Peace Messenger

The Promise of Peace

The Promise of Peace: Dare to Live the Advent Hope
by Charles Scriven
Pacific Press / 2009

Charles Scriven's eagerly-anticipated book, The Promise of Peace, is now off the press! Scriven, president of Kettering College of Medical Arts and an APF advisor, tells us what the book is about in this excerpt:

"In the space between our dreams and disappointments, we have needs and wants, so promises matter. And no promise could be better than one that assures a day when high dreams surmount obstacles, when the best of human hopes comes true and everyone can flourish.  Just such a promise - the Great Promise, you might say - is what makes Adventists Adventist. According to the Bible, God has promised to bless humanity and to conquer death and renew all things. Finally, in other words, peace will prevail. Finally, a single 'pulse of harmony and gladness' will beat 'through the vast creation.'

"The pages that follow are about being and becoming Adventist - being and becoming someone who sees all of life in the light of the Great Promise and makes that promise the key to both attitude and conduct. The promise of peace is about how to become more fully alive precisely in the space where dreams meet disappointment. I am going to show you how the assurance of final blessing enables us all, despite our difficulties, to live in the here and now with confidence and passion..." (12).

Order the Promise of Peace through Peace Pursuits, APF's Amazon-linked online store.

A Righteous Nation Goes to War in the Armor of God!

Bible verses adorned the covers of the Pentagon's Worldwide Intelligence Updates during the early days of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a report by Robert Draper, published in the June issue of GQ, has revealed.

The cover of the March 31 update pictured a tank in the desert, with Ephesians 6:13 printed above: "Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything to stand."

Another, dated April 3, shows tanks roaring through a majestic arch of swords, with the text "Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith" (Isaiah 26:2)

In his "On Faith" blog for Washington Post, David Gibson contemplates the equally rephrehensible possibilties that either Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon were trying the manipulate the religious beliefs of President Bush or that covers were the work of a dedicated corps of Christian military officers who see themselves as "spiritual warriors" and "government paid missionaries."

See these covers and several more samples at the GQ site.

CPWI Report at Adventist Activism

See Jeff Boyd's excellent report on the recent Christian Peace Witness for Iraq worship and witness in Washington, at Adventist Activism.

Adventist Activism is a relatively new effort by Adventists "collectively committed to continuing the work Jesus started while walking this earth — spreading the good news of the Kingdom by serving, healing and teaching (1 Corinthians 12:27; Mark 10:45; Mark 3:10; Acts 1:3)."  The web site offers "a collection of our stories and thoughts regarding this work of spiritually motivated social action."

Below, a clip from Tony Campolo's powerful speech.  More at the CPWI site.

Religion and Torture: A Disturbing Picture

The results of a recent survey on The Religious Dimensions of the Torture Debate, conducted by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life:

Easter, Baptism and Empire

From: Jonathan Bartley, "Easter and Anarchy," Guardian, 7 April 2009

Easter was also the time when baptisms would happen – that Christians too were 'raised with Christ'. It was the clearest symbol that the allegiance of early Christians did not lie with the state. This was the point at which a new citizenship of God's Kingdom was embraced, one which challenged all other forms of citizenship, and most notably that of Rome. It committed them to a set of values and behaviours, and a way of living which was often at odds with the social and political norms of the Empire. Christians called it 'the Way.'

But in the Fourth century, this presented a problem for the emperor Constantine who was intent on marrying Christianity with the power