The world needs peace-makers.

Jesus placed them among His Beatitudes:

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”

Matthew 5:9

There are too many peace-breakers.

This blogpost is about international affairs and conflict resolution, and God knows that we need it.

There will be no lasting peace between man and man without peace between man and God. More on this subject can be seen in my three-part series on Christian fellowship.

Here, the question is how international peace is going to prevail upon Earth when there are so many different worldviews and religions.

An illustration may help. The violent struggles in Northern Ireland were resolved when the gunmen learned to use the ballot box instead of the bullet. As Winston Churchill put it: “Meeting jaw to jaw is better than war”. However, the ballot box is not the whole answer because Adolph Hitler’s success at the ballot box was followed by Fascist suppression of civil and religious liberties. Democracy is not the whole answer, and how do we define democracy anyway? I feel disenfranchised in democratic Britain and Nigel Farage also feels that he is being forcibly and unwillingly driven out of the UK, rather like constructive dismissal. So much for democracy.

There have always been troublemakers, whose main aim is to be noticed. It can be seen in children, where the two-year old makes trouble for their younger sibling. But what about adults? Whatever motivates adults to be troublemakers, and to disturb the peace, is not worth discussing with them because they will give a multitude of reasons and possibly not the real one. So one will spend much time, expense and energy addressing the wrong question(s). This can apply to international conflicts also.

Rather, one needs to address their conscience. Yes, even the wicked have a conscience. Even gangsters such as the Mafia have a conscience. They will insist that they are doing right (a moral judgment of their conscience) in their particular circumstances. However, the conscience of ungodly people is darkened, as Scripture says, and it needs to be enlightened with Christian light.

Jesus said: “as long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the world” Jn 9:5 and He passed this on to His disciples to learn from Him: “You are the light of the world” Mat 5:14 and “Let your light shine before men in such a manner so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father Who is in heaven” Mat 5:16. This light shines through Christian fellowship.

Civil peace

Societies that are at war with themselves need to sort out themselves if they are to assist in international affairs. At present, Russia and China want nothing to do with the democratic West that cannot decide how many genders there are, nor how to define a woman. Yet the West thinks its imposition of “Western values” will help these countries!

This is the secular imitation of the 18th-century Christian missionary movement, but this new imperialism is a poor imitation of Christian mission, with worse values and standards.

Rather, Christians need to learn to speak up and to stand up for the God-ordained values that made the West the most succesful and beneficial hegemony in world affairs, and which makes the West the destination of choice for migrants seeking a better life for themselves and their families.

International peace

After WWII much faith was placed in international bodies such as the United Nations to implement international peace, and since then many more countries have adopted democracy as the route towards global peace.

However, troublemakers continue to find ways to circumvent this. The most successful method is to take over the institutions themselves. The UN, WHO and other global institutions are in the process of being taken over by the WEF and its agenda.

The flashpoints around the world have active troublemakers at work, identifying injustices in order to foment grievance politics and destabilize regions and countries. Governments and international bodies interfere in other states to promote their own ‘imperialist’ or neo-colonialist agendas and ambitions. Peacemakers need to identify and expose these troublemakers and, better still, teach them the Christian principles of peacemaking, beginning with “Blessed are the peacemakers” Mat 5:9.

These troublemakers are not only nations but any group with a grievance that seeks to disrupt public life. Terrorism, public protests and disruption of public life continue to be used “to raise awareness” and to gain supporters by highlighting the injustices suffered. The slogans are Freedom and Equality. Like the buzz words of the French Revolution, almost no-one disagrees with Liberté, égalité, fraternité, but as George Orwell pointed out, it depends what meaning is put upon each word. The activists are often young people who are impressionable and easily influenced, and then radicalised. This is the price paid for not teaching Christianity to the young or, indeed, teaching youth anywhere how to behave. However, if adults set a bad example to them and provoke them to violence, these adults are doubly responsible although they may stay out of the limelight while others throw the missiles that the cowards have made. Most citizens are pawns who are ready to live at peace, but politicians will not allow them. Some activists spend much time on legal/illegal arguments, but laws are made by victors and laws can be changed, so legal/illegal will always be relative in our secular times. Rather, it is hearts that need to change. This is the message of Christianity. Other religions are about keeping laws and hoping to find favour with God. Christianity is about changing hearts and being reconciled to God in this world, in preparation for “the world to come” Mat 12:32, Mk 10:30, Lk 18:30, Heb 2:5 and Heb 6:5.

