2 : freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions
3 : harmony in personal relations
4 a : a state or period of mutual concord between governments b : a pact or agreement to end hostilities between those who have been at war or in a state of enmity
5 [ a word ] used interjectionally to ask for silence or calm, or as a greeting or farewell
- at peace : in a state of concord or tranquillity
And, I suspect that there are a number of other acceptable uses of the word " peace ".
I would venture that nearly all decent, moral people in all cultures desire peace,- peace between people, and peace between nations. The problem that always seems to arise, is that there are a few evil individuals, who are not content with their present situation ( in other words greedy ) and who manage to gather other discontented people to follow them, evil individuals, who are willing to go to war to add material things, or land, or power, or prestige, to themselves.
In the last 100 years, a handful of these greedy, and usually cruel people, have succeeded in gathering a sufficient number of followers to capture a nation, and threaten the well-being of their neighbors, and the world as a whole. It is not hard to name some of them: Kaiser Wilhelm, Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Emperor Hirohito, and Saddam Hussein. And today, there are a few others, who are not as well known,- in China, North Korea, Syria, Iran, Cuba, and elsewhere. If wise leaders from free nations hadn't made the decision to go to war, to take down the tyrannts of the past, we would today be living under slavery,- and a very horrible, cruel slavery at that. Many valliant young men, and women, paid for our freedom with their lives, and their families paid with life-long grief.
If the peace activists opposed war, because they feared going to war, that would be understandable. And, as a parent, I certainly would not want my child to go off to fight in a foreign country, from which he might never return. But, it seems that this is not their motivation. Their motivation seems to be rooted in ignorance, and blindly following an irresponsible leader or teacher. It is obvious that the anti-war demonstrators are a very poorly educated bunch. Oh yes,- some may have college degrees, even PhD's, but they are still very poorly educated.
These poorly educated people don't even know right from wrong. They evidently haven't been taught that there are virtues higher than peace. God desires peace among human beings, but He desires two attributes even more,- righteousness and obedience. I would venture that most of the anti-war activists cringe at the words RIGHTEOUSNESS and OBEDIENCE. To be fair to them, there are many who support the war, and the troops, that cringe at those words also.
Keep reading. There is an answer!
Jesus taught that we should love God, and our neighbors as ourselves. That is a simple summation of the Ten Commandments,- those rules which misguided and immoral people would like to remove from schools, courthouses, and other public places. Tearing down the Ten Commandments from public places, and kicking God out of public places, does not change our accountability. All will be judged before God, and held accountable for their disobedience to these commandments. That being the case, it is evil in the extreme, to try to deny all people, young and old, constant access to these rules of human conduct.
I can understand why murderers, thieves, adulterers, fornicators, homosexuals, idolaters, disobedient children, and the greedy would want to avoid looking at the Ten Commandments. That is precisely why they need to be posted everywhere. People need to know that these things are wrong, so that they can face up to the sin in their lives. The poorly educated in this world need to be constantly challenged to recognize themselves for the sinners which they are,- and which we all are. This is not to make us constantly live in guilt,- but to urge us to seek the answer.
That answer is Savior Messiah,- the one, whom we in America, usually call Jesus Christ. He was God in human flesh. He was much more than an ordinary man. He was much more than a prophet. He died on the cross voluntarily. He died on the cross,- the righteous, dying, and paying the penalty, for the unrighteous. He could easily have avoided this fate, but He even told his followers ahead of time, that this was the way it had to be.
You don't have to live a life in dread of judgement,- trying to escape reality in drugs, alcohol, tobacco, irresponsible sex conduct, loud music and the like. You can be set free. You can become a new person.
Look at what God tells us in His word, the Holy Bible:
" Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of
God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And SUCH WERE SOME OF YOU. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God "
I Corinthians 6:9-11
" Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; Old things have passed away; Behold, all things have become new. "
II Corinthians 5:17
This can be you, my friend. You can be a new creation,- a new person. You don't have to be the same old person,- constantly trying to escape the realities of life. You can be free of that load of sin and ugliness, that burden which you have been carrying, for all of your adult life. You can be free from following the false teachers, that have been holding you captive! Yes! You can be free, for the first time in your life!
