Few questions challenge Christians more than the relationship between a loving God and the violence found throughout the Bible. If God is love, how do we make sense of war, conquest, and suffering? These are questions that deserve honest, thoughtful answers.
Is Religion Really the Cause of Most Wars?
A common objection to faith goes something like this: “Religion causes most of the world’s wars.” It sounds convincing, but the data tells a different story.
According to the Encyclopedia of Wars, out of 1,763 recorded historical conflicts, only 121 had religion as their primary cause. That is just 6.9%. The vast majority of wars throughout history have been driven by land, power, and resources, not faith.
This does not mean religion has never played a role in conflict. It has. But it is important to be honest about the full picture rather than accepting a narrative that places all blame on belief in God.
Understanding the World God Originally Created
To understand God’s relationship to war and violence, it helps to start at the beginning. Genesis 1 paints a picture of the world as God intended it: no violence, no suffering, no illness, no death. Adam and Eve lived in perfect harmony with God, walking and speaking with Him in the Garden of Eden.
Then sin entered the world. Humanity, given free will, chose to disobey God, and everything became distorted. The world we live in now is not the world God designed. It is a broken version of it.
But the story does not end there. Revelation 21:4 gives us a glimpse of where things are heading: “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” – Revelation 21:4
The trajectory of the Bible moves from a perfect creation, through a broken world, toward a fully restored one. We are currently living in the messy middle.
What Is the Difference Between a Holy War and a Just
War?
Not all wars are the same, and it is worth making a distinction between two types.
• Holy War: This term applies specifically to Old Testament conflicts where God directly instructed the Israelites to act. These were tied to a unique period in history when God was sovereignly directing His people in a very specific way.
• Just War: This refers to a conflict aimed at stopping the spread of evil or protecting people from oppression. The Allied response to Hitler in World War II is a commonly cited example. Peacekeeping forces entering a region to protect civilians from aggression would also fall into this category.
A war of invasion to seize land and resources would not qualify as just. But defending a nation from aggressors, or protecting vulnerable people who cannot defend themselves, falls into a different moral category entirely.
Did God Really Command Genocide in the Old Testament?
This is one of the harder questions. Deuteronomy 7:1-2 records God speaking to the Israelites before they entered the Promised Land:
“When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations, the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you, and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.” – Deuteronomy 7:1-2
That phrase “destroy them totally” is difficult to read. But there are several important things to consider before concluding that God commanded genocide.
The Hebrew Word Changes Things
The word translated as “destroy” in Deuteronomy 7 is the Hebrew word herem. Like many Hebrew words, it carries a range of meanings and nuances. Translators have done their best to convey its meaning, but it does not necessarily mean total physical annihilation in the way we might imagine genocide today.
It Did Not Actually Happen That Way
Judges 1:1 records that after Joshua’s death, Canaanites were still living in the land. The Israelites never fully destroyed all of their enemies. The total destruction described was not carried out as a complete genocide.
Ancient Battle Accounts Used Hyperbole
Battle reports in the ancient world were filled with rhetoric and exaggeration. Saying an army “wiped out” an enemy was a common way of describing a decisive victory, not necessarily a literal account of every person being killed. This kind of language was understood by its original audience in a way that differs from how we read it today.
Cities Were Not What We Think
When we hear the word “city,” we picture London or Birmingham. Ancient Canaanite cities were far smaller, often garrison towns with around 150 people, primarily soldiers. When an army was seen approaching, women and children would have fled. This does not erase the seriousness of what happened, but it does provide important context.
What About the Crusades?
The Crusades began in November 1095 when Pope Urban II called Christians across Europe to respond to Islamic armies advancing into Christian territories. Jerusalem had fallen, and holy sites were under threat.
Using the framework of holy and just wars, the Crusades were not holy wars in the Old Testament sense. They were not directly commanded by God. But the first few Crusades could be argued as just wars, responses to aggression and the protection of people and places under threat.
The later Crusades are harder to defend. They appear to drift toward motivations of land and power rather than protection. And regardless of the justification for the wars themselves, some of the tactics and actions carried out during the Crusades were not defensible. Christians must be willing to sit with that discomfort honestly.
What Does Jesus Say About War and Peace?
Whatever conclusions we draw about Old Testament warfare, the New Testament is clear about the posture Christians are called to hold.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” – Matthew 5:9
“But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” – Matthew 5:44
Christians are called to be peacemakers. To seek harmony. To love even those who oppose them. This is the direction the whole Bible is pointing toward.
How Do We Hold Faith When the World Is So Broken?
There are parts of the Bible that are uncomfortable. There are things that happen in this world that cannot be fully explained in a satisfying way. Honest faith does not pretend otherwise.
But the God who is love (1 John 4:8) proved that love by sending His Son to die on the cross. Jesus, an innocent man, endured a violent and painful death He did not deserve, to pay the price for the sin humanity brought into the world. That is not the action of a God who delights in violence. That is the action of a God committed to restoration at any cost.
Knowing Jesus as Lord and Savior means living with the assurance that the broken middle we currently inhabit is not the end of the story. A time is coming with no more war, no more suffering, no more tears.
Life Application
This week, consider where you have been tempted to avoid the harder questions of faith rather than engaging with them honestly. The Bible does not ask us to ignore difficulty. It asks us to wrestle with it while holding onto the character of a God who is love and whose ultimate plan is restoration and peace.
Your challenge this week is to have one honest conversation about faith with someone who has questions or doubts, whether that is a friend, a family member, or even yourself. Come prepared not with all the answers, but with a willingness to engage thoughtfully and point toward the bigger story the Bible is telling.
Ask yourself:
• Am I willing to sit with the parts of the Bible I find uncomfortable rather than avoiding them?
• Do I live as a peacemaker in my relationships, my community, and my conversations?
• When life feels like the messy middle, am I anchoring my hope in where the story is ultimately heading?
