War & Peace
They say that “blood is thicker than water,” and despite the matter of physical viscosity rendering the statement to be obvious on one level, there is considerable allegorical truth hidden in these words when considering the many battles of the heart and mind that have plagued humankind throughout our history. While apparently not at odds with the fundamental teachings of Scripture, it is the reality and symbol of shed blood that leads us to salvation, first according to our Heavenly Father’s directions regarding our generous and cheerful “first-fruit” sacrifices (BC); and later by the shed blood of His only begotten Son, Jesus.
The seemingly endless warring in man’s heart actually began with the dawn of civilization as Adam and Eve begat Cain, and then Abel. God, favouring the sincerity of Abel’s sacrifices, had admonished Cain for his somewhat less than cheerful offerings (Genesis 4:1-15). Fueled by jealousy, Cain was to become the first of all humans to wage war and draw blood. In verses 10 and 11 of the same chapter, the Lord visits the scene: “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.”
Cain then suffered the same fate as his parents when they were cast out of the Garden of Eden for their disobedience. Though, even as Cain was compelled to leave God’s presence, the Lord showed mercy, giving him a mark that would thereafter ward off any predators and protect his life.
Flash forward to the 70s…. In 1971, I recall Belfast being the first stop in a year-long world tour with a music ministry group under the auspices of the Canadian Youth for Christ organization. Conflict with the Irish Republican Army was at a peak due to generations of tension between Protestant and Roman Catholic contingencies, as well as a strong desire for a united Ireland. Late one night, after performing ministry with our troupe in a downtown setting, we loaded our sound equipment and guitar cases into a car and then began the trek back to our lodge when suddenly several military vehicles engulfed us. Camouflaged personnel leaned into our vehicle to (politely at first) interrogate us. “What’s in the guitar cases, Gentlemen?” came the first question.
We had all been “prepped” regarding what to say and what not to say in such a situation. However, one of our young men – who had earlier proclaimed himself to be the group’s very own comedian – thought it would be endearing to our new soldier friends to blurt out the declaration, “Oh, just some machine guns!” Now, I’m not sure if you’ve ever actually timed a “New York Minute,” but I think it’s something like the amount of time it took for the five of us – with our “suspicious hardware” jammed into a small car – to be almost instantly bent over the vehicle’s exterior with arms and legs spread for a thorough security check while several automatic weapons were pointed to our ears. As tensions eased, I’ll never forget the words and sad eyes of one young British soldier who explained their inability to find any humour in the matter by saying, “We’ve all done battle with friends and brothers who have literally been blown up while standing at our sides.”
It was then suddenly and indelibly impressed upon me that such wars may start with arguable grievances, but ultimately seek to avenge the loss of loved ones. As blood is piled upon blood, there is an ever-increasing intensity to the cause, and a proportionally decreasing sense of reconciliation. So there I was in the middle of a mystifying dilemma, and while learning some lessons of war, I was just a 19-year-old kid from Canada who obviously knew very little about such realities.
Oh, I had studied the history books and was enthralled by the romanticism of war. And like many, I had assumed that war is an inevitability that we must come to terms with. Today, having journeyed a little further in life, I am much more conflicted on the matter, though I stand in awe and with great honour in remembering all those who have paid the ultimate price for the very freedom that I am presently exercising with my “pen.”
Even at 19, I had learned a few things that shaped my worldview on the subject, including showing up the prior year at John Brown University in Arkansas, only to be introduced to a dorm full of fine young men, many of whom fully expected to be on their way to Vietnam sometime after graduation. Mostly, I remember my late father, George Martin McKenzie, who served in one of the “great wars” (WW II) as a Canadian Naval Petty Officer in the battle against Nazism. Dad, who passed away in 1990, was stationed in St. John’s, Newfoundland. (I wouldn’t mention this bit of information again were it not so pertinent to the point. For I have previously related the story of my father’s experience in our May 2013 VOMC issue in an article titled, Rumours of Peace.)
You see, Dad didn’t come from a strong family of faith. Rather, it was while “at war” that he found “peace” through the faithful witness of an elderly couple who embraced him, taking him routinely to a little Gospel church nearby the shipyards where he was introduced to Jesus. My father was fervent for the rest of his life in his faith walk, influencing many others to follow Christ, including myself. I often think of the paradox of this brave man marching off to war, only to find an eternal peace through his act of surrender to Christ.
