p. 13 | The Final Conflict by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 23, 1911

The Final Conflict

By F. M. W.

INTENSITY marks the struggle to-day between the forces of good and of evil. The world has become transformed into a great battle-field of contending forces. Warring elements which for the last six thousand years have been striving for the mastery, are engaged to-day in the great culminating conflict of the ages. Six thousand years of history look down upon the scene. The enmity created between the author of sin and the seed of the woman, has grown with the years and with the centuries, and to-day we who read these words are participants in the grand culmination of the controversy. And what a scene is presented to our vision as we look out over the battle-field! What a marshaling of evil forces is beheld! What fearful inroads have been wrought by the powers of evil!

For the most part the world is given up to the leadings of evil influences. The most stable institutions of society have been assaulted, and in them a rapidly leavening process is going forward. The home, the church, and the state, God’s three great bulwarks for the regulation of society and the suppression of evil, are being honeycombed to their very heart. Consider these individual institutions for a moment:—

The Home

The integrity of the home is the very foundation of stable society. That which lessens its dignity and purity strikes a blow at every other institution. The apostle tells us that the last days will be especially marked, in that men will be “without natural affection, truce-breakers,” etc. This is forcibly illustrated in prevailing conditions around us. The old-time simplicity and integrity of the home life are fast passing away. Many home unions, formed as a result of caprice and fancy rather than of sound judgment, and as the fruit of lust instead of love, have destroyed the high and holy standard of home life; and in consequence, alienation, family discord, separation, and divorce, if not greater tragedies, are the common result. The alarming increase of divorce furnishes cause for grave concern to every student of human philosophy at the present time. Marriage vows are but lightly regarded. Wedlock is coming to be considered only as a civil contract, to be set aside as lightly as it was entered into by the contracting parties. Free love and libertinism, if not openly taught, are all too generally practised.

The Church

These evil principles of laxness and of a lowering of Christian standards have invaded the sanctuaries of religious thought. The church itself is succumbing to the spirit of the times. Old-time doctrines, setting forth the truth and simplicity and vital power of the Word of God, are coming to be discountenanced. The Scriptures of truth themselves are rejected by many. A modern theology has been evolved, as a result of so-called scientific thought and higher scholarship, which sets aside primitive faith, and counts as silly fables of mythological lore the Bible teachings and records which have stood as the very foundations of Christian faith and practise. Evolution is taught for regeneration. The miracles of the Word of God are sought to be accounted for by the laws of natural philosophy. The divine incarnation is denied. Jesus Christ is represented as only a great historical character, with no power to save above the influence of any other godly man. The accounts of the creation and the resurrection are looked upon as mythical tales, and the influences which will bring about a transformation of life, a “resurrection” into higher spheres, are the powers of mind directed in intellectual and ethical culture.

These wicked, pernicious principles are set forth to-day, and that, too, in many instances by professed ministers of the gospel. Received by the multitude, they are lowering moral standards, and leading men to question if there is indeed a God who takes account of the acts of his creatures. Added to these faith-destroying doctrines, is the work of such movements as Christian Science, Spiritualism, Emmanuelism, Theosophy, and allied perversions which hold multitudes of men and women in their ruthless grasp to-day.

O, that the church of God might realize its situation, that it might return once more to its simplicity of faith and practise, and take hold of the only Power, the divine hand from heaven, which could aid it in its Titanic struggle with the forces of evil! A remnant will be saved according to grace. God will raise up faithful witnesses who will sound the cry of warning against these overwhelming evils. Some will heed the call. Some, in the days of moral degeneracy upon which we have entered, will remain unshaken in their faith and allegiance to the great God of heaven, and to his revelation to the children of men as found in the Scriptures of truth. This is the rift in the cloud of moral darkness.

The State

The influences operating in the church and the home are subtle and insidious. Their work is done in part in secret. They make no display of figures or statistics. But when we come to the national phases of human life, we see there in clear light the forces of evil working in the open. And against this important institution of society, which was ordained of God for the correction of evil-doers, and for the protection of those who do well, Satan is now marshaling all the forces of evil. While without doubt every political party in every nation to-day, holds men of integrity and moral worth, and while in positions of trust are found scores of men who in the fear of God are trying to stem the rising tide of evil, the records of current history reveal all too clearly the inroads which are being made upon the integrity of governmental life. Municipal, State, and federal office-holders become the prey of scheming men. Votes are bought and sold. Franchises are purchased. Corporations buy special privileges with gold wrung from a suffering people. One great concern of government legislation to-day is to determine ways and means whereby the public may be protected from privileged classes and the money power.