Nations as such are no longer the only movers and shakers of global events but NGOs and multinational corporations are just as active in this neo-colonial secular imperialism.

Governments use NGOs to influence the politics of other countries where there are often too few safeguards against atrocities in far-off places. The only corrections, and they are few and temporary, are when investigative journalism exposes some corrupt practices, which take so long to come to light that the CEO has often retired on a healthy pension, or the corporation has been bought over by some other conglomeration. The long-delayed public enquiry, if there is one, repeats the well-worn mantra that “Lessons will be or have been learned” and events proceed apace, while the scandal sinks down the media agenda, to be replaced with the next breaking-news item. We need the Christian Gospel of Good News to break-into this litany of more-of-the-same dismal news stories, to expose and remove troublemakers, as surely as light abolishes darkness. How many of the world’s movers and shakers are now ignominous footnotes in history? They did not learn a simple lesson from Scripture – it is the end of the matter that counts. Nor did they learn the lesson that their name will live in ignominity, but worse than this, that they themselves will live with this in eternity, in “the world to come” to their everlasting shame. Who will teach them this? Who will enlighten their conscience?

Current conflicts

There are flashpoints all over the world. The current most publicised one is 2022 Russo-Ukrainian war whereas the rarely-mentioned Yemen humanitarian crisis has been longer than this, with just as tragic devastation. There are calls for a ceasefire in Sudan but no calls for a ceasefire in the Russo-Ukrainian war. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is decades old, more or less another 100 years’ war. Africa has its issues, and the Far East. Latin America is trying to settle its scores against the West with a new trading initiative internal to itself, to the chagrin of the USA, which is trying to destabilize arrangements that it cannot control, and the World Bank is concerned about losing its influence there.

The British Empire gave way relatively peacefully to the Commonwealth but the American imperial hegemony since the Suez Crisis is being maintained with its military industrial complex controlling puppet regimes as vassal States, against which retiring US President Eisenhower warned in his Farewell Address. This Truman Doctrine, “my enemies’ enemy is my friend”, was justified at the time under the pretext of containing the communist threat, which has now morphed into the socialist threat. Eisenhower had witnessed the Nazi death camps and wanted them filmed as a warning to the future world. This and similar material being documented in the television age will be educational material for schoolchildren in the biblical Millennium, to show them how wicked can be unrestrained, ungodly mankind, institutions and nations.

Advocacy

What is to be done? The Christian church should know, but national leaders do not. World affairs continue to lurch from one atrocity to another as each nation follows its ungodly leaders. Church and state each has its own sphere of responsibilty but so do we as individuals. Each one of us will give account of himself to God. The Christian church is making slow progress and frequently fails at the national level because of ungodly rulers. The international situation demonstrates that national leaders have still to learn how to maintain peace, in spite of the enormous resources and potential at their disposal. It is well past time for the Christian Gospel of peace to be taught to national leaders.

“Now, therefore, kings, be wise; be taught ye judges of the earth, and serve God reverently.”

Psalm 2: 10-11

I have already written about the need for personal advocates at the local level, without which there is little justice in this world, but the principle of advocacy applies at all levels of government and is necessary for international peace.

Conscience

Earlier posts have noted the loss of Christian conscience from the boardrooms of national and international corporations. The inability to understand basic Christian concepts can be illustrated by a well-known example. On 19th July 2011 media mogul Rupert Murdoch confessed to the UK House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee: “This is the most humble day of my life”. The world’s media misinterpreted this as Murdoch being humbled. Rather, it was the day that was humble, according to Murdoch, and reiterated by the Chairman. Murdoch’s forebears included a Christian minister, but he has still to learn much about Christianity, humility and confession, to say nothing about other behaviour. Will anyone in his entourage guide him? Similarly, the consciences of global personalities need Christian light to enlighten them, and we cannot expect the world’s media to quiz them appropriately.

Advocacy and catalysts

The world needs competent, trustworthy statesmen to act as catalysts for world peace.

What is a catalyst?

A catalyst is a substance that helps a chemical or biochemical reaction to take place that would otherwise not happen without great difficulty. You can see the relevance of this metaphor for world peace.

When the chemical reaction has taken place, the catalyst is released and becomes available to help the next reaction to occur.

