The Mission Field: War and Peace

In this episode of From the Well to the World, Bernie and Dee explore the theme of war and peace through a biblical lens, drawing from John Stott’s Issues Facing Christians Today. Together they reflect on the realities of modern conflict, weapons of mass destruction, and the moral challenges facing believers in a troubled world. With Scripture, thoughtful discussion, and prayer, this episode calls Christians to develop a Christian mind, pursue righteousness, and live as peacemakers in the name of Christ.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God. That's from Matthew 5.9.

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome to From the Well to the World. Today we are talking about a difficult but deeply important subject: war and peace. We are examining John Stott's book, Issues Facing Christians Today.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

We live in a world filled with conflict, fear, and violence. And as followers of Jesus, we have to ask, what does it mean to think Christianly about these things?

SPEAKER_00 0:32

How do we stay rooted in truth? And how do we live as peacemakers in such a troubled world? We are living in a time of enormous complexity. Fifty years ago, many of today's challenges would have been hard to imagine. Technology has advanced at a breathtaking pace, revealing both human creativity and human power.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

And yet, alongside all that progress, poverty, injustice, and deep inequality remain. We are more connected globally than ever before, and opportunities in business and communications are everywhere, but the gap between the rich and the poor is still painfully wide. Ours is a culture that often speaks to us more as consumers than as citizens or disciples. We live in a highly sophisticated material world, but one that often seems uncertain about truth, purpose, identity, and even the value of human life.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

So as we begin this week, we want to look at some of these issues through a Christian lens and ask how believers are called to develop a Christian mind and engage the world faithfully and respond with truth, compassion, and courage. Let's talk about war and peace. This is not just a political issue, and it is not only a military issue. It is a spiritual issue and moral issue as well. And when we think about war, we are really thinking about human nature, justice, fear, power, and the value of human life before God.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

Of all the global problems confronting us today, few are more serious than the threat of humanity destroying itself. War is no longer limited to armies meeting on a battlefield. Nations now possess weapons that can wipe out entire populations, and violent groups can carry out acts of terror that shock the whole world. That means that danger is not only large-scale war between countries, but also the possibility that catastrophic weapons can be used by extremist or unstable regimes.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

So the stakes are incredibly high. The survival of people, communities, and even the future of civilization can feel fragile. And for Christians, this is why we cannot think in a vacuum. We hold firmly to God's revelation in Christ and in Scripture, but we also have to bring that truth into conversation with the realities of our world. Revelation and reality must be held together as we try to discern God's will.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

The end of the Cold War, when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, it marked a dramatic turning point in the world's history. Communism was collapsing as an ideology, and as Soviet power was fading, the Soviet Union itself began to unravel, partly because of reforms introduced by Gorbachev, like Peristorka and Glasnov, and partly because the entire system had become economically weak, politically oppressive, and very difficult to sustain. For many people, the end of the Cold War seemed like it might bring a more peaceful world. And in one sense, it did remove the immediate tension of a superpower standoff, but it also opened the door for a different kind of instability. Instead of one dominant global conflict, the world saw the rise of regional wars, ethnic violence, civil unrest, terrorism, and the spread of dangerous weapons.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Now we go on to weapons of mass destruction. Nuclear weapons remain one of the clearest examples of humanity's power to destroy itself. Several nations possess both nuclear warheads and the systems needed to deliver them. Now what makes these weapons so terrifying is not just their immediate destructive force, but also the lasting damage they can do to land, health, and future generations. Some people argue that nuclear deterrence prevents war because nations are afraid of mutual destruction. But Christians have to ask a very serious question here. Can a peace built on the threat of mass destruction really be called peace? And even when nuclear weapons are not used, their very existence forces us to think about fear, power, responsibility, and the worth of every human life made in the image of God.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Biological weapons are especially disturbing because they involve the deliberate spread of disease. We are talking about agents such as anthrax, smallpox, botulism, and plague. International agreements have tried to ban these weapons, but the threat has never fully disappeared. Part of the danger is that biological weapons can be hard to detect, relatively inexpensive to develop, and capable of spreading far beyond their intended target. Once disease is released, it does not easily stay contained. It can cross borders, affect civilians, and create widespread fear and chaos.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

That is one reason these weapons are so morally horrifying. They turn sickness itself into a weapon. Now let's look at chemical weapons. Chemical weapons are different, but they are no less cruel. They injure or kill through toxic substances that attack the body directly. And these include choking agents, blister agents, blood agents, and nerve agents. Their effects are often painful and devastating. They can spread through the air or contaminate the environment, which means civilians are often at great risk. Chemical weapons show us just how easily human knowledge can be twisted into instruments of suffering when moral boundaries are ignored. And all of that brings us to the deeper question. It is not enough to ask what nations are able to do.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

We also have to ask what is right before God. That is where theological and moral reflection becomes so important. Now let's talk about theological and moral reflections. Christians have not always agreed completely on the question of war, but we should not exaggerate those differences because there's also a great deal we hold in common. We all confess that the kingdom of God is marked by righteousness and peace. We believe that Jesus perfectly embodied the values of that kingdom, and we know that as his people, we are called to hunger for righteousness, pursue peace, refuse revenge, and to love our enemies. In other words, we are called to be marked by the cross. We also look ahead to the day when God's kingdom is fully revealed, when as Isaiah says, people will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and the nations will not train for war anymore.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

So as Christians, our first commitment must always be to peace and righteousness. That does not mean peace at any price or peace without justice. Real peace is costly. It requires courage, truth, sacrifice, and sometimes suffering. We can honor the bravery and service of soldiers without glorifying war itself. War, even when defended as necessary by some Christians, should never be celebrated. At best, it must be seen as a tragic necessity in this fallen world. Christians have often approached this issue in three main ways. The just war theory, which says that war may be justified, but only under very strict conditions. Another way to look at it is total pacifism, saying that followers of Jesus should not participate in war at all because Christ calls us to love our enemies and reject violence. And the last is relative pacifism, which begins with a strong commitment to peace and a deep suspicion of violence, but allows that in rare and tragic situations, force may be used to restrain an even greater evil. These positions are different, but all of them are attempts to take Jesus seriously and to respond faithfully in a world that is deeply broken.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

As we wrap up this podcast, we wish to make it clear that war in the modern world is more frightening, more complex, and more far-reaching than ever before. But the Christian calling has not changed. We are still called to think carefully, pray deeply, seek justice, and bear witness to the Prince of Peace. Christians may disagree about the use of force in extreme situations, but we should all agree that peace, reconciliation, justice, and protection of the human life matters deeply to God. Our calling is not to ignore evil. Our calling is to follow Christ with courage, humility, and the moral clarity in a broken world.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

Shall we pray? Heavenly Father, teach us to be people who love truth, pursue justice, and make peace. Guard our hearts from hatred, fear, and hardness, and give wisdom to our leaders, protection to the vulnerable, comfort to those harmed by violence, encourage to the church to live faithfully in troubled times. Let your peace rule in our hearts, in our homes, and in our communities and among the nations, and may we live in hope for that coming day when war will cease and your kingdom will be fully known. In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen. Shalom.