When we look at conflicts in the past like the World War’s, Revolutionary War, even dating back to the Roman empire, we want to have a good vs bad mentality. We want there to be a big reason the war was fought.
As they say though, history is always written by the winners. Because of this, when we look at many of these conflicts we have a skewed version of what many of the people may have been feeling at the time.
The first World War is maybe one of the best examples of this. The war was basically a war over land. Tension had been building up for years before it began and many think it was a matter of “when” not “if” war would break out across Europe. A Serbian citizen assassinates the Archduke of Austria-Hungary and BOOM. All of a sudden, you have Germany declaring war on France. But many think they started it because they thought if they didn’t it may soon come to them. They wanted to make the first move.
As the war went on, Germany started gaining a bad reputation, in part because of some of what they were doing. For instance, you don’t get phrases like “The Rape Of Belgium” by being a completely upright and honorable opponent. They in many ways earned some of the “menace” that people painted them as.
But at the end of the day, there were instances of this kind of conduct on both sides of the line. Unfortunately, we as American’s would like to think that American’s are just different from all of these other countries that don’t respect human life. But even if you look at the Vietnam wat, there are many, many cases of Americans raping and killing disgustingly.
There’s no question that the German’s did many atrocious and evil things in both World Wars, but World War One, in particular, was a war that in many ways was not a war of good vs evil but a war of arrogance. A war of “who can gain or keep the most land.
Even the second world war, this was basically Japan’s motive. They had gotten a taste of this colonization that countries like Britan and France had done and wanted in. They started chowing down on places like China, Korea, the Philipines, etc. They were taking land left and right.
Once again, I am in no way saying that there weren’t completely vile things that happened in any of these wars, and probably many wars of the past, but the truth is, sometimes wars are not ultimately fought over good vs evil, it’s fought over one man wanting one way and the other something different.
I’m not sure how much truth is in this quote, but I think it’s an interesting reflection of an opponent you can’t help but see as evil:
In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it’s impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. – Enders Game
How many battles have been fought and lives lost over misunderstanding or pride? How much life could be saved if we had an understanding that all life is valuable, created by a loving God, and to destroy it over something as trivial as having more land is something I can’t imagine living with.
I believe there are some enemies that are, at their core, vile and evil. To a point where there is no option but to declare war against them. I understand the need for war and battles, but what if all humans had a common understanding of the life that God created?
I suppose someday I will see what that looks like in the perfect world that God is preparing for us. We cannot expect a fallen world to produce anything but strife, enmity, and war. Be the light of Christ that shines in the darkness, but don’t expect the darkness to lighten on its own.
There is evil, but how will others know what the evil looks like if you don’t help them to learn about the God who shines the light on it.
There is good, but men at their core are evil. We are not good deep down. Our inward, fleshly desires are for evil, not for good. We must put off our flesh and put on Christ.