Will there be peace on earth?

On August 16, 1945, the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped a single 13-kiloton atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima instantly killing 75,000. This, along with the similar destruction of Nagasaki three days later, brought World War II abruptly to an end. Fifty years later the "fallout" continues in the form of endless ethical debates. Was President Truman morally right or wrong to authorize the bombing of Japanese non-combatants?

We cannot hope to resolve this debate in such little space, but the 50th anniversary of the A-bomb does prompt us to ask, are we any closer now than then to abolishing war from the planet? A glance at the front page of any newspaper would provide the answer. No one expects world peace any time soon.

Jesus was hailed as the "Son of David," the messianic title brimming with connotations of the Righteous Warrior who would lead His troops to military triumph. But Jesus entered Jerusalem on a lowly donkey, not a stallion.

He told His disciples that He was indeed the conqueror of the world (John 16:33), but not in the conventional, military sense. His kingdom, He told Pilate, is not of this world (John 18:36). He did come as the Son of David, but He also came as the Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6), the One who made peace between God and humanity and between the races (Eph. 2:14-16), and the One who preached peace to those both near and far (Eph. 2:17).

Because we are in Christ, we have One who sympathizes with our weaknesses (Heb. 4:14-15), dispelling with His love our anxieties and granting us an incomprehensible peace (Phil. 4:7). This peace guards our hearts even as it grows stronger and stronger (Gal. 5:22).

It is this peace, which glows in the hearts of all true Christians around the world, that is the hope for mankind, not the temporary and shallow peace diplomats and politicians try to manufacture. It spreads throughout the world as you and I share the Good News of Jesus Christ. Its power--for good--surpasses that of the most powerful nuclear device ever conceived.