Jesus Is The Prince Of Peace

So I'm slightly annoyed, just got off work and I'm fighting a headache so already I'm not in the best of moods. When I come home, I find this lovely status posted by someone who I both know and respect:

" I just heard someone dub Jesus the "Prince of Peace." Unless you're homosexual; unless you worship another deity other than his father; oh & don't forget unless you don't accept him as your "lord & savior." Then yeah, I guess he would be the "Prince of Peace."

I'm not posting this here to publically shame him or anything like that, I'm posting this here because:
1) It's a good opportunity to witness to him.
2) It's good opportunity to teach.
3) It's a good opportunity to address some other things as well.
With all that being said, let's get to it.



Basically the statement is saying that the peace Jesus offers is only to believers...and he's 100% right about that. I fail to see why this is a bad thing? Because as believers should we not reap the benefits for our beliefs from the person we believe in? Basically what the statement is saying is:

"I don't wanna believe in God or Jesus but I should get the same benefits Christians get just because!"

Haha, real life doesn't work like that. You want The benefits of Christ without Christ? How does that work? How can you ask God to bless you when you don't believe in Him, don't follow His teachings, don't take Him seriously, don't accept what He says and openly mock Him every chance you get? Yes, I can see why God would want to bless you when you're just so good to Him. I'll stop my sarcasm now and refer to Romans 3:9-20 which tells us that NO ONE IS GOOD!

^"9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; ¹⁰ as it is written,

“ There is none righteous, not even one;
¹¹ There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
¹² All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”
¹³ “ Their throat is an open grave,
With their tongues they keep deceiving,”
“ The poison of asps is under their lips”;
¹⁴ “ Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”;
¹⁵ “ Their feet are swift to shed blood,
¹⁶ Destruction and misery are in their paths,
¹⁷ And the path of peace they have not known.”
¹⁸ “ There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; ²⁰ because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin."- Romans3:9-20

Ugo, if no one is good than how does anyone go to Heaven? Simple BY FAITH THROUGH JESUS CHRIST ALONE (Romans 5:1, Romans 4:5, Phil 3:9, Eph 2:8-9) ! Jesus bore OUR sins so that we can be with in Heaven with God. The only way to get your sins forgiven is to acknowledge Jesus' sacrifice, accept Him as your Lord and Savior (ie, doing what He says) and repent from your sins (acknowledge your sinful acts, confess your sins before God, ask His forgiveness and modify your behavior to no longer engage in them). BUT if you don't believe in God, you don't believe in Jesus' sacrifice for your sins and you don't acknowledge your sins...then why should you receive the Peace that Christians WILL receive in Heaven?

Furthermore The Peace that Jesus offers is exclusive to Christians. The Peace that Jesus offers is not an Earthly peace, Christians go through the same trials and issues as non-believers, THE DIFFERENCE is that Christians have a belief that our trials and issues will come to an end and we will be at peace with God in Heaven, that belief gives us peace. But how can a Pagan who believes in many gods have that peace and why should Jesus provide that peace when the Pagan doesn't believe in Jesus? Let's examine what The statement says and test it to what God says. So the statement that Jesus is The Prince of Peace UNLESS you're homosexual.

^"26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, ²⁷ and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. ²⁸ And just as they did not see fit  to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, ²⁹ being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents," - Romans 1:26-30

How interesting that The Bible tells us that because those people chose NOT to acknowledge God, God allowed them to engage in their sin and suffer the consequences of doing so. Had these people acknowledge that what they were doing was wrong Lev 18:22, 20:13, they would have repented and asked God to forgive them. BUT because they wanted to engage their sins more so than God, God simply said "Fine, I'll give you what you want." and they got it. Those people don't want the peace of God because they don't want to follow God's teachings and commandments. In the same way the writer of the statement does not want to follow God's teachings and commandments. So if you're not following God, why should you get the benefit of a peace that only He can offer?

The statement says that Jesus is The Prince of Peace UNLESS you believe in other gods. God Himself said that there are NO OTHER GODS BUT HIMSELF (Isa 44:6). God explicitly said that, but if you go around saying I believe in The Christian God and The Hindu Gods as well, then clearly you don't take God seriously. Why should God listen to you when you don't listen to Him? Because by implication you're saying that God is wrong and if you believe in a god that can potentially be wrong then you need a new god. Thankfully my God cannot be wrong because my God KNOWS EVERYTHING 1 John 3:20.

^"20 in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things."

Belief in other gods would essentially be saying that god doesn't know all things and is wrong about himself being the only God. God has said that He does not share a stage, if God blesses you with health and so on, it is only right for you to thank Him for giving you those blessings. But if God blesses you and you thank Zeus or The Earth Goddess or someone else other than God, you're taking accolades that belong to God and God alone, essentially you're robbing God of praise that is exclusively His and giving it to things that have done nothing for you. So God is supposed to be okay with that and give you the same peace He gives those who do take Him seriously? You wouldn't do that and neither would God.

