Saying “Peace” When There is No Peace

 

Jeremiah 8: 11 They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.

Every generation suffers under its share of Christian leaders doing the work of crushing the Church and supporting the blasphemer.  What is offered below is just one more example – from eighty years ago, but only recently coming to my attention.

But first…Revelation 13 describes two beasts.  The first beast is followed by the whole earth:

3 One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast.

A unifying and universal leader.

7(b): And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation

The second beast exercises all of the authority of the first beast, and in this capacity introduces a universal economic system:

16 Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, 17 so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.

Now, to the story from eighty years ago.  An interesting piece, describing a 1942 gathering of “375 appointed representatives of 30-odd denominations called together at Ohio Wesleyan University by the Federal Council of Churches.”  The purpose was “to Study the Bases of a Just and Durable Peace,” and its chairman was John Foster Dulles.  Yes, that guy.

What does this conference have to do with the beast from Revelation?  Let’s take a look at some of the resolutions passed by the conference:

·       Ultimately, "a world government of delegated powers."

·       Strong immediate limitations on national sovereignty.

·       International control of all armies & navies.

·       "A universal system of money ... so planned as to prevent inflation and deflation."

·       Worldwide freedom of immigration.

·       A "democratically controlled" international bank "to make development capital available in all parts of the world without the predatory and imperialistic aftermath so characteristic of large-scale private and governmental loans."

A universalizing world system, one primed for the beast.  But this beast will be tamed – even loving and gentle.  No, really.

Just a few more thoughts from this body:

·       "Collectivism is coming, whether we like it or not," the delegates were told by no less a churchman than England's Dr. William Paton, co-secretary of the World Council of Churches….

·       It urged taxation designed "to the end that our wealth may be more equitably distributed.

·       "It urged experimentation with government and cooperative ownership.

·       "Every individual," the conference declared, "has the right to full-time educational opportunities ... to economic security in retirement ... to adequate health service [and an] obligation to work in some socially necessary service."

·       Politically, the conference's most important assertion was that many duties now performed by local and national governments "can now be effectively carried out only by international authority."

·       Individual nations, it declared, must give up their armed forces "except for preservation of domestic order" and allow the world to be policed by an international army & navy.

·       This League-of-Nations-with-teeth would also have "the power of final judgment in controversies between nations…the regulation of international trade and population movements among nations."

·       The ultimate goal: "a duly constituted world government of delegated powers: an international legislative body, an international court with adequate jurisdiction, international-administrative bodies with necessary powers, and adequate international police forces and provision for enforcing its worldwide economic authority."

It is as if the script for the gathering was taken directly from the aforementioned verses in Revelation 13.  Returning to the two beasts; what will they do with this universal authority?  Are they to be tamed, kind and gentle, subservient to those under its authority?  Hardly:

Revelation13: 4(b) “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?” 5 And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. 6 It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. 7(a) Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them.

This is what the churches were calling for in 1942.  Kind of makes our woke and war-mongering churches of today seem almost quaint.

Conclusion

Jeremiah 14: 13 Then I said: “Ah, Lord God, behold, the prophets say to them, ‘You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.’”

Universal peace from the blessings of a universal system.

14 And the Lord said to me: “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds.

Man-made inventions; not the plans of God.

15 Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name although I did not send them, and who say, ‘Sword and famine shall not come upon this land’: By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed.

But it won’t just be the prophets.  Judgement will also be passed on those who listen to and place their hope in such words.  Even many who did not heed the prophets’ words will be caught up in the storm:

16 And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and sword, with none to bury them—them, their wives, their sons, and their daughters. For I will pour out their evil upon them.

The only way out?  Back to Revelation 13, verse 8:

…all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.