It’s hard to imagine how much blood has been shed in the name of Christ, as it’s been commonly thought that “religion,” or to be fair, “fundamentalism,” has played a major role in the slaughtering of more human life than any other provocateur on the planet. Yet Jesus stood at the fulcrum of the very existence and destiny of human life, outstretched His hands toward both the Old and New Covenants, and proclaimed to be the One who would both fulfill and bring unity to the finite and infinite realms (thereby serving as the Letter and the Spirit of the Law). He invited us to enter into the eternal peace of His Kingdom by laying up our swords and loving others as He loves us. But much confusion still revolves around the lessons of the Old Testament as many today choose to justify their battles according to the historical acts of God through His people, Israel, who at one time thought nothing of destroying all those who did not acknowledge and honour Him. While the Covenant had not changed one iota, humankind has so removed itself from God’s presence that only the sacrifice of Jesus could bridge the cavernous gap between God and His most precious of all creation.
God does not merely choose to love; He is Love. And although His wrath against sin has not even slightly ebbed, it has been forever quenched by the perfect, eternal sacrifice of Jesus. It’s not that God chooses to hate sin; rather, it is utterly impossible for Him to have any fellowship with sin whatsoever. Before the shedding of Christ’s blood, His wrath had to be exercised against man’s disobedience in much the same way that matter and anti-matter could never co-exist. The union of the two, in physical terms, would be cataclysmic. It is important that we understand the ferocity with which God dealt with sin before the death of Jesus, so that we can fully appreciate the price that was paid for our salvation and the immenseness of His grace and mercthrough His Son…extended to us freely as we believe and accept His full pardon. However, we must not use the Old Testament examples to justify war and/ or the killing of a human being for any cause purported. This is one of the greatest mysteries of the Christian faith. Yet, as we search our hearts, we know that it is true. There are, of course, Old Testament stories wherein these seemingly opposing principles correlate. My favourite is chronicled in the second book of Kings, chapter 6. In verses 8 through 23, we read of Syria’s warring with Israel and the frustration of the king of Aram, whose every move was foreseen and thwarted by the Prophet Elisha’s reports to the King of Israel. The king of Aram plans to capture Elisha and, by the time the prophet’s servant rises the next morning, a great force of horses and chariots have surrounded Elisha’s city of Dothan. The servant awakens the prophet whose prayer to God opens the servant’s eyes to see a much greater force of angelic warriors surrounding the enemy, and he takes comfort in the prophet’s words: “Don’t be afraid…. Those who are with us are more that those who are with them.”
Elisha then asks the Lord to blind the eyes of the enemy forces. Following the prayer request of His faithful servant, the Lord misdirects their army, leading them into the city of Samaria where, once captive behind its walls, He restores their sight. Can you imagine this unsuspecting army essentially waking up in the middle of their enemy’s stronghold? What happens next, however, is the lesson learned about God’s nature, intervention and mercy. Israel’s king asks Elisha if he should kill them. (I would surmise that more than one of Aram’s soldiers may have volunteered an opinion on this matter.) But the Lord, through Elisha, instructs the king to spare them and, in fact, also feed them a great feast and send them on their way. The army of Aram returned to their master and further raids on Israel ceased.
Throughout the ages, the art and craft (and business) of war has taken on very different dimensions. Our perception of war and the incomprehensible killing that attends and is the object of the battle has been dramatically impacted and even manipulated by technological advancements, as well as by the media. In September of 1936 BD (“Before Digital”), The Evangelical Christian magazine, then 32 years old, published an article by its managing editor, James H. Hunter, during a brief historical pause before the onslaught of WW II. In the article, he writes:
“Today the world stands in more imminent peril of war, according to the best statesmen of Britain and Europe, than it did in the early summer of 1914. The nations of Europe are engulfed in a vortex of hatred and fear, while the stream of European history moves towards an abyss and a cataclysm too fearful almost to contemplate. The democracy for which millions of young men laid down their lives in the last war has been a ghastly failure and, with the exception of the British Empire, has been submerged by dictatorships in many countries that are the very antithesis of democratic liberty and freedom.”
Mr. Hunter goes on to say:
“There is an uneasy suspicion abroad in the minds of many people that Hitler is planning some sort of coup when the Olympic Games are over in Germany. This editorial is being written whilst they are in progress…. It is only a short step from national dictators to international dictatorship, where power is vested in one man, without whom no one can buy or sell except he receive the mark of the beast."
The First World War was a watershed throughout history. All the dead combined over the 125 years of European wars – from the French Revolution of 1789 until 1914 – mounted to less than half the dead in the four years it took to conclude what came to be called The Great War. Then came WWII and the advent of the nuclear bomb. Strikingly, we sample more of Mr. Hunter’s writings in The Evangelical Christian magazine nine years later in December of 1945 as he expresses, “The year that has almost gone as we write these words has seen the close of the greatest war that ever ravaged the face of the globe, with the defeat of the powers that sought to rule the world and control the destinies of all mankind.”
