentance remains a constant word from God.

The American space-shuttle disintegrated before the appalled gaze of millions across the globe. The Soviet Union experienced a nuclear disaster at Chernobyl that released radioactive material far and wide with devastating effect to both human and animal life. Britain witnessed the lighting strike York Minster, the Bradford football stadium disaster, the Zeebrugge ferry capsize and the massacres at Hungerford and Bristol carried out by gun-crazy young men, in one case responding to occult instructions.

God is surely speaking today through deeds as well as by his words. We urgently need prophets who can interpret these stupendous events and explain what God is saying to his church and to his world.

First published in Prophecy Today, Vol 4 No 1, January/February 1988.

As Russian planes bomb Syria and clouds continue to gather over the Middle East, Clifford Hill asks: are we one step closer to the fulfilment of Ezekiel 38?

Once again Putin has outmanoeuvred Obama. At their meeting in Washington earlier this week, Putin offered the involvement of Russian forces in the fight against the Islamic State. Obama welcomed it! He didn't spot Putin's ploy!

Just Who is Russia Attacking?

Within 48 hours of their meeting, Russian forces piled into Syria with air-to-air missiles and SA-22 anti-aircraft batteries. But the Islamic State has no air force! So whose planes would Russia be shooting down? The only planes flying over Syria are American and French. No wonder the Russians delivered a one-hour warning to the American embassy in Baghdad telling them not to fly any missions.

Russia then launched air attacks upon the area occupied by Syrian rebels trained by the USA and supplied with American weapons in their fight against Assad. So what Obama agreed to do was the slaughter of those whom America has been supporting. Russia is now free to roam the skies over Syria in support of Assad without any commitment to destroying the Islamic State.

Obama accepted Putin's offer of military action against IS – and has unwittingly given Russia control over Syrian airspace.

International Alliances

This conflict is about far more than a disagreement about Assad's ability to rule: it is about strategic control of the entire Middle East. At the same time as launching the recent airstrikes, Russia has joined an intelligence-gathering centre in Baghdad set up by Iraq, Iran and Syria which effectively establishes a Shi'ite Muslim alliance over the whole Middle East from Iran to the Mediterranean Sea. When they have settled their battle for supremacy over the Sunni Muslims they will turn to their final objective – the destruction of Israel.

Russia knows that they only have another 16 months of Obama's weak presidency so now is the time to strike and establish their power base in the region. Meanwhile, anti-Assad rebel groups have their own international backers – including Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia as well as the US, the UK and France. Syria's civil war is fast threatening to become a proxy war – and could potentially escalate even beyond this.

The Shi-ite Muslim alliance being established over the Middle East has a final goal: and it's not victory over the Sunnis. It's the destruction of Israel.

Threat to Israel

The threat to Israel grows daily and becomes increasingly like the biblical scenario which was revealed to the prophet Ezekiel in chapters 38 and 39 which speaks of an alliance between Iraq and Iran plus the North African states of Sudan and Libya, and the involvement of the Azerbaijan area of Russia (Eze 38:5-6), all gathering to attack Israel.

The big question facing us is this: is Ezekiel's prophecy inevitable? Or has it been sent by God as a warning of what could happen if we do nothing when violent men who care nothing for human life, armed with weapons of mass destruction, come together threatening the peace of the world?

We welcome your comments!

As the world responds to the attacks in Tunisia, France and Kuwait, Islam faces an internal crisis of identity. Clifford Hill asks: who are the true Muslims?

"Islam is a Religion of Peace." These were the words of Prime Minister, David Cameron, broadcast to the world immediately after he heard the news of the indiscriminate killing of 30 British tourists sunbathing on the beach in Tunisia. He said that the man who carried out this atrocity was not a true Muslim because "Islam is a religion of peace".

On the BBC News this statement was immediately followed by an interview with an expert on Islam who said that some Muslims use Ramadan as a "season of war" to further the cause of Islam against unbelievers. It was also reported that the Islamic State has been urging Muslims across the world to target Westerners and promising that Allah will reward 'martyrs' tenfold during Ramadan. Their definition of a 'martyr' is one who dies while killing non-Muslims – especially Jews and Christians.

But the Islamic State does not restrict their activities to killing Westerners. The suicide bomber who blew himself up in a mosque in Kuwait was targeting Shia Muslims whom the Sunnis regard as unbelievers: Which raises the question: who are the true Muslims?

