Why does God allow battles?

Suffering comes to us from different quarters and for various reasons, but that which is testing the greatest number now, and causing the most suffering at this time is the war, and many are asking why it should be? Why, if God is good, should there be any war at all? That is a question that calls for an answer. God is good, ten thousand times ten thousand voices bear witness to His goodness, but the world as such has rejected God, and despised the riches of His goodness and forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that His goodness would lead them to repentance (Rom. 2:4) and has chosen to follow Satan, the adversary instead of God. In Eden Adam listened to the voice of Satan and turned his back upon God and by that act of disobedience sin entered into the world and death by sin (Rom. 5:13) and when sin came in, peace spread its wings and flew away. “There is no peace, says the Lord, unto the wicked” (Isa. 48:22). The world has been Satan’s world since that day and “suffering and sweat and tears and blood” are the result, they are part of sin’s foul brood.

Not only has God allowed this war, for it is clear that He has, but in His wisdom He has permitted it. Indeed, as we enquire into matters, we think it will be seen that God could not, as being true to Himself, have hindered it. God has given a Book to the world, and if the nations had governed their conduct by that Book there would have been no war.

Yes, God has allowed it, and why? That is a question for each nation concerned to solemnly and seriously answer for itself. A reason there must be. It is impossible to think that He who has “no pleasure in the death of the wicked”—nay, who in love for a guilty world spared not His own Son, can find it in permitting affliction and misery to come upon His creatures without a very sufficient cause. That were incredible.

How fully on occasion it comes to dominate the whole situation needs no emphasising. Time and again, throughout history, it breaks forth. Storm after storm of human violence has arisen, swept the earth in its fury, and left its appalling mark on earth's face and history's page. Elemental to the race some would consider war, and the martial spirit generally. Inherent in the fallen nature we all of us possess, it certainly is at any rate. In this disordered and discordant scene it cannot be otherwise than that individual interests must clash, social jealousies and animosities assert themselves, national philosophies and ideals be found radically inimical to each other, imperial aspirations and ambitions fiercely antagonistic and, given the fact that man, a fallen creature, is constituted as he is, the appeal to arms would seem to be inevitable in a great many instances. And war is only one form of the outbreak of man's violence.

When we heard the story we were reminded of some who when they fall into any trouble always cast the blame directly upon God. “Why,” say they, “did God allow this to happen?” This is a question that is being asked by many in regard to this desolating war. “Why does God allow it to continue?”

The fact is that all trouble in this world is the result of sin being here, and especially may this be said in regard to this almost world-wide war. Sin is lawlessness—independence of God, the determination of men to go their own way without reference to His will in any matter. If men are determined to please themselves, like the boy with the knife, and, in spite of the warnings and entreaties of God's Word, will persist in the refusal of His will, and of the way that He points out to them as the way “of pleasantness and peace,” how can they complain if they reap the harvest of their own sowing? “God is not mocked” and men cannot flout His will and then expect that He will shield them from the consequences of their folly. “They hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own ways and be filled with their own devices.” Thus it is written in the Word of God, and His Word cannot fail.

There are innumerable causes of strife amongst the nations, causes which lie upon the surface of things, and which vary from age to age, and even from year to year. The inspired Psalmist probes beneath the surface and discerns that the real root of all is the innate lawlessness of fallen man, the desire to be rid of the restraint which the Lord and His Anointed might impose upon them. This lawlessness is the very essence of sin.

Where did that “HELL” that everyone who has been at the front in Flanders says he has seen spring from? It did not spring up out of the ground, neither did it fall down out of heaven. Where, then, had it its origin? It had its origin in the corrupt, selfish, covetous heart of man. James says, “From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain” (4:1-2). This is the secret of all contention, such as is going on in this war, and in the heart of man this “Hell” has most surely originated, and on some head, or heads, will the hand of God fall with terrific force some day. But that day has net come yet, and that is one reason why He has not shown His hand in connection with it, on one side or on the other.

But there was a time, we know, in the world's history, when God took a direct and immediate interest in what was going on among men. Even their battles were said to be the Lord's battles; and their defeats, famines, etc., were sent as a known infliction from God for some evil that He was dealing with. Now, while it remains perfectly true, that there is no war or sorrow of any kind that happens without God, and all is decidedly under His sovereign control, it is not in the way of the same direct government. So that a person cannot now say, This war is at the word of God; or, This famine is a chastening for such and such an evil. That would be indeed both ignorance and presumption. No doubt there are persons quite ready enough to pronounce as to these matters. Their mistake arises from not appreciating the great change that has taken place in God's government of the world. As long as Israel was the nation in which God was displaying His character for the earth, these things were found directly and immediately from God. But from the time God gave up His people Israel, it has been merely the indirect, providential control of a general kind, that God exercises over human affairs.

While God does not intervene publicly and make wars to cease in the earth, He still acts providentially, and brings good out of evil for the blessing of men and for His own glory, He sees every wicked atrocity and says, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” He beholds all the sorrow in the earth, and calls the distressed and broken-hearted to find in Him everlasting consolation, and a peace and hope that the world cannot afford.

Everybody wants peace, but Germany will not seek it because her leaders know that their depredatory ambitions will receive no consideration from the Allied powers unless they are enforced by the sword, and the Allied powers want peace, but they know that their aims can only be reached across the prostrate carcase of the hated and hateful military force. So the struggle continues, each battling for these opposing aims. But has God no purposes and aims? He surely has. And His children should be concerned as to what His aims are, so that they may pray earnestly, intelligently and prevailing, "Father, Thy name be hallowed, Thy kingdom come" (Luke 11:2, N.Tr.).

We may be sure that He who is "the God of peace," and "the preserver of all men," will not permit this awful conflict to continue one moment longer than is necessary for the attainment of His aims in allowing it at all. British statesmen have assured us that if they could righteously and for the general good call a halt they would do so at once, and we do not doubt them. But is God less righteous or compassionate than they? "The Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy." His children who know that His purpose is final and universal blessing will not grow impatient at the continued strife, but their spirits will be kept in quietness, and they will maintain constant watchfulness with their earnest praying for the moving of God's hand in the affairs of men.