The Final Clash of Earthly Empires by William Ambrose Spicer

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 1, 1916

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 93, No. 27.

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The Final Clash of Earthly Empires

By William Ambrose Spicer

Armageddon

The Final Clash of Earthly Empires

(Concluded)

The end of the power ruling by the river Euphrates is the prelude to Armageddon. The prophecy says:—

“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.” Rev. 16: 12.

Next follows the gathering of “the whole world” to “the battle of that great day of God Almighty.” Verse 14.

Through all modern times Turkey has been identified with the Euphrates. The region of Syria and Asia Minor now held by Turkey, has been the historic meeting place of the East and West. In the London Fortnightly Review of May, 1915, Mr. J. B. Firth wrote:—

“When, with the fall of Ottoman sovereignty at Constantinople, the Turk is driven out of Europe, there will arise once more the eternal question of the possession of Asia Minor. That land is the corridor between Europe and Asia, along which have passed most of the European conquerors—the Russians alone excepted—who have invaded Asia, and most of the Asiatic conquerors who have invaded Europe.”

The fall of the Turkish power in this Euphrates region will, in some manner, prepare the way for “the kings of the East” to come up to the final conflict.

The Awakening of the East

The same spirit that has been stirring up the West in preparation for the contest has been working in the East also. Year after year observers have pointed out the great changes taking place in Asia. Some years ago the London Contemporary Review said:—

“The whole of Asia is in the throes of rebirth. At last we may see these three—the yellow race, the Indian race, and the Arab-Persian Mohammedan race. And all that is making for the Armageddon.”—September, 1909.

A writer in the May, 1913, issue of the London Nineteenth Century and After, reviewing the situation at the close of the Balkan War, said:—

“A new spirit is abroad in the East. It arose on the shores of the Pacific when Japan proved that the great powers of Europe are not invulnerable. North and south and west it has spread, rousing China out of centuries of slumber, stirring India into ominous questioning, reviving memories of past glory in Persia, breeding discontent in Egypt, and luring Turkey onto the rocks.”

With all the nations stirred up by the spirit agencies of the god of this world, the prophet next saw the armies of earth gathering to the last great battle. The prophecy continues:—

“And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.” Verse 16.

Armageddon means the hill, or mount of Megiddo, which overlooks the plain of Esdraelon, the historic battle ground of northern Palestine. Carmack says of it:—

“Megiddo was the military key of Syria; it commanded at once the highway northward to Phœnicia and Coele-Syria and the road across Galilee to Damascus and the valley of the Euphrates. It was moreover the chief town in a district of great fertility, the contested possession of many races. The vale of Kishon and the region of Megiddo were inevitable battle fields. Through all history they retained that qualification; there many of the great contests of Southwestern Asia have been decided. In the history of Israel it was the scene of frequent battles. From such association the district achieved a dark nobility: it was regarded as a predestined place of blood and strife; the poet of the Apocalypse has clothed it with awe as the ground of the final conflict between the powers of light and darkness.”—“Pre-Biblical Syria and Palestine,” p. 82.

Thus Armageddon, as the “military key of Syria,” marks Palestine and the Near East as the great international storm center in the final conflict.

The Political Storm Center

In vision, nearly two thousand years ago, the prophet saw the forces of the last days gathering round this pivotal region. Today observers recognize the eastern Mediterranean as indeed the pivotal point round which international interests involving East and West naturally revolve.

Some years ago, in discussing railway development in Asia and Africa, and the great highways of sea transportation, the London Fortnightly Review said:—

“Palestine is the great center, the meeting of the roads. Whoever holds Palestine, commands the great lines of communication, not only by land, but also by sea.”

Again, the Manchester Guardian, emphasizing the importance attaching to this strategic center, said during the great war:—

“Egypt, as things are,—and the fact cannot be too often emphasized,—is the weak spot in our system of imperial defense by sea power. Not until Palestine is in our possession can Egypt be regarded as safe.”—Quoted in Literary Digest, Feb. 12, 1916.

Other nations have recognized the strategic value of a territory so situated. Thus political considerations make this region pointed out by the prophecy a center of conflicting interests. Hogarth, in his book, “The Nearer East,” calls it “the time-honored storm center of the eastern Mediterranean.”

