A War to End all Wars

Today is the 100th anniversary of the commencement of the conflict known, in its immediate aftermath, as ‘the Great War’ and, following the second great convulsion in Europe, as ‘the First World War’.

The causes of this tragic spasm in world history has kept historians in gainful employment ever since: Although it seems unreasonable to place the blame entirely upon the skinny shoulders of Gavrilo Princip.

The world that these events took place in seems so remote from the world we live in now that we struggle to put ourselves into the minds of the men of power at the start of the 20th Century: The arrogant assumptions of both the fading Austro-Hungarian empire and the British empire, not to mention the megalomaniacal delusions of the German Kaiser and the Russian Tsar, are unthinkable in a Europe where key decisions are required to get the unanimous agreement of 28 member states. That the titular heads of three of the key protagonists were blood relations is equally astonishing to a modern mind. For goodness sake, even the cloth they made their clothes from looks antiquatedly heavy and dull to those of us who have grown up with artificial fibres and modern dyes.

Yet the war to end all wars still resonates with us today at a human level. The sentiments expressed by Wilfred Owen’s Anthem for Doomed Youth still tug at the heart, “What passing bells for these who die as cattle”. We may be able to laugh at the Blackadder caricature of the bumbling General, but it is only because the recognition of its underlying, if distorted, truth has been passed down to us. This is a war the reality of which left its physical marks on every town and hamlet in the country and its psychological scars on an entire generation. I am old enough to have personally known men who fought in this conflict and still remember the stories of one old warrior who told a wide-eyed five-year-old in the early seventies of men crushed to death as they slept beneath their tanks.

That such a war should be allowed to happen has inevitably raised the question, “where was God?” How could a loving God allow over 16 million human beings to be slaughtered in the pursuit of purely political ends? There are many who have dealt with this subject more ably and in more detail than this blog will be able to do. But as someone who seeks to speak to others about the God of the Bible it is not uncommon to have this and similar charges thrown at me. I recall reading of the relative of a murder victim who blamed God for the murder of her sister and thinking at the time, surely the murderer is the one to blame! I wonder if those who ask ‘where is God?’ have ever stopped to think what the consequences would be for them if God did intervene to stop every sinful act. Would they also wish to prescribe the boundaries within which God should feel free to operate? No, God has not made us automatons. The blessing and the curse of mankind is that He has given us a free will and we have to live with the consequences of that.

On one occasion the Lord Jesus stood looking over the city of Jerusalem and He wept aloud saying, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” He prophesied the disaster that would befall the city in AD70 under Titus and He longed to protect them, but they “were not willing”.

What about you? The Bible tells us that God “has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” But it also tells us that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” God is going to intervene in this world and it would be well to be prepared for it. But you have a free will and you can choose to reject the Saviour He has provided, and of course, live with the consequences.

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