Rev: Yuji Aihara 相原雄二
Title:"An era without war" will surely come true in the future of mankind!
According to one source, during the last 5500 years of human history (3500 BC to 2000 AD), there were 14,500 wars and only 300 years without war. The number of people who died in wars was approximately 35 billion. Of course, this is just one historian's guess, but it is probably correct. Even if there were no wars in Europe or Asia, if we include the unrecorded history of Africa, the islands of the South Pacific, and the Americas, it is not too much to say that there was not a single year without war somewhere on earth.
For example, in Papua New Guinea, where I spent 18 years as a missionary, the land area is only slightly larger than Japan, but there are more than 800 languages. Not dialects, but languages. How did more than 800 languages come to be established in an area only slightly larger than Japan? The answer is war. It is thought that people of the same skin color, the same curly hair, and the same physique, who appear to outsiders to be of the same ethnic group, somehow came to live separately, and after many years of living in opposition to each other, they began to speak their own languages, and many "languages" were established. In fact, during my time there, wars with bows and arrows and spears have been fought and nearly fought many times.
The history of mankind, now and in the past, has been a series of wars. The news reports of the past few days have even suggested that this is "the closest mankind has ever come to nuclear war," but what will happen? Will the human race destroy itself, or will a few humans survive on distant islands after a global nuclear war, suffer for a period of time, and then perish? Or will we realize the folly of war and create a better international organization than the United Nations, one in which all violence between nations will cease and all decisions will be made in conferences? The wise reader may already have the answer. I believe that without the intervention of supernatural forces beyond human power and wisdom, the future of humanity is doomed. But I have a certain hope. It is the prophecy of the Bible. The Old and New Testaments are consistent in their predictions. The future of mankind is peace, justice, and happiness. In a word, it is the realization of the "Kingdom of God". It is an era in which God will directly govern mankind. Man cannot achieve this by his own efforts. It is impossible for any politician or religious leader. How, then, will God intervene in human history? It is through the second coming of Christ to the world. Christ came to this world in fulfillment of many Old Testament prophecies. Jesus Christ was killed, resurrected, and returned to heaven, just as it was written in the Old Testament. Before he was killed, Jesus Christ prophesied many times, "I will come back again."(not as a baby man), but as "the Savior, the Judge, and the Ruler of the world." The purpose of Christ's coming was to realize the "Kingdom of God." The opening words of the missionary life of Jesus Christ are: "The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!" (Mark 1:15), and the final promise of the New Testament is, "Yes, I am coming soon" (Revelation 22:20). Herein lies the undying hope for mankind.