By Bob Barney
Since the dawn of time, wars and battles have had a significant impact on the course of history. From the earliest battles in ancient Mesopotamia to today’s wars in the Middle East, Asia and now Ukraine, conflicts have had the power to shape and change our world. Over the centuries, combat has become increasingly more sophisticated.
There is a cause as to why wars happen. Wars are as old as mankind, when Cain first killed his own brother. World history has a long list of wars. The following link is a list of major wars since 1300 BC! That’s only about 1/2 of man’s reign on earth! LINK to Wars..
The cause of war has two real reasons:
The first, the nature of the mind of man. God’s mind is love, giving and peace. Man’s nature is the same as Satan’s… hatred, greed and war. Only when man understands God, and God’s nature, can he really learn the path to real peace, and friends, there is none coming in the era of mankind. Only with the return of Jesus Christ will wars end. In the Bible Jesus Christ said that in the last days before His return, there will be wars and rumors of war. The plain truth is that there have always been wars and rumors of war. Christ wants us to be prepared for that final conflict which will end this age and bring the next: Christ age, where wars will cease.
The second is weakness. Weak people are the prey for the stronger wolves and lions. Douglas MacArthur knew this better than most. In his famous “old soldiers” speech to Congress the General said this:
“I know war as few other men now living know it, and nothing to me is more revolting. I have long advocated its complete abolition, as its very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes.
“Indeed, on the second day of September 1945, just following the surrender of the Japanese nation on the battleship Missouri, I formally cautioned as follows:
“Men, since the beginning of time have sought peace. Various methods through the ages have been attempted to devise an international process to prevent or settle disputes between nations. From the very start workable methods were found in so far as individual citizens were concerned, but the mechanics of an instrumentality of larger international scope have never been successful.
“Military alliances, balances of power, leagues of nations, all in turn failed, leaving the only path to be by way of the crucible of war. The utter destructiveness of war now blots out this alternative. We have had our last chance. If we will not devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door.”
In his speech to Congress, MacArthur warned what is the immediate cause of war… He said:
“once war is forced upon us, there is no other alternative than to apply every available means to bring it to a swift end. War’s very object is victory, not prolonged indecision.
In war there is no substitute for victory.”
“There are some who for varying reasons would appease Red China. They are blind to history’s clear lesson, for history teaches with unmistakable emphasis that appeasement but begets new and bloodier war. It points to no single instance where this end has justified that means, where appeasement had led to more than a sham peace.
“Like blackmail, it lays the basis for new and successively greater demands until, as in blackmail, violence becomes the only alternative. Why, my soldiers asked of me, surrender military advantages to an enemy in the field? I could not answer.
“Some may say to avoid spread of the conflict into an all-out war with China. Others, to avoid Soviet intervention. Neither explanation seems valid, for China is already engaging with the maximum power it can commit, and the Soviet will not necessarily mesh its actions with our moves. Like a cobra, any new enemy will more likely strike whenever it feels that the relativity in military or other potential is in its favor on a worldwide basis.
“The tragedy of Korea is further heightened by the fact that its military action is confined to its territorial limits. It condemns that nation, which it is our purpose to save, to suffer the devastating impact of full naval and air bombardment while the enemy’s sanctuaries are fully protected from such attack and devastation.”
Of course what most people only know about this speech is his last words. But we need to read his words above. MacArthur was an egotistic and often arrogant man, like many of God’s chosen in the Bible. But he was our prophet, “The world has turned over many times since I took the oath on the plain at West Point, and the hopes and dreams have long since vanished, but I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barracks ballads of that day which proclaimed most proudly that old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Good-bye.
If we would only listen….. But sadly most don’t! I beg all who read this to pray to God Almighty. That is God the Father and the LORD God Jesus Christ that you may be saved.
The video: