Is The Bible Really Telling The Truth? Is There Really Peace On Earth Or Did The Bible Lie?

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Luke 2:14: “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

For the longest time, people have misinterpreted this verse.  So many have mistranslated this verse to state that God was saying there will “be peace on earth”.  Many have used this verse to mock the Bible and say;  “Here is your proof that the Bible does not have errors in it.”   This would be true, if the Bible was saying, there will be “peace on earth amongst men and nations.”   Unfortunately, you do not need to be a history scholar to know there has never been peace on this earth.  Since the fall of man, there has never been peace. There have been wars from the beginning of time.  There has been nation against nation, race against race, family against family.  Is the Bible wrong?  NO, IT IS NOT!
Since the Garden of Eden, with the help of Satan, man has turned his back on God.  We like to do it our own way.  As the song says: “I’ll do it my way”.  And we have been doing it our own way ever since the Garden.  If you look at our history of this world, we have made a complete mess of it.  Then, we have the nerve and the arrogance to blame God for our mistakes.  We say things like “If God is in control, why are there wars and all these horrible things going on?  We as people do these things.  We start wars, we let people go hungry, we rape and murder, then we turn around and blame God for all of it because He is supposed to be in control.  As a result, man has put himself at war with God and has separated himself from God. We walked away, not God.  We did this because of our own pride and self-will.
So if you translate this verse “peace on earth” to mean “peace on this earth” it is wrong. That is not what God meant in this verse. 

So what does God mean?  

Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, goodwill toward men.
God knew mankind could not make peace with himself, his surroundings, nor even with God.  We on our own have no hope.  God wanted to restore His relationship with us because we are His family, His children.  He loves us and does not want us to perish for all eternity.
So God became a man, became human.  His name was Jesus.  On that first Christmas Night, a baby was born, in a manger and that baby was God.  In the book of Matthew, one of His names (and there are many), Jesus is called, Immanuel; “God with us”.   Jesus was more than just a man, more than a great teacher, more than a great prophet.  He was God in human form. 
The reason, God became a man, was to reconcile us with Himself.  Simply put:  What the devil stole in the garden, God wanted back. God wanted his family back!   God desires that no one follow his own way and perish into hell.  That choice, that decision, it’s ours – it is up to us.  God is offering His hand in friendship. Peace between you and Him.  The question is, do you want it?  Will you take His hand?
2 Corinthians 5:17: So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

 Let’s break this down!

God declared peace, a truce, an end to the war of sin and indifference that has existed between us and God.  God wants peace with you.  God wants you to be a part of his family.  In Romans 5:8;

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners,  Christ died for us.

Even while, we are the sinners, the guilty ones, we have hurt one another, turned our backs on God and we live for ourselves.  God reaches out His hand and says: “I will pardon your sins, I will never hold your sins against you because I paid for them.”  God does not let sin go, he doesn’t sweep it under the rug.  He is a Just Judge and we, are all guilty.  If you don’t believe this. You can do a self-examination of yourself.  Just go to Exodus 20 and read the 10 Commandments, have you ever broke one, just one?  You are guilty as the rest of us!

But the good news is that; God died for us on the cross, he paid for every sin we have ever committed.  Because of this, you do not have to pay for them.  Jesus paid them all.  Why?  Because we are his children and He loves us.  He wants peace with us.  He wants you to come back home.  He is offering His hand in friendship and in peace to you.  He will never hold anything against you because it’s paid for.  He did that for you.  Since God paid for all our sins, there is nothing separating us from God, nothing between you and God.  There is peace, no war and no hard feelings between you and God. This is what Christmas is about.  God became man and died for everything you have ever committed that was wrong.

So does this sound too good to be true?  Do you want this peace?  Then how?

Let me show you!

  • We were guilty:  We all turned your back on God.  We wanted to live our lives our own way, by our own rules.  This has left us empty, unfulfilled, guilty, and shamed.  Even worse, we tried to cover it with addictions to cover the pain.  We can go from one thing to another to find happiness without God.
  • Repentance:  This is a fancy religious word, that means to turn around, change direction (U-turn).  When I heard this truth, I was drinking, drugging and living life my way.  I knew I was going to hell. So when I heard the gospel I changed my direction.  So instead of heading to hell without God, I turned around and started living with God.  I just changed the direction and purpose of my life.
  • Believe that Jesus was God:  God became a man (Jesus) and Jesus has experienced everything we will ever experience except sin.  He knows what it is to be poor, lonely, rejected, and despised.  You can bring anything to Jesus without feeling shame.  He understands it all.  So come to him.
  • Jesus came to die: Jesus was born to die for our sins. To pay the price for our sins. On Calvary, he took all your sins and paid the price for them.  He did this as a gift, not for a price.  It is free – without works, for whoever is willing to accept.  Then, after He was crucified, on the third day, He rose again, so we also may rise (like Jesus did after death) to eternal Life.  Ephesians 2:8-9: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
  • This is how you receive your Christmas gift.  Simply ask!  In your own words, nothing religious!

Jesus, I realize that I’m guilty of turning my back on you, living my life my own way, desiring things that are not good for me.  I want to repent, turn my life around.  I want to thank you, for dying on the cross, forgiving all my sins (past, present, future) and never holding them against me.  Thank you for the blood you shed on the cross, that washes away all my sins.  I want to make you my Savior, my Lord, and King today.  Amen.

This is what Jesus meant by peace and goodwill to all men, for whoever accepts this free gift of eternal life.

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