The conflict between capital and labor has become acute. The commercial interests of the nations and of individuals are in sharp competition. It has become to-day a struggle for the mastery in wealth, in human ambition, yea, more than this, it has become a struggle with thousands for very existence.

National Competition

Increased cost of living commodities, coupled with the spirit of extravagance and high living, have brought about conditions which serve as goads to the struggling multitude. This spirit of mastery and of rivalry is particularly marked in the attitude of the nations toward one another, the struggle for national growth and expansion, and for the increase of commercial power, bringing them into sharp and strenuous competition. Each jealously watches the movements of the other; each vies with the other in seeking the state of preparedness for any emergency in national existence. In consequence, we have a continual increase of naval armaments, large standing armies, and rapidly growing burdensome taxation. In this connection the words of the Independent of February 9, on the preparations for war upon the part of the European nations, are worth repeating:—

Germany is prepared to put 3,000,000 men in the field at short notice, and estimates that the cost of keeping such a force under arms will be $4,500,000 a day. Over $100,000,000 is to be spent on the German navy next year, and the reconstruction of the fleet on the dreadnaught basis is being pushed with feverish rapidity. Austria is suddenly possessed of a desire for a big new navy of sixteen dreadnaughts, although there is no apparent reason for a great increase of its sea power. The Austrian military and naval estimates for the coming year call for nearly $110,000,000, of which about $25,000,000 goes to the navy. This is about $18,750,000 above the ordinary appropriation. The total cost of the naval program will be $70,000,000 or more. The government holds it to be of the highest importance that four first-class battle-ships of the dreadnaught type be completed by 1913, or 1914 at latest. On account of this haste two of them were begun at the shipyards in Trieste without waiting for the authorization of the expenditure by the delegations of Austria and Hungary. Besides the four vessels of over 20,000 tons, there will be constructed three cruisers, twelve torpedo-boats, and six submarines. This naval project is being energetically pushed by the heir apparent, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, who presented the program to the delegations in person. The government also wishes to increase the army at the rate of 50,000 more recruits annually, and to establish a system of two years’ military service. It may be surmised that Austria-Hungary is looking forward to an active interference in Balkan affairs, and possibly a war with Italy. At least that is surmised by the Italians, who are making strenuous efforts to get their first squadron of dreadnaughts ready by 1913. The French government has decided to ask the Chamber for large accessions to the navy. The Swedish government has prepared a plan for the reconstruction of the navy, and wants $1,110,000 a year for the next three years to build the first battle-ship of the new type. It is proposed also to extend the period of compulsory military service to one year.

These are the elements of evil combining for the last great conflict. Depressing indeed would be the situation were it not for the fact that there is another picture we can contemplate. That picture is the working out of God’s great purpose in the affairs of men.

Two Spirits

While a spirit from beneath is rising and fast taking hold of satanic agencies, and marshaling them for the final fray, there is comfort in the thought that there is descending from on high a power in which the children of God may find protection, and which is more than a match for all the forces of evil. That power is the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of invincible truth. That truth is going to the nations of men, and in the final gathering call is bringing together from the east and the west, from the north and the south, those who will stand for God and truth in this evil generation.

The messengers of this truth must storm the very strongholds of the enemy; they must enter into the very citadels of evil, and snatch here and there, as brands from the burning, those who have been deceived. In this work the invincible God is their tower of strength. His Holy Spirit will prove their guide. He that is with them is more than all they that be against them. For a time, evil may seem to run riot and wickedness to prevail, but the truth of God will prove victorious in the end; and he who makes God his refuge in these days of peril, who takes hold of the strong hand that is reached down to save, will triumph with the truth of God throughout the eternal ages.

In the great conflict between truth and error now going forward, let us be sure to stand on the right side. The real conflict is in the hearts of men. In some measure we must meet it in our own lives, but through divine grace we may come off more than conquerors through him who has loved us, and who is abundantly able to keep that which we may commit unto him against the day of final triumph.

F. M. W.