Chapter 10

^[*]Jesus is the perfect peacemaker, the Prince of Peace, the King of righteousness and peace. He is perfect peace and gives perfect peace, the peace that passeth understanding (the perfect combination). It is only in His peace that we truly understand. Jesus sleeps in the midst of storms and sometimes His disciples have the feeling that He does not care. But it is always in the “acceptable hour” that He commands the storm. He speaks and acts just at the right time and in the right way, and there always results a greater calm and a greater victory than if He had acted sooner. He is never too late.

Everything outside of Jesus and His way of Life as Love and Peace Making is doomed. Some of us knew while the recent dictators were at the height of their power that they were doomed unless they repented. While writing the last paragraphs of Manifest Victory in May, 1940, when they were at the height of their power, spreading terror to all mankind, I said that I expected to live to see the day, unless they repented, when they would be objects of pity and compassion rather than of fear and terror.

In a vivid dream-vision I talked to Hitler and ex­plained to him that his way of binding instead of releasing would end in his own bondage; that the way to get what he really wanted was to turn around and go the opposite way, the way of releasing, instead of binding, the way of love instead of hate. I even sent him a cablegram summarizing the dream-vision. I wasn’t certain it would reach him but felt it was worth its cost even to send it towards him.

The judgments of history are very swift these days and are getting swifter. Until recently, for example, Germany would defeat France and exact an indemnity and become weakened by spending it. France would become stronger by paying it, until France became strong enough and Germany became weakened enough to reverse the victory. It seemed that there might not be any end to this, but in the recent war both were defeated, the only difference being that the one that started the war was defeated worse. The other two aggressors suffered defeat, but were ready to surrender short of destruction and fared better, though in one of these countries the leader was turned upon the mob and suffered extreme humiliation both before and after death, receiving in an accumulated form the evil that he chose to inflict upon others.

In our time effect almost catches up with cause. War has become so bad that you cannot wage it with the worst weapons already discovered (and that are being discovered) without destroying yourself and your own nation as well as those you seek to destroy. And no nation dares to use these weapons unless it is mad enough to commit suicide. You can’t destroy now without being destroyed, and you can’t damn without being damned and damned quickly. Being damned has about caught up with damning; being destroyed has caught up with destroying.

Very recently our traveling camp of prayer through Europe, witnessing and seeking to give His love to as many as possible, beheld at Luxembourg what is designated as “The Gibraltar of the North”; such perfect natural fortification that in the days of feudalism those seeking safety for themselves took possession of it and fortified it. Then some more powerful aggressor took possession of it and more powerfully fortified it. This continued for centuries and the peace loving people round about the fortifications were ruled successively by this power and that power. The only really good use that we know of that it has ever been put to was during the recent war. Forty thousand people entered enough of the forty miles of underground fortifications to be saved from imminent death. Even our weapons of warfare, including atomic energy, may be used by love; and the higher will of God is that everything we have used to destroy may be used to build up and to bless.

Certainly it is true that there is no security outside of union with the Peacemaker who creates that security by making peacemakers of us. The more secure you try to make yourself outside of Him the more insecure you become. If you substitute riches of ex­ternal things for true riches you become increasingly endangered. The poor man can lie down without dan­ger of being robbed and without fear that his children will be kidnapped, blessed with peace that is denied to his richer brother. The richer a nation as well as an individual becomes and the more powerful its armies and the greater the number of its atomic bombs, the more it will be feared and the more fearful it will become. Its only safety is using its wealth and power to bind up the wounds of mankind, to clothe him in his nakedness, feed him in his hunger, and help put him on his feet. By becoming the friend and aider of mankind in the spirit of Jesus and under His leadership we can become such a benefactor of all the peoples of the earth that none of them will be our enemies.

Not only is effect catching up with cause, being destroyed catching up with destroying, the receiving of hell on earth catching up with the giving of hell, but the destroying of the innocent is not only catching up but is actually moving in advance of destroying the enemy and yourself. This was strikingly manifest in World War II and World War II was only a baby in comparison to the monster that World War III would be.

When we visited the Hague and the Palace of Peace, our guide pointed out more external destruction to the city from the planes of their friends, than from the planes of their enemies. In trying to destroy the enemy and enemies’ headquarters, the allies seem to have had a perfect genius for missing the enemy and in hitting their friends. To go out to bomb the enemy now, especially with atomic bombs, is like going out to kill the serpents but instead of killing them, merely provoking the serpents to bite the children. Thus mankind would destroy mankind.

