Guest Editorial: The Gospel of Peace in a Time of Terror

A Bruderhof pastor asks how Christians should respond in the aftermath of Hamas’s attack on Israel.

by Heinrich Arnold, October 12, 2023

By now, everyone has heard of the shocking atrocities perpetrated by Hamas in Israel after it launched a surprise attack last week.  And as the Israeli military continues to bombard the Gaza Strip and prepares for a possible ground invasion, we must brace ourselves for many more deaths and for another flood of images of wounded children and grieving families.

In the face of this horror, how should Christians respond?

First, the New Testament calls on us to mourn with those who mourn (Rom. 12:14).  At a time like this, this means grieving with the survivors of Hamas’s attack.  And it means mourning, too, with the people in Gaza who must now bear the brunt of the military response to it.

Second, we must pray for peace.  To say this may seem like a platitude.  But if we believe in God’s power to intervene in history, it remains vital all the same.

Beyond grieving and praying, what else should we do? 

From many corners, there are demands for stern action from world leaders.  This is more than understandable because of the depth of fury, fear, and panic that Israelis feel at being violated in such terrible ways by an organization that has pledged to eradicate their country.  The desire for a swift and severe reaction is at the core of our human response to evil.  Like many, I have traveled to Israel and the West Bank on several occasions, most recently last year, and have made close friends on both sides of the long-standing conflict in the region.  Many of them have spent years working for peace and dialogue in order to overcome the deep-seated hatred in their communities.  When I’ve spoken with some of these in the last few days, they describe their incredible pain.  They are living through a level of anger and dread of the future that is beyond normal.

In my church community, the Bruderhof, one way that the…