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WAR & RELIGION

"Religion is clearly not the major cause of war." According to Vincent Carroll of Denver's Rocky Mountain News, "The two major sources of bloodletting in the 20th century were communism and fascism, or Nazism." He said.

Retired Army Lt. Col. Bob Maginnis agrees. Those who are truly orthodox are people of great compassion, great faith, great generosity and not terribly warlike." Maginnis said.

Some warmongers may use religion as a cover for their hate, but that doesn't mean religion is the cause. "Osama bin Laden is a good example." Maginnis said. "I'm not sure that he's truly a man of Allah."

—SBC Life, November 2001, p. 15 Illustration by Jim L. Wilson
 

WAR

It took more than 50 years, but a card from a Missouri evangelist was finally delivered in January 2003. A church secretary in Moberly, Missouri received a card, postmarked in 1949, and addressed to a minister at the church who had died the previous year. 

The mysterious card was addressed to the Rev. Jack Stanton; had a one-cent stamp, pencil writing, and no ZIP code. The note inside discussed topics such as meeting God, Armageddon, and the question of whether the atomic bomb would end the world.

The Postal Service does not know what kept the card from being delivered or where it had been for the past fifty years. They say there’s a good chance the mystery will never be solved.

—Associated Press, January 29, 2003, Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

What is amazing about this news item isn’t just how long it took for the Postal Service to deliver this piece of mail, but that the issues in the letter are still pressing questions in our time—the letter may have been delivered 50 years too late, but it could have been written last week.

Matthew 24:6 NASB "And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end.”

At the end of 2014, 59.5 million refugees have been driven from their homes by war, conflict, and persecution according to the United Nations. 15 regional conflicts have either started or reignited in the years 2009-2014. The increase in refugees between 2013 and 2014 is the sharpest ever one-year increase. One of every 122 people in the world is a refugee outside their country of origin, internally displaced or seeking asylum. Half of them are children. The U.N. says that the world no longer has the capacity to pick up the pieces. 

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/06/18/un-report-in-new-record-60-million-displaced-worldwide

Mark 13:7-8 (HCSB) When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, don’t be alarmed; these things must take place, but the end is not yet. (8) For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains. 

VIOLENCE

Sparks flew at the Sunday celebration remembering Dr. King’s legacy of non-violence at Middle Collegiate Church in New York City. Deeply disturbed by the shootings in Newtown and Aurora, church member Mike Martin learned blacksmithing so he could transform symbols of violence into symbols that give life. He literally turned a gun into a farming tool. Inspired by the prophetic promise to “beat swords into plowshares,” Martin transformed a Remington rifle into a two-sided gardening tool called a mattock. —Jim L. Wilson and Stephen Hayes

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-rev-jacqueline-j-lewis-phd/guns-into-plowshares_b_4630004.html

Isaiah 2:4 (HCSB) “He will settle disputes among the nations and provide arbitration for many peoples. They will turn their swords into plows and their spears into pruning knives. Nations will not take up the sword against other nations, and they will never again train for war.”