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Is the Lord
a God of Peace or of war?
Romans 15:33; Isaiah
2:4 and Exodus 15:3; Joel 3:9-10
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God of Peace
- (Isaiah
2:4) - "And He will judge between the nations, and will render
decisions for many peoples; and they will hammer their swords into
plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up
sword against nation, And never again will they learn war."
- (Romans
15:33) - "Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen."
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God of War
- (Exodus
15:3) - "The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is His name."
- (Joel
3:9-10) - "Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare a war; rouse
the mighty men! Let all the soldiers draw near, let them come up! Beat
your plowshares into swords, 10And your pruning hooks into
spears; Let the weak say, “I am a mighty man.”
Anyone can
take verses out of context and compare them to other verses out of context
and get a "contradiction." But, context is sacrificed in this manner
and along with it, truth is lost. In
Isaiah 2:4, God is giving a
prophet announcement of a future time when He will be the one who settles
disputes and there will be no more war. In
Romans 15:33, it is simply said
that God is a God of peace. He is.
Yet we have the verses that show God's judgmental side.
In Exodus 15:3 we see God as a
warrior. But the context is the destruction of the Egyptian Army.
As we all know, Egypt had enslaved the Israelite nation and God simply
became their warrior and delivered them. In
Joel 3:9-10 we see a prophetic
statement as the book of Joel clearly is prophetic in nature. In other
words, there will come a time when it is required to fight.
There is no contradiction for God to be both the Lord
who battles unrighteousness and also loves peace. This is just as true
with people, who are really peaceful by nature, but will fight when the time
requires it.
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Bible Difficulties - Romans to Philemon
CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS
AND RESEARCH MINISTRY
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©
Matthew J. Slick, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003
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