What Can the Bible teach Us About Peacemaking?
— 3 Ron Mock IV. The Biblical Message on Peacemaking The Bible addresses peacemaking in all three aspects of our lives: coercive areas such as governments, exchange points including markets, and areas of affiliation which we are calling communities. When we catch the Bible s drift on this fuller vision of peacemaking, we will find that the way before us, far from being passive, pulls us into action on fronts in every arena of life. The compleat peacemaker is a listener, creator, visionary, activist, and culture builder who finds ways to nourish shalomist peace in every arena of life. Most of the Biblical studies of peacemaking and pacifism take a detailed, passage-by-passage approach. Done poorly, that approach descends to the level of proof-texting, picking and choosing among the verses that support one s position. Some books do better by including discussion of the problem texts the ones that proof-texters for military service might pick out. The good text-by-text studies help us st
