Just Peacemaking

“My subtheme is that the call for Just Peacemaking practices and Jesus’ teaching of peacemaking practices are not merely about ideals; they are about the real world. Hence, I point out the obvious: the prophets’ warnings and Jesus’ warnings were about real destruction in real history. Today, Israel, which is only the size of New Jersey, is surrounded by Arab nations. If Israel does not offer justice to the Palestinians, it faces the serious threat of its own destruction (perhaps by weapons of mass destruction) and of exile yet again. Some object to this notion on the basis that God has made a covenant with Israel, and God’s covenants are eternal. I hope I have demonstrated above that, if this is true, the prophets were wrong. They knew full well of God’s covenants with Israel and warned repeatedly that, if Israel did not practice justice and if Israel did not stop placing its trust in military weapons instead of God, it would experience the destruction of war and be sent into exile. Their warnings were based precisely on the covenants and the consequences of disobeying the covenants, which demanded justice.

“Unfortunately, Christian Zionist organizations and the religious right are opposed to the prophets’ call for peacemaking by practicing justice.”—Stassen, War in the Bible and Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century, page 139