Dr Greg Bahnsen - A Christian View of War: The Source of Wars (Part 1)

This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonson Institute, where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

Please turn with me in your Bibles for our Scripture reading this evening. To James, the third chapter, the New Testament, the Epistle of James. Beginning the reading at James chapter three and the 13th verse through the fourth chapter, verse 10. Hear now God's word, who is wise and understanding among you. Let him show by his good light his works in meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and faction in your heart, boast not and do not lie against the truth. This wisdom is not a wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where jealousy and faction are, there is confusion in every vile deed. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without variance, without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for them that make peace, whence come wars, and whence come fightings among you? Come they not hence even of your pleasures that war in your members ye lost and have not. Ye kill and covet and cannot obtain. Ye fight in war ye have not because ye ask not ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it upon your pleasures, ye adulteresses. Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world, maketh himself an enemy of God. Or think ye that the Scripture speaketh in vain? Doth the spirit, which he made to dwell in us long into envying, but he giveth more grace. Wherefore the Scripture saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. Be subject therefore unto God, but resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall exalt you. And thus far the reading of God's Word. I cut my teeth, ethically speaking, on the war in Vietnam. I grew up during those tumultuous days in our nation. I remember very well. I know exactly where I was when I first heard on the radio that shots had been fired in the gulf of Tolkien. I was at the end of my junior year in high school, very soon thereafter, obviously, I was in college in the midst of the greatest turmoil our nation went through in terms of pairing and the divided of neighbor against neighbor and son against father, daughter against mother, in terms of so many ethical matters, whether they had to do with racial integration or the sexual revolution, the counterculture, the use of drugs, what have you. But more than anything else in that period, the issue that brought out the moral convictions of people, brought out their confusions as well as their emotional feelings, was the war in Vietnam. And it's not a very good feeling to be living today and to live through again that up and down, that again tumultuous inner struggle that takes place as we hear people talking about the war that is now being waged in the Middle east, our nation is involved in that. I remember so well hearing people chant on the college campuses and around buildings having to do with government affairs, hell no, we won't go. Seeing bumper stickers that said America, love it or leave it. And thinking to myself, what terrible options those represent. Such unthoughtful, such categorical, such unrefined and not well argued positions are being heard in our nation. And what is hurting us, it seems to me, is not just the ethical problem itself, but our irresponsibility in the way we approach that ethical problem, the way that we think about ethics. And that indictment, I think, unfortunately applies to the Christian church as well. So often what I heard Christians saying in those days was nothing more but a pale reflection of what you could hear so easily out in the streets anyway. And so we bring into God's house, as it were, worldly opinions, worldly thought forms, and then try to baptize them with a verse here and there that would support peace on the one hand or warfare on the other. And it was a very sad thing. And I just hope to God that that is not what we're in for again, as God's people and as a nation, as we face a war which to all the outward human appearances would not seem to be a war that's going to go the direction of Vietnam, all of the lingering problems and the humiliation that the station went through, it may be that we won't face those problems of arguing with each other and not being able to really explicate our ethical foundations and presuppositions and get straight on those things. Perhaps God in His mercy will spare us that. But you see, if he does, we still are under obligation to think biblically. We're still under obligation to think as his people. We're still under obligation to be those who support the government, as Romans 13 tells us, and yet to be followers of Jesus who blesses those who are peacemakers rather than warmongers. And so the problem will be there, even if God should be merciful and spare us a lot of internal dissent and distress over it. The problem, however, is upon us. I don't know what it's like here in Akron, Ohio. I've just come into town today, but back where I live in Southern California, you have the protests going both ways. The interesting thing is there's a lot more pro war protest going on in Southern California than I saw previously. Maybe the people who are in favor of the war effort have learned the lesson of Vietnam, that we need to demonstrate openly our support for our troops, as much as we let people demonstrate their hostility to the decision to be involved in that war. But the fact is, I see things on television. I hear people speaking on the issue, I hear the protesters and they're chanting, that have to do with the Butcher of Baghdad? There's no question in our mind that the man who is described for us as the Butcher of Baghdad is a very wicked man. A man who falls under the wrath and curse of God for violating the law of God and the holiness of God, and working contrary to that which any leader should be. A person who is self centered. A person who has no concern for his own people, much less people in surrounding nations. A person who is greedy, a person who is bloodthirsty, a person who is cruel. The Butcher of Baghdad needs to be stopped. And what Christian does not. When hearing these reports, provided they are true, and one would have to think at least a good percentage of that would be true. So much is there and so much is verified. What Christian does not say. How can I stand back and be indifferent to the kinds of things this man does and in fact has now violated international