Modern Religious Idols and False gods, Part 6
Posted by Michael Bunker

editor@lazarusunbound.com

The false god named “Peace”, Part B

And it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many? (2Ki 9:22).

You have heard me say before that “Peace is not solely the absence of warfare. Peace is the absence of desire”. This means that so long as we have holy desires that are not fulfilled; so long as we long for spiritual things and we have no resolution of those desires, we cannot have peace. The unsaved man can never experience true peace, because he can never satisfy the innate longing of the spirit of man to be at peace and unity with his Creator. Only through God’s manifold grace and mercy is it possible for humans to have true peace. Now, in this apostate age, most religious people are greatly deceived by this word “Peace”. They rightly call Jesus Christ The Prince of Peace, and then wrongly interpret what that means and how to understand that title contextually. True and lasting peace generally arrives via war. Enemies who are hostile to our peace must be defeated and thrown down; rebels must be converted, overthrown or destroyed; those with hostile intent must be tamed, convinced, or annihilated. Just as when Christ’s Spirit comes to put down and overthrow our carnal man in order to save us, a great war must necessarily precede any Biblical peace. But, like I said, modern religious people are very confused about what peace is, and since ignorance always leads to idolatry, ignorant religious people are quick to make an idol out of peace.

In the last sermon we discussed Peace as it relates to personal peace and affluence, or the false idea that because we are prosperous and temporally comfortable that God must be pleased with us, or that somehow carnal peace and riches mean that we are in good spiritual condition. In this part we will discuss the idea of Peace, or a lack of conflict, as a false idol that must be cast down in the life of the true believer.

We must say here that it is easy to see how modern religious people fall into confusion. Mainly the confusion has its root in the way that people today are taught to read and study the Bible. Since most modern religiousites are taught to hunt and peck and cut and past out of their Bibles, rather than to read and study the Bible as a whole for what it teaches uniformly and in a non-contradictory way, it is easy to understand why these people fall into confusion. For example, we have already mentioned that Jesus is called The Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6) and we read where Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27), and again Paul says, “Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all” (2Th 3:16). Reading this with no context has lead people to create the smiling long-haired, blue-eyed, hippie “Jesus” who loves everyone and, like Rodney King, just wants people to get along. Modern religious folks have a real problem with the Jesus who said, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword” (Matt. 10:34). But since the modern religious mind is perfectly amenable to contradiction, most of these folks will never sit down to really study what these things mean and try to relieve the tension between seemingly contradictory ideas. In fact, I can tell you that of the thousands of sermons I have read or heard in my life, I have never heard a modern preacher get anywhere near explaining these verses in Matthew 10, especially where Jesus goes on to say:

“For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me” (Matt. 10:35-38).

Now to most people, and perhaps even to many of you, it may have never occurred to you that there was such a thing as False Peace. Since most people have already built and formed their false idols in their hearts and minds, plain Bible verses that contradict their doctrines do not also generally disturb their peace. But it is easy enough to cut straight to the truth on this issue using a simple tool of logic called the conditional statement. If it is true that Jesus Christ of the Bible is the Prince of Peace, and if it is true that there is an Antichrist and false Christs, then it must be true that there is a False Prince of False Peace. Every prince has administrators and magistrates, and every prince has spokesmen or “prophets”. Now, it is going to come as quite a shock to some of you who hear or read this sermon, but I am here to tell you it is very likely that the idol you worship is NOT Jesus Christ, The Prince of Peace, but instead it is likely that you worship the False Prince of False Peace. You may say, “surely this isn’t true of me”, but I say that a mere look around at the state of the world, or a mere glance at the statistics as to who claims the name of Christ, or a mere cursory understanding of what the Bible says about most professing “Christians” being on the broad way that leadeth to destruction, ought to make it worth your time to examine whether what I am saying is true of you or not.

The prevailing modern religious idea is that Jesus Christ came to bring “peace on earth” and by this they mean that we all (earthlings, “christians” included) ought to come together and put aside differences and get along and be peaceful and just love one another. But this false idea of peace is what Jesus called in John 14 peace “as the world giveth”. In John 14:27 Jesus delineates between the true peace that He has given to His elect (who specifically is the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, who is the topic of the discussion), and the false peace which is that peace “as the world giveth”, which is contrary to and contradictory with true peace. Now, we know that when the Holy Spirit is given, that the peace we receive is a result of God making war with our old man, and with our carnal nature, and with our sin. We receive some peace immediately, which is the peace extant in the promises of God, and in the guarantees given to the elect of sanctification and separation, and in the knowledge of God’s victory over His enemies, and in the gifts of hope and belief in the things God has said He will certainly do. But true and lasting peace is won in warfare, as the Holy Spirit of God (as portrayed in Holy War by John Bunyan, which I highly recommend) defeats and overcomes our wickedness, our carnal man, our worldly passions, and our sinful disposition. Just as this war is a bloody and violent mess, we would be foolish to expect the outward war to be any less bloody and violent. If Jesus has come to separate unto Himself a peculiar people, and if He desires to overcome the world which is contrary to Him and at war with Him, then why should we expect that war to be any less confrontational? Why should we say Peace, Peace when there is no Peace?

