When I was 2 years old my parents recorded me telling the story of a recurring dream I had about a rock that later in life I recognized to be the same as Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2. Before I was 5 years old I had developed a comprehensive plan for changing the world according to all the things God was showing me.
To make a long story short, on Jan. 1, 2012 I made a video and uploaded it to YouTube, crystallizing what I had been thinking for so long about making a difference in people’s lives.
Because my ideas were now public, something changed. I remember feeling God enter me, and I started to recall the incredible experiences I had with God as a child and all the principles God had shown me. I knew it was time for action.
In October 2015 I went to Thailand to meet Pakistani Christian asylum seekers who had fled to Bangkok. They have it very hard, so I began supporting as many as I could. My remote work with an Adventist web services company funds everything while I’m here in Bangkok helping them with survival needs such as rent, food and medical expenses.
But we’re also doing something completely different. We’re forming a family of people committed to helping each other for the rest of our lives. Because we love each other and treat each other as equals, we’re willing to do things for each other that would otherwise never be done. Individuals like Adil, Qamar, Amanat and many others are committed to helping others and living by the Ten Commandments. Because of the ties these people have with the Christian community in Pakistan, we have many invitations to go there and will potentially reach thousands because of the tremendous interest.
Model for survival and growth
We call this The Love Movement, where we all keep the Ten Commandments and help each other survive. The Love Movement has developed into an unbeatable formula for inspiring people to keep the Commandments, which means treating people as Jesus did. I’ve had many people tell me I changed their life and convinced them to join the Movement after just one Bible study. Half of the impact is being an example and truly helping people. When they see you doing that, your words have weight.
The second part is explaining how love works. I guide them through a set of simple, logical thoughts and describe love as seeking the well-being of every person.
Then I explain that love is a science with steps. The first obvious step is to stop hurting one another. If I say I love someone and embrace them with my right arm while punching them in the face with my left, that is not love. I must first stop harming for love to even have a chance. There is only one way I can be absolutely guaranteed not to hurt someone—and that is by living in harmony with the Ten Commandments.
Ten keys to peace
The implications of this movement are huge. It means that for every person on earth there is an opportunity for everything one does to be good—to sow good seeds and reap the benefits multiplied. It means the Ten Commandments are the key to solving every problem we have, and when we adopt them this problem-solving quality goes to work in our lives at once, 24 hours a day and seven days a week. People who do this will form a wave of good that spreads across the world and wakes it up.
This is what I explain to everyone and what we all need to focus on—one powerful message that unites us and makes us effective and efficient with our resources so we can have success. There is nothing else we can adopt that will work, and if we wait we are wasting valuable time and resources that could be used to save people.
If we want a peaceful world, it starts with us. Deep down in our hearts, we all want the world that observing the Ten Commandments would produce, because all of our problems would be gone. No one would kill, commit adultery or steal. We wouldn’t need locks on our doors or bars on our windows. Our fear would dissipate and our level of trust would increase exponentially because we would all be working on behalf of everyone else.
A social movement
If this is the world I want, it must begin with me. I cannot expect anyone to do something I’m not willing to do myself. If enough of us do the same, we will have a huge impact.
In North America the lifestyle is often inefficient and, frankly, selfish. If we expect to progress, that must change. I fear for the people who go on as though nothing will change, because a movement of change is coming.
We also want to begin creating student groups in the U.S. The Love Movement has a lot of intellectual appeal because we compare the Ten Commandments to the other systems mankind has created such as communism, capitalism and democracy. It’s enlightening to see that the Commandments have none of the defects of those systems.
We have started a nonprofit to assist suffering Christian asylum seekers and promote The Love Movement. Helping those persecuted for Jesus’ sake is also a unique opportunity to spread the Ten Commandments. They love the Commandments and take them to the countries where they resettle. One family is resettling in Spain and has committed to spreading The Love Movement there. We want to start groups everywhere in the world, beginning with persecuted Christian asylum seekers.
—Craig Pettersen is a Seventh-day Adventist self-supporting missionary and founder of The Love Movement. His wife, Joan, was born in Missouri and has many family members there.
