JudaismDraft · awaiting advisor review
If Jesus is the Messiah, why isn’t there world peace?
In short
Christians believe the Messiah comes twice: first to deal with sin and make peace between people and God, and again to bring the world peace the prophets promised. The kingdom has begun but is not yet complete. Jewish readers see the prophecies as unfulfilled, which is a serious objection, not a misunderstanding.
The Objection
The prophets describe what the Messiah will do: nations will beat swords into ploughshares, exiles will be gathered and the whole earth will know God (Isaiah 2:4, 11:9). Maimonides taught that someone who does not achieve this is not the promised Messiah (Laws of Kings 11:4). Two thousand years of war, much of it waged by Christians against Jews, show these promises are unfulfilled. A ‘second coming’ looks like a way to excuse failure.
Put as its strongest advocates would put it.
The Christian Case
- Scripture
The prophets do promise real, worldwide peace under God’s king, not just inner calm. Christians accept this in full and still expect it. The question is timing, not whether the promise is real.
- Scripture
The New Testament speaks of a peace already given – with God, and between Jew and Gentile – and a fuller restoration still to come when Christ returns. Even the disciples expected the kingdom at once, and Jesus told them the timing was the Father’s.
- Historical evidence
Jewish hopes before Jesus were varied. Some Dead Sea Scrolls expect two messianic figures, “of Aaron and Israel” (1QS 9:11). The Talmud (Sanhedrin 98a) sets the Messiah coming “with the clouds” (Daniel 7:13) beside one “lowly, riding on a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9), and elsewhere (Sukkah 52a) mentions a Messiah son of Joseph who is slain. A humble or suffering stage was not unthinkable.
- Philosophical argument
Christians argue that peace without changed hearts would have to be imposed by force. On this view God first deals with human evil from the inside, and delays final judgement to give time for repentance. This is an argument about God’s purposes, not a proof, and it depends on accepting the Christian account of sin.
- Christians differ
Christians disagree on how the promised peace arrives. Premillennialists expect Christ to return and reign on earth for a thousand years. Amillennialists read that reign as Christ’s present rule, perfected in the new creation. Postmillennialists expect the gospel to transform the world gradually before his return. All agree full peace awaits his coming.
Where the Evidence Is Weaker
The plainest reading of passages like Isaiah 2 links peace to the Messiah’s arrival, and the Hebrew Bible never clearly describes two comings; Christians infer it from combining texts. The ‘already’ peace is largely spiritual and hard to point to. Most painfully, the history of Christian violence against Jews – crusades, expulsions, pogroms – makes the claim that the Prince of Peace has come hard for Jewish people to hear, and Christians should own that.
Arguments to Avoid
- Blaming Jewish people for the lack of peace, as if their rejection of Jesus caused the world’s wars.
- Saying the prophets only ever meant inner, spiritual peace, which ignores what the texts plainly say.
- Caricaturing Jewish messianic hope as merely political or worldly.
- Claiming Christianity has already made the world peaceful.
Read for Yourself
Isaiah 2:1–5
1The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. 3And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 4And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. 5O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.
Zechariah 9:9–10
9Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. 10And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.
Ephesians 2:13–18
13But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. 14For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 15Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 16And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: 17And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. 18For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
Revelation 21:1–5
1And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 2And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 4And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. 5And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
Further Reading
- Jews and “Jewish Christianity” · David Berger and Michael Wyschogrod (1978)A short Jewish response to Christian claims about the Messiah.
- Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, Volume 1 · Michael L. Brown (2000)
- Surprised by Hope · N. T. Wright (2008)On the Christian hope of a renewed creation.
Drafted with Opened AI and awaiting review by Opened’s apologetics advisors. Labels show the kind of support each point has: Scripture is what the Bible says; historical evidence and philosophical arguments can be checked by anyone; “Christians differ” marks questions on which faithful Christians disagree.
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