When people are saying, “Everything is peaceful and secure,” then disaster will fall on them as suddenly as a pregnant woman’s labour pains begin. And there will be no escape.”
1Thesssalonians 5v3 NLT
We live in such a turbulent world. There seems to be nothing but wars and rumours of wars going on, with nations rising up against nations, civil unrest, warring neighbourhoods and warring families, I’ve even been known to fight with myself! Humanity longs for peace, but not all peace is from God.
Revelation 6v2 begins the passage describing the final events leading up to the second coming of Christ. The first horse of the apocalypse is a symbol of false peace on earth. “I looked up and saw a white horse standing there. Its rider carried a bow, and a crown was placed on his head. He rode out to win many battles and gain the victory”
I find it interesting and perhaps symbolic that both the Korean and Russian leaders have posted pictures of themselves riding white horses. The people in those countries are forced to obey their leader, and in Korea to worship him as a deity
Scripture teaches that there will be a time of false peace on earth; a short period of time when there are no wars anywhere. The final antichrist will subdue the earth under his power and short- lived reign as world ruler. The world will breathe a sigh of relief as someone has finally come on the scene who has stopped war, which will enable crops to grow and hunger to cease, and a sense of security to flourish. Paul writes to warn us that this is the most dangerous time on the earth, as this false peace signals that the events leading up to the apocalypse have begun.
The peace of God and a sense of peace and security are not the same thing. We can feel at peace with ourselves when we reject Christ, simply because the war within ourselves has ceased. A country may feel safe and secure under a despotic ruler, but that is not true peace. While everyone longs for law and order within their communities, if this has to be enforced through terror, that is not true peace. My Iranian friends tell of police patrolling the streets and bundling young girls into the police car and taking them to the station simply because they broke the law by wearing the wrong colour clothing or having snippets of hair showing from under their head coverings. While there was virtually no threat of muggings or gang warfare, there was no freedom of thought or expression and so therefore no real peace.
Real peace and security can only come from knowing Christ, The Prince of Peace. Anyone or anything that promises peace without Christ is a counterfeit. It is short-lived and eternally dangerous.
I often think of Satan in the terms of the child-catcher in the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The children, Jeremy and Jemima had been warned to stay in the toymakers workshop, while Truly Scrumptious searches for food. The child-catcher arrives on the scene while she is gone, in a sweet shop on wheels. He calls out to the children, promising them free sweets, and entices them out of hiding and into the mobile shop which clangs shut behind them, revealing that it was really a trap, a hidden cage, that they are now imprisoned in.
Satan will offer the world a false sense of peace. But it is a short-lived experience, which will eventually reveal itself to be a trap.
Paul warns us in 1Thessalonians 5v6 “So be on your guard, not asleep like others. Stay alert and be clearheaded”, and v8 “But let us who live in the light be clearheaded, protected by the armour of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation.”
Only the Prince of Peace can bring true and lasting peace. Beware. Be on your guard against anything else that offers peace without Christ and obedience to His Word.
