Why Does God Allow War?
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
That God allows war is a fact. Why does He allow it? 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; or, if you prefer it, that war is one of the expressions of sin.
The Bible traces war back to its final and ultimate cause. It is true that it does not
altogether ignore the various political and social and economic and psychological
factors of which so much has been made. But according to its teaching, these
things are no more than the immediate causes, the actual agencies employed. The
thing itself is much deeper. As James reminds us, the ultimate cause of war is lust
and desire; this restlessness that is a part of us as the result of sin; this craving for
that which is illicit and for that which we cannot obtain. It shows itself in many
ways, both in personal, individual life, and also in the life of nations. It is the root
cause of theft and robbery, jealousy and envy, pride and hate, infidelity and
divorce. And in precisely the same way it leads to personal quarrels and strife, and
also 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 do in our thinking. It
is but one of the manifestations of sin, one of the consequences of sin. On a larger
scale, perhaps, and in a more terrible form for that reason, but still, in its essence,
precisely the same as all the other effects and consequences of sin. 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. Because this particular form of sin, or consequence of sin, is
especially painful and difficult 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 free will and resent any
suggestion or teaching that God should in any way interfere with it. And yet, when,
as the result of the exercise of that very freedom, we find ourselves faced with the
horrors and troubles and sufferings of a war, like peevish children we cry out our
protests and complain bitterly against God because He has not used His almighty
power and forcibly prevented it! God, in His infinite and everlasting wisdom, has
decided not to prohibit sin and not to restrain altogether the consequences of sin.
War is not an isolated and separate spiritual and religious problem. It is just a part
and an expression of the one great central problem of sin.
War Is A Consequence of Sin
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 such
words as “whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.” Punishment is not
altogether postponed to the next world. Here, in this world, we bear some of the
punishment for our sins. How clearly is this shown time and time again in the story
of the Children of Israel! They disobeyed God and flouted His holy laws. For a while
all was well. But then they began to suffer. God withdrew His protecting care from
them, and they were at the mercy of their enemies, who attacked them and
robbed them. Indeed, at the very beginning, and as the result of the first sin and
transgression, we find that God ordained and decreed punishment. God said,
“Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy
life.” Every painful consequence of sin is a part of the punishment meted out for
sin.
But someone may raise the objection, and ask: “But why do the innocent suffer?”
The answer cannot be given fully 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 smaller 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. We share the same sun and rain as other people, and we are exposed to the
same illnesses and diseases. We are subject to the same trials by way of industrial
depression and other causes of unhappiness, including war. Thus it comes to pass
that the innocent may have to bear part of the punishment for sins for which they
are not directly responsible.
War Reveals Sin
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 optimistic views of human nature. War
reveals man and the possibilities within man’s nature. The First World 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 generalizations and for rosy, optimistic idealisms. It
forces us to examine the very foundations of life. It makes us face the direct
questions as to what it is in human nature that leads to such calamities. The
explanation cannot be found in the actions of certain men only. It is something
deep down in the heart of man, in the heart of all men. It is the selfishness, hatred,
jealousy, envy, bitterness and malice that are in the human heart and which show
themselves in the personal and social relationships of life, manifesting themselves
on a national and international scale. In the personal sphere we tend to excuse
them and to explain them away. But on the larger scale they become more
evident. Man in his pride and his 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 recognize 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.
War Leads Us Back to God
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 our 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.” They were blind to the goodness
and kindness of God; they turned a deaf ear to the appeals of His love and His
grace; but in their agony they remembered Him and turned to Him. And we are still
the same. It is only as we suffer and see our folly, and the utter bankruptcy and
helplessness of men, that we shall turn to God and rely upon Him. Indeed, as I
contemplate human nature and human life, what astonishes me is not that God
allows and permits war, but the patience and the long-suffering of God. “He
maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just
and the unjust.” He suffered the evil, perverse ways of the children of Israel for
centuries; and now for nearly two thousand years He has patiently borne with a
world which in the main rejects and refuses His loving offer, even in the Person of
His only-begotten Son. The question that needs to be asked is not “Why does God
allow war?” but rather, “Why does God not allow the world to destroy itself entirely
in its iniquity and its sin? Why does He in His restraining grace set a limit to evil and
to sin, and a bound beyond which they cannot pass?” 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 to punish
us; to teach us and to convict us of our sins; and, above all, to call us to
repentance and acceptance of His gracious offer. The vital question 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. May God grant us
understanding and the true spirit of repentance, for His Name’s sake.
Permission kindly granted to Faith & Reason Forum by Crossway Books, Wheaton, Il. Taken from
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Why Does God Allow War?
Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981), minister of Westminster Chapel in London for 30 years, wrote
Why Does God Allow War? at the outbreak of the Second World War. Originally published in
England in 1939, this book has been re-released by Crossway Books in response to current
events in the Middle East. Copyright, © 1939, 2003 by Martyn Lloyd-Jones.