Why War?

I grew up in a family of three brothers.

As young siblings in a blue-collar family in the 1950s, we actually played together pretty well. However, there were those few occasions when we had a quarrel or two. And since I was the youngest and sometimes had to do my brothers’ bidding—I didn’t like those instances!

While today my brothers and I get along and love one another, those early experiences introduced me to the reality of human conflict.

First recorded conflict

Biblical history shows us that the very first recorded conflict was between two brothers. And, sadly, the story of the clash between Cain and his brother Abel resulted in the tragic and brutal death of Abel (Genesis 4).

Conflict is an aspect of man’s nature that has defined the last 6,000 years of human history. In fact, the presence of conflict and violence became so intolerable in the centuries after the murder of Abel that God eventually chose to eliminate all human flesh from the earth except for the family of His servant Noah.

In the Genesis account, God reveals that the core problem was the human heart. “And the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).

Causes of war

Since the time of the Flood, man’s history has continued to be defined more by conflict, wars and the conquering of nations than almost anything else.

Considering that the human heart is the root cause of conflict and violence, it stands to reason that the only solution to the curse of war resides in a fundamental change of man’s heart and way of thinking. This is not an easy task.

God’s Word reveals more about the root cause of conflict.

The apostle James said it succinctly in his letter: “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures” (James 4:1-3).

James states it very simply—selfishness is the cause of conflicts, both small and great. It’s the way of get, rather than give.

In fact, both secular history and Scripture show that, indeed, human self-interest in its many forms is at the core of conflict and war, whether between brothers, tribes or empires.

The human tendency toward war transcends time and culture

Author Chris McNab, in his 2022 book A History of War, covers the record of man’s conflicts—from ancient warfare to the global conflicts of the 21st century.

What he states at the very beginning of his book is significant, coming from a secular historian’s view of humanity: “The psychological structures that make human beings capable of killing another person appear deep-seated, and transcend time and culture” (p. 5).

In other words, the human tendency to resort to violence in order to fulfill one’s needs or desires has been characteristic of humans for a long time—from the very beginning!

McNab’s view of the historical timing of war actually compares to the biblical narrative of Cain and Abel (approximately 4000 B.C.):

“What anthropological and archaeological research has established beyond doubt is that by the beginnings of recorded history, around the 4th millennium BCE, warfare was engrained in human culture” (p. 6).

Better weapons, worse effects of war

The many studies on the history of war all point to a fundamental truth: While man’s violent nature and tendency to engage in war have never diminished, it’s man’s efforts to improve his implements of war that have continued to develop—with increasingly deadly results.

We now possess weapons capable of annihilating multiple thousands of people in a matter of seconds.

This is a reality, as we shall see, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, prophesied almost 2,000 years ago. It was powerfully confirmed near the end of World War II with the advent of the nuclear age.

The ultimate human weapon

The Second World War unfolded over a six-year period, beginning in mainland Europe and becoming global as it spread to Asia when Japan joined the Axis powers of Nazi Germany and Italy.

The Pacific Theater in World War II proved to be a brutal four-year battle between the military of Japan and the Allied forces led by the United States.

However, the war in the Pacific took a dramatic turn after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, and then on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945. The devastation inflicted by these nuclear devices and the terror spawned by their radioactive fallout was unprecedented in all human history. It was an overwhelming blow that brought the Japanese Empire to its knees, resulting in their complete surrender in the days that followed.

A fundamental change needed

Less than a month later, near the end of his speech given on the USS Missouri at the surrender of the Japanese army in September of 1945, Gen. Douglas MacArthur made these sobering comments:

“Military alliances, balances of power, leagues of nations, all in turn failed, leaving the only path to be by way of the crucible of war. The utter destructiveness of war now blots out this alternative. We have had our last chance.

“If we do not now devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door. The problem basically is theological and involves a spiritual recrudescence and improvement of human character that will synchronize with our almost matchless advance in science, art, literature and all material and cultural developments of the past two thousand years. It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh.”

Was Gen. MacArthur a prophet? No, he was not.

He was a 65-year-old commander of the U.S. forces in the Pacific. He was a military man educated in the history of war at West Point. However, what Gen. MacArthur came to deeply discern about mankind had less to do with his military education and more to do with the sobering experience he gained through the disturbing realities of global war in the atomic age.

Oppenheimer’s regret

Not only did Gen. MacArthur realize the hopeless future of warfare in the atomic age, the physicist responsible for the development of that first atomic bomb, Robert Oppenheimer, himself became plagued by regret.

