Choose You This Day…War or Peace
Russian writer Leo Tolstoy wrote the massive novel titled War and Peace, considered one of the greatest of all love stories. It portrays how protagonists Natasha, Prince Andrei, and others suffered through the great Napoleonic Wars as the famed emperor attacked the Russian motherland. In a sense, Tolstoy seemed to explain, in microcosm, life on a planet that is in a constant state of war but always seeking peace.
The Word of God tells us that this is the condition of fallen humanity since Eden. We cry “peace, peace, when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14 and Jeremiah 8:11, with a similar thought also found in Ezekiel 13:16 and Micah 3:5).
That we are still in the throes of war that destroys earthly peace is proven hourly in our news feeds. Ironically, one appropriate example involves the writer of War and Peace in an indirect way.
Pyotr Tolstoy, deputy chairman of the State Duma and great-great-grandson of Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, has called for massed bombing of Ukrainian cities to break the resistance of the people living in them and force a surrender, the news outlet 24 Kanal reported.
Russia denies striking civilians and claims after each attack that it hit military targets, even as its missiles land on homes, hospitals, power plants, and food depots. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said Tolstoy’s words should be grounds for an International Criminal Court arrest warrant, calling them a Russian official’s demand for war crimes.
What Tolstoy has urged in public, Russian forces have done for more than 12 years while denying it.
The presenter proposed emptying the cities.
On the state talk show Vremya Pokazhet, which Tolstoy hosts, he was reminded that more than 20 million people live in Ukraine and asked what would become of them if the country were turned to scorched earth. He proposed warning residents a day before strikes so they could flee their homes.
“You think we are calling for cruelty? We are calling for demoralizing the population so thoroughly that it comes out to meet our troops with its little paws up,” Tolstoy said.
Then he named the reason.
In the end, Tolstoy described what Ukraine means for Russia’s plans.
“[Ukraine] is the kind of territory that will allow us to export our energy resources to Europe by the short route,” he said. (“A senior Russian official said out loud what Russia’s missiles do every night,” 24 Kanal, RR News August 29, 2026)
It becomes more obvious with each passing day that Russia is building toward war. Whether such war can be contained to Putin’s need to conquer Ukraine is questionable. Because he is losing the ability to act as the strongman leader in not having yet defeated the smaller foe, the question is: Might the thought to instigate a wider war in order to prove himself be the “evil thought” Ezekiel the prophet referred to in the Gog-Magog prophecy?
War is inevitable, and peace is not possible in this post-Eden fallen world. James the apostle says the following about this matter.
“From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not” (James 4:1-2).
The fallen nature of humans precludes asking the God of Heaven for anything because they want what is in their own will, not what is in God’s will. And when they do ask, they show that they aren’t serious, or that they don’t believe in the God of Heaven—because they omit the Holy Name of the only Person to whom God the Father will respond in answering prayer.
An example of this, I believe, is a long, eloquent prayer read by President Franklin Roosevelt as D-Day approached. Like I say, his prayer was long, eloquent, and given with great oratorical skill. Its egregious flaw was that he ended with only the word “Amen”—no mention of Jesus Christ whatsoever. To any Christian who truly knows about prayer, this was a serious omission on Roosevelt’s part. Thankfully, God did see to it that the assaulting forces prevailed on that day, but not, I’m convinced, because of Roosevelt’s prayer on that occasion.
Jesus instructed the following:
“And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13).
When we hear public officials pray, even if they indicate that it’s a Christian prayer, they seldom end with the name of Jesus, as Jesus instructs. They therefore show that they refuse to choose to serve and obey Jesus or God the Father. They, again, want to do what is right in their own eyes, or their own will. And it is a collective will that serves Satan, not God, in this fallen, worldly system of governance.
It is an all-important matter to consider, as Joshua commanded when issuing Heaven’s instructions to God’s chosen people of Israel:
“And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15).
Within such obedience as Joshua upheld is the only peace to be found. For it is the peace found only in belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, who promised the following to those who serve Him:
“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27).
So we must choose this day whom we will serve.
Again, if you don’t know how to begin serving, here is how:
“That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).
