How to Make Peace

I’m a peacemaker at heart. But peace doesn’t mean the end of conflict. Conflict is normal. We’re human. We have different ideas and wants.

Reconciling people with other people is not a straightforward thing. In the course I’m developing on creating change, there are some unwelcome realities.

Getting to peace means knowing how to resolve conflict. It doesn’t mean shooting people. The US is a nation in conflict within. Some of it stems from genuine needs. Much of it is invented by people who want to stir up trouble so they win power. We mostly have the same values.

Jesus spoke a lot about peace

People often quote some verses that talk about how following God brings us inner peace. He also spoke about the reality of religious change. Change doesn’t come without conflict.

“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” – John 14:27

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” – Matthew 5:9

“’Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’”–Luke 12: 51-53

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”- Romans 5:1

The hard task of change

I know the hard task Jesus had in changing Judaism. The nation was filled with hype, believing they were chosen by God and unbeatable as long as they strictly followed the law of Moses. Yet, by the time of Jesus, other nations had dominated them for nearly 500 years and soon destroyed their nation.

I understand. For over 50 years I’ve been in conflict with some modern teachings of what it means to follow God, to follow Jesus’ way. I don’t have Jesus’ power to make change, but at this point, change is essential if following Jesus is to survive. Today’s new generation walks away from the church because some beliefs are toxic, unconscionable, and don’t represent a loving God. Yet we insist they do because of powerful traditions of interpretation and belief.

Some church’s teachings unsettle people of conscience. “We must do what is right for ‘conscience sake’” (Romans 13:5, 1Corinthians 10:25-29).

Does the church get it wrong?

The “Church” got it wrong a lot

One of the common beliefs among many, not just today’s generation, is that the Church is the problem. It creates endless conflict. And this is often true and not a recent problem.

Ancient Judaism often got it wrong. It possessed a high level of exclusivity, contradicting the prophets’ vision of a house of prayer for all nations. Legalistic ideas created many arguments between Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes.

An example of legalism dominating truth is when Jesus and his disciples picked grain on the Sabbath. Those who watched them said they were working on the Sabbath. Jesus explained the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Many people today in Christianity still don’t understand this.

As the church grew, after the first 70 years, bishops declared certain beliefs heresies. Heresy means wrong beliefs. I get it. Not every belief accurately represents Jesus. In the US today, there are more than 1200 distinct Christian denominations with conflicting beliefs.

To early Christianity, the idea of heresy led to the church starting the Inquisition, which led to killing people who held the Cathar belief in Southern France. The church exterminated men, women, and children in entire villages, resulting in the death of at least 200,000 to one million people.

The Inquisition was a judicial procedure and a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, apostasy, blasphemy, witchcraft, and customs considered deviant. Violence, torture, or the simple threat of its application, were used by the Inquisition to extract confessions and denunciations from heretics.

Witchcraft was an automatic death sentence for thousands, even though other deviant behavior or beliefs usually had light punishments. By 1693, in America, they had executed 19 people in the Salem Witch Trials of Massachusetts.

In Europe, national governments seized on this Inquisition as an excuse to consolidate power.

In 1517, people protested other grievous actions of priests. This became the Protestant Reformation. It started when Martin Luther nailed to the church door a series of 95 ideas about Christianity that he invited people to debate with him. These ideas were controversial because they directly contradicted the Catholic Church’s teachings.

The Reformation led to Christians killing Christians. The Wars of the Reformation began with the Knights’ Revolt of 1522–1523, followed by the German Peasants’ Revolt in 1524–1525, the Eighty Years’ War in 1566–1648, the French Wars of Religion in 1562–1598, and the Thirty Years’ War in 1618–1648.

Smaller religious wars continued to be waged in Western Europe until the 1710s, including the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1639–1651) in the British Isles, the Savoyard–Waldensian wars (1655–1690), and the Toggenburg War (1712) in the Western Alps.

From my childhood, I remember Catholics and Protestants thinking each other were vile reprobates who were bound for Hell.

Churches have found endless reasons to split. In modern times, churches have split over beliefs about freewill, race, homosexuality, and endless petty arguments.

Churches would rather split and even eliminate people in some way, than resolve differences. To many, there can only be one that is right, is the theory. Someone has to win and someone has to lose. The powerful hold their territory while the less powerful start their own church. I don’t know how this reflects God.

A reconciling ministry

I don’t want to see the Church washed away in the flood of historic “Only I’m right and I refuse to change,” because it refuses to see the injustice in some of its beliefs that chase people away. We shouldn’t squander the precious gift that Jesus gave us, as did the Sadducees and Pharisees because they refused to even consider Jesus’ teachings.

