I am not making a political observation so much as a theological one. Global peace is outside of the wheelhouse of any assembly of nations. When Jesus said, “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars …”, it would not be because He is in any way fond of war, but because He knows the hearts of men and the mindsets of nations. Peace is not in our sinful natures. Fallen nations cannot work together to bring about a peace that ensures equivalent dignity for every people group of the world. In fact, it may very well be the height of hubris for any of them to believe that they can.
This hubris is evidenced by the presence of an outside wall at the U.N. inscribed with these words: “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks …” The U.N. also displays a bronze statue depicting a man beating his sword into a plowshare. The statue is captioned, “Let Us Beat Swords into Plowshares.” The words on the wall are attributed to the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, but they could just as easily have been attributed to another prophet, Micah. Both spokesmen for JEHOVAH uttered this prophecy (Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3). Neither prophet had in mind anything that the nations of the world could bring to pass by their own deliberations.
The prophets are speaking of the reign of Messiah. Some Christians think of a millennial reign of Christ on the earth when they hear these words. Some think of the final state of things at the end of time. Some hear these as language describing a peace that is won as the world is won for Christ. I am not aware of any group that thinks of the work of the U.N. This absurd appropriation of a biblical quotation simply demonstrates the arrogance of the nations of the world. They are united in a belief that they can somehow bring about the peace that describes the reign of Messiah while barring Messiah Himself from the endeavor. They are using the words of the one true God, even though it would run contrary to the beliefs of most of the nations to even acknowledge said God as the ONE God above ALL gods.
There is also, within the U.N. building, a prayer/meditation chapel accessible to the members, if anyone is in the mood to pray or meditate about anything. Upon entering this room, one will encounter a six-and-one-half-ton, rectangular block of iron ore, polished on top and illumined by a spotlight. The designer of the room described it as “a meeting of the light, of the sky, and the earth … it is the altar to the God of all …” I take that as an “all roads lead to this one god” kind of sentiment where one can pray to one’s own choice of deity or simply meditate in the presence of no deity at all. Across from this big black block is a mural of interlocking geometric patterns. This allegedly is a symbol of the essential oneness of god, not the triune unity of the God of the Bible, but again, this idea that “we all worship god in our own way.”
It is true that God is One, but His oneness is in and of Himself, not a unity of anyone’s and everyone’s notions of god. That is as absurd as the notion that the nations of the world can come together to forge some version of utopia by their own efforts, not that the U.N. has ever shown any capacity for doing that in the entirety of its existence. If anyone thinks that men, coupled with a little contribution from this and that worldview, can ever secure tranquil coexistence among the nations and faith practices of the planet, he is hopelessly naïve. Enduring peace can only be secured by Heaven’s Prince of Peace.
Believers in America tend to get worked up when Christian symbols and scriptural language are removed from public settings. If any effort was made to remove the slogan or the statue about which I have written from the grounds of the United Nations, I would probably just shrug my shoulders. After all, it was far-fetched to think that they ever belonged there in the first place.
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