The atomic bomb, reputed to have been developed for two billion dollars, decisively ended World War II. But not before it was administered in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After six months of intense firebombing of 67 other Japanese cities, the nuclear weapon "Little Boy" was dropped on the city of Hiroshima on Monday, August 6th, 1945, followed on August 9th by the detonation of the "Fat Man" nuclear bomb over Nagasaki. These are, to date, the only attacks with nuclear weapons in the history of warfare. The bombs killed as many as 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 80,000 in Nagasaki by the end of 1945. Since then, thousands more have died from injuries or illnesses attributed to exposure to radiation released by the bombs. In both cities, the overwhelming majority of the dead were civilians.
Modern conventional (non-nuclear) warfare is frighteningly more seductive and convenient than anything we’ve experienced in the past. Today, the notion of conventional “boots on the ground” warfare is only considered optionally. The ability to inflict tremendous enemy and collateral damage via laser-guided air, sea, and land-based weaponry (for those who can afford these U.S. technologies) has become the first line of offense. The concept of “Battlespace” is now employed in assessing and controlling all known military and civilian assets in a given war arena. And with satellite and other digital “Intel” adding in significant detail, relating to everything from climate conditions to energy consumption, the Battlespace can be controlled to the maximum advantage of the one possessing the technology.
It may be said that the concept of war was redefined by the proliferation of nuclear bombs, giving way to over 40 years of standoff between two superpowers in what came to be known as the Cold War. As one ideology broke down, tensions eased, and the Cold War ended, leaving a modern legacy of thousands of active nuclear warheads with enough firepower, still today, to destroy the world many times over. The problem now is not only the whereabouts and proprietorship of those deadly relics, but also the fact that many other nations have developed, or are presumed to be developing, nuclear weaponry – some of whom are extremely unfriendly to Judeo-Christian cultures. Given the forecast financial condition of the United States for 2013 and beyond and Canada’s linkage with that economy, it may be reasonable to assume that our renowned willingness and ability to be the bastion and defenders of freedom and democracy in the world will be diminished.
War has also been redefined (or at least perceptibly) by digital media, now known to be the most pervasive and powerful ideological influencer on the planet. As referenced in one of my previous articles, we can actually experience the war through the lens of a high-definition video camera, operated by an embedded news reporter “riding shotgun” in the front seat of an armored Hummer racing up to the front lines of a battle like a professional football player plowing through bodies to reach the end zone. The wives and mothers of yesteryear, who clung to their RCA radios and their faith day after day while waiting for word from the distant front lines of the battlefield or the dreaded “telegram” delivery at their door, would today almost feel that they were part of the action while receiving body-count updates hourly. Hollywood and the news media have built a sensational myth concerning modern warfare. Yet, while we are more connected than ever to the imagery of the battlefield, we are actually more disconnected from and desensitized to its reality than ever before.
War has also been redefined by terrorism, a plague that threatens all former notions of the rules of war. It has always seemed strange to me that the so-called civilized nations of the world have actually formed treaties that govern the way in which those same nations will engage in warfare, whereby the objective is to kill and/or disable each other. There is undoubtedly a paradox in this, though I am quick to applaud any effort to contain the aggression and spare precious lives. But the rule-makers that set out the war crime treaties (The Hague and The Geneva Conventions) didn’t count on a hidden regime of extremists who would rise up in this time, waging a war of persecution against all Judeo-Christian societies without the slightest regard for the rules of war or, for that matter, even their own lives, deliberately plotting suicide missions of epic proportions.
While it’s true these factors have been critical in redefining the nature and practice of war in recent history, it is the life and words of Jesus that are profoundly contrarian in impacting our worldview on this matter. The night of His capture in the Garden of Gethsemane, one of Jesus’ companions attacked the servant of the High Priest with a sword, cutting off the servant’s ear. In Matthew chapter 26, verses 52 through 54, Jesus commanded, “Put your sword back in its place… for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” Surely, these were the warrior angels who had stood guard over Elisha’s city of Dothan and also stand with those of us today who believe in the miracle of forgiveness through Jesus.
On January 29th, 2002, in his State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush made reference to an “Axis of Evil” in regards to the apparent network of terrorism in today’s world. Is it possible that Jesus was suggesting that He had come as Commander and Chief of an equally hidden, though an infinitely more powerful force, forming an “Axis of Love” in the world?
Much of humankind remains haunted and mystified by the notion of death and life hereafter. And while thousands of war gravesites are marked with the symbol of Christ’s crucifixion, in His name we continue to confidently dispatch our own troupes and subject our enemies to this unknown abyss before their natural time – all for the protection of our freedom and democracy. (Sometimes for the purpose of protecting our access to natural resources and other spoils that perpetuate our earthly fiefdoms.)
