Is it possible for our world to experience an prolonged period of peace?
So far, the chances haven’t been in our favor. Scholars estimate that over the past 3,400 years, there have been only 268 years of peace. Meaning, for greater than 92 percent of human history, we now have been forced to endure the specter of war.
In newer history, things have turn out to be even worse! Even a “peaceful” nation akin to the United States has endured two world wars, a Cold War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, two wars involving Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the war on terror, and more.
The Bible explains why war is so prevalent in our world, but the rationale isn’t encouraging: “Where do wars and fights come from amongst you? Do they not come out of your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and would not have. You murder and covet and can’t obtain. You fight and war” (James 4:1–2).
The fallen heart of humanity explains why we fail at peace. But will that all the time be true?
A World of War
During World War I, C. S. Lewis was sent to the front lines of France late in 1917. After a number of weeks, he was hospitalized with a bout of trench fever. When he was discharged from the hospital, he immediately returned to the front lines, where two months later he was wounded in three places by an exploding shell that killed the sergeant standing next to him.
Not surprisingly, Lewis carried those experiences with him for the remainder of his life. When World War II arrived, he wrote:
My memories of the last war haunted my dreams for years. Military service, to be plain, includes the specter of every temporal evil: pain and death which is what we fear from sickness: isolation from those we love which is what we fear from exile: toil under arbitrary masters, injustice and humiliation, which is what we fear from slavery: hunger, thirst, and exposure which is what we fear from poverty. I’m not a pacifist. If it’s got to be, it’s got to be. But the flesh is weak and selfish and I feel death can be significantly better than to pass though one other war.
Most of us feel the identical way. Is war all the time harmful? Yes. Is war all the time destructive? Yes. Does war all the time involve a value that feels too heavy to bear? It actually seems so, yes.
But is war all the time incorrect? No.
I’ll always remember the primary time I read the next statement: “War is an unpleasant thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed state of ethical and patriotic feeling, which thinks nothing is price a war, is worse. A person who has nothing which he cares more about than his own personal safety is a miserable creature, and has no probability of being free unless he’s made free and kept so by the exertions of higher men than himself.”1
Even a cursory look through history reveals several seasons when war was needed. What’s more, in a world corrupted and poisoned by the fact of evil, there are occasions when war becomes something noble— even a force for good.
For example, there are numerous cases within the Bible when God commanded His people to go to war— and even commended them for actively participating in violent conflict. Moses obeyed God’s command to attack pagan kings and leaders, including within the land of Bashan: “So the Lord our God also delivered into our hands Og king of Bashan, with all his people, and we attacked him until he had no survivors remaining. And we took all his cities at the moment; there was not a city which we didn’t take from them” (Deut. 3:3–4).
Throughout the book of Joshua, God commanded the Israelites to make war against those occupying the promised land. “Now the Lord said to Joshua: ‘Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed; take all of the people of war with you, and arise, go as much as Ai. See, I even have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land. And you shall do to Ai and its king as you probably did to Jericho and its king’ ” (8:1–2).
The book of Revelation describes the moment at the tip of the Tribulation when Jesus Himself will lead the armies of heaven in a brutal war against all who defy God’s rightful reign: “And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. . . . And the remainder were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all of the birds were stuffed with their flesh” (19:19, 21).
None of those passages describes war as a needed evil. Instead, they simply describe war as needed.
Thankfully, that won’t be the case eternally.
Dr. M. R. DeHaan helps us grapple with the sensible applications of this powerful truth:
The Bible is replete with prophecies of a coming age of peace and prosperity. It shall be a time when war shall be utterly unknown. Not a single armament plant shall be operating, not a soldier or sailor shall be in uniform, no military camps will exist, and never one cent shall be spent for armaments of war, not a single penny shall be used for defense, much less for offensive warfare. Can you imagine such an age, when all nations shall be at perfect peace, all of the resources available for enjoyment, all industry engaged within the articles of a peaceful luxury?
Is that basically possible? Not here; not now. Only when Jesus returns.
1 John Stuart Mill, “The Contest in America,” Fraser’s Magazine, February 1862.
*A portion of this text is an excerpt from The Coming Golden Age by David Jeremiah. Used with permission.
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