The Nations Were Angry by B. G. WILKINSON

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 16, 1916

“The Nations Were Angry”

By B. G. WILKINSON

B. G. WILKINSON

The general testimony of great writers and thinkers today is that the present war in Europe is the most colossal exhibition of clashing nations the world has ever seen. President Wilson says: “It seems as if great blind material forces had been released which had for long been held in leash and restrained. . . . You will see that it is only in such general terms that one can speak in the midst of a confused world, because, as I have already said, no man has the key to this confusion.”—Speech to Methodist Conference, April 8, 1915.

Despite President Wilson’s opinion, there is a key to this situation, and it is found in the Word of God. The Bible is a reliable forecaster. It alone can tell history in advance. James J. Hill, the great empire builder of the Northwest, about a month ago declared that the present world situation is the worst that the earth has ever seen. Kipling, England’s great poet, writes that he sees nothing ahead but universal ruin. James R. Mann, Republican floor leader of the House of Representatives, said, Oct. 2, 1914, in a carefully prepared speech: “I have no doubt that it is as certain as the sun will rise tomorrow, that a conflict will come between the Far East and the Far West, across the Pacific Ocean.”

What are these speakers saying?—Simply what the apostolic preacher wrote two millenniums ago. “The nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldst give reward unto thy servants the prophets.” Rev. 11:18. Though these eminent writers, while speaking of the angry nations, say nothing about the judgment of the dead, the outpouring of God’s wrath in the seven last plagues, and the final reward of the saints; yet these also are soon going to be talked about. The colossal significance of the European war is not the war itself, but the great events which cluster around it.

“The nations were angry.” What makes them angry? Rev. 12:12 reads, “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” Many writers, describing the battles of this war, have said, “The men fought like demons.” The fiend spirit of Satan, then, has to do with war. Man sinned and suffered death; the devil sinned, but did not taste death. His day, however, is coming. Less than God, greater than man, this archdeceiver, who has power to transform himself into an angel of light, must soon face utter extinction. If he comes down “having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time,” then the conclusion is sure that the shorter his time, the greater his wrath. To him could always be traced the wrath of the nations; and now this most terrible clash of races tells of Satan’s final efforts, for his end is drawing near.

That this passion of the nations is the work of Satan, we can read again: “I saw three unclean spirits like frogs. . . . They are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.” Rev. 16:13, 14. Man is praised for brilliant war organizations, yet Satan himself is the instigator of war. He plans wars to hinder the gospel. He organized the gigantic enterprise of building the tower of Babel, that an all-embracing reign of evil men might crush the coming Seed of the woman, promised in Eden.

The greatness of the catastrophe involved in the anger of the nations may be seen by a statement in Rev. 16:12: “The sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared.” There may be a lull, perhaps a short period of peace, after the present war; but this conflict will be as nothing in comparison to the gigantic struggle that will follow.

“Just exactly what the present war is about is susceptible of a dozen answers. But in the conflict of the future—the conflict that will begin around the peace-making council board, and that may end with new alliances on the battle field—there will be no difficulty in arriving at the explanation. That will be a war of races and of civilizations; the East against the West; the Asiatic against the European ideal.”—Washington Times, Sept. 2, 1914.

Then will the promise of the last verses in the Bible be fulfilled: “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly.”