The real reason for the war
The world is flooded with several kinds of wars including civil war, colonial war, insurgence, cold war, invasion, cyberwar, war for independence, and religious war among others. Added to these are nonconventional wars such as children fighting their parents and vice versa, division in families, divorces, communal crises, workplace agitations, and such likes. These wars threaten livelihood, destroy families, alter the ecosystem, kill people, leave many hospitalized, and even cause psychological problems.
The devastating consequence of conventional and unconventional wars cannot be overstated. Currently, the European world is going through a challenging time because of the recent invasion. In Polemology, every war has its underlying cause or in my own term “documented reasons”. However, if you poke around the internet to examine the reasons for a particular war, I am sure you will find several notions about the war that will confuse you. Unfortunately, after decades of studying the military, diplomatic, philosophical, social, political, psychological, and economic dimensions of human conflict, there is no solution to the existence and persistence of war.
Considering the current level of world civilization, it is difficult to comprehend the existence of war at any level. A recent report from UNESCO has it that almost all adults in most Western European Countries have completed primary education and about one-third of them have completed tertiary education. With such a high level of literacy and social awareness, one will expect cooperative living and peaceful conflict resolution but that seems not to be the case. There is obviously a mystery here. An added problem is that science and education do not seem to have either an explanation or solution for this anomaly. Since scientific and logical studies are failing to provide answers to this question, I will like to follow a non-scientific but logical approach to study the situation.
The sacred scripture identifies lust as the real cause for war, “From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? (James 4:1)”. To understand the standpoint of this biblical affirmation, we need to know the meaning of lust and its relationship to war. The Strong’s Greek dictionary defines lust as “hedonistic” desires. It is the drive to fulfill what is pleasurable to the senses. In essence, James tells us that the wars and fighting the world have or will ever experience result directly from the presence of hedonistic desires in the people involved. Apostle Peter also identified lust as the cause of corruption in the world “…, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Peter 1:4)”. By implication, the divisions in families, the divorces, the workplace agitations, invasions, and all forms of war are traceable to lust in the people. In fact, James gave the order by which this happens: firstly, the person is drawn away by the lust, followed by enticement, and finally, the conception to bring forth the war (James 1:15). Let us examine the logicality of these affirmations.
The bible recognizes all forms of lust as children of the depraved human nature, “…..the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life …. is of the world (1John2:16).” The depraved human nature is associated with “spiritual death”, which is the nature of Satan. Everyone with this nature is evidently under the control of “the prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:3) and is incapable of exercising self-restraint. Apparently, their understanding is darkened (Ephesians 4:18) and they walk in the vanity of their minds. In essence, they uncontrollably perform every action the vain mind conceives (Romans 8:4). More so, they are given over to degenerate mindsets, so that they do those things which are not convenient (irrational actions) (Romans 1:28). As this is in the nature of the person, educational knowledge and social awareness do not offer any counter effect, rather they add to the “ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart” (Ephesians 4:18). Moreover, because the drive is spiritual, ethical re-orientation, scientific illustrations, and the outcome of research findings do not have the needed force for making any meaningful change. You can imagine the reason a man who just came out of a counseling session on abstinence, smoking a stick more, or a family man with young kids spending his hard-earned salary on gambling. Now you can see that the broken homes, the divorces, the fights, the war, the insurgence, and the invasions are all children of lust.
Moral education, psychology, philosophy, ethical re-orientation, medicine, and polemology have failed because they are incapable of destroying the fountain from which lust is born. A mere cleaning up will not do, and neither will knowledge accumulation. Replacing the fountain of lust with the fountain of life is the solution. The good news is that this is exactly what Christ came to do (Ezekiel 36:26 – 27). In the beginning, when Adam decided to believe Satan and not God, Satan planted in man the depraved nature from where flows all manner of lust and evil found in the world today (Romans 5:12). However, Christ was manifested to destroy this work of the devil (1John 3:8) and plant the seed of God (1John 3:9) in anyone that will believe in Him (John 1:12). With this seed within, there is a guarantee of not fulfilling the lust of the flesh, “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). This is the solution to the problem of lust and consequently the solution to the problem of war. I can say with 100 % certainty that if everyone receives this new life of Christ, there will be no more wars, family divisions, divorces, fighting, invasions, and insurgences.
Excerpt
Literacy and global education have been increasing steadily over the last few decades. Unexpectedly, cooperative living and peaceful conflict resolution do not seem to follow in the same direction. There is an increasing rate of divorce, family division, insurgence, invasions, and violence among others. Logically, an increase in literacy level should go hand in hand with increased cooperative living. What is the reason for the present contradiction?
The Bible recognizes all forms of lust as products of the depraved human nature