Why does God allow war and suffering?

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.

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.

"Why does not God stop the war!" is the irritable demand of our own time. "If there be a God, why does He allow all this sorrow!" That their own sins have made war inevitable, and that it might not be for their good for the cloud to be lifted too soon, does not seem to occur to the mass of our fellowmen. In their eyes God is a sort of public officer who should hasten to the rescue, asked or unasked, whenever men get into trouble. In their blindness they forget that instead He is a moral governor, whose claims they have set at naught, and whose very existence they have practically ignored. Men have sown to the wind, and they are now reaping the whirlwind. It could not have been otherwise. The road to deliverance lies along the line of repentance. "But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Rom. 5:20). Behold the instrument of Jehoram's wrath, with his master at his heels, proceeding to the home of the prophet. Unlike his predecessor, who fled at Jezebel's threat, Elisha sat still in the house. When the would-be murderer appeared, instead of a divine denunciation, lo! a wonderful announcement of divine grace was sounded forth. Elisha said: "Hear ye the Word of Jehovah, Thus says Jehovah, To-morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria" (2 Kings 7:1) Our minds travel to the cross of Calvary, and to all that followed that dark scene. As in Elisha's day, so it was then; when man's worst was fully told out, God brought forth His very best. Not judgement, but the Gospel of the grace of God was the immediate result of the murder of the Lord Jesus. When Jehoram was about to slay Elisha, God declared His glad tidings concerning deliverance and plenty; when men had actually slain His beloved Son, God declared the glad tidings with which we are blessedly familiar in the Gospel. Moreover, the city in which the dreadful deed was committed was to have the message first of all (Luke 24:17). Truly there is none so good and gracious as our God!

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.

There are people who say, "If there is a God in heaven, why does He not interfere? Why does He look down calmly on the atrocities that are being perpetrated?" Many answers might be given to these questions, but one very sufficient answer is, Because Christ has been rejected. The only One who can put things right has been here, and has been rejected, and until He comes again you need not be surprised at anything that may happen. Nothing can be right until the only One who can put things right takes them in hand. But when He does, it means judgment, and that is why God waits. God is never partial. In our wrongs and disappointments we would like God to interfere on our own particular and special behalf; but why should He? When God intervenes, He will do so in a far-reaching manner, and it means the day of judgment. When the time comes for wrongs to be righted, all wrongs will be righted. If God is going to interfere in judgment, we can only say, "Enter not into judgment with Thy servant; for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified" (Ps. 143:2). It would mean an end of us all, apart from the provision that God's grace has made, so meantime He keeps silence. But the hour of His mercy is fast running to its close, and then He will intervene to put things right.

Am I denying, then, that God does at present by his providence secretly and effectually control all things? God forbid. Even Satan himself is in that sense subject to him, accomplishing his purposes, and doing his will. But I speak of the open, public, manifest government of the world. Is that conducted on the principle of righteous retribution and reward, or is it not? There can be but one answer. No doubt, man's evil and Satan's malice are kept in check by the secret restraints of God's providence, as well as by the institution of human government and laws which he has appointed, and until now upheld. If it were not so, men would destroy each other till the earth would be depopulated. But still, where is the person who can imagine that there is at present, or has ever been since the fall, a distribution of temporal good and evil, according to men's character and conduct, so as to be an adequate witness to God's character of holiness, benevolence, and rectitude, as the righteous judge and Governor of the world? Why the fact is, that goodness has been allowed to be so oppressed and trodden under foot, and evil has been allowed to be so rampant and triumphant, that when the blessed One himself, the perfect, the sinless One was here, HE was put to death! We know why this was permitted. But I want you to consider the fact — it was permitted. Yes, God looked down from heaven and witnessed the murder, by man's wicked hands, of his only-begotten, well-beloved Son!

It is surely not difficult to reason back from effect to cause, or to see that the reaping must agree with the sowing. We may therefore safely conclude that seed of a desperately bad kind has been sown, freely and long, by these suffering nations, ere the frightful harvest of today could be reaped. It is, like the Flood, a divine protest against some form, or forms, of evil grievous to the Majesty of Heaven. The saving grace of God, though it marks His way throughout the period of Christianity, does not set aside the holiness of His government; that holiness must be conserved at all cost.

If only those, who ask the question, “Why does God allow this war?” were to enquire, with anything like the care and discernment this German writer shows, they would soon see the causes of the war, and wonder at the long-suffering of God in holding back so long men from being the unconscious instruments of His chastisement. He saw clearly the connection between cause and effect, between sowing and reaping. He saw clearly that when faith waned, and the Gospel lost its power, his fellow-countrymen would bring to the front all those traits, which have led to the tearing up of “a scrap of paper,” and the development of those Hun-like qualities, which have shocked civilization, and have aroused half the world to arise up, and, in self-defence, to go forward to strangle the evil thing.

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.