Sisi's Call

President Sisi of Egypt has called for a "Revolution in Islam... to stop making enemies of the whole world". He said "We need a religious revolution" to reinterpret the texts that came from the time of Muhammad's warlike rise to power.

This important statement was reported in the New York Times on 1 January 2015, but as far as I am aware has been given no publicity in the British press. Why the silence? Are British journalists so afraid of offending Muslims that they dare not report a call from a prominent Muslim to sort out the problems of violence in their religion?

Jihadist Fighters

If an all-out war between Western culture and Islam is to be avoided Islamic scholars have to face fundamental questions about their faith. The jihadist fighters in the Islamic State in Syria and Northern Iraq claim to be the only true Muslims.

If an all-out war between Western culture and Islam is to be avoided, Islamic scholars have to face fundamental questions about their faith."

This is no doubt the reason why a whole family of 12, including three generations, have gone to join them. It is not only hot-blooded teenagers who are attracted to ISIS, but those who want to live in a genuine Muslim state. The jihadists say that those Muslims who oppose them have been corrupted by Western values and are not true Muslims. They claim that they are spreading Islam by force in exactly the same way as Muhammad and that he is their role model. So who are the true Muslims?

Qur'an Verses

There are plenty of verses in the Quran to support the jihadists. The man who murdered the defenceless tourists on the beach at Sousse can justify his actions by quoting, "It was not you, but Allah, who slew them. It was not you who smote them: Allah smote them so that he might richly reward the faithful. Allah hears all and knows all" (Quran 8:17).

In the same way the ISIS fighters in Iraq who are beheading their captives can justifiably claim to be doing exactly what Muhammad did in April AD 627, when he slaughtered the whole Jewish population of Banu Qurayza near Medina. This is recorded by ex-Muslim historian M A Khan who says,

The surrendered Jews offered to go into exile like the Banu Nadir tribesmen exiled two years earlier. Muhammad rejected the proposal; instead, he decided to slaughter all their adult males, some 800 to 900 of them. Their adulthood was determined by the growth of pubic hair. The women and children were captured as slaves and their homes and properties were as usual confiscated and distributed amongst the Muslims. The Islamic god gave an emphatic sanction to these barbaric atrocities by revealing: "Some ye slew and ye made captive some. And Allah caused you to inherit their land and their houses and their wealth, and land ye have not trodden. Allah is ever able to do all things" (Quran 33.26 – 27).

A trench was dug at the marketplace; and in Muhammad's presence, those 800 – 900 captives were brought to the brink of the trench with their hands tied behind and were beheaded with swords before pushing the dismembered bodies into it. Muhammad himself chopped off the heads of two Jewish leaders. The spectacle went on from morning through the day and continued by torchlight into the night. [M A Khan, Islamic Jihad, p35]

Islam in Crisis

Today, the whole of Islam is in crisis. It clings to its mediaeval roots while trying to exist in an advanced secular liberal culture that cherishes freedom of speech and respects individual choice, equality and tolerance. Islam respects none of these things- with the result that multitudes are leaving it.

Islam is suffering an internal crisis of identity, as extremists force its followers to ask who the true Muslims really are."

In Indonesia, 2 million Muslims are converting to Christianity every year. In Europe and America, millions of Muslims have settled in the West because they are looking for a better life, but their imams are repeating verses from the Quran forbidding them to make friends with Jews or Christians. These ordinary Muslims are only looking for a quiet life, to earn a living, raise their families and live at peace with their neighbours. They too are asking the question, who are the true Muslims?

Peaceful Majority

Most Muslims in the West are embarrassed by the acts of terrorism carried out in the name of Islam. But the Islamic scholars refuse to consider any revision of their Scriptures which were written for a mediaeval society and have little or no relevance in a modern urban industrial technological society. This article from the Middle East Media Research Institute gives an indication of the internal battle that is going on within Islam.

We should be calling upon Islamic scholars to examine their scriptures and give definite rulings that the historical narratives associated with the teaching of Muhammad and the early days of Islam are no longer valid today. They need to declare definitively what the valid beliefs and practices are for true Muslims today and separate them from mediaeval practices that are no longer central to Islam in the 21st century.

The future peace of the world depends, not upon stepping up the efficiency of the security services in Muslim-majority nations where Western holidaymakers go, or putting up the barriers at home, but on the willingness of Islamic scholars to give definitive answers to the question: who are the true Muslims?

