Micah 4:3

"And he will judge between many peoples, and will decide concerning strong nations afar off: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; and nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

This is not the promise of some literal millennium here on earth in which period the wicked nations of earth will be brought together in some kind of a confederation under Israel (fleshly) and in which the ideal peace and prosperity envisioned here will ensue. No! It is of that new society, the church of God in Christ, that the prophet spoke here. "Micah was here describing the character of that kingdom ruled from the spiritual Zion."[13] It has been gloriously fulfilled in that the kingdom of Christ has come down through history without any reliance whatever upon the military weapons which are the stock in trade of the unconverted. This great truth is not nullified by the violation of it by "the great whore." Could this refer to a time when there will no longer be any war on earth? No! Jesus himself said that "wars and rumors of wars" shall continue throughout history (Matthew 24). As Mays said, "The promise of peace here is founded on the promise of the reign of Yahweh becoming the center of order for all peoples."[14] As long as the nations of the earth prefer to walk in rebellion against God, wars are inevitable.

There are some sincere students of God's Word who receive this passage as a promise of the time when, "the established authority of Christ will appear beyond anything which obtains in this present church age";[15] but we believe that such a fulfillment would belong to that period of "the new heavens and the new earth" mentioned by the apostle Peter (2 Peter 3:13).