The Final Clash of Earthly Empires by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 25, 1916

The Final Clash of Earthly Empires

By W. A. S.

Armageddon

The Final Clash of Earthly Empires

The sure word of prophecy that foretold the rise and fall of ancient empires, and outlined the general course of world history through the ages, describes also the last great struggle of the nations.

The proverb says, “Peace is the dream of the wise, but war is the history of man.” And divine prophecy assures us that the history of this present world ends amid scenes of conflict.

Many in our time have come to think that civilization must reach a better way of composing the rivalries of the nations. The prophecy forewarns us otherwise. In fact, the prophetic word points to the talk of peace and safety amid preparations for war, as a distinct sign of the latter days. “In the last days,” says Isaiah, “many people shall go and say.”— “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.” Isa. 2: 2-4.

This is what “many people” were to be saying. But the real conditions in the last days are described as exactly the opposite. The prophet Joel describes the spirit of the world in these times:—

“Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles [the nations]: Prepare war, wake 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.” Joel 3: 9, 10.

The context shows that the prophet is speaking of the last times, when “the day of the Lord is near.” Verse 14.

The Prophecy Fulfilling

This is what we have seen in our time, as never before in the history of man—the product of the plowshare and the pruning hook being turned into instruments of war. About twenty-five years ago the late Marquis of Salisbury, speaking as a man grown gray in the service of state, asked a London audience the question, “What is the great change that marks this time as different from the times when most of us were young men?” The aged statesman answered his own question, saying that it was the arming of the nations, the swift race of increasing naval and military armaments upon which the powers had then recently entered. It is a sign of our times, answering to the prophetic forecast.

Throughout the present generation the thoughtful have watched the preparations of the nations for war with grave forebodings. Queen Alexandra, of Britain, now the queen mother, once said of it:—

“I was educated in the school of a king who was, before all things, just, and I have tried, like him, always to preach love and charity. I have always mistrusted warlike preparations, of which nations seem never to tire. Some day this accumulated material of soldiers and guns will burst into flames in a frightful war that will throw humanity into mourning on earth, and grieve our universal Father in heaven.”

As the race of armaments went forward on a scale never before thought of, statesmen and writers began to make use of the word “Armageddon” to describe

the conflict that they saw inevitably preparing. Years ago the London Contemporary Review said:—

“Odd things are happening everywhere. . . . Russia, Germany, England—these are great names; they palpitate with great ideas; they have vast destinies before them, and millions of armed men in their pay, all awaiting Armageddon.”

In June, 1909, Lord Rosebery, in a speech before a press convention in London, commented gravely upon the significance of the feverish haste with which the nations were arming themselves “as if for some great Armageddon—and that in a time of the profoundest peace.”

To quote from a popular American fict. magazine of the same year,—

“Today all Europe is divided into two armed camps, waiting breathlessly for the morrow with its Armageddon.”—Everybody’s, November, 1909.

Thus, everywhere, observers have seen that the rivalry of interests among the nations was leading to a conflict so overwhelmingly vast that only the Scriptural word “Armageddon,” with its appeal to the imagination, seemed properly to describe its proportions.

Every passing year added to the intensity of feeling and the antagonism of interests. In 1911 the London Nineteenth Century and After said:—

“Never was national and racial feeling stronger upon earth than it is now. Never was preparation for war so tremendous and so sustained. Never was striking power so swift and so terribly formidable. . . . The shadow of conflict and of displacement greater than any which mankind has known since Attila and his Huns were stayed at Châlons, is visibly impending over the world. Almost can the ear of imagination hear the gathering of the legions for the fiery trial of peoples, a sound vast as the trumpet of the Lord of hosts.”—Quoted in the Literary Digest, May 6, 1911.

What the ancient prophecy foretold—the preparing of war in the last days, the waking up and arming of the nations—we have seen fulfilling before our eyes in this generation.

Satanic Agencies at Work

In prophecies of the gathering of the nations for the last great struggle, Inspiration draws aside the veil, and allows us to see the agencies that have been stirring up the world for the war. As the prophet John was shown in vision the scenes of the last days, he saw the invisible powers of Satan, “the spirits of devils,” going 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: 14.

Earnest-minded statesmen have lamented their helplessness to combat the forces and influences pressing the world on toward conflict. In one of his last speeches, as premier of Great Britain, the late Marquis of Salisbury was defending yet further calls for army and navy appropriations. He said:—

“For years public opinion was in favor of a pacific policy, but now that state of opinion has passed away. The tide has turned, and who am I, and who are we, that we should attempt to stem the tide? If the tide has turned, we shall have to go with it. We are in the presence of forces far larger than we can wield.”

What those forces were, the aged statesman did not recognize. But the prophecy tells us. The prophet was shown the evil spirits from Satan going forth everywhere as the end nears, to stir up the whole world to the last great conflict. Sir Edward Grey, British foreign secretary, described these agencies very accurately. Speaking in the House of Commons, Nov. 27, 1911, he said:—

“It is really as if in the atmosphere of the world there were some mischievous influence at work, which troubles and excites every part of it.”

It is all coming to pass exactly as the sure word of prophecy foretold.

The conviction that great and decisive events are at hand has taken possession of many hearts in all the world. When the European war broke out in 1914, on a scale unprecedented in human history, it was no wonder that the question sprang to many lips, “Is it Armageddon?”

The question was not lightly asked. The committee of the Church Missionary Society (Church of England), one of the greatest missionary organizations in the world, sent a message to its missionaries in all lands at the outbreak of the war. In this message was a call to prepare for the coming of the Lord:—

“It may be that these events will quickly usher in the return of Christ to gather his saints together from the four quarters of the earth. . . . Many see in the events preceding and accompanying this terrible cataclysm of war the signs of our Lord’s near return. If so, blessed will that servant be whom his Lord when he cometh shall find giving ‘their food in due season’ to those fellow servants who have been put in his charge.”—Church Missionary Review, November, 1914.

Timely as this call was, it was evident from the prophetic scriptures that the great European war could not be the Armageddon of the Apocalypse. The prelude to that final clash of nations is an event yet in the future—the downfall of a nation whose part in the closing scenes is clearly described in the prophecy of the coming Armageddon.

W. A. S.

(To be concluded)