The Dream of a Temporal Millennium by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 25, 1911

The Dream of a Temporal Millennium

By W. A. S.

THE cry of peace and safety and the preparations for the coming world-conflict are not only facts in the fulfilment of prophecy, but signals to us to hasten on with the warning message of the Lord’s soon coming. The situation cries with a loud voice that now is the time to work.

The International Sunday-school lessons for the current week deal with what is called “Micah’s Picture of Universal Peace,” the lesson scripture including the words,—

“And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord. . . . And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” Micah 4: 2, 3.

The praiseworthy efforts to establish international arbitration, the gift of millions for the promotion of peace programs, the discussion of a reduction of armaments, and the progress of negotiations for a permanent arbitration treaty between Great Britain and the United States, with other nations talking of joining in the pact, seem to those who look for a millennium of peace on earth to indicate that the day is at hand.

The text in Micah is practically a repetition of the words in Isaiah 2. Both Isaiah and Micah expressly state that it is the “many people,” the “many nations,” that will thus be talking “in the last days.”

And now, truly, we hear many peoples so saying, until talk of the universal reign of peace has become a striking sign that we have reached the last days, of which the prophets wrote.

But this same second chapter of Isaiah passes on to show that soon after this talk of peace and safety, men will be flinging their possessions to the moles and the bats, and crying for refuge from the glorious majesty of the day of God. It is to come to pass according to Paul’s prophecy: “For when they shall say, Peace and safety: then sudden destruction cometh upon them.” 1 Thess. 5: 3.

The prophecies of the latter days speak continually of the gathering of the elements of strife until they break in the final Armageddon. But popular teaching turns a deaf ear to the voice of the “sure word of prophecy,” and has no definite message of preparation for the swift-coming end.

While “many peoples” are talking of beating swords into plowshares, the preparations for the coming conflict are going forward also, exactly according to the prophecy of Joel 3: 9-14:—

“Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; 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. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen. . . . Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. . . . Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.”

This is to us a familiar prophecy, but it has a new sound in these times, when the vast nations of the heathen are awakening before our eyes, and those formerly counted weak are showing themselves strong. Japan has quickly emerged from weakness into first rank as a military power; and now China follows.

Heretofore the military profession in China has not stood high socially. In April, however, an imperial edict was issued lifting this profession to the highest social rank. This is recognized as a complete break with China’s past, and a definite turning of the greatest body of people on earth into the pathway of modern militarism.

In Missions for May is an interview with President Proctor, of the Shanghai Baptist College. He was asked, “What is the most significant movement in the empire at the present time?” He replied:—

The military movement, I should say. This is little less than revolutionary in character. The Chinese have been peculiarly a peaceable people, without a sense of nationalism, following agriculture, not arms. The military life has been looked upon with contempt, as among the lowest in the social scale. “Better have no son than one who is a soldier,” is a popular saying. The literary class was the ruling caste, and the soldier was regarded as a necessary evil. Hence China offered no inducements to young men to seek military preferment, and had no army worthy of the name. The Russo-Japanese war opened the eyes of her people, but little was done until after the death of the empress dowager, and the introduction of a new régime of reform, including a tentative popular assembly and the construction of a constitutional government by degrees. The prince regent, a brother of the former emperor, has traveled in Europe, and so have his three brothers, who caught the Western spirit in London, where they studied and observed. These are modern men, and through them the new military ideas have become diffused. The social rank of army and navy officers has been raised toward the German and English level, and the new military spirit is manifest on all sides. Many schools have military drills. There is danger of going too far; but it all means that China has decided to take care of herself, and no longer be dependent for existence as a nation upon the plans or purposes of the Western powers.

And with China, the last of the great sleeping forces, aroused, all the world is now awake. Everything is moving in the way marked out in the sure word of prophecy. How the storm is yet held back is plainly shown in Rev. 7: 1-3, where the prophet describes the angels of God holding in check the winds of world-wide strife, that the last message of the gospel—the message of Sabbath reform—may be carried to all peoples.

That which the prophets saw in vision ages ago, we see fulfilling before our eyes to-day. We, too, must be awake, and be ever up and doing, in fulfilment of the work which the remnant church has set before it in the word of prophecy. Never for a moment are we to think that the Lord is delaying his coming. Events both in the world and in the work of God show that the end is swiftly coming.

Now our safety is in keeping the peace of God in our hearts, our sins forgiven, our lives and all dedicated to service, and then shall we be ready when suddenly the Lord cuts short his work in righteousness. W. A. S.