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Christianity Today, December, 2007 |

Blessed Are the Peacemakers

Quotations to stir heart and mind.

Compiled by Richard A. Kauffman | posted 12/17/2007 09:12AM

BLESSED are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Matthew 5:9

THE FOLLOWERS of Jesus have been called to peace. When he called them they found their peace, for he is their peace. But ...

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Bette Dewing

Posted: December 21, 2007 3:17 AM

Never is peacemaking more needed than with families during these holy day get togethers. Interfention when there is conflict - working things out - and somehow overcoimgin the divisions cvions that exist so foten between parents and adult offsrping. As a single and now elder mother of sons who live 3000 miles away, it is a time when I so hope for a closer relationship with them throughtout the year. Like so manyparents, I ahve become a bit player in their lives. Their wives don't think parents matter after a certain age - and want nothing to do with me. But in our culture the paent is always pblamed, rarely the offsrping or offspring in law. I have file cabinet filled with such material - but most publications don't want to hear it. Anyone who wants to share their storeies please do. We must intervene and support one another. Christians mostly believe only in the nuclear family. Negelct kills too, it just takes longer. Bette Be

ML	Posted: December 18, 2007 7:24 PM

It's interesting that non of those theologians seem to give much thought to how one deals with evil. Are we suppose to give in and allow violent, evil people to make slaves of us all? That would be the result of peace making at any cost. Hitler and his people would be ruling the world today, people would be evaluated according to their mental and physical abilities and those who are for whatever reason unable to participate and contribute would end up in concentration camps. Muslim extremists are not all that different. Perhaps Mr. Bush and his people were wrong for starting the war and as he himself has said, we might never know the answer but evil and injustice must be fought against with every thing we have. Jesus commanded us to do good and that includes putting down evildoers. As long as there are violent self-serving leaders in charge of underdeveloped countries there is nothing we can do. The poor will never benefit from our charity.

John	Posted: December 18, 2007 6:07 PM


Donald, We expect our leaders to follow our christian moral values when it comes to abortion and marriage, but not war and torture? That Sermon on the Mount stuff is Ok for Sunday School, but not really life?

Brian Watson

Posted: December 18, 2007 12:22 PM

US evangelicals seem to be using a new translation which has the wording 'Blessed are the warmakers, for they shall obtain the kingdom of oil'. But this wording is not well attested in the surviving Greek manuscripts. Many Christians seem to believe that Jews are some kind of 'super-Christians' in spite of 1 John 2:22-23. The Edomites, perhaps the most cursed people in the Bible, were converted as a group to become Jews by John Hyrcanus, in about 120BC (Josephus, Antiquities, XIII ix 1; XV vii 9). Flavius Josephus the Jewish historian who lived just after the time of Christ, says 'They (Edom) were hereafter no other than Jews'. These people are still represented within the Jewish people as the Book of Revelation makes clear, and they control 'Babylon', represented by Hollywood etc.

RandyT/Lewisville,TX

Posted: December 18, 2007 10:29 AM

Over the week end I watched a 60 Minutes episode, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Found it interesting from a number of angles, but those don't fit into this discussion. However in an interview of Duncan Hunter by Lesley Stahl, Duncan said a very profound thing comparing our troops (without gays) and NATO troops (many with gays serving openly). I paraphrase; "They serve, you know, mostly in peacekeeper situations, not in heavy combat like our troops." I believe what that says about our country, if one believes Hunter to be correct, is that we are warmongers and NATO, European countries are Peacemakers. Now the question; which countries then are Christian? Or actually practice His Teachings?

Donald

Posted: December 18, 2007 9:19 AM


You guys always seem to forget the beatitudes was directed to individuals and not to governments. In fact Jesus wasn't overly concerned with governments, and it is wrong when we try to apply his teaching to individuals, who are filled with the Spirit, to governments filled with sinful men.

David LaMotte

Posted: December 18, 2007 7:49 AM

Right you are, John, that God did not shy from the sword in the Old Testament. That's part of the *New* Covenant that Jesus brought. He rejected violence at every turn. Occasionally used violence as a metaphor, but never condoned physical violence. Your argument holds plenty of water as long as you reject Jesus and stay with an O.T. perspective. If you take Jesus seriously, though, everything changes.

Sam	Posted: December 18, 2007 12:39 AM


You guys are not serious right? It was a rhetorical device. He was implying the incompatability between Jesus beatitudinal commandments and the ventures of our courtrooms and the pentagon!

K. Cook

Posted: December 17, 2007 4:13 PM

Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers, and also to turn the other cheek, and to forgive seventy times seven. I don't recall the Pentagon and its many minions turning any cheeks lately unless you count the ones at Abu Graihb, and forgiveness is a foreign concept to those whose mission is to promulgate conflict. Guantanamo is run by the military; where is the peace in incarcerating people whose only crime was being in the wrong location at the wrong time? Where is the peace in our foreign policy, when we threaten and coerce and withhold the means to prevent or cure disease? Where is the peace in the domestic policy if we are thought to be criminals and worthy of being spied on? Where is the peace in people going bankrupt because of overwhelming health care bills? Where is the peace? War is peace.

John	Posted: December 17, 2007 3:19 PM

Why not put "Blessed are the peacemakers" at the Pentagon? What has produced more peace in the world than the United States military. That it is currently in the hands of neocon nutjobs does not change that fact. I think people who comment on peacemakers, and the meek, etc., need to think back to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Aragorn brings peace to Middle Earth after 3 movies of harsh war and bloodshed. Sometimes that is what it takes. Hitler and Tojo were defeated not by words but by bombs and bullets. Sometimes it is God's People's role to defeat evil, and sometimes that required violence. God did not shy away from the sword in the Old Testament. Reagan said peace thru strength, and I think he was right.

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