The Religious Storm Center

To the conflict of political interests, is added the rivalry of religious sentiment. Commenting on the religious associations of Palestine in relation to the international political situation, the London Spectator some years ago stated the matter thus:—

“People often ask how it is that the future of Palestine presents such difficulties. The reason is simply that Jerusalem—you cannot separate Jerusalem from Palestine—is the sacred city of so many creeds and warring faiths. Not only is it the holy place of all the Christian churches,—and two of them quarrel bitterly over it, the Greeks and the Latins,—but it is also one of the most sacred places in the Mohammedan world. Mecca and Medina are hardly more sacred than the Mosque of Omar. That is a fact which is often ignored by Europeans who forget that to turn the Mohammedans out of the temple inclosure would disturb the whole Moslem world, from the Straits Settlements to Albania. We must never forget that Mohammedan pilgrims from India visit Jerusalem, just as Christian pilgrims visit it from Europe. Lastly, Jerusalem is profoundly sacred to the Jews, and the Jews are beginning to be locally numerous and important. Most certainly there are no elements of difficulty wanting in the problem of the future of Palestine.”

History records the fact that rivalry over the care of the traditional holy places helped to precipitate one European war—that of the Crimea. In the study of the Eastern Question, we have seen that the prophecy of Daniel II marks Jerusalem as still a storm center in the closing scenes. A British consul in Jerusalem, in the days following the Crimean War, set forth suggestively his view of one of the factors in the Eastern Question. He wrote:—

“The very heart and kernel of the

Eastern Question can only be reached in the Holy City, Jerusalem, where the Eastern and Western churches are still wrestling as of old for the mastery. . . . Now as heretofore, disguise the object as they may, they are striving for a prize which has not been destined by divine providence for either; and this prize is no less than a virtual dominion over the Christian world, from a throne of government within the sanctuaries of the Holy City; and the possession of that throne would involve possession of the key to universal dominion.”—“Stirring Times: Records from Jerusalem Consulate Chronicles,” by James Finn, preface, xxiii.

Foretold in Prophecy

By every consideration — political, racial, and religious — the Near East supplies all the elements for involving the whole world when once the sweeping displacements begin which the prophecy foretold, and for which statesmen in our day have sought to prepare.

Long ages ago the prophet of God, in vision on the Isle of Patmos, was shown the clash of interests and the gathering of the nations round this historic center. Before our eyes today we see events tending to give to this region the very character assigned to it by the prophecy. It was written in the sure word of prophecy in order that, as the events foretold are seen approaching, men may believe and turn to God, and find salvation from the things coming upon the earth. Into the prophecy of this sixteenth chapter of Revelation, describing the gathering of forces to Armageddon, our Saviour interjects the warning and the appeal:—

“Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.” Verse 15.

The last earthly events that the prophecy is dealing with — the pouring out of the seven last plagues, and the clash of Armageddon — come after probation closes. The close of probation, the passing of the ministry of Christ in the heavenly temple, will come as a thief, unannounced. Our only safety is in yielding heart and life to him now for cleansing, and accepting from his hand the garments of his own righteousness, freely offered to every one.

What Comes with Armageddon

Whatever ambitions or aims may be the impelling motives when the gathering to the great conflict comes, one thing is certain: Armageddon is to bring triumph and world dominion to no earthly power. As the nations gather, the Lord intervenes from heaven, and the history of the kingdoms of this world is closed at last. The prophet tells the sequel to Armageddon:—

“He gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.” Rev. 16: 16-21.

The fall of the Turkish power is the prelude to the gathering of the nations to the battle of Armageddon. And Armageddon is the prelude to the end of the world and Christ’s glorious coming as King of kings and Lord of lords. The armies gathered to battle for supremacy find themselves suddenly arrayed against the armies of heaven. Another prophecy describes the scene when Christ is revealed:—

“The kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and 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 his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” Rev. 6:15-17.

Again, as the great searchlight of divine prophecy lights up the way before us, we see by the course of present-day events that the end is drawing very near. By what sudden turn of affairs the last things to be done in history may be set in motion, none can foresee. The Saviour admonishes every soul, “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.” Matt. 24:44. W. A. S.