Give the ‘Prince of Peace’ a Chance

by Richard Blackford

While many herald, “Give peace a chance,” they get the cart before the horse. Any attempt at peace that omits the Prince of Peace is doomed to fail. Someone said, “It’s not that Christianity was tried and found difficult. It’s that it was found difficult and not tried.” Some know about Christianity, but do they know Christ?

A few days ago, I was talking with a businesswoman from Ukraine. When I invited her to church, she said, “I’m a believer in God, but religion? Not so much.”

Religion is a neutral word, neither good nor bad. More information is needed before one can fairly assess a particular religion. The book of James talks about two kinds of religion, one bad and one good, and gives examples of each. They are called vain religion and pure religion (James 1:26-27). Just because “religion” conjures up disdain in the minds of some, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater and cast out pure religion. Find it and embrace it.

In his song, “Imagine,” John Lenon wanted us to imagine there’s no heaven, hell, or religion. Some atheist groups claimed it for their anthem. It certainly eliminates God, the Bible, and Christianity. The song suggests that by giving up heaven, hell, and religion, all the world would be living in peace, and the world would be as one. However, if there is no God, then anything goes. Eventually, everything will. If there is no God, then nobody has the right to tell you how to live because each person is left with manufacturing his own morals. It becomes a “free-for-all.” Nobody can give you an absolute reason why anything is wrong. The most powerful would determine any standard of right and wrong, which would constantly be subject to change. Prior to the great flood of Noah’s day, “every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually” and “the earth was corrupt, and violence filled the earth” (Genesis 6:5,11). What was going on there? They were living as though there was no heaven, hell, or religion! If you want to live in such a place today, you might try North Korea – except people are literally dying to get out instead of in. Estimates of the number of people murdered or starved under atheistic communism are from a low of 10-20 million to a high of 110 million [Valentino, Benjamin, 2005. Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the 20th Century. Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801472732].

John Lenon was a mastermind as a musician, composer, and lyricist. I loved much of his music. Most of us change our views over time. It is uncertain what his religious views were before the end. Some quotations throughout his life indicate a change from humanism to being a believer. An interview on the Canadian Broadcast Corporation in 1969 was recently uncovered in which Lennon was very “pro” Christianity, but there are indications that he later became involved in some New Age religions.

Meanwhile, Jesus “went about doing good.” He advocated that it was “more blessed to give than receive” and that we should practice the golden rule, love our neighbor as ourselves, render good for evil, and die for all mankind so each could have the opportunity to be saved eternally. These are some of the teachings of Christ that have been found difficult and not tried on any grand scale. Peace on earth and goodwill among men is a lofty concept but still a dream. Generally, men have been unwilling to give the Prince of Peace a chance.