“Peace be upon Him?”

Maybe you are like me, especially if you have heard or read of certain propaganda that promotes a false religion in the world. It seems that again and again I’ve heard that God is using a certain religion or He is defending a certain religion, and especially that the writer or speaker is showing reverence for the originator of the religion.

Then after defending this particular religion, the speaker (or writer) says, “Thus says ……. Peace be upon Him!” In order to show this respect, the author or speaker says, “Peace be upon Him!” We wonder if they never give any thought to this statement or simply say it. In fact, we have a close friend and when she defends her religion, she says, “Peace be upon Him.”

We really wonder how this can be. How can one delight in saying, “Peace be upon Him,” and in anyway ask God to grant the religionist (whom they call a “Prophet”) “peace” or promote peace? Who is this said to? We assume that it is said to God, that He would give His divine peace to the one who is being promoted. But will this really bring about any peace whatever to us, to him, to the person using the term, or to anyone else?

God has said much about “peace” in His Word and this is applied to the one who seeks Him, does His will, and promotes God’s peace in the world. See especially a concordance that will help you to find “peace” in its various uses in Scripture. But notice one of these—Isaiah 48:22. We might say here that this particular person (the so-called “Prophet”) is well-known to have lived and promoted much, much evil. He is responsible for murdering hundreds of people. He lied again and again. But then we read, “There is no peace for the wicked” (Isaiah 48:22). To quote the whole verse, “’There is no peace for the wicked,’ says the LORD.” Again, notice Isaiah 57:21: “There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked.’”

This is the problem that we find. This was a very violent man but his millions of followers (actually nearly two billion) are praying that God would grant Him “peace.” However, as the verse says, God doesn’t grant peace. In fact, there is no “peace” for such people. Even if two billion or 20 billion, or 200 billion prayers are said for this person and they pray that God will grant “peace” to him, there is no peace at all! In fact, there will be the very opposite—anguish, pain, and discomfort.

Many times we read in Scripture that God does give “peace” to His people. He grants peace to the one who seeks Him and does His will. But he refuses to give peace to the one who violates His will and refuses to obey Him. They are given eternal wrath—not peace. God gives peace to the righteous, the one who has been reconciled to Him through Christ. But He gives no peace but unending pain and anguish to one who refuses to bow the knee to Him.

Regardless of the prayers that are said (and in this case, there are millions, even billions, of such prayers), God gives no peace to those who sin and remain in it—and refuse to come to Him through Christ Jesus, the only one who can reconcile and give eternal peace! God, in Scripture, says that “He [Christ] Himself is our peace” (Ephesians 2:14a).