THE PEACE OF GOD AS TRANSFORMATION MOTIF FOR SOCIETAL CHANGE (PHIL 4:6-7)

In the last two decades there has been a serious dethronement of peace in Nigeria due to sharp increase in religious-based terrorist activities. This scenario excited the rise of many peacebuilding organisations to restore peace, but their efforts have so far failed. This study set out to establish the basis for the present situation and the way forward. Employing historical and ideological analyses for the crisis situation and exegetical analysis for a biblical theological solution to it, the study discovered that:the organisations have erroneously ignored or misunderstood the ideological basis of the crisis, hence the needfor a theological solution. They have all along emphasised this-worldly transient public relational peace instead of the sustainable internal (emotional and mental) personal "peace of God", thereby missing the mark in solutions so far being proffered.