Swords into Plowshares: Part 2 of 6

The following is Part 2 of 6 from a booklet by Rev. Blake Purcell titled Swords into Plowshares, Three Dimensions of Bringing Peace on Earth (and Ukraine)Isaiah 2:1-4, 11

Dimension I: The Vehicle of Peace on Earth

The flow of thought in Isaiah 2:2-4 is that the law of the Lord is sent out from the mountain of the house of the Lord, and then men learn God’s ways and begin to beat their swords into plowshares, and spears into pruning hooks. If that is right, world peace comes from the word of God, preached by the universal Church, and applied by the people who hear it.

This seems straight forward and… too good to be true. But Isaiah 11:1-10 backs all these points up but is even more colorful and explicit. In Isaiah 11 what we see is at Christ’s first coming, around AD 30, the word of Christ struck the whole earth bringing justice. That justice causes the wild Gentile animals, the lion, bear and leopard to live like God’s sacrificial animals the lamb, cow, and ox. We know from Daniel 7 that these exact wild beasts represent the empires of the world. In Isaiah 11 the word of Christ transforms the whole world, and in Isaiah 2, the word of Christ goes out through the mountain of the house of the Lord, which we know from I Timothy 3:15 is the Church. The Bible is explicit as to what institution will bring a global cessation of violence. In the Bible universal shalom, and hesid, all around well-being, come through the Church, the whole Church and nothing but the Church.

Click here to continue to Part 3.

To read Part I, click here.