Why does God allow war?

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.

But David did not only lament a scattered nation, but a shaking earth also; he looked around, and wherever he looked there was trouble; said he, "Thou hast made the earth to tremble, Thou hast broken it… it shakes." And that certainly describes the state of the nations today. David was bewildered. He had looked for peace and the kingdom of God on earth, and lo! war, and disaster upon disaster, and in his bewilderment he complained, "Thou hast made us drink the wine of astonishment." In these days many are drinking from that same cup — they are asking, Why? It is a question in their hearts continually, if not on their lips. Is God responsible for the broken, shaking earth? Can its miseries and groanings be laid at His door? Nay, as the church cannot blame God for its scattering, neither can the world blame Him for its shaking. It is "man's inhumanity to man that makes countless thousands mourn." Men reap what they sow; if they prefer the devil's way to God's they will get the devil's malice instead of God's mercy. Disobedience of God's law lies behind the world's wars. It has been so from the beginning. Genesis 3 records the first disobedience and defiance of the Divine will, and Genesis 4 describes the first destruction of human life, a man murdered by his own mother's son. The one follows the other as night follows day. It is cause and effect.

These are the evil principles that first came to light in the history of Cain and that have ever since marked the course of this world. At the outset of the history of the race, men gave up God as the centre of their thoughts; they became self-centred. God having been given up, there was no bond to hold men together, with the result that they were scattered abroad. The nations into which they were divided became a centre to themselves, each seeking to carry out its own will, and in consequence hating all that opposed. Thus jealousy and hatred arose among the nations, leading to violence and war.

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.

Sin has affected man both in his relations with God and with his fellow men. As regards God he is insubject, as regards his fellows he is envious of their prosperity and covetous of their possessions. He is self-centred and will not admit God's right to command him and wants the best his neighbours possess for himself, and will not scruple, should a favourable opportunity occur, to bring all his powers into play to seize their wealth or land or glory. He will not LOOK UP TO GOD to find the satisfaction that no earthly possession can afford, for with his heart he hates God, but he looks North, South, East, and West, and tries to satisfy his covetous and empty heart by reaching beyond his appointed bounds and grasping that which belongs to others. This is one of the great causes of war and strife, whether between nations, individuals, or brethren.

War is the natural consequence of sin being in the world, and men and nations coveting the possessions of others. James 4:1-3. The principal wars recorded in scripture are, however, different: they are those of Israel in taking possession of Canaan for Jehovah as the Lord's host, and in maintaining their position in His land, for which they had divine instruction. Their warfare is typical of the conflict of Christians against principalities, powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world and against spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies. Eph. 6:12. There are also the wars against Israel, when God used other nations to punish them. But God always maintained His rights in His own people and in His own land.

Men ask, “Why does not God stop this war?” “Why does He allow this cruel strife and bloodshed to continue?” But were He to put the question to all as to how they would desire it to be settled, I do not doubt that each of the nations engaged in combat would only desire to have it brought to a conclusion in the way of victory for its armies. Each nation is only desirous for the intervention of God in its own behalf. None of them desires the war to be brought to an end by its defeat. It is not only the Germans that desire to have “Gott mit uns,” but all the others desire the same for themselves. That is to say, all want the thing settled in their own way; and if God is not going to settle it in that way, they would prefer Him to keep out of it altogether.

And after such a manifest and infamous exhibition of rebellion against God, and refusal of His gracious intervention on man’s behalf, people wonder that God does not stop these wars, and give us good times, so that the covetous and godless desires of the human heart may be practised without fear of chastisement. People resent His interference with respect to the prosecution of their ungodly lusts, but cry out for His intervention, so that they may be delivered from the pains and penalties that result from the course they have so determinedly pursued.