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So there's a task confronting us, those called by God to be disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ while citizens of the United States: When the next President takes the pulse of public will on this issue, what will our national evangelical witness look like?

The present champions of a nuclear weapons-free world are not naïve — on the contrary, many of them witnessed firsthand the worst evils of the last century in the same global conflagration that birthed the bomb. Nevertheless, they hope; in hoping, strive; in striving, exemplify courage.

The youth that fought WWII are now grown old, and will not likely live to see the world for which they now labor. Their example of enduring hope speaks well to why Christians can and should take our stand for a world beyond nuclear weapons. It is not because we seeds of resurrection are panicked by mortality, nor because we citizens of the kingdom are driven by national interest over righteousness, nor because we imagine that we can add an ounce of worth to the redemption performed on the Cross.

No: It is because we are experts at God-given rejoicing in the present for a world that has not yet arrived. So we are driven now by the future day when we wake to headlines that the last bomb has been consigned to history books and museum displays. We're no strangers to such preemptive joy, after all: it's the very thing that has fueled the church's testimony to life throughout history's death-filled days, and to a love that casts out fear — in this and every terrorizing time.

The Rev. Tyler Wigg Stevenson, a Baptist preacher, is director of the Biblical Security Covenant.

Copyright &#copy; 2008 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

This piece accompanies "A Merciful White Flash."

Biblicalsecurity.org has more on creating a nuclear weapons-free world.

Previous articles about Christians and nuclear weapons include:

What To Do About Nukes | You may not be as powerless as you think. (August 13, 2007)

The Middle East's Death Wish—and Ours | We say "everyone wants peace," but we also want to see our enemies destroyed. (July 14, 2006)

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March (Web-only) 2008, Vol. 52