What can we do about it? As previously indicated, the only thing for us that is at all sensible, is to come to ourselves, to repent of our personal and collective sinning and folly and to give ourselves to the guidance and best uses of the Perfect Peacemaker. If enough of us did this the New Order of good will and good sense and good everything else could come even before we travailed, and nations could be born in a day, as Isaiah prophesied.

Along with this we would be able to see that the real enemy is not a nation or nations or a people or individuals, but the spirit of the anti-Christ. This spirit increases in the earth as long as we try to destroy the victims and agents of this spirit rather than to cast out the real enemy itself and liberate its victims. You cannot cast out the anti-Christ spirit with the anti-Christ spirit. It can only be cast out by the spirit of the Christ; and the Christ-spirit de­stroys only by the enlightenment of Love and by the Power of God. The individuals and the nations who have yielded most to the spirit of evil are objects of pity and compassion. We can liberate them only as we enter into ineffable union with the Great Peace­maker, and become extensions and contagions of Him and His Kingdom.

With the use of radio, television, the press, the screen and all the new agents that are coming into being, the enlightenment and the love and power of the real Gospel could be made known at once to the whole earth.

All we have to do is to repent and become peace­makers and to change the spirit of men and to bring in, so to speak, the atmosphere and climate of Jesus Christ, the Perfect Peacemaker, and peace shall reign. As Bishop Francis McConnell has put it, there was a time when the earth was filled with terrible monsters. Nobody went out with poisonous gas or bombs to destroy them. God “changed the climate and they died.”

When monsters fight each other on the low level where monsters live the most terrible monster wins. It is utterly and tragically stupid to attempt to fight with the devil on his own plane, with his own fire and with his own weapons. He has a great deal more fire of his kind, or at least has the reputation for having it, than any of us would care to have. If you could conquer him by becoming worse than he is we would still have you on our hands. So if we are to have peace within and help to bring real peace and good will on earth we, as individuals and as churches and as nations, will not only have to cease fighting with the weapons of hell and put on the armour of heaven, but first of all we shall have to see and repent of the anti-Christ spirit in ourselves, in our churches, and in our nation. We shall have to call upon the Great Peacemaker and caster-out of devils to set us free and to keep us free of the ways and weapons and evil spirit of the enemy.

It is sad to have to say, but most of the best of the called-to-be Christians and Christian churches, like Peter and James and John, have a way of wanting Jesus to play the role of the anti-Christ and call down hellfire upon those whom they regard as our enemies. Happily Jesus reminded them that the spirit they were in and knew not was the spirit of the anti-Christ, was the very opposite of His spirit. Of course Jesus called the disciples down instead of the fire, and if we in our churches were in listening and in speaking distance of Him now we would hear His call to us to repent and let Him cast out the spirit and the spirits that make for fear and division and war and hell on earth. And when we, like Peter, cut off ears, Jesus has to put them back. Peter at some times at this stage of becoming a Christian allowed the Holy Spirit to speak to him and sometimes allowed the spirit of the devil, or of the anti-Christ to speak. When it was the Holy Spirit speaking, Jesus called him very blessed and when it was Satan He simply called him Satan. In the deepest sense, all of us are at each moment rightly named by the spirit that we are yielding to and manifesting. If we are not hearing Jesus call us by our right names, when we get closer to Him, we will. How often in so-called Christian history the anti-Christ has spoken and manifested himself through those who thought themselves Christ’s very best. It was the same anti-Christ spirit and weapons that influenced the Puritans at Salem, Massachusetts; it was the same spirit that used such great names and instruments as Calvin and even Luther when they played the role of persecutor, in northern Europe; and it was the same spirit that animated the Roman Catholics in Spain and Rome in the Inquisition. Any fallible human who gets on the judgment seat and wants to be dictator and employs the weapons of violence is at the time he is doing it really Satan. Just as much so and seemingly often more so than was Peter opposing Jesus. This does not mean that anyone who has yielded to the enemy has to keep on yielding. But since the means employed of necessity have to appear in the end unless there is repentance and a change of means, the employer of these means always suffers the pangs of hell. There is no possibility of bringing the kingdom and peace of Jesus Christ in partnership with Satan.