So we have showed you the manner of how all of the verses which speak of Peace in the Bible can be easily harmonized. Jesus plainly claimed that the peace He was bringing was NOT the peace that most worldlings expected. The peace Jesus left with His elect was NOT an absence of warfare, or some peace treaty signed with the world. When Jesus was promised by the False Prince of False Peace that He could have the Kingdoms of this World in exchange for worship He turned them down, and he certainly did not sign a peace treaty with the world which was and is at war with Him. Jesus said He came not to bring peace, but a sword, and that particularly the sword would be used to separate friends, family members, loved ones, parents, children, etc. The Word of God, rightly interpreted and wisely understood, is that Sword of separation which divides asunder that which is of God and that which is of the world. To save the soul, Jesus gives the Holy Spirit which brings peace via warfare, and which systematically and inexorably leads the elect of God out of the world and into the Kingdom of God. Peace is won by warfare. God separates the sinner from his old man, from his old wants and desires, and from the rotting corpse of his old nature. God then, in the outward work, brings that elect believer out of the world, which is now under the authority of the False Prince of False Peace, and brings the believer to Himself outside the camp.

The False Prince of False Peace and his has taught professing “christians” that they are in good stead, and that it is impossible and unwise to separate from the world. They will say, “Well, if you cannot be absolutely and completely separate, then you shouldn’t separate at all”. Then they will say, “God wants me in the world to evangelize in it”, or they will say, “God is converting the lost world into His Kingdom, and therefore I am supposed to stay in the world until it is converted”. False prophets of False Peace sing such siren songs to unwary professors and their melodious sonnets of syncretism will claim all but the very elect. Jesus promised that one of the signs of belief and salvation would be that we would be separated from our idols, and from friends, family, loved ones, etc. Jesus promised warfare with the world, the flesh, and the Devil. Jesus promised that some kinds of peace are false peace.

Now, many people are angry with me. They don’t like me talking about division and separation and such things. They don’t like the idea that there is a very real and very personal Antichrist, and they certainly are not going to like the idea that their way of life and living is both unbiblical and contrary to the Kingdom of God. I mean, when people have a choice between listening to a dirty, stinking prophet of separation who speaks of war and violence, or a happy, smiling false prophet of worldliness whose song is that of Frank Sinatra:

“I’ve got the world on a string

I’m sitting on a rainbow

Got the string around my finger
What a world, what a life – I’m in love”

…to whom do you think they will choose to listen?

In our chief text out of 2^nd Kings, Jehu, who has just been anointed King of Israel, says “What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?” So long as the whoredoms of this present world are so many, how can we be at peace with it? Who is it that counsels peace with the world if it is not an enemy? These enemies of separation who are now growing ubiquitous in pulpits and on Internet blogs - who can be their master if they parrot the teachings of The False Prince of False Peace? These barking dogs who say that “separatism is of the heart” in order to soothe the consciences of worldlings and to keep people from separating from ungodliness, who can be their leader if it isn’t Antichrist and the Devil? Now, I’ve become a handy whipping boy for world-lovers, false prophets, and Jezebels, and I’m happy to be used in such a way, but you can be assured that the time is coming, and now is upon us when the truth will be seen clearly by everyone. This worldly religious nonsense passing itself off as evangelical “christianity” will be exposed for what it is. This worldly religious nonsense passing itself off as “reformed” will be exposed for what it is. This worldly religious nonsense passing itself off as “conservative” will be exposed for what it is. The mantra of these false prophets is that it matters not how you live, so long as you claim some orthodoxy or some level of faith. True Christianity is screaming from the mountaintop “I will show you my faith by my works”, which is to say, “You may examine what I have truly believed by how I live”. This idea that your body can be with a harlot so long as your heart is with your wife, or that your body can commit crimes so long as you are law-abiding in your mind, or that you can live deliciously with the world and submit yourself to its ways, and live according to its rudiments, so long as you are “separate in your heart” is bound to be exposed as a damnable lie, and very, very soon.

Peace as an idol is a very pernicious and deceptive thing because by its very nature Peace causes one to rest and not be on guard. The very word “Peace” brings to mind the ability to be more careless and worry-free because it would seem that there is no danger about. You can see, then, why false prophets of false peace are so successful, and why the soul that says “peace” when there is no peace is in danger of eternal destruction.

My advice to you, if you have taken the time to listen or read to the end of this sermon, is that you inquire into the meaning of the warfare that Jesus promised to His elect. My advice would be that you endeavor at all cost to determine your true condition, and that you try (if perhaps the Lord will give you eyes to see and ears to hear) to determine if you can tell the difference between the Kingdom of God, ruled by Jesus Christ, and the kingdom of this world, which is ruled by the False Prince of False Peace. If you have read and/or listened this far, then it seems that you might have a modicum of care for your eternal soul, so I will apply to that care in you in asking you to seek true salvation while it may yet be found, and if you have found it I appeal to you to not be careless with it. Some of you may have received this sermon from a loved one who cares for you and who has true Godly love for your soul. Return that show of love by diligently seeking and searching out the truth on this matter. Shouldn’t you show at least as much love and care for your own soul? Do not, in any case, do what the corrupt agents of Israel did, or what the damned in hell have done. Do not turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to warnings that are given for your good and for your eternal benefit. You will either heed the promises and threats of the Bible, or you will heed the False Prophets of False Peace in this world. Every man will be held accountable for which voice he has heeded, and by Grace alone the elect of God, with Him in Heaven, will be those to whom it was given to hear the Shepherd’s voice and follow Him alone. The wicked of this world look to this earth for their promise, “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless” (2Pe 3:13-14).

I am your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker

 
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