W. H. BRANSON by William H. Branson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 6, 1913

W. H. BRANSON

By William H. Branson

Armageddon

W. H. BRANSON

“We stand at Armageddon,” was the declaration of one of the political candidates in this country only a few months ago. Probably the candidate who chose this motto for his battle-cry little realized the true import of the expression he was using. It is astonishing to note how the idea of Armageddon is taking hold of thinking people of every country, and how the world is awaiting with fear and trembling the great crisis that Armageddon stands for, and that is so sure and so soon to come. Notice some recent statements clipped from various papers and magazines on the subject:—

“A telegraphic news item announces that while Turkey seeks a truce, she is patching up her defense with great zeal and heartiness. Turkey is not in this respect so much unlike the rest of the world as she is in other things. It is the accepted policy of the various powers, Christian and other, the United States among the number, to prepare for war at times of even the most profound peace. In fact, war seems to be an ever-present possibility with all of us, although most of us profess to be peace loving and to hold nothing but good will toward all men. Some years ago The Hague as an arbitral court had a great vogue as a mooted agency for maintaining peace, but even while we had our eyes directed heavenward, our hands were behind our backs signaling for the war preparations to continue unabated; and the building of war-ships and the organizing of fighting machines goes merrily on. In this connection it is noted that a bill is now pending to constitute the national guard an immediate part of the fighting force of the United States, to receive pay from the federal government, etc. Germany, England, France, in fact all the powers of the western world, and, now joined by the new Chinese republic, with the ‘little Japs’ always at work in the Orient, are yearly spending hundreds of millions of dollars upon war—like Turkey, as it were, improving their defenses during the armistice. Perhaps we are approaching Armageddon, which in the fulfilment of the scripture must be fought before the millennium will dawn.”

—Editorial in the Chattanooga Times, Dec. 5, 1912.

Speaking of the fact that retribution is sure to come to such cruel organizations as the Papacy and Mohammedanism, a leading weekly journal recently said:—

“This coming retribution is the battle of Armageddon. All the world is moving to the conflict.”

The Washington Post, speaking on the subject of war some time ago, made the following statement:—

“War and justice joined issue when Cain slew his brother, and the quarrel is not yet composed, and perhaps the final adjudication will not come till Armageddon is fought.”

In Everybody’s Magazine some time ago Mr. E. A. Powell, F. R. G. S., had an article on the situation in Europe, in which he said:—

“To-day all Europe is divided into two armed camps, waiting breathlessly for the morrow, with its Armageddon.”

In the London Contemporary Review, Mr. H. Newton Marshall says:—

“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 Armageddon.”

In a review of the international situation the Washington Post has the following to say:—

“It is one of the dire elements of the situation that a European war at the present time could not possibly be fought out between those two nations [England and Germany] without involving other nations, and so widely spread and intricate is this web of international alliance that it might easily throw practically the entire world into turmoil.”

For sixty years and more Seventh-day Adventists have been telling the world that Armageddon would be fought before the coming of the Lord the second time, and that a time of trouble, such as never was, is soon to burst upon the world. This statement was based entirely upon the prophecy of the Bible. But how different is the outlook now than when we began to warn the world of its coming doom. Then the teacher of the prophecy was met with a scoff, but to-day men’s hearts are “failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.”

“The world is stirred with the spirit of war. The prophecy of the eleventh chapter of Daniel has nearly reached its complete fulfilment. Soon the scenes of trouble spoken of in the prophecies will take place. ‘Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scatterest abroad the inhabitants thereof; . . . because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.’ . . . ‘I am pained at my very heart; . . . I can not hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled.’”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. IX, pages 14, 15.

Knoxville, Tenn.