A Perspective on War and Suffering

There have been some significant turning points in the process of the gloablisation of disaster. War, disease and accident have always been a part of the fallen world, but they have become increasingly confronting.

When I was born, Hitler and Stalin were feared names. Previous enemies such as Napoleon and Kaiser Wilhelm were gentlemen by comparison. We had entered an era of the fear of mass genocide, and shortly two cities were to be destroyed by nuclear bombs. It all plateaued out during the “cold war”, but following the demise of soviet communism, the balance of power collapsed and the anarchy of ethnic cleansing, religious extremism and organised world terrorism began to become spectres of a new demonic threat. The Twin Towers and Bali Disasters are the biggest turning points in fifty years. We now have the phenomenon not only of dictators like Saddam Hussein, but the new dynamic of human powers of darkness, like Al-Qaeda, that hover internationally behind some political and state leaders. Institutional and international piracy have emerged as the new powerbrokers of evil.

In the original creation, evil did not function.

In the fallen world “subject to decay” there is a downward spiral of evil and pain. It seems that not merely wars and terror are worse, but medical advances scarcely keep up with illness, droughts, fire, flood, earthquake and volcano which seem to become increasingly severe.

The Old Testament promised “the Day of the Lord” when the lion shall lie down with the ox, and when “they will not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain”.

The first coming of Jesus saw him take on board the most horrendous of suffering so that we might be acquitted when we respond in faith and repentance. He promised to restore and rebuild a perfect cosmic order.

We still await the return of Christ.

In the meantime, Christian ethics commend the love of God in the manner revealed in the Bible, and call for a retrieval of all that can be salvaged in a painful world. That is, until Christ returns, when “he shall wipe away all tears from their eyes”.

Christ gave us some keys to interpreting disaster. See Luke 13: 1-5. He referred to two disasters. One was man-made. The other was an accident. In both cases, Jesus made two observations to guide us.

The disasters were not a punishment on those who suffered in them.

The disasters were a “wake up call” that if people do not repent of their sin, they will experience an eternal suffering of which the disasters are a parallel. In a world that is still fallen, we do have some answers in God's word. We grieve and hurt. We thank God that in the Cross he has entered into human pain, that Jesus is risen and nothing can separate from him those wo trust him.

Lindsay Johnstone

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