JIM COGGINS
War and rumours of war; Peace and the promise of peace

What does the future hold? The Bible tells the story of a world gone wrong. The world was created good by God, but human beings chose to do bad things. People are still choosing to do bad things. We don’t need the Bible to tell us this. High school youths take high-powered rifles and slaughter their classmates. Married people can’t seem to love each other enough to stay married. Parents abuse their children. Corrupt politicians and cruel dictators rule most of the countries on earth. Even the best of us tell “white lies”, act dishonestly in “little things” and say and do cruel things to each other.

The Bible says, “You can be certain that in the last days there will be some very hard times. People will love only themselves and money. They will be proud, stuck-up, rude and disobedient to their parents. They will also be ungrateful, godless, heartless and hateful. Their words will be cruel, and they will have no self-control or pity. These people will hate everything that is good. . . . Instead of loving God, they will love pleasure. Even though they make a show of being religious, their religion won’t be real” (2 Timothy 3:1-5).

Jesus adds, “You will soon hear about wars and threats of wars. . . . Nations and kingdoms will go to war against each other. . . . Many will give up and betray and hate each other. Many false prophets will come and fool a lot of people. Evil will spread and cause many people to stop loving others (Matthew 24:6-7, 10-12, The Bible).

Unquestionably, the evil that we human beings commit is leading to destruction and death.

But that is not what the Bible is all about. Jesus did not come to earth 2000 years ago to bring us more bad news. He came to bring us good news. Here is some good news from the Bible.

“We have been made acceptable to God. . . . Because of our Lord Jesus Christ, we live at peace with God. . . . God showed how much he loved us by having Christ die for us” (Romans 5:1, 8). Jesus, the Son of God, came to earth and shared in human suffering and death. He was executed by human injustice and cruelty. But Jesus had not himself done any evil and so did not deserve to die. Thus, in paying the ultimate penalty for evil, he paid it not for his own evil but for the evil we human beings commit. Because of this, we can be forgiven for the bad things we do. “God has given us the Holy Spirit, who fills our hearts with his love” (Romans 5:5). “God’s Spirit makes us loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled” (Galatians 5:22). Jesus said that if we become followers of Jesus, his Spirit will live in us and gradually change us to be like him. As we follow Jesus, we will become less hateful and more loving, less selfish and more giving, less angry and more peaceful. “Jesus started preaching . . . the good news about God’s kingdom” (Matthew 4:17, 23). “Jesus replied, ‘If you have faith in me, you will do the same things that I am doing’ ” (John 14:9, 12). Jesus told his followers to work together to make the world a better place, to build a “kingdom” of people loyal to King Jesus, who follow Jesus’ orders. This “kingdom” is to be a community of love, joy and peace, bringing good not only to those in the kingdom but also to those outside it. Thus, throughout much of Western history, it is Christians who have founded hospitals and schools, soup kitchens and food banks, Alcoholics Anonymous, the Red Cross and the Salvation Army.

That is the situation today. Evil is growing and spreading. But so is Jesus’ kingdom of love and peace spreading. Worldwide, the number of Christians is growing rapidly.

This growing kingdom is not yet perfect by any means. Yet Jesus promised that at the appropriate time, he will return to earth, completely perfect his followers and create a new, perfect heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1-4).