law that has taken a territory that does not belong to him. On the other hand, we hear those protesters and those who speak against the war chanting, no blood for oil. No blood for oil. And my mind goes back to the difficulties that we had during the Vietnam conflict and trying to discern just exactly what is our government doing. What is the truth of the matter? What is motivating us? It's such a complicated thing. We don't always get the truth. It has been rightly said, I believe that the first casualty of war is the truth. And whatever your stand may be on our present conflict, whatever your stand may be, I hope that you will at least be chastened with that reality that. That if you think what you're getting over your TV tube is the unvarnished, unedited truth, then you are naive and you will be misled. War must be justified on both sides. And therefore people who do not have scruples, especially those who do not share our Christian commitment to a God of truth, will not hesitate in a relativistic age. And when the pragmatic pressure is upon them to justify their evidence, to bend the truth, to fabricate reports, and to tell you what they think you want to hear or need to hear. Truth is the first casualty of war. And let's not forget that as we come to drawing our conclusions about the present involvement in the Middle East. No blood for oil. Are we there for the sake of oil? Well, some say no. Some say absolutely yes. I have a son who is draftable age. I love him, one of my best friends in this world. I would hate to see him go fight a bloody battle for the sake of you having cheaper gas. I hope you don't mind me saying that, but I love my son so much that I'd rather see you pay more for gas than to see his life lost. And so I worry about, are we there for selfish purposes? Are we there willing to spend American dollars and to shed American blood for the sake of our convenience? Is it that kind of conflict? Are we really being the policeman of the world and going after the butcher of Baghdad, or are we over there really protecting our own economic interests? What is going on here? We have a president who speaks of a new world order, a president pursuing a policy of internationalism that sounds to many people almost like the other side of the coin of the kingdom of God. I mean, promising peace and cooperation and prosperity and harmony among the nations. And this is one of the ways we may achieve it. If we finally stop this man, we stop the Muslim tyrants of this world and so forth, and communism is on the way. We may be on the verge of a new world order. So we're told. On the other hand, we are told by people that what we're really going through here is a patriotic catharsis regarding the United States of America and its place in world history and among the family of nations. You see, having been humiliated in Vietnam, we are told by some people that we need this kind of exercise to reassure ourselves that we are number one, that we are tough. We are the macho nation that can do what it wants to do. And certainly the early reports of the conflict in the Middle east would tend to bolster those kinds of feelings. What good patriotic American wouldn't feel as I do when I hear those reports. We do have the technology, we do have the best soldiers on earth and so forth and so on. But is that what we're there for? And as a Christian, do I support that kind of thinking, that kind of attitude? You see what I mean? This is a very confusing time. It's an unfortunate time for us as Christians, I think. And yet it's an opportunity that we have as God's people to look at His Word and to understand it better. And I think if we do understand how we as Christians should analyze this war effort, we will also be motivated to see how the kingdom of God must be advanced through all of the ups and downs of world history and that our real concern should be to deal with the source of wars so that we don't have to face them and to deal with them as God would have us do. So in the next three evenings, I'd like to talk to you then about the source of wars. Tonight's topic, and then tomorrow evening, Lord willing to talk about the conducting of wars. Does the Bible have anything to say about that? Or once we get into a war, is it every man for himself and anything goes? And then finally, on our third evening, I'd like to speak about the end of wars and how the Bible speaks of warfare being an end being put to it, and how we can pursue that and what the best policy we should pursue as Christians would be if we really want to be peacemakers. So tonight let's ask ourselves, what is the source of wars? What does the word of God have to tell us about that? And I would ask you to turn in your Bibles with me to Genesis, the fourth chapter, and I'd like to read verses 1 to 15 for you. Genesis 4, verses 1 to 15. We consider the question from the early history of the human race, what is it that is the source of. Of war? What I'm going to be reading for you might be properly described as the First World War, because we're going to be reading the story of Cain and Abel. And though I believe that it's obvious from the context that Cain and Abel are not the only children of Adam and Eve, even at this point, for reasons that have become apparent in the text, the fact is that Cain and Abel are the only two mentioned in a sense, in terms of the known world, half or one quarter, we have to count Adam and Eve in population. A quarter of the population, in a sense, is going to be wiped out with One act of violence here. But let's read the biblical account and see what it tells us about the source of war. And the man knew Eve his wife. And she conceived and bare Cain. And said, I have gotten a man with the help of Jehovah. And again she bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto Jehovah and Abel. He also brought of the firstlings of his flock, of the fat thereof. And Jehovah had respect unto Abel and to his offering. But unto Cain, and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth. And his countenance fell. And Jehovah said unto Cain, why art thou wroth? And why is thy countenance? If thou doest well, shall it not be lifted up? And if thou doest not well, sin toucheth at the door, and unto thee shall be its desire, but do thou rule over it? And Cain told Abel his brother. And it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and slew him. And Jehovah said unto Cain, where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I don't know.

