This probably won’t shock you, but there’s bad news on the world peace front.
According to the 2025 edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI), “global peacefulness continues to decline … many of the leading factors that precede major conflicts are higher than they have been since the end of WWII. More countries are increasing their levels of militarization against the backdrop of rising geopolitical tensions, increasing conflict, the breakup of traditional alliances and rising economic uncertainty. There are currently 59 active state-based conflicts, the most since the end of WWII and three more than the prior year.”
Ukraine and Russia (surprise, surprise!) saw the sharpest year-over-year declines in peace, driven by their ongoing conflict, and Israel followed with a major deterioration due to the Hamas and Iran conflicts. Despite attempts by America and other countries to end these and other clashes, there looks to be no light at the end of the tunnel.
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What did Jesus say again about “You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars” (Matt. 24:6) growing more frequent in the end times?
When it comes to achieving peace, we’ll go to great and sometimes illogical lengths to make it happen. For example, there’s the appeasement of aggressors approach, with some governments trying to buy peace by allowing hostiles to expand their power (e.g., Britain with Hitler in the 1930s). As we know, that usually doesn’t work out well.
Then you have the authoritarian approach, where certain regimes impose “peace” through abrasive control, limiting freedoms to suppress unrest (e.g., China’s approach in Xinjiang or Russia in Chechnya). This includes the silencing of any dissent (e.g., our modern-day cancel culture) in the name of maintaining “peace and unity.”
Whether it’s global or our own personal battles, understanding their primary root cause is easy according to the Bible. James tells us: “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?” (James 4:1). But humanity is skilled at ignoring Jesus’ half-brother and God’s prescribed remedy, so people look to any other means to achieve peace, even the most radical ones.
Scripture tells us there’s a day coming when the world will take the most extreme option and make the proverbial deal with the devil to have peace. In his book Peace, Prosperity and the Coming Holocaust, author Dave Hunt talks about this future false peace treaty made with Satan — what the prophet Isaiah calls a “pact with hell” (Is. 28:15) — when he says: “If the Bible is true, then the coming new age of peace and prosperity could be the most dangerous period in human history, a time of mind-boggling deception that will be humanly irresistible.”
With everything happening today, we’re rapidly racing to the point where any promise of peace is “humanly irresistible,” even one proposed by the enemy. But as Charles Spurgeon rightly points out in his sermon The Peace of the Devil, and the Peace of God, “Peace caused by the devil is often the awful prelude of the last tremendous storm.”
The perfect storm
The book of Revelation talks about the beginnings of “the last tremendous storm” in its fifth chapter where John records the opening of “a book written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals” (Rev. 5:1). Many Bible commentators say this book represents the title deed to the earth, which Jesus Himself begins to open in the sixth chapter.
Scripture speaks about the breaking of the first seal in the following way: “Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, ‘Come.’ I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer” (Rev. 6:1-2).
There have been a lot of wild speculations as to the identity of the first horseman of the apocalypse. But when you look at the other horsemen that follow, you quickly see that they don’t represent persons but rather future events and judgments.
I believe John MacArthur nails the first horseman correctly when he says in his commentary: “The four horses and their riders do not represent specific individuals, but forces. Some, however, identify this rider with Antichrist. Although he will be the leading figure, John’s point is that the entire world will follow him, being obsessed with pursuing this false peace. The bow is a symbol of war, but the absence of arrows implies that this victory is a bloodless one — a peace won by covenant and agreement, not by war”.
It appears that what Revelation is describing with the first seal being broken is the coming together of humankind’s desperate search for peace and the offer of an enveloping armistice by the devil, which makes for the prologue of the perfect storm. However, the devil’s peace doesn’t last long because the next two verses show the second rider taking it away: “When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, ‘Come.’ And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him” (Rev. 6:3–4).
Paul describes the suddenness of the devil’s peace ending when he says, “While they are saying, ‘Peace and safety!’ then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape” (1 Thess. 5:3). Those deceived by the devil’s false peace will sadly experience what Isaiah wrote: “There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked” (Is. 57:21) and the Psalmist: “How they are destroyed in a moment! They are utterly swept away by sudden terrors!” (Ps. 73:19).
Given what’s coming, the question for us today is what Peter asked centuries ago: “Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be?” (2 Pet. 3:11). The answer is, people who don’t make peace with Satan, but rather peace with God, which automatically results in war with the devil.
Obeying God’s Gospel call ends the war we have with God and results in our eternal peace, just as Paul says: “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life … Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:10, 1). The Psalmist describes our peaceful reconciliation with God in the most beautiful way I’ve seen in Scripture: “Lovingkindness and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (Ps. 85:10).
As Spurgeon says, trying to make peace with the devil is a losing game. Instead, we all need to make peace with God, and when we do that, “The God of hope [will] fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15:13).
And that’s the best peace of all.
Robin Schumacher is an accomplished software executive and Christian apologist who has written many articles, authored and contributed to several Christian books, appeared on nationally syndicated radio programs, and presented at apologetic events. He holds a BS in Business, Master’s in Christian apologetics and a Ph.D. in New Testament. His latest book is, A Confident Faith: Winning people to Christ with the apologetics of the Apostle Paul.
