by Jan Markel
Olive Tree Ministries

While parts of the world riot over cartoons and as the mad atomic ayatollahs of Iran are threatening to wipe some nations off the map, is it any wonder that the Bible says that in the latter days there would be a great longing for peace. "They have misled My people by saying, 'Peace!' when there is no peace . . . (Ezek. 13:10). Or, "We have waited for peace, but nothing came . . . (Jeremiah 14:19). The world is tired of saber-rattling, hot wars, cold wars, homicide bombers, airplanes flying into buildings, and more. They just want world peace.

So along comes a plan to my home town, Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN but with hopes to expand nationally and internationally. It is the springing up of "peace palaces." To the naive, does that not sound appealing? The sponsoring organization plans to build one "peace palace" for every 200,000 to 300,000 people in the Twin Cities as a part of 2,400 more to be built across America and in Europe. And a line will form at every door! Says the developer in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, "Many are responding to the advertisements touting the peace palaces and what they will have to offer. I haven't had a single negative call. People are curious. Whatever their political affiliation, it is clear people want world peace."

This universal longing plays in well with the events foretold of the last days. A "man of peace" who is, in fact, the Antichrist, will so play on people's longing for peace that most of the world will be fooled by him. Israel will be taken in and tear down her fence (Ezekiel 38-39) and live in real peace with her neighbors for a short season as Islam apparently heeds the demands of the Antichrist to stop cutting off heads and stop exploding themselves among the innocent. All of this is short-lived. The "man of peace" becomes a "man of war" quickly and wages war upon the whole earth.

This is why the Dominion/King Now Theology is so puzzling, although it is rapidly-growing. This teaches that the church will make the world perfect, subdue the earth, and when it is in some state of near perfection, Jesus will return. It is not found in the Bible! This cannot be accounted for without the factor of end-time strong delusion. We are watching millions of Muslims riot because of a simple cartoon which reveals that man's nature is bankrupt unless one is saved through the blood of Jesus. During the Millennium, Jesus will subdue the earth but prior to that, "evil will wax worse and worse" (2 Tim. 3:13).

If every mega-church united and cooperated in some global peace effort, it would not be sufficient enough to stop the madness. Neither the social gospel nor the "church subduing the earth" will make a difference for eternity; in fact, both will prove to be abysmal failures. Only the preaching of the true gospel of Jesus Christ will "save the world" in that it alone will save souls for eternity. Everything else is putting band-aids on melanomas.