Greetings,
I wanted to share this article motivated by how video games and media are influencing the children including my 12 year old grandson. It is our God given responsibility to bring about change in our children and our world.
"Violence is not the answer"
By Paul Kendall
Many people have the idea that God loves war and is a bloodthirsty, violent God. What these critics fail to understand is that the true God of the Bible is actually a God of peace.
In fact, God is called “the God of Peace” in 1 Thessalonians 5:23. The Bible shows us that God rejects violence, war and brutality. We spend a great portion of our lives experiencing, hearing about and dwelling on violence – a plague we cannot seem to avoid!
Beginning with Cain murdering his brother Abel, violence has caused immeasurable havoc and destruction on the earth.
Notice the role that humanity’s violence played in God’s decision to flood the earth: “And God said to Noah, ‘The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth’” (Genesis 6:13).
When we read in the Bible about the calamity that God brings upon people, it is always in the context that God alone is able to execute righteous judgment. For example, even in the midst of the end-time plagues that God will send down upon an unrepentant humanity, the angel proclaims, “Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments” (Revelation 16:7).
Today, violence is all around us; we see it constantly. A steady stream of scenes depicting brutality, hatred, crime and war flows from our televisions and web browsers. News reports continuously remind us of the reality that we live in a violent world.
Sadly, the reality of the news is not enough. Violence has infiltrated our homes, schools, cities and hearts. Brutality is a big money-making theme of movies and stories. Beyond the actual violent events that we learn about, extraordinary violence entertains us. Our society takes pleasure in cruelty and savagery. Today, we love violence as much as, or more than, Roman society did in the days of the gladiators! Now, these fictional depictions of violence are not enough; “Reality television” has taken the inevitable shift to exhibitions of people really getting hurt, maimed or even killed. The human tendency is to push to a new level of “extreme.” Today’s “extreme” will soon become tomorrow’s mainstream. How far will we push it? What will be the new shocker that sells big?
Comparable to the surge of violent fictional and reality TV, is the dominance of top-selling video games that focus on killing and warfare. With titles like, “Assassin’s Creed,” “S.T.A.L.K.E.R.,” “Warhammer,” “Left For Dead” and the new game “Dante’s Inferno” (which uses “collected souls” as game currency), video games are becoming more and more outrageous.
The Bible reveals that the true God is grieved when He sees people indulging in this kind of wickedness and violence. “The Lord tests the righteous, but the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates” (Psalm 11:5).
Prophecies in your Bible proclaim the good news that the God of Peace is going to bring about true and permanent peace when Jesus Christ returns and establishes His Kingdom on the earth. It will be a time in which “Violence shall no longer be heard in your land, neither wasting nor destruction within your borders; But you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise” (Isaiah 60:18).
If we strive to follow the God of Peace, then we should make every effort to avoid becoming enthralled by the implements of war, and never allow vengeful fantasies to take root in our minds. We should never wish pain on anyone.
Violence is not the answer.
Even though we are surrounded by the sights, sounds, and consequences of fighting and aggression, we should reject violence and work very hard to follow and become well-acquainted with the God of Peace.
