Wars

I have it on my heart to talk about war. I guess it's because of that war to end all wars, also know as the battle of Armageddon talked about in the Bible. We all know what war is but if you are like me, I doubt that you've ever really thought much about it. I want to start of by giving the definition of war.

From Wikiquote:

War

Weapons are like money; no oneknows the meaning of enough. ~ Martin Amis

War is a conflict involving the organized use of weapons and physical force by states or other large-scale groups. Warring parties usually hold territory, which they can win or lose; and each has a leading person or organization which can surrender, or collapse, thus ending the war. Wars are usually a series of campaigns between two opposing sides involving a dispute over sovereignty, territory, resources, religion, or ideology. A war to liberate an occupied country is called a "war of liberation"; a war between internal factions within a state is a civil war. Until the end of World War II, participants usually issued formal declarations of war.





How does a war get started? I was going to give you what others have said about this but I've decided to just say it the way I see it.

A war gets started by the spread of propaganda.

Propaganda is a form of biased communication, aimed at promoting or demoting certain views, perceptions or agendas. Propaganda is often associated with the psychological mechanisms of influencing and altering the attitude of a population toward a specific cause, position or political agenda in an effort to form a consensus to a standard set of belief patterns.^[1]

Propaganda is information that is not impartial and is used primarily to influence an audience and further an agenda, often by presenting facts selectively (perhaps lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or using loaded messages to produce an emotional rather than a rational response to the information presented.^[1]

The ones who make the deceleration of war are rarely if ever involved in the killing.  I believe that the ones who die in war most often are the ones who wanted no part in that war. It seems to me that so many of those who are doing the fighting are there because they had no other choice. There are some who believe that killing is justified but I wonder what percentage of these there are and if they knew the truth about things would they still see the justification of killing?

I grew up in the United States during the Vietnam conflict. We had the draft at the time. When your number came up you were inducted into a branch of the service, most often infantry slated to go to Vietnam. If you were physically able you had to go or be labeled a "draft dodger". Some were able to escape going because they knew someone of power or influence. This was one of those wars in which for most of us it was a position of "damned if you do and damned if you don't" go. I was one who decided to enlist thinking it might save me from going to Nam but that was not the case. I thank God that while there I was never put in a position where I had to kill or be killed. I always remember returning home after my tour of duty was up. We were told not to wear our uniforms. By this time the anti war cries were growing in popularity and we returning soldiers were often shamed.

I've been going to a Friends (Quaker) church for a while now. Quakers do not believe in wars. This was not the reason for me going to that church. I didn't really know much about them and kind of found out this sometime later. Anyway, I recently met a couple from Costa Rica who told me their experience during the Vietnam war years. The family was living in the United States at the time. The man's father got his draft notice but decided not to go and claimed "conscientious objector" status. This was part of their belief system; they were Quakers. He told me of some pretty awful things that the "powers to be" did to them. They were farmers and were required to give up over half their produce for "the war efforts". Some Quakers who were not farmers were slated for experiments, chemical in nature. It was so bad for these Quakers that many decided to leave the United States and settled into Costa Rica. There is a large population of Quakers there today.

No matter what country you live in, if you look at your history, you too will probably find similar things that have happened. Why do we get so caught up into believing things that lead to war?

If we can not change, I can see that it is very likely this war of the future could happen. Some believe that this is when an all out nuclear war will happen and  will destroy earth and everything.

I'm praying that we see our true selves before that time, repent, and ask Jesus to be Lord. I see no other way.

Jesus said something that I wonder could be a prediction of that happening, all will repent. He was saying that this generation is wicked and evil. They wanted to see a sign but the only sign that would be given them is "the sign of Jonah" (see post "The Sign of Jonah". Jonah was sent to Nineveh, a very wicked city, and he was to tell them what the Lord wanted to say to them  All he said to them was "yet in 40 days and Nineveh will be destroyed". It says that everyone believed God and they all repented.