The End of All War—Can It Be Achieved?
“ARMAGEDDON”—what does this Bible name signify? Introduced each time by a meaningful cover, a series of informative articles on this topic has been featured in the four issues of The Watchtower for January and February 1985. It is hoped that these Scriptural discussions are comforting you with knowledge as to what is the real ARMAGEDDON.
“COME, you people, behold the activities of Jehovah, how he has set astonishing events on the earth. He is making wars to cease to the extremity of the earth. The bow he breaks apart and does cut the spear in pieces; the wagons he burns in the fire.”—Psalm 46:8, 9.
The above words of the inspired psalmist agree with the heartfelt desire of people throughout the ages. Really, who has not longed for the day when war will be no more? As much as we would like to see it, however, the end of war has, so far, eluded all human efforts. Not only is war still very much with us but it also has become so destructive and deadly that for the first time in human history the continuation of civilization, and even life itself, is threatened.
In view of the grave danger looming ahead, we cannot help but ask: Why have human efforts to prevent war been such miserable failures? Is war really inevitable? Indeed, why are wars fought in the first place?
Why Human Efforts Fail
“If you live in a neighborhood where there are no police and everybody has guns and lives in constant fear of being attacked, then there is going to be a lot of shooting,” writes journalist and military historian Gwynne Dyer. “That is the sort of neighborhood that all the countries of the world live in,” he continues. “There are no international police, so each country keeps itself armed and ready for violence; but the kind of violence that countries get involved in has a special name. We call it war.”
Though that is a rather simplified explanation, it does point out several of the basic factors that make for war. There must be the means to wage war as well as the inclination to do so. Along with these, we note also the lack of law and order in the “neighborhood,” which in this case is the world.
The famous historians Will and Ariel Durant pointed to these same basic factors when they wrote in their book The Lessons of History: “In the present inadequacy of international law and sentiment a nation must be ready at any moment to defend itself; and when its essential interests are involved it must be allowed to use any means it considers necessary to its survival. The Ten Commandments must be silent when self-preservation is at stake.”
Consequently, the success or failure of any effort to bring war to an end would depend largely on how it deals with these basic factors. Has any human scheme, no matter how noble in concept, been successful in doing so? Let us examine the facts.
Lack of International Order
Many attempts have been made in the past to create some sort of world agency with the power to police the nations and to maintain international law and order. The League of Nations, for example, was formed at the end of World War I to ensure that the world would not again be plunged into war. In effect it sank into oblivion with the outbreak of World War II. Then, in 1945, the United Nations organization emerged, to be praised and adored by the clergy of Christendom as mankind’s hope for peace. What has been its record? Once again history gives the reply. “Over four million people are engaged now in 42 different wars, rebellions and civil uprisings. . . . Between one million and five million people have been killed in these struggles,” reported The New York Times in 1984. Today few people believe that the UN has the ability to prevent wars and conflicts from erupting. Its existence does little to allay the fear of a third world war or a nuclear holocaust.
Mounting Threat and Tension
One reason that agencies such as the UN are powerless to prevent war is that the nations around the world are fully dedicated to national sovereignty and rights. They care little about international responsibility or rules of conduct. To reach their ends, some nations feel fully justified in using any means that they consider necessary—massacres, assassinations, hijackings, bombings, and so on—often with the innocent being the victims. Even the major powers of the world often push one another to the limit in the name of self-preservation and national interest. How long will the nations put up with one another in such senseless and irresponsible conduct? How many Falklands, Afghanistans, Grenadas, Korean 007’s, and so on can the world survive without a major confrontation? It is not difficult to see why nationalism and self-determination have become major obstacles to bringing an end to war.
Armed and Ready
By now it is common knowledge that the arsenals of the superpowers are stocked with enough nuclear devices to destroy all human life on earth many times over. But what about the other nations? According to a U.S. government report, developing nations around the world, though hard pressed economically, have spent well over $230 billion in the last decade acquiring some of the most advanced aircraft, missiles, and tanks available. The result? “It has reached the point now where many of the buyers are having problems absorbing all their new hardware.” These nations are literally armed to the teeth, as the saying goes. The fact that they have only so-called conventional weapons makes them that much more willing and ready to put them to use.
Any Reason for Hope?
The repeated failure of human efforts to bring an end to war merely emphasizes the Bible truth that “it does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step.” (Jeremiah 10:23) As much as humans may want to see the end to war, they of themselves simply do not know how to achieve it. What, then, about the promise that ‘wars will be made to cease to the extremity of the earth’? Is it given just to arouse hope or to mock us? Certainly not. For Jehovah assures us regarding any word or promise from his mouth: “It will not return to me without results.” (Isaiah 55:11) How, then, will this promise be realized? What sound basis is there for us to believe that God will succeed where man has failed repeatedly?