Am I my brother's keeper?

And he said, what hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now cursed art thou from the ground which hath opened its mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee its strength. A fugitive and a wanderer shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto Jehovah, my punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the ground. And from thy face shall I be hid. And I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth. And it shall come to pass that whosoever findeth me will slay me. And Jehovah said unto him, therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And Jehovah appointed a sign for Cain, lest any finding him should smite him. Dreadful are these words in verse eight. And it came to pass when they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel, his brother and slogan. It's hard for you to feel the intensity and the significance of that declaration of the Bible because you watch the evening news. You hear of people who are killed day by day. You hear of people that are murdered, murdered for money, murdered for drugs, murdered out of vengeance, out of feeling of anger or retaliation. I don't know about here, but out in Southern California we hear the numbers, we're killed in gang warfare every weekend and so forth. We get jaded to that. But here in the Word of God, we come across the first indication of that kind of violent interaction between people, between two brothers, as it turns out. Why did Cain slay Abel? What was the source of the problem? Here we have people who have written long, detailed scholarly treatises on the source warfare and why it comes about. One of the most, I think, important theses that God's people should be aware of in our day and age is the Marxist understanding of history. Karl Marx taught and those who were his students elaborated upon the idea that all of history, you see, is driven by economic factors. We don't need to get into the philosophical subtleties of the dialectical view of history that Marx was committed to. But Marx did believe that it was economic institutions and economic factors and economic desires that would drive history. And for that very reason, it's economics that creates the institutions of men, economics that controls the political interactions of men, and therefore economics that makes for war. Now, when you look at the story of Cain and Abel, have you seen a great deal of economic analysis? Do you see God explaining that Cain was really trying to gain something economically by killing his brother? Of course, at this early stage of history, this Marxist analysis is absurd. It has nothing to do with it. The whole world was available and you have two brothers, one involved in one kind of livelihood killing the ground, the other in another kind of livelihood, herding animals and eating from that, they had no reason at all to be at war with each other, no reason at all to be upset with each other. They didn't want anything from each other. That's the amazing thing. Cain kills Abel and gets nothing from the transaction at all. He doesn't want his business, he doesn't want his wife, he doesn't want anything. Sometimes we fold. The source of war, the source of violence in this world, comes from the fact that we haven't been trained properly by our parents and by those who are our overseers, our teachers, or what have you. We have a behaviorist explanation for human conduct that tells us that if we could just condition people in the right way so they respond in a peaceful fashion, then we could get rid of the idea of children fighting over toys and grown adults fighting over automobiles and drugs and so forth. If we could just have a better conditioned Response environment in history for them. Look at the story of Cain and Abel and ask yourself this. The behaviorist account. Show us the source of war here. Is it the fact that society had not conditioned Cain and Abel to get along very well? What society? There isn't a whole lot. There's apparently some society. Cain is worried that as he is now a vagabond on the earth, someone is going to find him and kill him. So we do know there's something more to the human race. Yes, it isn't detailed for us. We have to read between the lines, if you will. But it isn't that hard to do. It's obvious that Cain and Abel have wives. They are going to bear children. The history of the world goes on, so forth. So there is some limited society. But the point is, this is the first generation of the human race. Hardly enough time to have all of those violent tendencies and proclivity for war built into their personalities by the way they had been conditioned by the environments of the society in which they lived. Ask yourself, why did Cain kill Abel? The Bible tells us that Cain became very angry and his countenance fell when he found out that God did not have respect for him and his offering, but he did have respect for his brother and his brother's offering. Now, this has led many theologians and many exegetes in Scripture into a long, detailed discussion as to just what it is about Abel's offering that was acceptable to God. I suppose the most popular thesis in evangelical circles, it's one that I do not subscribe to, although I understand its motivation. The most popular thesis is that because he tended animals and because God had had to kill an animal at the beginning of the human story and cover his mother and father, there was something acceptable about the offering of an animal to God where we get the idea of blood sacrifice. And then of course, we can build backward into this account all of what we learned from the Mosaic Law and of course, the sacrifice of Christ and so forth. All of that, you see is seen in retrospect, built into the story of Cain and Abel. I think that's really reading into the story a lot more than you can find there. Here's what you can find there. The Bible says that Jehovah had respect for Abel and to his offering. It does not say he had respect unto his offering and therefore unto Abel. Do you understand the significance of that? It isn't as though Jehovah was looking for the right kind of offering and Abel happened, you see, to pick the right door. I mean, is the reward behind door one or door two, he chooses the right one. And because the offering is acceptable now Abel is acceptable. No, it's because Abel was acceptable to God that his offering was. God had respect unto him. And to his offering and the very opposite pertain. And I think you'll find a confirmation for that understanding of the passage in Hebrews 11. 