September marks the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II in 1939. Ceremonies across Europe will note this time as leaders of former antagonists, Germany and Russia, will commemorate it with speeches about peace, unity and better understanding. Unmentioned in all this will be a fundamental cause of the great global conflict.
World War II, like any past war, sprang from failed ideologies of nations bent on creating utopian world orders based on their views. Hitler wanted a world based on Nazism. Stalin desired a rule based on the totalitarian views of communist socialism. Both men created monstrous systems of evil that led to the death of tens of millions of humans. So much for peace and happiness.
This has been the legacy of every humanly devised government and social system intending to create the perfect world. No system created by man has brought about the utopian world promised by God through the prophets of the Bible. These images of a world at peace have inspired the ages.
Isaiah's vision of the wolf living with the lamb, the leopard lying down with a goat and a little child in the midst of this pastoral scene is one of the most beautiful and hopeful in the entire Bible. Venomous snakes are rendered harmless as children interact safely with them. "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 11:6-9).
This scene has been drawn by artists as "the peaceable kingdom" and stands as the ideal hope for mankind. Yet sadly, despite the best efforts and intentions of philosophers, politicians, religious leaders and social reformers, it has not happened. At no point in history has any human agency been able to create this scene for any appreciable length of time.
