Guns, Germs and God

Some people accuse God of not being involved in world affairs. How true is that?

Have you ever wondered what forces shaped human history? What is it that determined that the United States and Britain would be superpowers while nations like Zambia, Nepal and Mexico would not? Can we really answer these questions?

An attempt to answer

A few years back, Dr. Jared Diamond attempted to answer these questions. In his popular book Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, he stated his theory that the advancement of certain peoples—and the lack of advancement among others—was a matter of the environment. Certain conditions prevailed in order that certain people came out on top while others wound up on the bottom.

Throughout the book, he shows many of the different environmental factors that determined whether certain groups were successful.

Dr. Diamond starts with ancient Egypt and other peoples on the Mediterranean and ends with the United States today having more power than any nation on earth has ever had. The United States and Europe—particularly Britain—have the best of just about everything and have almost always been on top. He shows these regions have always been the best and shows that those who live in these areas seem favored by fate.

But this leads to a good question: Why did everything good go toward them?

Dr. Diamond explains that everything happened in just such a way that Europe and the Mediterranean region enjoyed the best of everything. Yet how everything went so great for people in these areas is still a mystery in Dr. Diamond’s book.

Since Dr. Diamond firmly believes in evolutionary theory, he has overlooked one of the answers that explains everything so well. For all of his excellent work on the book, Dr. Diamond has neglected to ask, “What part might God have had in this?”

God’s role

The Bible teaches that there is a God who takes care of the world and shapes everything according to His plan of giving salvation to all of humanity (2 Peter 3:9; 1 Timothy 2:4).

Yet even many religious people believe that God simply set the earth in motion and lets it spin out of control, watching to see what happens and saving those who are good people. But how true is this belief?

In Daniel 2:21, we learn that God not only has an interest but also actively participates in the dealings of whole nations. In 1 Corinthians 10:13 we learn that God takes an active interest in the well-being of each of His people as well, helping them through the many trials that they encounter through life. Therefore, we know through the Bible that God takes an active interest and often intervenes in current world affairs, both on the individual and national scale.

Now some may debate whether God would cause certain people to become more powerful than others. Some would even likely debate whether God has the power to do so. Well, in Isaiah 40:15 we learn that God is so great that the nations are like a tiny drop left in an empty bucket compared to Him. Anybody that great is surely great enough to affect the course of human history, especially since He created the human race in the first place (Genesis 1:26).

God’s people throughout history

God has chosen a certain group of people, a physical nation, to represent Him and to receive the first installment of His many considerable blessings. These people are the descendants of Israel.

God told His people that they would be blessed, and they were. After years of captivity and living in the midst of other superpowers, the descendants of Israel started to form their own superpowers. The two most blessed nations in recent history are Britain and the United States. These two are not only allies, but they each have a common ancestor: the biblical patriarch Joseph, a son of Israel. The Bible prophesies that these two nations would grow to become powerful, and these promises came true (Genesis 48).

The blessings of God

God has blessed His people. With His great wisdom and understanding, He has positioned the people of Israel to receive the many blessings that lead to power and advancement for a nation. For more than 200 years, the United States and the British Empire and now Commonwealth have reaped the benefit of those blessings.

It is not a matter of guns, germs and steel that creates the mighty nations, as Dr. Diamond suggests, but a matter of guns, germs and, most importantly, God.

See more about this in the post “How the Blessings of Abraham Came to America.”

Joshua Travers is a high school senior who attends the Athens, Ohio, congregation of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association. He enjoys writing and reading.

See the previous blog post by Joshua Travers:

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