4. Hebrews 11, you know, is the hallmark of faith gives us the example of faithful men of the Old Testament. Faithful men and women bids us to follow their example. And one of those examples comes From Abel. Verse 4 says, by faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had witness borne to him that he was righteous. God bearing witness in respect of his gifts. And through it, he being dead, yet speaketh by faith. Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice. It was the faith, you see, of Abel that made him acceptable before God. It wasn't the actual nature of the gift itself. And now Cain looks at this, and being a person who is not acceptable to God by faith, being a person who in one way or another is living for himself and is trying to please God by his sacrifice, by his offering, and not coming by means of faith is Abel. He gets angry. When you think about it, I don't imagine Cain Musard stupid as to think that if he killed his brother, God would all of a sudden be happy with Cain's offering. I think Cain thought for a moment that if he eliminated the competition, then he'd be all right before God. No, he simply despised the fact that his brother was right with God and he wasn't. Source of war in one sense can be seen already back in Genesis 3:15, where God says, in confronting Adam and Eve in their sin and eating the forbidden fruit, I will put enmity between Satan the serpent and thy seed. After thee. There is going to be enmity to be dealt with. Enemies are going to be formed over very fundamental spiritual matters. Whether we follow God and his commandments and submit to him in faith, or whether we follow ourselves, that enmity has been put there by God. And the first expression of that enmity that we read of in the Bible is this tragic story of the two brothers, the one killing the other. There was enmity there because the faithless brother Cain hated the faithful brother Abel and he couldn't deal with it. God told him, if you do well, then everything is going to be okay. But if you don't, you'd better be careful. Sin is right there crouching at the door, and you'd better lord it over. That you better get control of yourself, Cain. And so you see the graciousness of God, who doesn't immediately intervene to punish Cain to deal with this sin right then and there, but gives Cain an opportunity for repentance, warns him of what the problem is, shows him the way of peace. And the Bible says, rather, Cain went out into the field, told Abel this story. Had Abel said this? Was Abel the source of Cain's problem? Had Abel gotten in the way of Cain pleasing God? Had Abel been the one who rebuked his brother Cain? No, it was God who did so. It was God who warned him of sin going to control him. And the Bible says Cain went out. And for no economic motivation, not because he hadn't been trained properly, he went out and he slew his brother. Now how do you account for that? Sin is ugly and sin is irrational. There's no good reason for wouldn't benefit him in the slightest, but because of the fact that his inward desires, because he was not satisfied, because he was unsatisfied in his life, because he was wrong and the other was right, he slew him. We see the sinful pride, anger and desire that is at the source, the root cause of violence and therefore of War. Verse 5. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. Verse 7. God says to him, if thou doest not well, sin coucheth at the door, and unto thee shall be its desire. The source of war is sin, selfish desire and pride that will not be satisfied because they will not conform to God's wishes, will not come to God by means of faith. So we see in Genesis 3:15, the introduction of enmity into this world. Where God said, there is going to be a dividing of the human race. There are going to be those who are children of Satan, and those who are children of God, who are children of Adam and Eve, those who come to him in faith. God introduces the enmity, because that is the judgment upon sin. And then in chapter four, verse eight, we see the introduction of enmity into world by man. We see what God has done and now we see what man does about it. Man introduces enmity into the human race. And I want you to look at verse 14 as well, the end of that verse. Cain is justly fearful that after God has confronted him for being a murderer and has driven him from the face of the ground and from the face of God, he says, I'll be a wanderer on the earth, and it shall come to pass that whosoever findeth me will slay me. It's amazing. We don't know how much God said to Adam and Eve or to Cain and Abel, but it's not recorded in our Bibles. And so it's dangerous to speculate. I realize. I don't know whether perhaps God said nothing at all and it was simply the law of God that is manifest in creation, that all men know in their heart of hearts. That was crying out within Cain when he said this. Maybe he was responding to something God had explicitly taught. But the fact is Cain knew that his violence would now beget violence. And in this case it would not be a violence that stemmed from the irrationality of inward desire and sin, that it would be a violence that would come because of vengeance. When I am found, I will be slain. And we will have to speculate on another evening as to why God spares this.

