World Peace

Some time ago I received a letter from a very troubled but earnest young lady who was crying out to church leaders in our city to help share her concern for world peace. Her letter is about what God told her in her dreams. She wrote about the tragedy of 9/11 and what she believed to be America’s wrong response by going to war against the terrorists. She wrote of the special messages she had received from God and from angels and from the spirits of those who had been killed in the terrorist attack in New York and Washington. I am concerned for her and many others like her throughout the country who are living in a dream world with no compass in life but their dreams and with no foundation but crumbling liberalism that rejects the Bible as the inspired, infallible Word of God. The following is my response to her letter.

Dear Friend,

I read your letter carefully and prayerfully. The peace you long for is the peace for which man has searched ever since it was lost in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve listened to the lie of Satan and sinned against God their creator. Isaiah 57:20-21 says, “But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” Religion and psychiatry cannot bring lasting peace. Jeremiah 6:14 “They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.” Adam’s sin and the consequence of death has passed on to the entire human race. Romans 5:12 “Wherefore as by one man, sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned.”

God has provided reconciliation and peace to all those who confess they are sinners, helpless and hopeless to save themselves; and who look to the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for sinners. Jesus, the holy, sinless, Son of God, took upon Himself all our sins and bore them on the cross, paying the penalty of death for all of us. When we put our trust in Christ, He justifies us, reconciles us to God, declaring us righteous through the merits of Jesus’ righteousness. Romans 5 1 says, “Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Not only does He reconcile us to Himself through Christ, but His Holy Spirit comes to live in our lives filling us with His love, joy and peace.

I encourage you to not trust your dreams, but rather spend time reading the Bible, God’s holy, inspired Word to us. Hebrews chapter 1 teaches that in the past God did speak through dreams and visions. Today He speaks to us through His completed Word, the Bible. Read the warnings of the coming departure from the Word of God that Paul wrote about two thousand years ago to Timothy in II Timothy 3 & 4. Read in Colossians 2:18. the warnings of worshipping angels and looking to them for direction.

The peace you so long for is coming to this earth. But first, Jesus said, there would be wars and rumors of wars. Matthew 24. For the past 2000 years, ever since Jesus spoke those words, wars and distress have rocked this world. Here’s what lies ahead.

Jesus is imminently returning to this earth to suddenly remove from this world every true Christian. In John 14:1-3 Jesus clearly promises He will one day return to this earth to take us to be with Himself. I Thessalonians 4:13-18 gives details concerning this great event. Then this earth will be plunged into seven years of Great Tribulation when the Anti-Christ appears and rules the world. He will come offering his false peace to the world.

I Thessalonians 5:2-3 warns, “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, PEACE AND SAFETY, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall no escape.” II Thessalonians 2 describes the coming of Antichrist to this world. The Tribulation is described in Revelation 6-18.

After the Great Tribulation we will return to this earth in glorified bodies to reign with Christ for 1000 years of perfect peace and righteousness. Read about this wonderful thousand year reign of peace in which Satan will be bound and unable to do any damage. Revelation 20:1-6 Read prophecies of this Millenium in Isaiah chapters 11 and 35, Zechariah 12-14 and in Psalm 2. For 1000 years God will show the world how wonderful it is to live under the rule of Jesus.

Following the Millenium, God will release Satan from his bottomless pit and he will once again stir up men for one last rebellion against God. Imagine rebelling against Christ after having just lived through His thousand year reign of peace, joy and righteousness! The rebellion will be over in a flash. Revelation 20:7-10.

Then those who have rejected Christ through the centuries will be raised from the dead to face Christ at a Great White Throne Judgement and be condemned to join Satan, and the Anti-Christ and his false prophet in the Lake of Fire to be punished throughout eternity. Revelation 20:11-15.

Finally, God will destroy this earth and the heavens as we know them and will make a new heaven and new earth on which all His redeemed children will live forever. Read about this in II Peter 3 and in Revelation 21-22.

Imagine living with God and with all the redeemed for eternity in perfect righteousness, love and peace. No more Satan. No more sin. No more rebellion against God. Dear friend, is this the peace for which you seek?

In the meantime, we still live in a world of sin and terrorism. In this sinful world, crime and terrorism and attacks against our nation must be met by the force of human government. Paul explains this in Romans 13. I encourage you to read this and then thank God for strong leadership and a strong military that is working to protect us from facing in America what people are facing in the trouble spots of the world.

My prayer for you is that God would give you His peace through coming to Him as a guilty sinner and gratefully putting your faith in the sacrifice Christ made for you on the cross. We would love to see you and your boy friend come to our church, and discover that peace that passeth all understanding. Philippians 4:4-7.

Rejoicing in Christ,

Pastor Mal Bicker