WAR! Good God, Y’all! What Is It Good For?

“Absolutely nothing!” answers the choir resolutely.  

I get Edwin Starr’s sentiment. War. I hate it. I was in a big one. Vietnam. It was sickening to see and hear the dying young men, day in and day out. And for what? Of course, most are going to agree that there is absolutely nothing that war is good for. But according to the Spirit in the prophet Isaiah, God sees it differently.

I have learned that war is history’s twisted tale. And war is like tribute that must be paid for a tribe to move into supposed greener pastures. But the pastures putrefy in the slosh of conflict. And the pride and hubris of the leaders won’t let them pause and think about what they are unleashing on the people.

Wars—A Sign of the End Times

Christ speaks of “wars and rumors of wars.” He is talking about wars that have a connection to ­the Holy Land. As you know, war is raging in Gaza, Israel, and Lebanon. Rumors abound about a regional war between Iran and their proxies and Israel and the U.S. Today’s middle east wars and rumors of a wider war are imminent. Israel at war is one of the major signs that we are living in “the time of the end.”

Christ was teaching His disciples at the temple. They asked Him what we are asking Him today, “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world” (Matt. 24:3). The first sign was not to be deceived by counterfeit false prophets (vs. 4-5).

The second sign was about war. “And when you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” (Mark 13:7-8).  

Wars in and around the Holy Land must take place, says Christ. Must? To Get to Christ’s return and the end of the world system, there must come wars and more wars. So don’t be troubled, Christ is saying; wars must happen. “These things must come to pass” before the end comes.

But, why? These many wars shall happen because Yahweh has ordained it. Seeds of hatred have been sown. They must come to harvest. God wills these things to be. For the wars all over the world will help prepare for Christ’s return as King of God’s Kingdom. The wars will also bring on the end of the present world system. God gives a clear picture of how He will use war to prepare the way for Christ’s return.

Yahweh Foments the Wars

The Spirit of Christ in Isaiah reveals it in detail in a prophetic picture called “the burden of Egypt” in chapter 19. “Egypt” is universally recognized as a symbol of the world. Isaiah 19 is an extended metaphor of how the whole world will disintegrate at the time of the end through the wars that God allows. We see in 19:1 that Yahweh is directly involved in fomenting wars in the world. Yahweh is a Spirit that “shall come into Egypt.”

Yahweh will enter the minds of the peoples of the world. The result? “The idols of Egypt [the world] shall be moved at His presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.” God will shake it up. A man’s idol is who or what he is in awe of. But God will shake the people’s confidence in whom or what they have trusted. He will do it through His presence. The people of the world will have their hearts melt in fear.  

God will challenge and shake up their whole belief system. “And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight everyone against his brother, and everyone against his neighbor; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom” (v. 2).

God will do this. And all this turmoil, commotion, and war will cause the world’s spirit to fail and be emptied of its efficacy and strength. The world system and its leaders and followers will be consumed by war and its fears. For God “will destroy the counsel” of the world. Entities that were trusted will fail. “And they shall seek to their idols, and to the charmers” and to all the purveyors of peace. But to no avail. War will have consumed all reason.

Then Yahweh will deliver the world [Egypt] “into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them…” (verses 3-4). This is obviously a reference to the “man of sin,” the counterfeit world savior, the anti-Christ, the head of the one world government as seen in Revelation. How could the anti-Christ take over and rule the earth? Through national exhaustion caused by incessant war! It has always been “divide and conquer.”

However, by Yah’s great mercy, we see at the end of the chapter how the whole world transitions into blessed territories under the rule of Christ the King. It ends in a picture of reconciliation for the world and its nations, under the wings of God. After the establishment of His government throughout the earth, He will say to the nations, “Blessed be Egypt my people and Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance” (Isa. 19:25). Assyria is the work of His hands!  

All these wars and the strife they cause is all orchestrated by God himself: “The work of my hands.” Through the fiery crucible of war comes God’s destiny for the nations, a glorious lasting peace throughout the earth, headed by the Prince of peace, the Son of God and the world’s Savior. HalleluYah!

Man has his own noble thoughts about war. But we must remember what He said. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD [Yahweh]”. The good news is that we can make our thoughts His thoughts by “casting down imaginations…and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (II Cor. 10:5).

All this is why wars “must come to pass” before Christ returns to establish His Kingdom.     

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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18th Surgical Hospital Quang Tri 1968–Remembering a Tragedy

I didn’t find his name at the Wall last Sunday.  Although I was with him his last seconds on earth, I never knew his name.

We ran him in on a litter into the receiving ward at 18th Surgical Hospital at Quang Tri that summer of 1968.  He was pale from heavy loss of blood.  He looked to be about twenty, thin with sandy hair.  They all seemed to be thin and about twenty.

We got him on a table.  The nurses started cutting his clothes off of him.  And there it was–a blue little mouth of a bullet entry hole in his abdomen.

“How did it happen?” someone shouted.

“They said he was packing to go home tomorrow.  He was putting the pistol in the bag when it went off.”

The surgeon appeared at the table.  He examined him for an instant, then he cursed and yelled, “Gimme some adrenalin in a big syringe.”  The nurse handed it to him and, he cursed again and stabbed the young man in the middle of his chest pushing the clear fluid into his heart.

He worked like a whirling, sweating madman for another minute or two.  He pushed on his chest and issued a dry crying curse under his breath with every movement.  I should have been drawing some blood in order to cross match some for him, but I just stood there staring into the doctor’s eyes the whole time.  All of us just stared at him and not the patient, for we all knew that we could do nothing until hope sprang forth from the face of the doctor.   And it didn’t.

The doctor said nothing.  He turned around and went to the next table where a young thin man was writhing in pain.  I looked down at the young man with sandy hair.  His face was a powdery greyish white color, his skin cold.  I turned around and went to the next table to draw some blood.  And that was the last time I ever saw him.

I thought upon this tragedy as I slowly and reverently walked by the Wall.  I read many names who died hoping to somehow get back to “the World.”  Maybe I read his name today.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock, Spec. 4/ Medical Lab Tech/ 18th Surgical Hospital / Pleiku, An Khe, Quang Tri, Vietnam, Sept. 1967-Sept. 1968