I don't think it's that hard to figure out.

The human race at this point could not tolerate the elimination of the other.

Major son of Adam and Eve.

I think the human race would have been wiped out if God had decided to take the due vengeance upon Cain at this point. And so God, in his mercy and because of his own redemptive plan, doesn't do so. But whether that's the reason or not, the fact is Cain knew that he had been a violent man. And now more violence would come. And this would now not be the violence that comes from sin striking out in anger, an unfulfilled desire and dissatisfaction. But this would rather be the anger and the vengeance that comes because sin.

Must be dealt with in a fallen.

World in a violent way. It's a very sad fact, but Cain knew it from the very beginning. The first introduction of violence into the history of mankind comes from God himself in Genesis 3, verse 24. You'll notice we read there that Jehovah drove man out of the garden and placed at the east of the garden of Eden the cherubim and the flame of sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. God drove man and his wife out of the garden, violently expelling them from his presence, in particular the presence of the tree of life. And there he places the first use of the sword, a sword of flame apparently borne by the cherubim to keep man from returning that he might seize the tree of life. God is the first one to introduce violence into this world. And then when we see violence used by man thereafter, of course it's the sinful use of violence that we find in the slaying of Abel by Cain. His brother, the self centered use of violence rather than the use of violence for the purposes of God and justice. And when man takes it into his hands to use violence, it only escalates the problem of violence in the world. Later on in Genesis, the fourth chapter, we read of this individual named Lamech. Lamech sings this song to his wives Adah and Zillah. Hear my voice, ye wives of Lamech, Hearken unto my speech. For I have slain a man for wounding me and a young man for bruising me. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold. Truly Lamech, 70 and sevenfold. What a perverse song. What a perverse misunderstanding of what God was doing in the life of Cain. But his point is, if Cain did such and such, then I am seven times better. The use of violence, you see, leads to more violence and the escalation and the glorification of violence. And that should bother us the fact that God uses violence and there's even an elementary recognition that violence will have to be used against sin by men in this world. The fact that the Bible reveals that does not mean the Bible approves of violence. It's says, well then I guess it's okay. I mean, after all it's a fallen world. What can you do about it? Lamech is not being commended in this. The first introduction of compulsion and violence is God's. The second is man's. And when man introduces it escalates and is not under the pleasure of God, but rather is wrath and curse. The Bible also teaches us that the last use of compulsion and violence will be God's. Turning your Bibles to Matthew the 25th chapter, verse 41, Matthew 25:41. Then shall he say unto them, on the left hand, depart from me, ye cursed, into eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels. In the same way that God drove Adam and Eve from his presence and place the flaming sword there to protect any idea of returning to the tree of life. So the day is coming on the day of Judgment when the sheep and the goats will be separated. And to those on the left God will say, depart from me. You are driven from my presence, driven from the tree of life, and you will now be driven into the eternal fire, there to be tormented day and night. The book of Revelation tells us even more of that of those who are not allowed to come into the holy new Jerusalem, the city of God on the day of Judgment, who will be barred from it and will be put in the lake of fire that burns forever. The first use of violence is God's and the last use of violence will be God's. And in the meantime, we see violence being used for sinful purposes and escalating. And we have some hope that violence will need to be used as well to correct the injustices and the aggressions of men in this world. What then is the source of warfare? Why do we have wars? Because of sin? Because we are not right with God. And you know, you don't have to be a sophisticated political scientist or someone who studied philosophy for many years or human psychology or anything at all. You can be but the most faithful, simple Christian in the pew, reading your Bibles to see how silly so much talk of war is in our day, because it does not deal with what is the actual source of war. And until we deal with the source of war, we will continue to have wars and we will continue to be tormented by just and unjust wars and confusing situations about violence until we deal with the sin problem. I'd like to confirm from the New Testament this interpretation that I've given you of the story of Cain and Abel and a source of war by turning to James, chapter three, which is our scripture reading. In James three we read of a wisdom which is from above and a wisdom that is from below. James talks about that divine wisdom that is given to us as the gracious gift of God. He also talks of that devilish wisdom, that earthly wisdom that comes from below. And what he tells us very simply is that the genesis of all strife between us as individuals, the genesis of all strife is our own desires, our own lusts. Verse 1 of chapter 4 says, Whence come wars, and whence confidence from among you come they not hence even of your pleasures or desires could be translated lust that roar in your members. If we knew the wisdom that was from above, however, we would not have bitter jealousy in our hearts and factions. We would rather be people who are first pure, then peaceable, than easy to be intreated. Now, we could preach tonight about the individual application of this. I hope that some of you will go home and reflect on this. What kind of wisdom or foolishness do you display in your own life? Individually? Are you a pugnacious person? Are you prone to fight and argue and to get into strife? Do you think that displays the wisdom of God? Chapter three of James says, the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for them that make peace. Are you a peacemaker? Is that how you are known? Can that justly be said of you, that you are a person who reconciles parties and seeks to be Self sacrificial in his or her attitude. Someone who is willing to give way and to make for peace. If so, then that's a wisdom that's from above. That's the wisdom that's easy to intrigue. That's the wisdom that's peaceable. But if you have strife and jealousy and faction in your heart, James says this comes from the devil, this comes from below. Don't attribute that to God. And as I've already indicated in verse one of chapter four, the source of war is our sinful desires. The source of war is internal and spiritual. It comes from the fact that we are not right with God and we are not living according to God's guidance. If we did that, we would not be devilish and earthly and full of faction and strife as Cain was toward his brother Abel. We would rather be peacemakers rather than peace destroyers. In verse two of chapter four he says, you desire, you lust and you have not. You kill, you covet and you cannot obtain, you fight and you war. James just drives the point home like driving in a nail with these hammer blows over and over again. Why are you fighting? Why is there strife? Because you are sinful and selfish people. And he says in verse three that even your prayers are selfish and that's why they aren't heard and answered. You ask and receive, not because you ask amiss that you may spend it upon your pleasures. You pray self centered prayers. You pray because you want your desires fulfilled. Your prayer is not an act of worship and bowing before God and saying thy will be done. Your prayer is give me, give me, give me. That's the kind of people you are. And if that's the way you are before the very holy presence of God, then how will you act before your fellow men? Obviously you'll be full of faction and strife and even killing and warfare and fighting. Verse 4 We learn that this comes from the love of the world. You adulteresses. Know ye not that friendship with the world is enmity with God? There again is that word God has introduced enmity in the human race and that enmity is going to come to expression in what we desire. If we desire worldly things, we desire sinful things, we desire things which are out of accord with God's will. Then we make ourselves enemies with God himself. Your love of the world creates enmity with God. And then two more indications here. In verses 6 and 10 we find that this love of the world and enmity that is in us comes from the fact that we are proud people even as Cain was a proud person, would not hear the rebuke of God or approach him in faith. Verse 6 says, But he giveth more grace. Wherefore the Scripture says, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble, to those who recognize their need of his intervention in their lives, those who recognize their need of his saving power and his grace. Verse 10. Humble yourselves then in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you. The only way in which Cain could have prevented that war with Abel, his brother is if he had humbled himself in the sight of God and been willing to receive the gracious work of God for his salvation. If Cain had kept sin in its place, it had not been full of sinful desire that could not be satisfied. If he were not so proud, he would not have ended up being a violent man. Where do wars come from? They come from sin and pride and unfulfilled desire, a desire that is not only unfulfilled, but desires which are unfulfillable. Because nothing can truly satisfy us in this world except approaching God in faith and receiving his grace as humble people. That's a very simple Christian message. And if that message were understood, we would not be at war today. If that message were understood, we would not have been at war in Vietnam. If that message were understood, we would not have fought World War II or World War I and on and on back. Cain and Abel would not have been at it with each other if that message were understood. The Bible tells us this is where war comes from. Tonight I'd like to before we close, have you considered what I think is perhaps the most fundamental question that has to be answered by anybody who studies ethics, especially when you come to the question of the ethics of war, does might make light when we have a difficulty between two individuals, when we have a difficulty between two factions or two parties, when we have a difficulty, some dispute between two nations is the rightness of a cause established by the military might or whatever other kinds of power can be brought to bear in the situation. Does might settle the question. Now, in the history of the United States, because we have enjoyed some measure of military success, I think we have a tendency to think, even though it doesn't sound right, that maybe that is true. If you are the victor in a war, you tend to think, well, that does show that our cause was just and we are right. And yet those of us who trace our roots spiritually further back than US Patriotism, those of us who consider ourselves members of the kingdom of God know that throughout history Very often those who have been in the right, those who have been God's children, have been abused and persecuted by those who have the power to do so. And in that case, of course, we're the first to jump up and say might doesn't make right. So what is it? What is the place of the use of violence and force and power and ethical concerns? Is right and wrong established by whoever has the toughest army? To put it very brutally, the Bible would teach us that right to that which reflects the justice of God, the very character of God is not established by the wars of men and their violence, but is established only by God's own self revelation. The rightness or wrongness of an action has nothing to do with whether you get away with it or whether you have enough power and enough army to help you do it. The rightness or wrongness of something has to do with whether it fits into God's guidance for human life. What is the proper way to settle grievances between individuals? What is the proper way to settle grievances between parties or between nations? Whether these grievances are real or just imagined? The proper way to settle grievances is to appeal to the standards of justice which reflect the very character of God. Grievances are not settled by the appeal to violence. And I'm going to be very careful here because in a moment I'm going to say sometimes violence must be used for the enforcement of justice in this world. But the enforcement of justice is not the same as justice itself. The fact that force is used and is used successfully does not establish the rightness of the cause. Nevertheless, the right cause does need in this world to be enforced. Might does not make right, and might is only justified when it is itself backed by the right. The proper way to settle grievances is to appeal to the standards of justice that God has revealed, rather than to appeal to violence. Because you see, when you appeal to violence, that only invites another redress of your use of violence. By what? More violence? As long as violence is the way we settle our grievances, the way justice is brought about in this world, violence will continue to escalate. Violence will beget violence. That sounds almost biblical, doesn't it? Jesus says, put up your sword for all those who take the sword shall die by the sword and by the way that platitude holds even for those who take the sword justly. To enter into a warlike mentality is to start playing a game that doesn't end just because you are happy. At a certain point we can just call it off here. Violence begets violence and will never alter be the end of violence. There can be no war, you see, to make the world safe for democracy, because war begets war. The proper way to settle grievances is to appeal to the standards of justice rather than to violence. And by the standards of justice, I do not mean what the Enlightenment called man's reason. I mean, you do have treatises on peace in this world written by people who said if we could all just be reasonable creatures and talk to each other in terms of common sense, then we get rid of warfare. No, I'm sorry, that isn't true. Cain slew his brother Abel, and it was an unreasonable act. It doesn't meet any standard of common sense for him to have done that. And yet he did it. War will not be ended by appeals to man's reason, nor will war be ended by appeals to majority opinion. We can't evaluate whether we go into a war or end a war or how we should assess a war simply on the basis of what the majority thinks or what is pragmatic, what's in our best interest individually or as a country. The only thing that will settle grievances once and for all is appealing to the objective standard of right and wrong that we find God Himself revealing to us in His Word. And to put it very simply, I think many of you know that I've written in the subject of God's law the objective necessity of it and its continuing validity. If we do not have an objective law from God that governs us in our sociopolitical affairs and therefore in our international affairs, if there is no such law of God that governs these things, then there is no hope for finding a just evaluation of warfare and never ending it. Of course, the law will not in itself end war. But if there is not a law of God to settle our grievances individually and internationally, then we are doomed to perpetual warfare as the only means left to resolve disputes. To put it very simply, peace calls for a law order that will check man's sin, a law order against which we can evaluate the unjust aggression of political leaders and can redress it. If there is not that objective standard or order by which we evaluate and guide our own involvement in the use of violence, then violence will beget violence, and it will not end a perpetual history of warfare because there is no objective right and wrong to guide us. And now, as I've already hinted, in a fallen world, if we have such an objective standard of right and wrong in A fallen world. If God has shown his justice and what it demands of us, that standard of justice will need to be enforced. Romans 12:19 tells us that God alone.

Is the avenger of right and wrong.

Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay. And yet we know that the way in which God exercises his vengeance in this world against evildoers in some measure, the way in which God does that is through the agency of the civil state, the task of vengeance has been delegated to some degree to men by means of the sword of the state. In Romans 13:4, Paul tells us that the magistrate, the higher power, is an avenger of wrath against the one who does evil. And this follows just verses after Paul has already said, God alone is the avenger of wrath. And so we know that in Paul's theology he sees the state as having a divine commission to follow out God's word in avenging wrath against evildoers. But if vengeance is to be waged by men following God's direction, if men are to be the ministers of God in using violence to avenge evil doing, then we learn from this, don't we, that the vengeance that is used must be circumscribed. It cannot be simply anybody because of the way he feels or whatever he thinks is reasonable, going out and punishing people even to the point of death. That vengeance must be circumscribed by God himself and his direction. That vengeance must be circumscribed by questions of jurisdiction. What has God allowed the state to have jurisdiction over? Is it all right for the state to enter into my home and punish me because my children don't brush their teeth? Does the state have the right to enter into your home and regulate your eating because you may be overweight? Does the state have the right to govern our religious devotion and worship? Can the state do anything it wishes? Or may it only exercise vengeance and apply penal sanctions where God is corrected? Well, I think the answer should be obvious to us. The state is not God. The state is the servant of God and consequently may only use its power of compulsion. Only use violence and vengeance where God has directed it, where God has given it jurisdiction and guidance for how to do this. So vengeance is inescapable in a world enslaved to sin. However, we have to remember that that vengeance is either going to be directed by might, pure considerations of power, or that vengeance will be directed by considerations of right, considerations of God's justice and direction. I believe that as Christians, we have to come to the conclusion that war in a fallen world. Even where war stem from the sinful desires of men, war is sometimes necessary as the extension of the police powers of the state. For you see, the state has been charged by God, as Romans 13 shows us, with protecting the lives and property of its citizens. The state has been charged with God with enforcing justice. Now, the one who oppresses me, who might take away my life or deprive me of my property, can be an individual or it can be many individuals. Moreover, this one or many can be someone that is an internal enemy or an external enemy. If the state is charged with protecting me against injustice, the unjust taking of my life or property, then the state must protect me, whether the aggressor is someone that's a fellow citizen or some foreign enemy. Understood in this way, though, warfare is always a reflection of that violence that does not show us the very character of God, and always a reflection of the fact that sin has had the upper hand. Warfare does become necessary sometimes as an extension of the police powers of the state. To protect the innocent. The state may restrain with appropriate force, that is to say, may restrain with the use of violence that is proportionate to the occasion. The state may restrain with appropriate force and punish with due sanction any aggressor who was injur of the innocent. And I believe this applies even when the aggressor is a foreign enemy. Sometimes the state is right to go to war to protect its citizens, to do its God given task of protecting them against violence that is sinful and unjust. The source of wars, therefore, is sin in two senses.

And we have to keep this in mind.

War comes into our experience. War dots the history of mankind because of sin, but that in two ways. First, war arises from sinful desires leading to violence. We see that in the case of Cain and Abel. We see what James has to say about that. Wars and fighting come from the fact that we have unsatisfied desires and we don't approach God in faith. We don't put him at the center of our lives.

We don't live according to his direction.

War arises from sin. But secondly, and this is just as important to remember, war is also the tragic remedy for violence that stems from selfish sin. Sometimes warfare arises as the extension of the police power of the state to protect its citizens. So war in one sense gives rise to sin, and on the other hand, war is the remedy for sin. To a certain extent it is true that warfare is always an indication of spiritual failure. God's way of justice has been violated by the guilty party.

In a war.

But God's way of peace has not been successfully pursued or applied by the confronting party in war either. War is always a dreadful, dreadful evil. War is always an indication that sin has not been addressed properly, not being controlled in the person of the aggressor, and that peace has not been won by the one that must confront the aggressor. War is a spiritual defeat. We'll talk more about this in our third evening together when I talk about the end of war and how God intends to bring that about. But for this evening, let me make three applications in closing with our thesis that sin is in a twofold sense, the source of war. The first is that categorical pacifism is unrealistic, is unloving, and is unbiblical. Categorical pacifism that says that we don't want any war, that war is unchristian. The that we shouldn't involve ourselves ever in a war like conflict with a foreign enemy. It's not a Christian position. It's not a loving position. It's not a realistic position. In Romans 12:18, Paul says, as much as lies in you, be at peace with all men. You notice Paul doesn't say, be at peace with all men. He says, as much as it lies in you, as much as it's in your control, as much as you have something to do with it, be at peace with all men. But that provision, that contingency, as much as it relies on you, indicates that Paul knows that it won't always be possible to pursue the idea of peace at any cost. And peace under all circumstances is simply not realistic. Peace is not always available. Sadly, in a fallen world, able was not able to secure peace. Moreover, peace is not always loving. Sometimes it's possible to secure peace to stop aggression, but in so doing, we are being very unjust and very unloving to the victims that have had that aggression brought against them, whose property or lives are being threatened. Peace is not the highest and only value in Christian ethics, though it is a very high value, as you will see in my subsequent messages. But peace is not the only value. And peace is not always loving. Peace is not always just. Moreover, we must be careful when people suggest to us that love is the counterbalance to justice. The idea that we pursue a just war is supposed to be counterbalanced by people saying, but love is more important than justice. That is not a biblical way of looking at it. Love is not more important than justice, and nor is justice more important than love. They are equally attributes of God. They are not subordinate to one another. It is unjust to be unloving and unloving to be unjust. You see, if someone comes over and takes away my children and destroys my property and takes my life, and you say, well, the most loving thing to do is to avoid dealing with that injustice, I would say you are not being very loving to me at all. You may be loving the criminal who's attacking me, but you're sure not loving me when you subordinate justice to the concerns of peace. Peace is not always loving. It is not always just. And love is not in conflict with justice. Warfare, therefore, sometimes is the realistic necessity, and it is not contrary to Christian values. Though this is not the verse that is often used to prove this point, I think it does sufficiently do it. Turning your bibles to Hebrews 11, I'd like to show you that warfare is not contrary to the Christian life of faith. Hebrews 11, as you know, goes through the hall of fame of Old Testament saints. Many who did things that we recognize we read about in the Old Testament as expressions of their faith in God and their perseverance. And I want you to begin our reading here at verse 33. Will those who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword from weakness, were made strong, waxed mighty in war, turned to flight armies of aliens through faith they did it. We do not have indications in the Bible of men doing sinful things through faith. The Bible tells us without faith it's impossible to please him. It's also true that anything that is done in faith will please him. And through faith, some people we read were made mighty in warfare, mighty in battle, and put to flight enemies. Faith can indeed be expressed through warfare. That isn't to say it always is. Not all wars are expressions of faith, but war can be, obviously was in some cases because the Bible teaches us so. God is described in the Bible as Jehovah, opposed the Lord of armies. He is called a mighty warrior. The Christian in Ephesians, the sixth chapter, is described as the Christian soldier outfitted for hammer. We don't have anything in the Bible like the Christian prostitute, the Christian thief. You see holding that up as a model, even though here obviously it has spiritual application, indicates that the model itself is approved by God, at least in some cases. The Christian soldier. Categorical pacifism is not biblical. I don't think it's loving. I don't think it's realistic. And yet the second application we need.