The Church is full of tradition that accumulated after the days of the early church. When Jesus noted that the Jewish Traditions of the Fathers were displacing the Torah teachings, he rebuked them (Matthew 15:1-9 and Mark 7:1-22). We can’t let tradition stand in the way of the future of the Church. We can’t let traditional beliefs that are offensive and don’t reflect a loving God cause others to reject the Church. Coming to grips with these will be difficult but necessary.

The history of the Church is one of constant change. Change is slow, but it happens. Sometimes change occurs through death, meaning that the older generations, with their beliefs, die out and new generations take their place. Sometimes this Sadducee and Pharisee stubbornness remains deeply rooted and won’t be dislodged.

As for me, I will continue trying to understand and teach what God intended through the example of Jesus the Christ. Did we inherit the spirit of tradition, or the spirt of truth? Are we free from the Law or slaves of the Law of Moses? Is there anything that displaces the love of God for his creation?

I think nothing displaces the love of God except refusal to accept it. Except there is one exception. When we interject ourselves between others and the love of God. Then it is our beliefs that push others away from God.

During Jesus’ time here, he condemned no one, but only questioned the leaders how they could escape being condemned for their hypocrisy, pride, and self-righteousness. As leaders, what are we putting on people? How can we charge into others’ lives like a bull in a china shop, and force people to abandon their own conscience and accept unjust teachings that betray their value system? Going against their conscience condemns them.

We need to clearly understand some things

Christians were never placed under the Law of Moses. Many verses tell us that Christians aren’t subject to the laws of Judaism. Love is their guiding light.

We are people of conscience. The end of slavery reflects our conscience and empathy, which show the love of God for all, and we should not ignore our conscience.

Everyone in the world who is not a Christian is not going to Hell, they simply face judgment, not necessarily condemnation. The Christian advantage is forgiveness that escapes the trap of shame and guilt so we can develop.

Many of those who never accepted Jesus will sit with Christ (Matthew 8:11).

LGBTQ is the way God created some, by birth or through terrible experience, and they can’t be changed, only accepted and loved for who they are. New generations won’t accept what is unjust. The few clobber verses on this lack foundation and are veiled in the fog of history.

Conclusion

The Church has gotten it wrong a lot. It goes onto extreme paths driven more by tradition and fanaticism than truth. Many traditions are misunderstandings that come from a lack of knowledge and misinterpretation. We need to get real about teaching the love of God for all and stop pushing beliefs that support our traditions.

Texts that date back 2000 to 3200 years are extremely hard to understand without context, and we’re severely short on context. Yet we clobber people with Bible verses that suit our fancies. This is not Christlike. We’re judged if we judge others, even if our judgment is in the form of throwing Bible verses at them as piercing arrows of rejection.

We need to approach others with a clear conscience and not bully their conscience. “I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men.” – Acts 24:16. Who can ask others to betray their own conscience? We do it all the time, citing the authority of the Gospels.

Probability Space

What probability spaces can we open in our minds to seek new, more accurate understanding of the Bible using love as the standard we’re supposed to use?

You might start with the Jesus’s mind expanding saying that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. A wider view of the purpose of Christianity helps clear away the nonsense.

Luther invited people to discuss similar things. How can we get people to do this instead of stubbornly refusing, stomping off, and declaring war?

Paul (more likely authored by Polycarp), reminds Timothy that he has asked him to stay in Ephesus and prevent false teaching of the law by others. He says that law is to be applied to sinners like rebels, murderers, and the sexually immoral. In 1 Timothy: “… the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient” – 1Timothy 1:9, and that if our conscience is properly working, or “Pure” (1Timothy 3:9, 2Timothy 1:3) it will guide us to do what is right.

Potential Space

If you think creatively and allow your mind to wander and explore, how can we better understand the length and breadth of love?

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–           Dorian

Our answer is God. God’s answer is us. Together we make the world better.

Restore and recreate. Take time to celebrate life. Laugh, sing, and dance regularly, even every day. Happy.

Bible scripture verses are New American Standard Version (NASB), unless noted.

Author and books

Appease the Volcano: What does God require from people? The voices of the ancients from many religions echo much of the same things: It starts with law, then mercy and forgiveness, then love.

The Prophetic Pattern: Ancient and Modern Prophecy: How to distinguish the intent of various types of prophecies and oracles, both ancient and modern.

Preparing For the Future Of Work and Education: Analysis of the kinds of jobs that AI and Robotics will displace, and the educational requirements for them. AI will replace or augment thirty percent of jobs. This is an in-depth analysis citing many authoritative sources.

Author Website: Dorian Scott Cole