Battle of Values

David Cameron is perfectly right in saying that this is a battle of values: it is an ideological clash between a mediaeval religious narrative and a modern secular narrative: emanating from Islamic State, Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Boko Haram and similar organisations that insist on following the teaching of the Quran and the example of Muhammad. They believe that they are the only true Muslims and they are prepared to fight brutal war to enforce their ideology on others.

The greatest danger facing the West is in escalating the war in the Middle East. There are strong voices in the British Government advocating all-out war upon the Islamic State – bombing them in Syria as well as Iraq. But this is entirely the wrong tactic. It is the same mistake as the Crusaders made 1000 years ago. And it will harden attitudes and drive more young men to abandon the West and fight for the jihadists.

War on the Middle East is the wrong tactic - the same mistake the Crusaders made 1000 years ago - it will only harden attitudes. We need to present a different narrative."

A Different Narrative

The only way to win this war is on the ideological front: by presenting a different narrative. It is here that the teaching of Jesus to love our enemies is the greatest weapon that we have. There is nothing in the New Testament that encourages Christians to fight and everything points to putting our trust in God.

Many Christians believe that God has allowed millions of Muslims to come into the West so that they may experience at first-hand a different ideology. Christians have to say to Muslims that Western values are not Christian values! This throws a great responsibility upon Christians to live in accordance with the teaching of Jesus, to love our new neighbours and to show the power of a living faith that transforms lives of bitterness and hatred into love and gentleness.

The teaching of Jesus to love our enemies is the greatest weapon we have. It is up to Christians to show practically its power to transform lives."

If this is God's strategy for bringing peace and harmony into a world of darkness, there has to be a renouncing of violence by Western nations as well as positive action by Christian churches to reach out to the Muslims in their neighbourhood: not only speaking about the love of God, but showing that love practically in their lives.

The 70th anniversary of VE Day is a nostalgic event for many of our older readers. After five years of war, hardship, rationing, bombing, destruction and death, a new day had dawned with endless possibilities. But could the past really be left behind?

Most British cities bore the scars of bombing but the whole of Europe had been trampled on by tanks and infantry and its cities left in ruins. Was there any hope of a return to normal? Most people could not even remember what normality was.

Britain was still at war in the Far East; it would be another year and two atomic bombs before the war with Japan ended. The cost in human life was enormous. The Second World War with Europe and Japan cost Germany 7,000,000 lives, France 550,000 lives, Britain 450,900 lives, the USA 420,000 lives, Russia 25,000,000 lives, China 15,000,000 lives and Japan 2,500,000 lives.¹

Was it all worth it?

Certainly the scourge of Nazi Fascism had to be cleared out of Europe and the ruthless imperialism of Japan had to be cleared out of the Far East, or between them they would have ruled the world and there would have been no freedom for anyone. But what kind of freedom had been won? The ink was hardly dry on peace treaties with Germany than Europe was plunged into the Cold War with the Soviet Union, and it was not long before hostilities broke out in Korea, followed by war in Vietnam.

The 20th century was the bloodiest in the history of the world and the weapons of mass destruction acquired by many nations (including some of the world's most unstable nations such as North Korea and Pakistan) now make the 21st century highly dangerous too."

Present-day conflict zones in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen and Aden, Nigeria and South Sudan are all claiming lives and appear to have no solution.

Will there ever be peace?

Pacts and treaties do not provide the answer because they can be easily torn up and discarded. The problem lies in human nature. We are born self-centred and aggressive- as anyone can testify who has seen a baby in a temper tantrum, or a group of infants wanting the same toy in a nursery.

The problem of warring nations will not be solved until we deal with the problem of human nature, and there is only one power that can deal with that: the power of God the Creator."

The problem of warring nations will not be solved until we deal with the problem of human nature, and there is only one power that can deal with that: the power of God the Creator. He made our human nature and only he can redeem it. He sent Jesus our Lord and Saviour for this very purpose, but we crucified him and rejected his teaching. But God, who alone can bring good out of the worst human disaster, raised Jesus from the dead and through him new life is available to everyone.

This is the message Christians have to bring to the world. God has not only given us the message, but the power to deliver it through the Holy Spirit. What are we waiting for?

References

1 Conservative estimates derived from multiple sources, see World War II casualties.