Result of National Idolatry by B. M. HEALD

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 26, 1915

Result of National Idolatry

By B. M. HEALD

B. M. HEALD

FOR some years the war cloud of Europe has been gathering blackness; a few months ago the storm broke in all its mad fury. Morning after morning we read the headlines of the daily news, and learn that the war hopper is steadily crushing out lives with no decisive battle reported from either front.

Jehovah being the God of love, many are at a loss for the reason of this bloody carnage, and are tempted to consider him the “war god” of the twentieth century. But God, knowing the degenerating effects of idolatry, knew that the human heart in the latter end of earth’s history would be more idolatrous than at the beginning of the world, and, as would be most natural, the idolatrous nations would fight for that which they covet, the possession of the earth; and through his Word he proclaims to this century that there will be an awakening of the nations, and that general war will obtain supremacy on earth.

That they might have “a name” and “a city,” idolatry caused the people to attempt to build a tower that would “reach unto heaven.” To the exclusion of God, they sought to establish themselves on the earth as its possessor. It was idolatry in the heart of Nebuchadnezzar that prompted him to say, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?”

Though but a young lad when news of his father’s victories came to Alexander he complainingly said, “My father will possess himself of everything, and leave nothing for me to do.” Hannibal, when a child of nine years, was led by his father to the altar, and there dedicated to the war god. “Hannibal,” exclaimed Napoleon, “crossed the Alps; as for us, there shall be no Alps.” What was the all-absorbing characteristic principle in the lives of these men of the past? They were inspired by idolatrous ambition to control the world, to build up a kingdom for the honor of their majesty.

However, it must be remembered that “the earth is the Lord’s,” and God intends that his Son, “whose right it is,” shall be “King of kings and Lord of Lords.” It is his government that God intends shall fill the whole earth. No empire of the earth has the legitimate right to the earth, nor can expect to be supreme. The day of the Lord is near upon the nations. The kingdom of God and of his Christ is soon to be set up, a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and all people, nations, and languages shall serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion.

Egypt, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and pagan Rome have all passed into oblivion. God’s plan is not that the wicked should inherit the earth for an eternal possession. Papal Rome has thought to “possess the primacy over the whole world;” but its dominion shall be taken away and destroyed without human power in the final consummation. “The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted. . . . Come, behold the works of Jehovah, what desolations he hath made in the earth.” God showed his servant David the end of the struggle.

In expecting to be absolute rulers of this earth, the nations have been imagining a vain thing, and it is this warring, raging, taking counsel together against the Lord, that results in the battle of Armageddon, the battle of God Almighty.

We must reconcile our plans to God’s plans, and wait upon him. The warring nations are reaping what they have sown. God alone is to be exalted among the nations. He alone is to be exalted in the earth. Let us, then, be still and know that he is God.