Isaiah 2
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Isaiah 2:4:
He shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore. |
The nations do not fling away their weapons, nor do they destroy them. They transform them by beating them into pruning hooks. For every weapon of war there will be a use. The swords will not be shivered, they will be turned into ploughshares’ the spears will not be snapped, they will be fashioned into pruning hooks. It is not enough that men learn war no more, they must go on to learn the higher art of peace.
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Our principle is, and our practices have always been, to seek peace, and ensue it, and to follow after righteousness and the knowledge of God, seeking the good and welfare, and doing that which tends to the peace of all. All bloody principles and practices we do utterly deny, with all outward wars, and strife, and fightings with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretence whatsoever, and this is our testimony to the whole world. That spirit of Christ by which we are guided is not changeable, so as once to command us from a thing as evil, and again to move unto it; and we do certainly know, and so testify to the world, that the spirit of Christ which leads us into all Truth will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdoms of this world.
And as for the kingdoms of this world, we cannot covet them, much less can we fight for them, but we do earnestly desire and wait, that by the word of God’s power and its effectual operation in the hearts of men the kingdoms of this world may become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ, that he might rule and reign in men by his spirit and truth, that thereby all people, out of all different judgments and professions might be brought into love and unity with God and one with another, and that they might all come to witness the prophet’s words, who said, ‘Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more’. (Is 2:4; Mic 4:3) --Quaker Declaration to Charles II, 1660
And as for the kingdoms of this world, we cannot covet them, much less can we fight for them, but we do earnestly desire and wait, that by the word of God’s power and its effectual operation in the hearts of men the kingdoms of this world may become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ, that he might rule and reign in men by his spirit and truth, that thereby all people, out of all different judgments and professions might be brought into love and unity with God and one with another, and that they might all come to witness the prophet’s words, who said, ‘Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more’. (Is 2:4; Mic 4:3) --Quaker Declaration to Charles II, 1660
Aug 19, 2022: Banner: Illinois Pastor Leads Effort to Reduce Gun Violence
Tim Bossenbroek, the pastor of Hessel Park Christian Reformed Church for more than two decades, was one of the organizers of the Guns to Garden Tools event at a local community garden in late July.
The name of the event was inspired by the verse in Isaiah 2:4: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
Tim Bossenbroek, the pastor of Hessel Park Christian Reformed Church for more than two decades, was one of the organizers of the Guns to Garden Tools event at a local community garden in late July.
The name of the event was inspired by the verse in Isaiah 2:4: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”