Blessed are the Peacemakers Shalom
In the Old Testament, and today, modern Jews greet one another the same way: with the word shalom . And that word means "peace." When you meet somebody and you say to them, " Shalom ," that doesn't mean, "May you get out of war." It infers there is something good, something wonderful, something positive, that is happening. The Greek word for "peace" is the word eirene . We get our beautiful name Irene from that. If your name is Irene, that means "peace." Eirene : that's the word he is using here. It is a positive word. "Will and Ariel Durant, in their book The Lessons of History , begin the chapter on "History and War" with these words: "War is one of the constants of history, and has not diminished with civilization and democracy. In the last 3,421 years of recorded history only 268 have seen no war."1 That is a chilling statement. And it would, no doubt, be even more so if the facts o...