Anyone who seeks to be a dictator, whether he calls himself pro-Christ or anti-Christ, is under the hu­man necessity of using the instruments of terror. As someone has said, “No one but God is able to use much power without being corrupted by the use of it.” You just cannot be a dictator either in the name of Christ or in the name of atheism and escape both the weapons and the spirit of the Mischief Maker and the enemy of peace. And whenever the anti-Christ spirit comes in the name of Christ he gets in his most effective work. In fact the devil has such a bad reputation that in order to succeed, even for a time, he has to use some other name than his own. And Jesus gave the warning that in the days of the ultimate battle with the evil one, the evil one would come not in his own name but in the name and under the masquerade of Christ. This is the last effort of evil to destroy us and to save itself, or himself, which­ever it or he may be. As C. S. Lewis has reminded us in Screwtape Letters, never before in history have the devil and evil been so much denied as in our age and never before have they been so much in evidence. Let us hope that because the enemy has such great wrath it is because his days are short, that his very wrath will make his days all the shorter. As Professor Lewis also put in the mouth of the enemy to his special servant to this planet, if he could make us believe that he did not exist or that he is more powerful than the Lord, either falsehood would be equally effective for the accomplishment of his pur­pose.

If nominal Christians, whether called Protestant or Catholic, Christian Scientist, or New Thoughters, would see and confess and forsake where they have yielded and been used by the anti-Christ, and give themselves wholly and only to Jesus Christ and His spirit and way of life as love; if they would join in meeting evil with good and go to casting out devils and setting their victims free and having only love and compassion for all who have yielded to the spirit and weapons of the anti-Christ, nations could be born in a day. As we have seen, the stage is set for this very thing, and, of course, God and His heavenly armies are moving even faster than the armies of fear, selfishness, and violence.

Not only could nations be born in a day if enough of us would utterly repent and give ourselves wholly and happily to the spirit and person of the perfect Peacemaker, but the Kingdom of Heaven could come without travail and in great joy and bliss.

On the plane of human government, if we insist on going the slow way of trial and error, of learning the hard way, the watchword “be united, unite, unite” that freed the cantons of Switzerland and kept them free must be the watchword of the nations. As I heard an intelligent Englishman say, there was a time when the English counties were at war with each other. When they surrendered their sovereignty they became parts of a larger whole. The same thing must happen to the nations. The necessity that caused the English counties to unite in a union under the Crown, that caused the Swiss cantons to unite, and that caused the American colonies to unite in a federal union, exists in a far more urgent way for the nations to unite in a federal union on a democratic base now than ever before. We do not want a world dictator, but we do want a united states of the whole earth where there is liberty under law and a common concern for the interests of all. If we are not wise enough to let nations be born in a day and for the King and Kingdom of God to come on earth in great joy, even the most stupid among us should have sense enough “to be united, to unite, to unite,” and unite in the interests of all.

As we have at least hinted, the real enemy that is to be overcome is not the Russians nor the Communists, nor the Catholics, nor the Protestants, not any particular flesh and blood, but as Saint Paul saw, it is the spirit of the anti-Christ-wickedness in the unseen that is seeking to get possession of and destroy the Russians with their Communism, the Americans with their free enterprise, the Catholics and Protestants and the whole earth. The true Chris­tian never fights against anybody, he only fights against the enemies of everybody. Real Christians cast out devils and not folks. Jesus never put any­body out of His meetings, He healed their diseases and cast out their devils, and made of the most unpromising His most loving disciples. As long as you fight evil as a person, the more angry you get at him, and the worse that you do to him, the more you sin. But if you have love and compassion for the person, the more angry you are at the devil and devils that are enslaving and using him, the better friend you are to him.

Jesus was clearly aware that until He and His way of love and of overcoming evil with good were accepted, those who loved darkness and wanted to continue in darkness would set up the worst of all warfares against Him and His way of love. So He brought the sword of the spirit and the light of heaven to destroy the evils that bind us. Isaiah saw that this heavenly Child and Son of God who would bring the reign of peace and brotherly love and re­demption would be called, “Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace,” and that there would be no end to “the increase of His government and peace.” This is the peace that shall last forever.

You cannot have the peace of Jesus Christ apart from His government. All efforts at peacemaking that seek to leave out either Him of His government are essentially futile, and may actually get us into war. There is no peace except for the loving and the merciful and the friendly and the forgiving. The wicked cannot have peace until they repent. We cannot have a sense of peace or security as long as we fear and are arming with the weapons that incite fear and arms against us.

