War and Peace
These are dangerous times.
The current war between Israel and Hamas has raised the global awareness of the evils rampant in our world, playing out through armed conflict and the struggles for power and control. What we have been witnessing the last month in Gaza and Israel is purely horrific, the result of decades (actually centuries) of distrust, ethnic divisions, religious battles, and political posturing. In the process, many innocent lives are being lost and ripped apart in order to settle scores and establish a future for the region that is unlikely to be achieved due to the diametrically opposed visions that are deeply held and expressed there. These feelings, fueled by reactions to what is seen in the media, are spilling over and spreading around the world through new resurgences of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. There is also a bigger concern that allies of each side (the United States included) will be dragged into an even greater confrontation leading to major war. This is a real possibility.
Of course, this is not the only hot spot in the world. For almost two years now we have also been watching with interest the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and the back-and-forth battles that have ensued there. This has dragged on, with no clear end in sight, while many thousands have died, and millions displaced.
The aforementioned are the conflicts that North American media has picked up on. Sadly, the world is enduring many other wars that do not get our attention. How many of us are even aware of the current wars in Sudan, Myanmar, the Maghreb region of north Africa, and Ethiopia? These alone have claimed about 40,000 lives this year. We could also add to the list ongoing major skirmishes in Mexico, Colombia, Somalia, Nigeria, Syria, Yemen, and many, many more. God forgive us for us not allowing our hearts to be broken by all this carnage!
And, while we are at it, let us be reminded of the other threats in our world that lead to instability and are the seedbed for future strife. The blusters between the new rival superpowers, China and United States, should concern us all. North Korea continues to baffle us amidst absurdity. Append to all this the growing rise of neo-fascism in such places as Europe, Brazil, and, of course, the United States. These compounding factors do not bode well for the future of our planet.
Maranatha, come Lord Jesus!
For those of us who follow Jesus, none of this should be a surprise. Even in Jesus’ time, as his disciples were looking ahead to the End of the Age, the Lord reminded them of the ongoing inevitability of this evil: “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars” (Mt 24:6 NIV). As people of hope within this mess we hold on in faith to God, who is supreme and ultimately greater than all the evil in this world. Yet, we struggle with the discrepancies between the “now and the not yet” realities of the Kingdom of God.
So, what are the specific implications of all this for us in the Church of God movement?
I know that there are those among us who care deeply about the pain in the world and want to be part of the solution, not the problem. May we all be inspired by their active engagement in the name of Jesus.
My concern, however, is that the bulk of our movement is influenced more by the populist, political notions rampant in our society. Instead of asking what the Jesus response is to the brokenness in our world, it is far too easy to latch on to the noise generated by politicians, who bring their own narrow agendas to the table. These “worldly” solutions are typically centered around power, force, and economics.
Complicating all this is bad eschatology. Premillennial dispensationalism, in particular, has generated all kinds of goofy theology around the place of secular Israel in the modern world, let alone the larger global landscape outside of the Middle East. The Church of God has typically stood opposed to this understanding of Scripture and telos, although the average person in the pew (or padded stacking chairs now!) is less discerning, and therefore highly influenced by the sensationalist, populist eschatology woven into the American fabric. Yet another one of the perils of our unresolved relationship with Evangelicalism.
We claim to be a holiness people. When our movement began, most of the Evening Light saints understood this to include a call to pacifism. The devastation of the Civil War was still fresh in their memories, and it was clear that God’s way was different. As time went on, both the influence of American militarism and the stark realties of two epoch-changing world wars challenged these convictions. Today, apart from the virtually unknown Church of God Peace Fellowship, there are very few of our adherents who would see radical peacemaking as a primary calling of Christians. As with many aspects of modern theology, we have over-spiritualized things like peace and salvation to the point that they are disconnected from the real pains of our world, all of which God wants to redeem.
It should become increasingly apparent from the current state of affairs in the world that the orientation of politics and military engagement does not work. If Jesus is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” then it is time we take his way seriously. This should be our opportunity, especially considering the sentiments of the younger generations around us, to seriously consider what peacemaking looks like today. I believe that our movement DNA contains the essential components for this, but will we allow it to be rediscovered? At minimum, such an inquiry should lead us to repent of the trust we have put in the world’s systems, and instead truly believe in and commit to the way of Jesus. This was the call inherent in the Gospel message proclaimed by Jesus and the Early Church. May it be ours as well.