War is a fruit of sin.
The Bible does not isolate war, as if it were something unique and quite apart from other human struggles. International combat resides in the same neighborhood with rape, murder, wife-beating, husband-berating, loneliness, arrogance: these are the fruits of sin.
War is one of them. On a larger scale, no doubt. In a more terrible form, certainly. But war with Iraq is born in the same hospital as a quarrel with your neighbor. The hospital of sin.
Before we blame international conflict on finances or boundaries or religion, we must lay the blame where God does: our sinful nature. "Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?" (James 4:1)
It's not so much that war is sin, but that war is a consequence of sin, a result of the lust and desires that wage war within us. James goes on to say:
"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." (James 4:2)
A boy once asked, "Daddy, how do wars begin?"
"Well, take the first world war. It began when Germany invaded Belgium." Immediately his wife interrupted him, "Tell the boy the truth. It began because somebody was murdered." The husband yanked his head toward her, "Are you answering this question or am I?" She walked out of the room in a huff- the dad sat and scowled. The boy interrupted the silence, "Daddy, you don't have to tell me how wars begin. I think I know how."
Whether it's two toddlers fighting in a playroom or two super-powers directing nuclear missiles at each other; the cause of conflict is the same. Selfishness. One side cannot get what they want so they demand their way. They fight. War is the fruit of sin.
To ask God to prohibit war, then, is to ask him to prohibit the consequence of human behavior. Something he has never been won't to do. As long as there is sin there will be war.
War is a tool of God.
There are many unacceptable reasons for war. Imperialism. Financial gain. Religion. Family feuds. Racial arrogance. There are many unacceptable motives for war. But there is one time when war is condoned and used by God: wickedness. When calling the Israelites into battle. Moses carefully instructed them:
"After the Lord your God has done this for you, don't say to yourselves, 'The Lord has given us this land because we are so righteous!' No, it is because of the wickedness of the other nations that he is doing it." (Deut. 9:4)
Can people grow so wicked, so pagan, so vile that God justifiably destroys them? Can leaders be so evil and cruel that God, knowing the hardness of their hearts, righteously removes them from the earth? Apparently so. He did so with Sodom and Gomorrah. He did so with the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites.
"As for the towns of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as a special possession, destroy every living thing in them. You must completely destroy the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, just as the Lord your God has commanded you. This will keep the people of the land from teaching you their detestable customs in the worship of their gods, which would cause you to sin deeply against the Lord your God." (Deut. 20:16-18)
God has used warfare as a form of judgment against the enemies of God. In fact, He uses warfare as judgment against his own people when they become enemies of God.
"O Israel, I will bring a distant nation against you," says the Lord. "It is a mighty nation, an ancient nation, a people whose language you do not know, whose speech you cannot understand. Their weapons are deadly; their warriors are mighty. They will eat your harvests and your children's bread, your flocks of sheep and your herds of cattle. Yes, they will eat your grapes and figs. And they will destroy your fortified cities, which you think are so safe." (Jeremiah 5:15-17)
