Blessed Are the Peacemakers

When you think of progress made during the 20th century, what images come to your mind? Automobiles, airplanes, telephones, televisions, and the internet? Or images of tanks, machine guns, stealth bombers, and nuclear missiles?

Despite its technological advances, the 20th century was the deadliest in human history—a century when the radical self-interest of despots led to the early graves of nearly 200 million people. Megalomaniacs like Stalin and Hitler snuffed out millions of lives while brutally enforcing their regimes. Notorious as they were, they weren’t the only 20th-century villains.

During World War I and its aftermath, the Ottoman Turks killed two million Christians, namely Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians. By the end of World War II, Japanese leaders were responsible for the deaths of 50 million people throughout Asia. In the 1960s, Mao Tse-tung murdered 30 million Chinese in a fanatical attempt to create social equality. From 1975 to 1979, Pol Pot, dictator of Cambodia, killed 1.7 million Cambodians (roughly 25 percent of the population), particularly the educated class. In 1994, Rwandan Hutus killed an estimated 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis.

Apparently, we didn’t learn much from that violent century, because the 21st century got off to a terrible start. The post-9/11 war on terror in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen cost close to a million human lives. Beyond that, for every US soldier who has died in combat since 9/11, four have died of suicide.¹

As we write, Ukraine and Russia have been at war for more than three years, and both sides have lost thousands of soldiers and civilians. Hamas’s brutal surprise attack on Israeli civilians (Oct. 7, 2023) started a retaliatory war that, 1.5 years later, has left nearly 50,000 dead.

Such is the background noise of our modern world. Many are tempted to shrug it off, having become so numb to violence that they seem incapable of pity unless they are directly affected.

Why Can’t We Just Get Along?

Nations have tried to coexist peacefully. Yet all man’s efforts to prevent war and maintain peace have failed. Great dictators sought unity through empire building. The League of Nations tried to prevent World War II. The United Nations’ efforts to prevent war have also been fruitless. The scientific solution has been to manufacture and stockpile more lethal weapons. Why is peace so elusive? Why haven’t our intellectual and technological advancements brought us closer to global unity and goodwill?

Omar Bradley, a decorated World War II general, identified the cause for lack of peace: “The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We have solved the mystery of the atom and forgotten the lessons of the Sermon on the Mount. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about dying than we know about living.”²

There is something wrong with the human race, with our way of thinking and seeing. We can reach incredible heights of intelligence and technology, only to descend into a moral abyss.

After the United States bombed Hiroshima, Albert Einstein reflected, “It is easier to denature plutonium than it is to denature the evil spirit of man.”³ That evil spirit is what causes war. It is the spirit of competition, conquest, and selfishness. Left unchecked, it can become deadly. It causes disputes between husbands and wives, arguments between children, power struggles in the office, animosity between church people, strife between races, and war between nations. That evil spirit causes genocide, fratricide, infanticide, and homicide. The evil implanted in the heart of man by his own choice brings chaos, carnage, and catastrophe. It yields butchery, slaughter, massacres, and other atrocities.

The spirit of self-interest and supremacy could be found even among Jesus’ disciples. They disputed among themselves as to who would be the greatest in heaven. That was the same evil spirit that caused Lucifer to war against God. It was the same spirit that was in Cain, who killed his brother in jealousy. The Bible calls it “the way of Cain.” Jude 11. The way of Cain is strife, bloodshed, and war.

Where does this evil spirit come from? The apostle James explains, “From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” James 4:1–3.

A Change of Mind

If we want peace on Earth, there must be a fundamental change of thinking in humanity—a new mind. The Bible describes our natural mind as carnal, rebellious, and against God and His law: “The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Rom. 8:7.

War is embedded in the carnal mind. If you tolerate a carnal mind in yourself, you are at war with God. And you will be at war with others too. The carnal mind is naturally competitive and self-centered.

How do we get rid of a carnal mind? First, we must realize that we were all born with one and that God alone can transform it. Some of us don’t appear as mean-spirited and hard to live with as others; yet we each need this transformation. Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be “born again” or “born of the Spirit.” John 3:5–8. It is a spiritual rebirth that we need. When we ask Jesus to change us and give us a new mind, He will always answer this prayer.

The apostle Paul describes two conditions—living by the flesh (living with an unconverted mind) and living by the Spirit (living with a converted mind). When we are born again, we live by the Spirit. Rom. 8:1–9. We may be tempted to live with the old mind in control, but when we ask God for power, He can strengthen us through the Holy Spirit. The disciple John, whom Jesus called a “son of thunder” and who was naturally hotheaded, wrote about this transformation: “But as many as received [Jesus], to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:12–13.

John repeatedly reminded us that if we are born of God, we will love one another: “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God.” 1 John 4:7. See also 1 John 3:11, 14–15; 4:11–12.

Real Christians treat people with love and respect. According to Jesus, they even treat their enemies well! “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.” Matt. 5:44–45. They also go out of their way to make peace with others: “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” Matt. 5:9.

Those who are living by the principles of God’s law—love to God and love to their fellow man—do not have the spirit of war and strife in their hearts. But most people aren’t willing to come into harmony with this law of love. They do not choose to be transformed and to live selfless lives. So, until Jesus returns, there will be more nuclear stockpiles, more heavy artillery, more jet fighters, and more drone strikes— more “wars and rumors of wars.” Matt. 24:6.

Peace is Coming!

Yes, Satan has had a long time to demonstrate his evil purposes. But God is not going to let the devil’s experiment with sin continue forever. His Word promises that one day there will be peace!

Listen to what the prophet Isaiah says about the new earth God will create after sin and sinners are no more: “And My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in [secure] dwellings, and in quiet resting places.” “Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders.” Isa. 32:18; 60:18.

No more war! No more strife! No more mass murders, and no more genocide! Even “the wolf...shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.… They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain.” Isa. 11:6, 9. Don’t you want to be there? What a peaceful and glorious place!

This will not be an act of the United Nations, but an act of God to end the conflict with Satan. It will not be the result of a globalization and centralization of authority—that’s how man thinks he can solve disputes. Instead, it will only come by the intervention of God.

As we look around us, we realize that we are nearing the time of Christ’s soon return. In the midst of war and strife, Jesus tells us, “Look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near!” Luke 21:28, NKJV. Even when violence, war, and chaos are all around us, our hearts can be at peace.

One by one, heart by heart, Christ is working to change the natures of all who desire it. He takes away that evil spirit of strife and replaces it with a heart of love and peace. You cannot wait until heaven to have this work done. You must let Christ do it now. He will do that in you today if you let Him.

“And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.” Isa. 32:17–18.