To See tonight, which will lead us into our message tomorrow evening is that.

War must be just. War cannot be approved of by those that are followers of Jesus Christ indiscriminately. We cannot approve of it categorically. War must be pursued to avoid God's displeasure because he's the sovereign judge over nations. And when those who are innocent are being oppressed, warfare is called for. But we must remember as well that war is a sign of sin, that sin is being dealt with as well as sin is bringing about the conflict. And so we'll see tomorrow evening that if war is going to be approved by God, it must have a just cause. We must have a right to enter into such a conflict. And thirdly, the way in which its prosecutor must be just. War is not something that autonomous and sinful men can direct of themselves. War must be under the direction of God. Remember, there must be that law order against which and to which appeal can be made for the resolution of disputes and the endings of war. And thirdly, there can be no hope of doing away with war until its root cause, sin, is adequately dealt with first. And our third evening, we'll deal with that. How God will put an end to war and how there is hope for us both in this life and the.

Next, to see that take place.

But there is no hope, no honest, adequate, realistic solution to the problem of.

War that doesn't first come and deal with God's holy word and the source of all warfare, which is the sin that is waging and sod on.

Our Heavenly Father, we come to you.

This night in the midst of a.

Troubled, turbulent time in our nation and.

Confess that we must humble ourselves as your people.

We do not understand all of the issues. We know terrible time of conflict. Lives are being threatened and lost, property is being destroyed. And we wish to think your thoughts.

After you, to think in such a.

Way that pleases you as we evaluate this war effort.

And we pray tonight that you will drive home to our hearts by the power of your Holy Spirit this very fundamental, though often neglected, truth, that war stems from sin. And in that sense, though we may.

Not individually be at fault for the.

Conflict that is now raging, we confess to you, Lord of heaven and earth, that within our own hearts there is.

That sinfulness, that pride, and that evil.

Desire which is the source of strife between us individually and strife internationally. We are, in that sense, guilty for the wars that take place because we are sinners too. And yet we do thank you that the Prince of Peace, our Lord Jesus Christ, has come into this world to deal with that strife and that jealousy and faction to deal with that sin that is at the source of every human conflict and problem. And we thank you that the Lord Jesus has called us to Himself and by the power of His Spirit has made us part of his kingdom. And we do now march under his banner and kingship.

And we do so far more importantly.

Than we follow after the leader of this nation or any other on earth, for we consider ourselves citizens of a heavenly kingdom. How we thank you that you have in that sense, taken us above the fray, above the swords clashing and the rolling thunder, the destruction. And you have placed us in the heavenlies of Christ, right hand of our Heavenly Father, because we sit with Jesus Himself. We thank you that you have provided in our hearts the work of the Holy Spirit to take away our selfishness and our sin and our pride and to humble ourselves that we might come in faith and to live according to his word. Now we thank you that you give us the hope that war can end through your power and grace. We pray that you would make us agents of peace, therefore, that we would not. Even if we are supporters of any military conflict, we would not be warmongers, but rather peacemakers in this world. We pray that the peace that we have with God that has come through our Lord Jesus Christ would become evident as we promote peace in the lives of others and even between the nations. Lord, we do pray you would drive these messages home to our hearts and help us in these three evenings to draw closer to you and gain greater understanding and to please you. Because we are faithful in the way we think about such momentous events, we pray in Jesus holy name.

Amen.

This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonson Institute. Duplication, sharing and distribution is encouraged. For more information about the life and Ministry of Dr. Greg L. Bonson, visit our website, bonsoninstitute.com where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.