In Matthew chapter 24, verses 6 through 8, Jesus says in reference to the end of the age: “You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.”
Some anthropologists might argue that war conveniently advances the human race by ensuring the survival of the fittest. But I wonder if Jesus was offering a reverse angle on this point of view. Were He to stand with us overlooking the carnage and the spilt blood of sons and daughters left on the battlefield following a great battle, would any one of those extinguished lives – including those of our enemy – be considered less precious to Him? What did Jesus mean when calling us as a community of believers (if you would allow, an “Axis of Love”) to serve “even the least of these”?
Today, there are many battlefields on which we are confronted by “The Enemy.” Many of those battles are waged within our hearts and minds as we wrestle with the goal of being more like Jesus. Many are waged against those who love and follow Jesus simply because they have declared their faith in Him. God does not require that we assist Him in exacting justice upon those whom we would judge to be evil. Instead, He laid all of our sin and guilt upon Jesus, exhausting His wrath upon His own Son so that we would forgive others as He has forgiven us. Jesus’ haunting words on the Cross, “It is finished,” declared an eternal victory in which we are to abide until He comes again. His cross was like a “stake in the ground,” forever marking the significance of that event.
The Red Cross, founded in 1859 by Switzerland’s Henry Dunant, a devout Christian, has been one of the most revered symbols on the battlefield. Vehicles and encampments bearing this symbol were traditionally given immunity, as the Red Cross indiscriminately cared for the wounded. This organization is also known for its blood bank services in hospitals everywhere. The Red Cross earned its immunity “stripes” on many battlefields around the world because of its nonpolitical compassion for humanity. A very different “blood bank” was established on Mount Calvary about two thousand years ago that’s still being poured out upon Christ’s church in a completely indiscriminate and compassionate way – cleansing and holding His “bride” blameless until He returns. Yet Jesus has, throughout history, been vilified and His followers hated by countless spiritual adversaries.
“Mount Calvary was strategic. It was and is the ultimate “high ground”…the only “Hill to Die On.” The Cross, an instrument of war and retribution was turned into the vehicle and symbol of humanity’s redemption.”
World War I was called the War To End All Wars. Sadly, the optimism underlying this moniker was soon shattered by the rise of Nazism and Japan’s quest for world domination, as well as many other wars thereafter. Upon being arrested in Gethsemane (described in Matthew 26:47-56), we are reminded that Jesus was deserted by the disciples. He stood alone to face the greatest enemy humankind would ever encounter, while engaging in the most horrific battle imaginable with inconceivable consequences. What happened to Jesus in both the physical and spiritual realms could never be described, and even Hollywood would fall far short if it attempted to tell the story of the real War To End All Wars, culminating in Jesus’ death and resurrection. Never has victory been so costly and yet so thoroughly complete.
Every year, I’m usually the first to donate and acquire the lapel pin “poppy,” which I proudly wear over my heart leading up to Remembrance Day. My respect and honour for the brave men and women who have surrendered every earthly thing to ensure the freedoms and blessings that we enjoy as Canadians couldn’t be more profound. I also remember my late father who, thankfully, survived WWII and returned safely home with his new faith in Christ. As I reflect on Remembrance Day, I’m reminded of the following words of the famous poem written by John McCrae in May of 1915:
““In Flanders fields the poppies blow, Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky, The larks, still bravely singing, fly, Scarce heard amid the guns below.””
As I pray for our fallen heroes of war, I am also reminded of those soldiers of the faith who have fallen prey to the perpetrators of persecution against Christ’s followers. I also pray that we, as a people, would be willing to surrender all, including our fears and our aspirations of war (be it physical and/or spiritual) to Jesus, allowing even our national military strategies to be held up to His light before execution. I pray for our leaders, and that we would all know His peace, a peace that surpasses all understanding yet does not require any further spilling of blood, as Jesus’ sacrifice was totally sufficient and eternally sustaining.
As we humbly wear the ‘poppy of Flander’s Fields,’ remembering the spilt blood of our comrades who have purchased our earthly freedom, may we also bear the symbols of Jesus’ battle for our eternal souls in the form of the chalice that contains the symbol of His blood, and the broken bread, symbolizing His broken body – reminding us of His great victory over sin and death, now forevermore defeated according to our faith in Christ.
““What is this now beyond the grave? Where malice lost and souls be saved, Pure light amassed and given name, And every soldier brought to gain. What is this hope of ever after? Joy that spans beyond the laughter, And faith that hopes, and sees, and binds, The weary, and the lost!” ”
- Doug
