Hey My Dear Nick, Don't be sorry; it's a fair question. I can even add to it for you..."Why" would a God who claims to have sent his Son into this world to bring peace & love only bring a Sword? Really Nick, I do understand how things appear, and how these things that appear can make us wonder and doubt this claim of Love.
But Jesus never said he came at the time to bring peace, but A Sword! I'll get back to that but, the wars and evil were going on intensly way before the time of Christ; in those times "holy wars" ..........
...were relveant to the untold number of idol gods to whom thousands upon thousands were sacrificed over the times, even children and babies! I ran across a photo awhile back of an ancient alter of sacrifice which was specifically for child sacrifices (to the gods), and the abundant burn marks in this great rock which has alot of shelf like protrusions where the children and babies were laid, still remain to this day. An investigation of ancient history is mortifying to learn!
God gave the Law (the Commandments) originally in order to show man the common Laws of right and love which prior to this he had no clue of, and also to announce that there are not millions of gods but One True God who is not anything like all the idol god's made of stone by the hand of man, which cannot speak and have no power. This also was intended to reveal to man that yes, there is a right and wrong! And there is a penalty for wrong (sin), and it's penalty or wages are death, and that penalty had been in action ever since the fall in the garden.
In the garden the subtle serpeant or Lucifer won the soul of man...who willingly surrendered to his deception, and man's beautiful union with God he enjoyed in the perfect garden was broken, so that now man took on mortality of which physical death results, and also since his perfect spiritual union with God also died...was surrendered...by man himself, his soul also being separated from God, has a future in hell, which was prepared for the fallen angel Lucifer and his followers, and not for man.
The "Sword" of God is the "Word" of God, which is the Word made flesh (Christ)...that is actually God coming here to man in the form of a man for 1 purpose! The purpose....."to Redeem man from the curse of sin which wages are death, hell and the grave." Man put himself in a separated state from God....he won for himself physical death and also the real meaning of Death, which is Eternal separation from God, and that means right now, no spiritual Life in and with God...in the garden Adam knew God and they talked daily but now we are separated from this union with God and that is evident in the fact that many have no knowledge or sense of contact with God at all....no spiritual life as in a spiritual connection with God.
Christ came as God in the flesh to be the sacrifice for the sins of man...for the the fall of man...to Redeem him from the curse of sin, and restore him to God and Life.
The "Sword" is said to "...pierce, divide asunder between soul and spirit and is a "discerner" of the thoughts and intents of the heart." And the Sword is the Word and the Word is Christ. If he did come to bring war....it is not physical, natural, visible war, but it is war for the soul of man! It was the soul or "will" of man that caused him to yeild to the deceiver and bring upon himself his won natural and eternal death.
Notice this...it was this kind of sin (which is denial of God).. Pride...which caused this...."How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground which did "weaken the Nations! For thou has said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God...I will ascend above the heigths of the clouds; I will be like the Most High. Yet thou shall be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit..." (Isa:14:12-15)
There is a "nature" that is not of or yeilded to the God of all God's, the perfect God of Love & righteousness, and this nature is satans, and in the garden man forfeited his perfect nature the God who created him in "his" own image created him with, and man brought upon himself a natural, mortal nature which is separated from God; has no spiritual union or oneness with God.
The Sword came to cut this nature which brings death for man and restore him to the nature of the Holy God of Love.
The death of Christ on the Cross has far more meaning that what meets a natural eye. It's was the needed perfect sacrifice for the fall of man. Any true sacrifice has to be perfect, spotless...and man himself could not be that, yet it had to be a man. Christ came as a man., yet he was God.
His Life was Not taken from him; he willingly laid it down for you and I. He won Life back for us. God himself, who man crucified, sacrificed himself for the very people who crucified him.
There is a great war and meaning to the war we see today than meets the natural eye. The real War is for the soul of man. Lucifer didn't give up in the garden or even after he was defeated at the Cross.
We can go into what the Holy Wars are "really" about today if you like. But know this....they are Not about Christians fighting Christians! There is mystery also behind these holy wars that is more spiritual than physical.
When people say...if God is real why doesn't he fix things? But he did....Within perfect Love & righteousness also is necessary free will. They all are a necessary part of each other. We have a free will Nick, Adam did too, and with the free will all men have, they can choose the wages of sin of the free gift of Life that was won back for him by such a Great Sacrifice. Righteousness will also prove itself in the end too; but God's righteouesness is Love, so that it is very patient for man; it allows him this entire lifetime to seek and find the Truth and accept it if he chooses. It also holds back in great pain watching the evil man performs with his free will, so that as many as will can and will be able to now take from the Tree of eternal life.
My friends and Nick, forgive me the length, and I do not desire to attempt to shove anything at people, but it was a Great Question, and there is a Great answer to it. If christ had not come, I doubt we would be here chatting at Adland today; all would have been very different, from the larger picture down to each of our individual lives. With kindness, Kim