Last but not least Jesus is The Prince of Peace Only for those who accept Him as Lord and Savior. As I've said before He is the means by which we are saved. If you do not believe you need a savior then Jesus will be meaningless to you. Furthermore if you don't believe in Jesus' teachings then it won't offer you peace, it simply make you angry. Because as we know NO ONE EVER GOT ANGRY AT JESUS BECAUSE JESUS IS THE PRINCE OF PEACE FOR EVERYONE! No, Jesus is The Prince Of Peace FOR BELIEVER! For Non-Believers Jesus IS THE ENEMY! John 10:22-31. So when The Jews wanted to stone Jesus it was because He brought them peace? No, it's because they knew what He was saying and didn't like it, so they wanted to kill Him. Jesus goes on to say Matthew 10:32-40

^"32 “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. ³³ But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.³⁴ “ Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵ For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; ³⁶ and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.³⁷ “ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. ³⁸ And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. ³⁹  He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.⁴⁰ “ He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me."

Jesus is making it VERY clear that HE MUST BE THE TOP AUTHORITY in your life, above your Mother and Father and everyone else. Jesus is NOT telling people to disobey their parents. What He is saying is that there will be times when parents disapprove of their child's conversion to Christianity. Jesus is telling them that even your own family can hate you because of Him. But He's telling them not to get discouraged by that BECAUSE Jesus accepted them into His family, which is much greater than any Earthly family. And once again therein lies that PEACE that can only be offered through Jesus and given to a believer. Jesus tells us to honor our Mother & Father Luke 18:20, is this a contradiction Ugo? No. Because one can honor their Mother and Father by obeying their rules BUT if their rules violate God's word, God wins. Acts 5:29-32.  Oh and guess what happen after Peter said that?

^"33 But when they heard this, they were cut to the quick and intended to kill them." - Acts 5:33

Yes, CLEARLY The Word Of God brings peace on Earth. No, it brings PEACE for Believers and JUDGMENT for Non-Believers. And Non-Believers don't like judgment, because that means they're doing something wrong, and they can't do anything wrong, so they lash out against anyone who says they are and that includes God and Jesus. So when they are clearly enemies and haters of God, why should God give them the same blessings He gives us? We love God, you don't, we follow His word, you don't, we believe in Him, you don't, we trust in His power, you don't...so if you want to make the argument that that's not fair, of course it's fair, we believe in God we get the benefit of it, you don't and you suffer the consequences. This isn't to say you HAVE to suffer those consequences, all you have to do is repent from your sins, ask for God's forgiveness and accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and believe His death, burial and resurrection, then you will be saved and have that peace that we Christians have in Christ Jesus our Prince of Peace. Romans 10:9.

^"9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;"

No Pagan can get saved  while still holding to their Pagan beliefs, no homosexual can be saved without acknowledging homosexuality is a sin. No salvation can come without repentance. How can you desire to be saved if you don't think you need saving? Clearly the writer of the statement above was under the impression that Jesus offered Earthly peace, as if Jesus' goal is to unite the world and sing "Kum Ba-Yah". No, the peace that Jesus offers is a LONG TERM peace, a peace that has stayed with Christians in the midst of being tortured, slaughtered, raped, castrated and so on so forth. It's the peace of knowing that Heaven awaits us and our sins are paid for. No one but Christ can offer that peace and He is the ONLY way to get it, for Jesus Himself said John 14:6.

^"6 Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."

But no, you clearly don't want to follow Jesus, you want Jesus to follow you. You want Jesus to give you the same benefits DESPITE the fact that you don't follow Him, don't worship Him, don't acknowledge Him as your Lord and Savior. Homosexuals want to continue ignoring God, and then complain about how God doesn't do anything for them. Maybe because they're not doing anything for God. Pagans want to claim they know God but add other gods to the mix and expect God to listen to them. We as Christians are told to TELL people how to gain the peace that we have. It would be selfish of us to flaunt our peace around as if we somehow earned it ourselves. No, Jesus told us to go and preach His message. Matthew 28:16-20. Telling people they're sinners is NOT going to be met with warm smiles and hugs OBVIOUSLY, BUT telling people they can be SAVED from their sins SHOULD but unfortunately that doesn't either.

In conclusion, I'm openly acknowledging that the statement above is CLEARLY saying that Jesus is ONLY The Prince Of Peace for Believers. I'm merely explaining why and why the statement was made with the same snark, shallow thinking you pretty much find in any comment like this made by people who clearly don't understand the gravity of what they're saying. To the person who wrote this, I am NOT doing this to insult you, you know I think of you as a friend and respect you and I appreciate the fact that you respect real talk, so real talk, you're better than this.