A catalyst enables reactions that would otherwise not take place, and having completed its action it steps back. Thus John the Baptist made disciples, pointed them to Jesus Christ Jn 1:35-37 and then stood back, saying: “He must increase, but I must decrease” Jn 3:30. We need more such preachers.

Most world leaders are protagonists of a cause rather than peacemakers.

There are rare examples in recent times. President F.W. de Klerk acted as a catalyst along with Nelson Mandela in the peaceful transition of apartheid South Africa to black majority rule in the 1990s. Most people know Mandela’s name but de Klerk was the catalyst. Many don’t even know this and, like an unnoticed catalyst, his name is relegated to a footnote in this history. However, without de Klerk there would have been no release of Mandela to lead the peaceful transition in South Africa’s history. A similar peaceful transition took place in 16th-century Scotland under John Knox’s guidance compared to the bloody conflicts on the European Continent and even in England.

At his recent Coronation, King Charles III of the United Kingdom was presented with “symbols of military honour and chivalry, that you may be a brave advocate for those in need”. It is possible that monarchy may play an advocacy role that partisan national leaders cannot. His Prince’s Trust has helped millions and Princess Diana’s pioneering work on landmines and other causes are being developed by their son Prince William and his wife Kate, trying to find areas where they “can made a difference”. These are necessarily non-political areas, but they illustrate how much we need catalysts, advocates and intercessors in the international political arena, those who are not seeking personal gain but who are using their personal privileged positions to promote peace and harmony.

We need a catalyst to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, yet politicians are viewed as protagonists rather than catalysts. Mediation and conflict-resolution need deep understanding on each side, and of each side. We need diagnosis before treatment, and the treatment necessitates and presupposes trust in the catalytic ‘doctors’. Trust is central to the Christian Gospel and medical doctors are in the business of diagnosing difficult problems in the most complex organism in the Universe, although diagnosis does not mean that there are solutions to diseases. Politicians are in the habit of proposing and implementing solutions to complex societal problems, only to uncover the unintended consequences of their non-solutions.

We need Christian catalysts to solve the international problems in this world, without which they will not be solved. Jesus predicted Jerusalem’s lack of peace “Your peace is hidden from you” Lk 19:42-43 when it rejected Him, and it has continued for two millennia. However, we are commanded to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” Ps 122:6. As long as Israel and the nations ignore the Prince of Peace, so surely dispeace will continue. Jacob and Esau fell out but were eventually reconciled.

When John the Baptist’s disciples saw Jesus’ popularity begin to grow, the natural jealousy in the heart of man began to surface and they complained about it to John the Baptist.

John replied that Jesus must increase, “but I must decrease” Jn 3:30. Catalytic John the Baptist continued his work of pointing sinners to Jesus Christ Jn 1:29, even his own disciples, so that they might become disciples of Christ Jn 1:35-37.

We need Christian catalysts in church and state – men and women who know how to reconcile sinners to each other by showing them how to be reconciled to God.

There have been many peace initiatives in world history but as long nations ignore the Prince of peace Isa 9:6 they will search in vain for lasting peace. We must begin with peace with God and then there will be “peace on Earth, good will toward men” Lk 2:14.

World leaders have still to learn this lesson. It will come, but it may be too late for many of them.

“Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be reconciled to God.”

2Corinthians 5, verse 20

“If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

The apostle John’s First Epistle: 1Jn 2:1

Links:

31 Jan 2020: Justice needs advocacy.

18 Jul 2023: this post happens to be posted on Nelson Mandela Day (18/7/1918-5/12/2013). He said: “Peace is not the absence of conflict. Peace is the creation of an environment where all can flourish.”

20 Jul 2023: US Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says the toxic polarisation in the USA is more dangerous than at any time since the American Civil War. “We need to start being respectful to each other.”

31 Jul 2023: the difficulty of small political parties obtaining banking accounts is interfering with democracy [at 19:26 hrs and 21:41 hrs] at grass-roots level.

10 Aug 2023: The Spectator discussed the Russian view of Western decadence.

8 Sep 2023: advocacy in Hebron by former Israeli soldiers and the documentary to which they contributed.

20 Jan 2024: Rupert Murdoch regrets closing [at 10:36 p.m.] the News Of The World by going along with the public panic at the time.

19 Feb 2024: the EU Commission funded NGOs, think-tanks and media outlets to give the impression that their “independent” voices [at 19:48 hrs]promoted its anti-Brexit message, and thereby corrupting civic life.