After Dr. Oppenheimer and the other scientists under his direction completed the secret Manhattan Project, he had a deep conflict of conscience due to his involvement in developing such a destructive force—one that was used to annihilate two cities and hundreds of thousands of people in a matter of minutes.

Dr. Oppenheimer stated, “Despite the vision and the far-seeing wisdom of our wartime heads of state, the physicists felt a peculiarly intimate responsibility for suggesting, for supporting, and in the end, in large measure, for achieving the realization of atomic weapons. Nor can we forget that these weapons, as they were in fact used, dramatized so mercilessly the inhumanity and evil of modern war. In some sort of crude sense which no vulgarity, no humor, no overstatement can quite extinguish, the physicists have known sin; and this is a knowledge which they cannot lose” (emphasis added).

Dr. Oppenheimer’s acknowledgment that those who developed and deployed such weapons of mass destruction have “known sin” is significant.

In some ways both Gen. MacArthur and Dr. Oppenheimer came to grasp what the Son of God foretold almost 2,000 years ago, when He responded to His disciples’ questions about the end of the age.

“For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened” (Matthew 24:21-22).

Christ said that unless something significant happened, “unless those days were shortened,” the conflicts of mankind would eventually bring about the ultimate conflagration—a war in which no flesh would survive!

Christ foretold the increase of war

When asked by His disciples about conditions that would exist at the time of His return, Jesus replied, “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars . . . For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” (Matthew 24:6-7).

History has proved Jesus right.

In the last century alone, World War I saw an estimated 9.7 million soldiers and 10 million civilians lose their lives, with another 21 million soldiers becoming wounded (Britannica.com). Though World War I was labeled “the war to end all wars,” within two decades, World War II claimed even higher casualties.

Though exact figures are hard to determine, it has been estimated that perhaps 80 million people died during that conflict. World War II was followed soon after by the Korean War and the Vietnam War, and millions more have been devastated by conflicts large and small since then.

A future without war

The plan of God as revealed in the Bible shows a totally different future for mankind—a time when war will be replaced by real peace.

After the return of Jesus Christ—whose intervention will narrowly prevent mankind’s self-annihilation—the Bible reveals that mankind will experience a process of change that will transcend human government, laws and politics. The prophet Micah foretold a time in the future when things will change:

“Many nations shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.’

“For out of Zion the law shall go forth, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples, and rebuke strong nations afar off; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Micah 4:2-3).

Imagine a time when:

• Nations will be taught a different way of life.
• Weapons of warfare will be repurposed as implements of peace.
• Violence and the conflict of war will cease to be.

These are stunning claims that, to most, would seem utterly impossible. Yet God reveals that this incredible transformation will happen! But how?

A dramatic change of heart

“The way of peace they have not known, and there is no justice in their ways; they have made themselves crooked paths; whoever takes that way shall not know peace” (Isaiah 59:8).

History proves these words of the prophet Isaiah to be true.

When you think about it, logic dictates that the only way for war and human conflict to come to an end is by all parties involved (all countries, tribes, leaders and people) undergoing a profound transformation.

But can such a change in human nature actually happen? God reveals, yes, it can.

After the return of Jesus Christ—whose intervention will narrowly prevent mankind’s self-annihilation—the Bible reveals that mankind will experience a process of change that will transcend human government, laws and politics. As implausible as it may seem, God’s Word shows us that only a deep change in the human heart can bring this about.

The prophet Ezekiel records God’s promise:

“For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them . . .

“Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good; and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight, for your iniquities and your abominations” (Ezekiel 36:24-27, 31).

Scripture shows mankind will, by living through the experience of the global conflicts and tribulation leading up to Christ’s return, finally grasp the deep need to change—to repent. People will see and understand the futility of their way of thinking, coming to a point of actually loathing themselves!

This is a powerful statement about the transformation of the nature of mankind on a global scale in the future. It will be a transformation based on the same process taught in the New Testament—that of personal repentance (Mark 1:15). Each person must come to see the need to change.

In response, God will provide a new heart through the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).

“Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God” (Ezekiel 11:19-20).

What an encouraging time that will be! However, we will have to wait a bit longer for that time to come.

Waiting for the Prince of Peace

Sadly, man’s history has been one of chaos, violence and war. Over the millennia, kingdoms and empires have come and gone. From the early empires of Mesopotamia and China, to the conquering kingdoms of Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome, to the city-states and great empires of Europe—all have promised some form of wealth and peace. But none have delivered on that promise.

God’s Word reveals many wonderful outcomes of a new world that will emerge after the return of Jesus Christ.

One of the more encouraging visions of that future is detailed in what God inspired His prophet Isaiah to write:

“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

“Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this” (Isaiah 9:6-7).

May God speed that day!