Who Moved?

In the course of my family history research I’ve followed one line after another through the years of the Great War, imagining young men who, in their thousands, forsook horse and plough at the call of the recruiting office; young men whose loyalty was stirred and enthusiasm aroused, only to be so quickly and completely overturned by the mess, the destruction and the sheer horror of the Western Front.  It was so terrible that, right into old age and sometimes to the point of death, many would not talk of their experiences.  For those involved, whether in battle or at home, it was a time of immense and irreversible change.  Life was never the same again: it was indeed a Great event.

It’s easy to say that the war was started by the assassination of the Austrian heir, the archduke Franz Ferdinand.  But there was already widespread discontent across Europe, from Ulster to the Balkans, results of class difference, oppression, nationalism, and so on.  Alongside this were rivalries over the ‘new lands’ of Africa, over-ripe for colonial exploitation.   Once the spark had been kindled, war was inevitable.

A recent radio programme touched on the problems encountered by western armies who find themselves operational in the Moslem world.  The presenter spoke of a failure to appreciate the extent to which politics are [still] inseparable from religion in those lands, and said that the same was true of this country several centuries ago, “but we have moved on.”  His tone implied progress, but I’m not so sure.

Consider the causes of war, action and reaction; if these are out of proportion, war can be the result.  Whether it was the Unionist reaction to the passing of the Home Rule Bill, or the supressed aspirations of the various nation-groups of central Europe, actions and reactions could have been different, more generous, less selfish; there could have been less insistence on an eye for an eye (Ex. 21:24), more turning of the other cheek (Mt. 5:38-39.)  How far so-called Christian Europe had ‘progressed’ from the backward and Biblical ways of earlier centuries!

And, almost a century later, are we at last enjoying some benefit from that ‘War to end Wars’?  Dissatisfaction, resentment and misrepresentation still abound, and have been joined by other ills.  That radio presenter said, “it used to be like that here”, i.e. we used to live close to God, with respect for Him and His creation, with a fear of judgement, and a realistic expectation that the sinful would be damned.  No one has seen or heard a pronouncement from Heaven during those intervening centuries, relaxing God’s commands, reducing His expectations of mankind.  Such a pronouncement would have overturned those words written to the Hebrews, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and for ever” (Heb. 13:8), and re-written our Bibles in many ways.

“If you’re not close to God, guess who moved,” invited a famous poster.  Perhaps it’s time we moved back!