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| The War In Ukraine |
On the 24 Feb 2022, in the midst of the COVID pandemic, war began in Ukraine. This war is billed as the biggest military operations in Europe since WWII. Tanks rolled in, missiles struck, untold human suffering and property devastation began.
"Thorn bushes spring up wherever the army has passed. Lean years follow in the wake of a great war."
Why wage war? No one can see the rationale for going to war in the midst of a pandemic. The only explanation is the sinful nature of humankind, which leads to egocentricity and selfishness causing man's inhumanity to man.
Humanism is an outlook or system of thought attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters. Rev(Dr) Daniel Koh Kah Soon wrote, "Since the dawn of the Enlightenment, humanity tried to declare independence from God. The assumption is that we do not need God to help us make sense of the world or to help us find solutions to the complex challenges we face in our time. What we need we are told, is to depend on human ingenuity and with the help of human reasoning, we can progress without having to look to God for guidance and wisdom." (Ref 1)
Humanism centres on the idea of the supremacy of man, the notion of the rational, autonomous self and ignoring the conditioned sinful nature of the individual. Remember the temptation of Eve and Adam?
"You won't die!" the serpent replied to the woman. "God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil." Genesis 3:4
The prophet Jeremiah also spoke out against humanism in Jeremiah 17:5-6
Thus says the Lord:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
and makes flesh his strength,
whose heart turns away from the Lord.
He is like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land." Jeremiah 17:5-6
Rev Koh went on, "Sadly,....the world is a mess. Many wars have been fought, nations against nations, tribes against tribes. Millions of people are homeless as victims of war and famine. More money have been ploughed into producing sophisticated weapons to destroy life and property than money spent in alleviating poverty."
There is no end to wars. In 1918, the International Committee of the Red Cross released a statement on the Global Trends of War and their Humanitarian Impact:
- Wars are lasting much longer than they used to 20 years ago.
- Wars are more often fought in highly populated urban areas, and when high powered explosive weapons are used, large numbers of civilians are at risk of death, injury, but also of losing their infrastructure – water systems, electricity, and jobs. These protracted, urban conflicts impact the basic health, water and sanitation systems, causing long-term, systemic impacts.
- Increasingly, the root causes of violence are unclear and difficult to address – they are often a tangled web of politically–motivated violence, terrorism and disproportionate reaction by states, inter-community and social violence, which often go hand-in-hand with economic crime. This also defies traditional legal concepts and challenges us with complex overlap between the legal frameworks.
- Armed warriors are more numerous, more radical but also less political and less structured.
- Wars often involve partners, allies and coalitions – leading to a dilution of responsibility, fragmentation of chains of command and an unchecked flow of weapons. There is also a trend of denying responsibility or of passing responsibility to someone else down the line. This only increases the climate of impunity and ultimately causes yet more suffering.
In these times, human beings have become narcissistic self-lovers resulting quarrels and the fragmentation of human societies. The Apostle Paul warned,
'But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God - having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.' 2 Timothy 3:1-5
Against this back drop, Is there any hope for mankind? The Lord beckons us to repudiate humanism, sin and evil and return to Him. The Lord God promises blessings to all who trust in Him. The man who trust in God is secure, safe and need not seek any quarrel with his neighbour.
'Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.' Jeremiah 17:7-8
Remember the American Civil War Negro Spiritual 'Ain't Gonna Study War No More'? Those who trust in the Lord and lay down beside the riverside, will not go to war.
I’m gonna lay down my heavy load, down by the riverside,
Down by the riverside, down by the riverside
I’m gonna lay down my heavy load, down by the riverside,
I ain't gonna study war no more
Down by the riverside, down by the riverside
I’m gonna lay down my heavy load, down by the riverside,
I ain't gonna study war no more
I ain’t a gonna study war no more…….
Well, I’m gonna put on my long white robe,
down by the riverside
Down by the riverside, down by the riverside
I’m gonna put on my long white robe,
down by the riverside
I ain't gonna study war no more
I ain’t a gonna study war no more….
Well, I’m gonna lay down my sword and shield,
down by the riverside
Down by the riverside, down by the riverside
I’m gonna lay down my sword and shield,
m; down by the riverside
I ain't gonna study war no more
President John F Kennedy noted,
"Mankind must put an end to war before war put an end to mankind."
Lionel
Ref 1: Daniel Koh Kah Soon, My Thoughts Are Not Your Thought. Up From The Ashes Hope Will Arise - Daily Devotions For Lent, 2022. Sower Publishers.
