A. False Peace by Milton C. Wilcox

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 27, 1915

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 17.

A. False Peace

By Milton C. Wilcox

A Confederacy for Peace—Based on False Principles—A World Doomed to Disappointment

The only peace of worth to the individual soul is the peace that comes by righteousness; and the righteousness of this peace is that of God by faith of Jesus Christ “unto all and upon all them that believe.” See Rom. 3:21, 22; 5:1. That is the peace that God longs to give to the many restless hearts of earth. “Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord; and I will heal him.” Isa. 57:19. This is God’s peace of righteousness to the soul that surrenders. “But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” Verses 20, 21.

The preaching of that message of peace will gather out a people surrendered to God, loyal to the great eternal principles of His government, of whom it is said, “Here are they that

keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:12.

The False Peace Movement

Over against this gospel of God, will be preached the gospel of men, which is not a gospel. It is based on confederation, not life union with God. It will seemingly be successful. The great states of the world will come to one mind. They have met the great foes of nominal Christianity, and either subjugated or destroyed them. They have become confederate. They will agree among themselves that the papacy shall again be exalted as the head of Christianity, and a world peace shall be proclaimed. Of the proclamation of this false peace in the last days, the prophet speaks:

“And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

“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.”

“But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.”

“For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.” Micah 4:2-5.

What Men Will Say

That is Micah’s prophecy for “the last days.” Verse 1. It is not God’s message of a true peace to come. Rather, it is God’s prophecy of what men will say, of what nations will say, in their great representative assemblies. The nations declare that God is behind them in all this. They declare that He will teach them; that His word shall go forth from Jerusalem; that He will bring peace—presumably by His representative the papacy; that in all the world shall be peace and quiet. The nations will say all this, the prophet states. They will preach a peace that will allow the mixed worship of the last part of the passage, so as to accommodate all Babylon.

But this is a false message of peace without God, and Jesus the Christ, and His salvation. It is peace politically, peace among those of whom another prophet said, “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” Isa. 57:21.

In a directly parallel prophecy in Isa. 2:1-6, the prophet declares of this professed people of God who proclaim the false peace, “Thou [God] hast forsaken Thy people the house of Jacob, because they are filled with customs from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners.” God will not tolerate the duplicity of this, its self-salvation, its destructive theories of evolution. “The lofty looks of man shall be brought low, . . . and Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day.” Verse 11.

Not a Converted World

Micah continues his prophecy in the same strain. It is not a converted world that is to be seen. It is not a peace that will last forever. It will endure for a little time politically; and the little season will give those bearing God’s true message, time to sound a world-wide warning against the false peace, and present another heart-touching appeal to the world to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. And then, “in that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted; and I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth, even forever. And thou, O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.” Micah 4:6-8.

That is the result of God’s gathering message. His remnant people will be saved, and the kingdom shall come to Christ Himself. The Jerusalem named is the Jerusalem that is above. Gal. 4:26; Rev. 21:2.

Sudden Destruction

But when the harlot Babylon feels that the peace is assured, and there shall arise over the whole world the cry of “peace and safety” accomplished, “then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall in no wise escape.” 1 Thess. 5:3.

Her Plagues Shall Come

And when, also, the harlot Babylon feels that her everlasting triumph and establishment have come, and “she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall in no wise see mourning”—at that very time, and because of her self-exaltation, “Therefore in one day shall her plagues come, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judged her.” Rev. 18:7, 8.

These plagues are set forth in detail in Revelation 16. The “one day” is the prophetic time for one year. “It is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion.” Isa. 34:8.

See a parallel prophecy to Revelation 18 in Isaiah 47. Of her whom the whole world enthroned and worshiped, it is said, “There shall be none to save thee.” The people of apostasy have made their appeal to the world, based on tradition, on human expediency, on compromise. The messengers of God have made theirs based on His holy word.

The multitudes upon multitudes that the prophet saw “in the valley of decision” (Joel 3:14), will decide either for or against God; and the harvest, the end, will come. God’s message will do its work, and “the words of God” will be accomplished.” Rev. 17:17.

From the above, it seems clear that the probation of man will not close till the nations of earth have exalted apostasy and rejected the message of God. Then destruction comes. Then begins the falling of the last plagues of wrath. Then, too, “the ambassadors of [the false] peace shall weep bitterly.” Isa. 33:7.

M. C. W.

The next article of this series will be on the time of the plagues and the work God gives us to do now.