Why does God allow war? I trust we understand that he does not cause it. Japanese bombers invading Pearl Harbor, or Hitler's tanks invading Poland, or Saddam Hussein invading Kuwait or harboring weapons of mass destruction—these things cause war. It is a simple fact, regardless of our political views, that we would not be at war in Iraq today if Hussein had disarmed.

But why does God allow it? Our Creator has given us freedom of will, so we have the capacity to choose to love him and live by his word. And so he must allow us the capacity to choose to reject him and refuse his word. The consequences of such misused freedom are not God's fault but ours.

But still, why does he allow such consequences? Here's one reason: to use human crisis for spiritual purposes.

If a person escapes adolescence without faith in Christ, he typically does not turn to the Lord unless he needs him. Unless there's a divorce, or illness, or job loss, or crisis. Unless there's a war. During the Civil War, for instance, as many as 300,000 soldiers came to faith in Christ.

Already we're hearing such stories from Iraq. Servicemen and women turning to faith in Jesus, sharing their faith in Jesus, standing for Jesus. In the contemporary service I showed the picture of Pfc. David Kurns, one of eight members of the 3^{rd Infantry Division who were baptized north of Kuwait City on March 12. They made a hole in the desert, filled it with bottled water, and used it to tell the world they trust in Jesus.}