Jesus said, “Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things may happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom…. All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” (Mark 13:5-8,13)
As we hear about the war in Ukraine, with all its atrocities and dislocation of millions of people deprived of their homes and livelihoods and the impact it is having on the world’s economies and international relations it is important to recall these words of Jesus. He reminds us of the inevitability of human conflict and the sinful depravity of political leaders and national violence. While Ukraine seems to be so far away from most of us who live in peace and prosperity we need to be reminded of those who travelled across the world in past generations to preserve the peace. From the south Pacific Ocean my maternal grandfather served in World War I in Egypt, Turkey and France.
My grandfather, Amos William Dowell, enlisted in the Canterbury Regiment of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force on August 17, 1914, two weeks after war was declared in Europe. He was 22 years old and my mother was seven months old. He was discharged from active duty on January 18, 1919 after serving 4 years and 155 days. He spent 66 days in training before leaving Wellington on the ship HMNZT Tahiti on October 16, 1914 in a fleet of 10 transports and 4 naval escorts which included the Ibuki, a Japanese cruiser. On November 1st they were joined by the large Australian fleet. A week later near Cocos Island in the Indian Ocean the German raider Emden was engaged and scuttled. On December 3 the convoy arrived in Alexandria, Egypt and ordered to camp at Zeitoun, four miles out of Cairo. They joined the British and Indian contingents in guarding the Suez Canal. The Turkish Army attacked on February 3, 1915 but were repulsed with significant casualties. After further training on April 10 my grandfather’s company embarked on the Lutzow, a German ship that had been captured in the Suez Canal, and sailed to Mudros. On April 25 they disembarked at Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula under shrapnel fire.
The aims of the Gallipoli campaign after the failure of the combined allied navies to secure the Dardenelles in March were:
- The capture of Constantinople, which would cause Turkey to surrender, and thus remove all anxiety about Egypt and the Suez Canal.
- The attraction of Italy, Bulgaria and Romania to the alliance against the Central Powers, leaving the latter entirely surrounded and securing the left flank of the Russian armies.
- The opening of the channel for the supply of munitions to Russia by her allies, and in the return, the supply to them of Russian wheat.
After serving in the Gallipoli campaign for 3 months Amos was wounded and admitted to hospital in Alexandria. After rejoining his unit in July he was readmitted to hospital in December and discharged to his unit on January 2, 1916. During this campaign the Allies and Turkey each suffered 250,000 casualties. By this time they had evacuated from Gallipoli and resumed garrison duty on the Suez Canal. They embarked to France on April 6, were billeted near Armentières and posted to waterlogged trenches on the front line. Wounded again in March 1917 he rejoined his unit in April, and was promoted Corporal in November, He remained in France until August 1918 participating with his company in many frontline raids and defensive warfare under heavy artillery bombardment. Furloughed to England he was shipped back to New Zealand at the Armistice in November.
My mother remembers meeting him at the railway station on Christmas Eve, 1918. She was nearly six years old and he was 26 years old having experienced life-changing events and the trauma of warfare. He went into business, fathered three more children and died at age 46 in 1938, three years before I was born. My mother never would speak of him. I fear he suffered PTSD which afflicted her.
War is always evil, sometimes the lesser of two evils, but still evil, even when its intention is good, e.g. to prevent genocide, or to restore freedom and justice. The judgment of God is the other side of the coin which is the mercy of God. On some occasions the reasons for God’s exercise of judgment in war may be made evident (e.g. the punishment of evil men and nations by Israel, or the punishment of Israel by foreign nations), but they may remain as much a mystery as the initial mystery of God’s creation and gift of life.
If God is the ultimate sovereign of human history, it is to be expected that he will stand in some kind of relationship to war. He participates actively for the purposes of judgment and redemption. This conception provides hope for mankind, for even in sinful human behavior we may seek for God and find him.
War is a practical necessity for survival as a nation-state. Most nations had to undertake war if they were to come into existence and survive, and equally inevitably, they had to inflict hardship and death upon others, just as they accepted them for themselves. The United States came about through the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War of Independence, the Mexican War, and the Civil War. The existence and survival of nations in the ancient world was dependent to a very large extent on military might. As a nation state in the real world of that time, Israel could not exist without war. Any nation is established and maintained solely through violence; violence has many manifestations, of which war is only one, but war is perhaps the most significant manifestation of violence with respect to the continuing existence of a state. Once a nation has been established, it must have the right to self-defense in order to survive.
War is a large-scale manifestation of the sinful nature of humanity. There is violence inherent in sinful man, and human sin will be reflected in human nation-states. The Old Testament provides a realistic view of warfare, with all its ruthlessness and killing. If we read the ruthless laws of war in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 20) and express pious shock, we are deceiving ourselves. War is a manifestation of violence to achieve a purpose. We should not need the Old Testament to tell us of its nature and horror, but it is in our nature to prefer ignorance in certain matters. Our novelists, historians, and film-makers often glorify war; they lack the honesty of some Old Testament writers. The Old Testament war literature is characterized by realism. It does not draw a false and romantic picture of the reality of the human situation, and consequently it forces us to face up to the reality of our own world, which we often don’t want to do, and would rather avoid. We cannot assume a morally superior attitude to history, or to the rest of the world, when we are engaged in war.
Wars in ancient Israel were a harsh reality. What is to be learned from them? They serve as a massive and solemn warning. If war is to be waged at all, it must be done thoroughly. There are no half-measures in war; it is not a game to be played casually. The war narratives of the Old Testament are a safer guide to the reality of war than various formulations of the ‘Just War’ theory. If war is to be contemplated it is wise to think realistically of its horror and implications, and in this the Old Testament gives some guide. Read King David’s Song of Praise in 2 Samuel 22 for a theology of war.
At one end of Cass Square, the sports field in the center of my home town, is a Cenotaph on which is inscribed the names of those from our county who died in the First World War. At the other end is a cannon which we were told was used in the Crimean War of 1853-1856 but was actually supplied to defend the port during the Russian invasion scare of the 1870’s. How history repeats itself!
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