Approaching Armageddon by C. M. Snow

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Nov 16, 1914

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 91, No. 48 Extra

Approaching Armageddon

By C. M. Snow

THE MEANING OF THIS WORLD WAR

By C. M. Snow

WHAT is the meaning of this cataclysm of the nations? What means the beating of this flail of death on the quivering flesh of civilization? Is it only a step in human evolution? Is it the wreck of civilization? Is it the long-expected Armageddon of Biblical prophecy?

Yesterday this world was a neighborhood: today it is a slaughterhouse, a charnel house, a cyclone, a cemetery. Yesterday there was comparative peace and prosperity, confidence, friendly intercourse, and kindly ministration; today there is turmoil and famine, distrust, hatred, malevolence, ruin, dismay, and a mutual desire to injure and to kill. Does it mean nothing to this race but the changing of a few rulers and the making of new boundary lines?

It means much more. Civilization as a guarantor of peace has proved itself a broken reed. The hand that leaned upon it has been pierced by it; and the innocent victims of that trust are watering the storm-swept soil with their tears and their blood.

Prophecy of the Peace and Safety Cry

Centuries ago this world was warned that a time would come when the call to war would go ringing through the earth, and the nations would respond.

Certain religious leaders have been teaching the world for years that we were soon to enter upon a millennium of peace. They have deluded themselves and their hearers with the belief that some of the wishes of the human heart are the very oracles of God. They have wanted wars to cease, and have declared that they would cease. God has recorded their declarations; and then they have declared that God's record of their declaration in this matter was God's own declaration to the human race of what he purposed should be. This utterance from Isaiah they have thus interpreted:

“And he [God] shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” Isaiah 2:4.

It is essential that we know who is saying this. The verse immediately preceding the one quoted reads:—

“And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

Who says it?—“Many people.” And they are saying it now. And what else are they saying?—That “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks,” and that “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” When are they saying it? The second verse of the same chapter tells us that “it shall come to pass in the last days,” etc.

Then “in the last days” we are to hear much talk of an epoch of peace, tranquillity, and prosperity; much talk of regulating all human conduct by divine law; much talk of the church regulating all the affairs of the world; much talk of the speedy and perpetual elimination of war from the activities of this world. If we had no other proof that we are living in the last days, present-day facts fulfilling that prophecy would be proof enough. That scripture describes our times, and our times fulfill that scripture.

Now what is the truth of the matter? In the same chapter we learn what the true conditions will be in the last days. It portrays a condition of terror in the world:—

“Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low. . . . And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.” Isaiah 2:10-21.

A very different condition of things is this from the condition which “many people” are looking for; but that scripture agrees perfectly with what our Saviour himself declared would be. He said:—

“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things that are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” Luke 21:25-27.

We have seen the signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars. We are seeing the distress of nations and their perplexity; and men's hearts are today trembling with fear because of what they see and hear. But the Saviour declares that this condition is to be followed by his coming in the clouds of heaven. He makes no provision for an epoch of peace. Instead he tells us of a time when—

“the kings of the earth, and the princes, and the chief captains, and the rich, and the strong, and every bondman and freeman, and hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains; and they say to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of their wrath is come; and who is able to stand?” Revelation 6:15-17.

No Epoch of Peace

There is no promise there of an epoch of peace and safety. It is a time of distress and perplexity and fear and terror, and it leads right into the coming of the Son of God, the destruction of the wicked and the reward of the righteous. We have another divine word in reference to these conditions:—

“For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh

upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.” 1 Thessalonians 5:3.

Sudden destruction comes when they are saying, “Peace and safety.” They have been saying, “Peace and safety,” in all parts of the world during the last few years. They have held peace congresses, and have dedicated a magnificent palace to that idea. Every nation had armed itself to guarantee peace; and then a lesson of destruction was turned loose upon the world. Millions of men sprang to arms—and the arms were ready. Men forgot that they were armed to guarantee peace; and they began to fight one another like wild beasts, and to die like herds of cattle driven to the slaughter. Surely there was no peace, but sudden and terrible destruction.

In This Armageddon!

What the Lord says the people will be saying: "They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks." What the Lord says the people will be doing: "Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears."

The people of this world, in spite of the “peace and safety” cry, have a sort of vague and shadowy idea of a great battle that is to be the last battle of this world, and they have been taught to believe that when it has been fought, there will be no more war; but that the kingdom of God will be quietly established in the world, and tranquillity and peace will rule supreme. Of the battle of Armageddon the Bible speaks thus:—

“And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits, as it were frogs; for they are spirits of demons, working signs; which go forth unto the kings of the whole world, to gather them together unto the war of the great day of God, the Almighty. . . . And they gathered them together unto the place which is called in Hebrew Har-Magedon. Revelation 16:13-16, American Revised Version.

The spirits of demons are, according to God's Word, the actuating agencies in stirring up the awful spirit of strife which culminates in the battle of the great day of God, the Almighty—Armageddon. The demons are busy, and are gathering in the nations one by one to the great swirling vortex of mutual ruin.

Since Turkey has decided to fling herself into this fray, there is every possibility that this terrible grapple of the nations of the world is leading straight on toward Armageddon. While Turkey kept out and the war was confined to Europe, Armageddon did not seem so near. That old battle ground of the ancient nations is located in Palestine, at the foot of Mt. Megiddo, in the plain of Esdraelon, north of Jerusalem, accessible from north and south and from the sea. That is to be the gathering place of the hosts of the nations in the last mighty battles of this world. Here is the divinely recorded call that goes out to all the nations in that day:—

“Proclaim ye this among the nations: prepare war; stir up the mighty men; let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, I am strong. Haste ye, and come, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves together: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Jehovah. Let the nations bestir themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about. Put ye in the sickle; for the harvest is ripe; come, tread ye; for the wine press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of Jehovah is near in the valley of decision.” Joel 3:9-14.

The meaning of Jehoshaphat is, Jehovah does justice. Therefore it is “the valley of decision,” or the valley of Jehovah's judgment. It is a narrow glen between Mt. Moriah and Mt. Olivet in Palestine.

Reason for Armageddon

The reason for the assembly of the nations at Armageddon seems plain when we consider the logical result of Turkey's entrance into this war. If she is driven out of Europe and forced out of western Asia Minor, it would seem she must withdraw into Palestine. When Islam and other heathen religionists come to grips with armed Christendom in the Holy Land, we shall have Armageddon. The door is now flung wide open for just such a dénouement. And will peace follow it?—Nay, verily.

“Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great tempest shall be raised up from the uttermost parts of the earth. And the slain of Jehovah shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried.” Jeremiah 25:32, 33.

At the time of that event that power known in prophecy as “the king of the north” (Daniel 11:40-45) will establish the seat of its government in Palestine, and there fling down its final challenge to the rest of the world. Of that power it is predicted:—

“But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Daniel 11:44 to Daniel 12:2.

That marks the consummation of the gospel work in the earth, the consummation of the age. It will be a time of terror for the ungodly and the unbeliever; but they that put their trust in Jehovah shall be as Mount Zion that cannot be moved. Says the apostle:—

“To you that are afflicted rest with us, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus; who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints.” 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10.

That event is synchronous with the close of the battle of Armageddon. No battles will be fought after that, for there will be no one left to fight them. That closes the history of this present world, and leaves the wicked slain upon the earth and the righteous on their way with angelic escort to the place of their reward.