Once in my own life I faced a mob unarmed with a heart of trust. I was fully aware that if I could prevent, not wicked men, but badly misguided men, from lynching a colored boy, I would be a better friend of the mob than I would be of the boy. So I did things so daring that I was amazed that anyone as cowardly as I would be on an unloving mission, could be so bold and fearless on a mission of love and good will to all. Evil intent against anyone takes away peace and confidence. We cannot plan any evil against an indi­vidual or a group or a nation or a combination of nations without being afraid, and the more secure we try to make ourselves in the wrong way the more insecure we become.

During my time I have heard individuals and also small groups of people calling Jesus. “Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, and the Everlasting Father.” The hope for a peaceful world lies in going one step farther and calling Him the Prince of Peace.

It is significant and interesting that. William Jennings Bryan resigned the highest cabinet position under the most intelligent and enlightened President of our century, rather than attempt to conduct the foreign affairs of the nation when the nation was at war, and spent his time going over the country giving his lecture on “The Prince of Peace.” In this lecture he gave a picture of peaceful unarmed neighbors living around a large lake, until a promoter of war and of war industries approached one of them with the idea he would be more secure with a battle ship, and after he had sold him this battle ship, he went all around the lake tempting all the rest of them to buy war ships. And on his next round told each that he would need another battle ship and another and another, in order to be secure until most of them were bankrupt and all were filled with fear. As we have seen, every effort to be secure with the weapons of fear makes us all the more insecure.

Not only did Isaiah see that the increase of his government and peace would have to go together, but the Psalmist also saw that those who loved his law would have “great peace.” We cannot have the Peacemaker and have His peace without having also His government and way of life that makes for peace. The more we are in union with the perfect Peacemaker the greater will be our peace, and the more we delight in His law and government the more we shall be in Him and greater will be our peace.

To be a peacemaker like Jesus we have to be in love with all those who are at enmity with each other. We cannot take sides against anyone. We have to so love both of them that we love them into loving. Jesus so loved His Father in heaven and so loved and loves his erring children on earth that He is the Perfect Peacemaker between the two. not causing God to lower His standard, but reconciling us unto Him and His perfect way for us and reconciling us to each other in love.

I have found most helpful in the efforts to be a peacemaker what Robert E. Lee said to his generals, “The one who is least in error will take the first step towards reconciliation.” It is not only true to life, but it is far easier for the innocent or the comparatively innocent to humble themselves than it is for the especially guilty. I have also found that the techniques of love as commanded by Jesus are the only ways of peace and of peacemaking. As Jesus commands, if our brother has sinned against us, we must not go to others about it, but go to him and him alone. If we fail to win him to the right way which is always the love way, then we are to get the help of the best one, two or three, who are available and by joint effort seek to win him, and if the smaller group fails to win him, we must solicit the help of the whole available church. And the church (any and everywhere) includes all in union with Jesus and in love with each other and with all. I have found that it is well to have a brother present before anything is communicated to your smaller committee or to the church.

The other commandment of Jesus is that if our brother has aught against us that we must leave off offerings and all else and go at once to him in love, and if possible remove even his imaginary ground of offense and bring him back with us to the meeting we left in order to get him happily reconciled and to come back with us. I have also found that if we are to be a peacemaker we must make no arbitrary commands, that we must be ready always to go the second mile, and never contend over such small trifles as monetary values, that we should confess for ourselves and not for others, and be all that Saint Paul in his epic on love said love is. Only the lover can be a peacemaker, and when we are in union with the perfect lover it is easy to love. As applied to the social order we shall have to love rich men as well as poor men. The rich must be loved into loving and using their wealth and abilities in the interests of all; and the poor must be loved into loving the rich. When applied to nations we are to love our so-called enemy nations as well as our friendly ones. When applied to religion we must have nothing but love and all possible love for Jews as well as Christians, and for Catholics as well as Protestants, and for Protestants as well as Catholics. Indeed, to be at peace with them and to help bring peace to all and among all we must choose to have a limitless love for each and for all, This is the way, the great way, and the only way.

1. * [Note, footnote is on the Subtitle word Peace*.] See Manifest Victory, pp. 199-205. (↩)