The tools will depend on the job

In this predominantly Christian nation, supposedly adherent to the Bible, are we beating our “swords into plowshares”? That pledge, plucked from Isaiah 2:4, winds along the circular stairway of the U.N. headquarters in Manhattan. In the U.N. courtyard, “Let Us Beat Swords into Plowshares,” a 1959 gift from what was then the Soviet Union, offers a bronze male figure holding a hammer aloft in one hand. His other hand grasps the sword he’s been reworking into a plowshare—a simple symbol of the yearning to convert man’s most destructive tools into his most constructive.

Governments come and go, and history is rife with wars fought over land, over wealth, over natural resources and in the name of religion. But no ancient or modern rulers have successfully cultivated and maintained worldwide peace. Daniel 2:44 reveals one kingdom that will crush all the others and rule forever in the “abundance of peace” promised in Psalms 37:11. It will take more—much more—than human hands to implement permanent global peace.