Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones centenary
The Doctor's classic Why does God allow war? Is being republished by Bryntirion Press at £3.99 in early June. This book consists of five sermons preached shortly after the outbreak of WWII. With conflicts in the Balkans and elsewhere, its re-appearance is very timely.
We must consider, first, what we may call the 'biblical' view of war. It is not that war as such is sin, but that war is a consequence of sin.
The Bible traces war back to its final and ultimate cause, although it does not altogether ignore the various political, social, economic and psychological factors of which so much has been made. But these things are no more than the intermediate causes. The thing itself is much deeper. As James reminds us, the ultimate cause of war is lust and desire (James 4.1). In precisely the same way it leads to personal quarrels and strife, sin also leads to wars between nations.
The Bible does not isolate war as if it were something separate and unique and quite apart, as we tend to think. It is but one of the manifestations of sin on a larger scale. But someone may argue that there must be an essential difference because of the fact that loss of life is involved in war. The reply is that, while the Bible regards life as sacred, and prohibits us from taking life merely to gratify a spirit of lust or of revenge, at the same time it teaches that, from God's side, the soul is of infinitely greater importance than the life of the body. God's concern is not that our lives should be perpetuated here on earth for a certain number of additional years, but rather that we should come into the right relationship with him and live lives that will glorify his holy name. We attach such significance to time, and to length of years, that we tend to forget that what ultimately matters and counts is the quality of the life.
To ask God to prohibit war or to prevent war, therefore, is to ask him to prohibit one of the particular consequences of sin. Or, if we take the view that war itself is actual sin, it is to ask God to prohibit one particular sin. Here again we see both the selfishness that is involved in the request and also the insult to God.
How different is war?
Because this particular form of sin, or consequences of sin, is especially difficult and painful for us, we ask God to prohibit it. We are not at all concerned about the holiness of God, or sin as such. Were we so concerned, we would ask him to prohibit all sin and to restrain all iniquity. We would ask him to prohibit drunkenness, gambling, immorality and vice, the breaking of the Sabbath and all the various other sins which men enjoy so thoroughly. But if anyone ventured to suggest that, a protest loud and strong would be registered immediately in the name of freedom. We boast of our freewill and resent any suggestion that God should in any way interfere with it. And yet, when as a result of that very freedom, we find ourselves faced with the horrors of a war, like peevish children we cry out our protests and complain bitterly to God because he has not used his almighty power and forcibly prevented it . . .
But the biblical teaching advances beyond that point and gives reasons which are still more positive in explanation of the fact that God allows war.
It is clear that God permits war in order that men may bear the consequences of their sins as punishment. This is a fundamental law which expresses itself in words as 'whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap' (Galatians 6.7). Punishment is not altogether postponed to the next world. Here, in this world, we bear some of the punishment for our sins.
But someone may raise the objection and ask: 'Why do the innocent suffer?' The answer cannot be fully given here, but in its essence it is twofold. First, there is no such person as the innocent - we are all sinful. But, furthermore, we clearly have to reap the consequences not only of our own personal sins, but also of the sins of the entire race; and, on a small scale, the sins of our particular country or group. We are, at one and the same time, individuals, and members of the state and of the entire race. The gospel saves us as individuals; but that does not mean that we cease to be members of the state, and part and parcel of the entire human race. Thus the innocent may have to bear part of the punishment for sins for which they are not directly responsible.
Again, it seems clear that God permits war in order that men may see through it, more clearly than they have ever done before, what sin really is. In times of peace we tend to think lightly of sin, and to hold pessimistic views of human nature. War reveals man and the possibilities within man's nature. The 1914-18 war shattered that optimistic view of man which had held sway for so many years, and revealed something of the essential sinfulness of human nature. A time of crisis and of war is no time for superficial generalities and for rosy, optimistic idealism. It forces us to examine the very foundations of life. It makes us face the direct question of what is in human nature that leads to such calamities.
Man in his pride and folly refuses to listen to the positive teaching of the gospel about sin. He refuses to attend a place of worship, and refuses instruction from the Word of God. He rejects the gracious, loving offer of the gospel. He believes that he knows himself and thinks that he is capable of making a perfect world altogether without God. What he refuses to recognise and to learn by the preaching of the gospel in a time of peace, God reveals to him by permitting war; and thereby shows him his true nature and the result of his sin. What man refuses and rejects when offered by the hand of love, he often takes when delivered to him through the medium of affliction.
God's patience
And all this, in turn, leads to the final purpose, which is to lead us back to God. Like the Prodigal Son, when we have lost all and are suffering acutely, and in a state of wretchedness and misery, seeing our folly and stupidity, we think of God, even as he thought of his father and his home. No word is found more frequently in the Old Testament as a description of the children of Israel than the words: 'in their trouble and distresses they cried unto the Lord' (see Psalm 107.6,13). They were blind to the goodness and kindness of God; they turned a deaf ear to the appeals of his love and grace; but in their agony they remembered him and turned to him, and we are still the same.
Oh, the amazing patience of God with this sinful world! How wondrous is his love! He has sent the Son of his love to our world to die for us and to save us; and because men cannot and will not see this, he permits and allows such things as war to chastise and punish us; to teach us and convict us of our sins; and above all, to call us to repentance and acceptance of his gracious offer. The vital questions for us therefore, is not to ask: 'Why does God allow war?'. The question for us is to make sure that we are learning the lesson, and repenting before God for the sin in our own hearts, and in the entire human race, which leads to such results.