—Terry
It’s What the Early Believers Longed For
When we look at what the New Testament reveals about the early saints, we see they shared many of the same struggles that persist today in the body of Christ. But perhaps the most glaring difference I see is this: for these early believers, longing for Jesus’ appearing was a lifestyle, not just a belief.
Although I have read the New Testament many times, I constantly find new evidence that they watched for, and even yearned for, Jesus’ appearing. It happened again as I recently finished reading through 2 Peter. After writing about the Lord’s return and the events of the Day of the Lord, the apostle began the conclusion of his book with these words: “Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these….” (2 Peter 3:14, emphasis added). In the verses that follow, he referenced what Paul wrote about the end times, which would include the Rapture.
Perhaps Peter had in mind what his fellow apostle wrote in Philippians 3:20-21:
“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself” (NKJV, emphasis added).
The phrase “eagerly wait” accurately translates the Greek word Paul used in verse 20, apekdechomai. New Testament writers often strengthened a word’s meaning by adding a preposition. With apekdechomai, the apostle added two prepositions to the word meaning “to welcome,” resulting in our English phrase, “eagerly wait,” which implies an attitude of excited expectation for what lies ahead.
The saints of New Testament times yearned for the time Jesus would appear and take them home. It was truly their “blessed hope.”
What’s missing today is not just the daily anticipation of meeting Jesus in the air, but also the many benefits that come with doing so.
It Comforts Us
The prospect of Jesus’ return continually comforts me. Even if the Rapture doesn’t occur in my lifetime, I am very much thankful for my hope; it enables me to look beyond today’s lawlessness and corruption to my ultimate hope.
It’s much more than waiting for His intervention in world affairs; however, it’s the promise that when He appears, Jesus will radically change my “lowly” body to be like His “glorious body.” Paul wrote about our future transformation in 1 Corinthians 15:51-53:
“Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.”
Regardless of what we experience in this lifetime, we know it’s temporary. Nothing, not even death, can alter the fact that when we meet our Savior in the air, He will give us immortal bodies. How can that not infuse hope into our daily struggles with weakness and aging? Does that not greatly exceed any earthly aspiration?
This short life is not all we have; there’s a better day on the horizon that’s far superior to even the rosiest of futures here below.
It Reminds Us of a Joyous Eternity
In Romans 8:23-25, Paul used the same Greek word, apekdechomai, two more times to emphasize the early church’s excited expectation for the Lord’s appearing again:
“Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance” (Romans 8:24-25, NKJV, emphasis added).
The phrase “redemption of our body” refers to the transforming of “our lowly body” that Paul wrote about in Philippians 3:20-21 and 1 Corinthians 15:50-55. Why did he again refer to our Rapture? He did so in reference to his words a few verses earlier: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).
Just as the Lord looked to “the joy that was set before Him” while He endured the agony of the cross (Hebrews 12:2), so amid the tribulations of this life we look ahead to the joy we will experience in glory.
We endure challenging times and resist fretting over current events because we know a joyous time is coming when our faith will be sight when the Rapture occurs.
It Assures Us of Deliverance from the Day of the Lord
The New Testament saints’ excited expectancy confirms the biblically sound teaching of the pre-Tribulation Rapture. If they believed that the series of deadly judgments recorded in Revelation chapters 6-18 would happen before their homegoing, their expectation would’ve radically differed from what we read in the epistles.
What would be the reason for such an eager anticipation of Jesus’ appearing if they thought they would even experience just a few of the seals recorded in Revelation 6?
After reminding the Thessalonians of the sudden destruction that will mark the start of this coming period of judgment, which he refers to as the “day of the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 5:1-3), Paul assures all believers of deliverance from this time:
“For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. (1 Thessalonians 5:9-11)
Based on the panic that ensued among the Thessalonian saints after someone sent them an errant message claiming that this time of wrath had begun, it’s apparent they knew all about the Day of the Lord and took the encouraging promise in the above verses to mean that the Rapture would happen before this time began.
We live at a time like no other; everywhere we look, we see signs telling us that the disasters of Revelation 6:1-8 are ever so close. The catastrophic events so far in 2026 point to the start of this time of judgment and, therefore, to Jesus’ soon appearing.
If ever there was a time for excitement from the recognition that Jesus’ appearing is ever so close, this is it. Someday, perhaps very soon, our wait will end.
-Jonathan