A modern gun shop where great weapons of destruction are prepared
THAT the greatest battle of the world's entire history is still future, is evident to the student of the “sure word of prophecy.” “The kings of the earth and of the whole world” will yet engage in deadly conflict. Rev. 16: 13-16. The time prophetically fixed for this battle is immediately before the second coming of our Lord. This battle is usually called “Armageddon”; and when it is fought, the Valley of Megiddo, which is situated north of Jerusalem, will flow with human blood.
While natural causes for the battle exist even now, still the combatants will be held in restraint by angels of God, until a certain gospel work is accomplished (Rev. 7: 1-3); and then “the kings of the earth and of the whole world” will be urged on to participate in the battle, by the miracle-working power of “three unclean spirits,” or “spirits of devils,” which proceed “out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.”
When Armageddon is finally fought, the so-called “yellow peril” will have enlarged into the brown and black peril as well. There now exist definite and paramount reasons which will presently demand that the nations of Europe—where “the beast” power of the prophecy has its “seat”—shall measure their military strength not only with the yellow men of Eastern Asia, but with the brown men of India, and Arabia, and also with the legions of black men from the continent of Africa; but the battle will be fought on Asiatic soil, not in America or Europe. America, both North and South, as allies of the beast power, will contribute their contingent of armed forces for the struggle, for the battle must involve “the kings of the earth and of the whole world.”
The late King Leopold, by his heartless cruelties in the Kongo for commercial gain, was a factor in creating a deadly hatred, in the hearts of millions of black men, toward Europeans. The record of France in Madagascar and in continental Africa is almost as blood-stained as that of Belgium in the Kongo; while Germany and Portugal in reality grasp and hold their large African possessions for the sordid purpose of exploiting the natives, and thereby do they foster hatred for the white race.
Altho the rule of Great Britain is less objectionable to the African, yet even she is compelled to prohibit, by rigid laws, the ever-murmuring popular voice of her native subjects, which otherwise would be speedily lifted, in all of her African possessions, in the cry, “Africa for the African, and not for exploitation by the white race.”
No race, either black, brown, yellow, or white, can fail to cherish a constant rankling in their inmost souls at the thought of being vassals of a foreign power, a hated race; nor is forced acquiescence a surety of lasting peace. African missionaries, noting indications of the smoldering fire, sometimes anticipate a general massacre of all white missionaries in the continent; and non-missionary Europeans in Africa, nearly to a man, knowing that education will prepare the native for independence and the assertion of his rights, decry the education of the natives by the missionaries.
Britain's Great Problem
But Britain's most colossal and danger-fraught problem is the government of approximately four hundred millions of brown people in India, with only about forty millions of British subjects in the home land to maintain the supremacy of her royal scepter in all of her colonial possessions. India has been on the verge of revolt for years; and when she does revolt, soon all Asia will follow her example, and the field will be Armageddon. The banner of India and of Asia then will not be the British “Union Jack.”
The recent leap of Japan into the lime-light as a mighty military power to be reckoned with in world issues, and the current phrase, “the awakening of China,” as well as “India's unrest,” answer the question, briefly but forcefully, definitely. And all these are “dragon” powers. Who would be better adapted to lead the nations of Asia in this movement for the expulsion of European nations, “beast” powers, from Asiatic soil, than modern Japan, the Great Britain of the Orient?
Land Hunger an Incentive
Germany, in her land hunger, and eagerness to get her “camel's nose” into the great prospective cotton-field of Mesopotamia, has recently, through her emperor, basely stooped to offer the tribute of flattery to Islam. As a “beast” power, she will ere long, with the idea of the division of the spoils as a partial motive, contribute her quota of generals and soldiers for Armageddon. There may be significance in the fact that a German officer was commander-in-chief of the armies of the great powers when, during the “Boxer” uprising, they sent contingents to China. And inasmuch as she has recently expressed a desire for it, will not the prospect of securing the splendid prize of the valley of the Euphrates be strong inducement for the German eagle to fly to the conflict?
How eagerly, too, would Russia join in the campaign to crush Islam, with the long deferred hope of getting her coveted prize, namely, an unrestricted outlet through the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmora, and the Dardanelles, to the Mediterranean! Russia also is a “beast” power.
But as yet, we have only considered secondary causes for Armageddon. While racial hatred and land hunger will give zest to certain of the combatants in sharpening their swords for the conflict, yet the primal cause for this death struggle, denominated by Inspiration “the battle of that great day of God almighty,” will be to settle the question of religious supremacy. That each of the three combatants is a false religious system is clear when we grasp the meaning of each of the three terms by which they are designated, and connect these definitions with the fact that each of the designated powers is inspired for the battle by the spirit of a devil, working miracles.
If the incentive for Armageddon on the part of two of the contending forces can be traced backward over the centuries as an undying hatred, an unsettled strife, and then the same incentive demonstrated to be a live issue at the present time, and if both prophecy and current history prove that the issue of vital difference between the two must be fought to a finish in the land where the field of Armageddon is located, such evidence ought to convince even the skeptical that this prophetic battle is a possibility.
Islam and Her Empire
Nearly twelve centuries ago, or exactly one hundred years after the death of Mohammed, Islam, the greatest “false prophet system” of all history, had acquired, by the sword, a greater extent of territory in Asia and Europe than any “empire of antiquity.” But finally, on the plain of Tours (France), “the Cross triumphed over the Crescent, and Europe was saved.” But while this decisive battle held Mohammedanism in check, it still left “the10Holy Land” and “the Holy City” in possession of Islam. And while a French general dealt the blow (his name was Martel, which means “the hammer”) at Tours, it remained for a French monk to light the fire of the Crusades, which precipitated perhaps the most prolonged, the most fanatical, and the most bloody religious war of the world's history. This movement was inaugurated to rescue the Holy City from the Moslems. The exact period of its continuance, with some intervals of respite, was almost two full centuries. The termination of this struggle left Jerusalem and Acre—the latter “the last Christian stronghold in Palestine”—still in possession of Islam.
A type of the destructive Dreadnoughts with which the navies of the world are working with intensity to equip themselves
The centuries roll on, but “Rome never changes.” Now if, after the passing of eight full centuries since the beginning of the Crusades, it can be demonstrated that the same issue which inspired that great religious war, is still aflame in the hearts of the beast system, and with the working of miracles by a spirit proceeding out of the mouth of the beast, fanatical zeal can be instilled into the hearts of the devotees of the system, then, aside from faith in the prophecy, it is simply a matter of logic to admit the possibility of a death struggle upon the same soil where the blood of the crusaders freely flowed, which is the field designated in prophecy as “Armageddon.”
Surely the following extracts will be convincing that the incentive for the Crusades is still burning in the hearts of the beast system, and that when combined with the agency mentioned in the above paragraph, it will furnish ample fuel for Armageddon.
From Rome, January 7, 1913, under the head-lines, “The Pope Asks the Powers to Save the Holy Grail,” comes the following Associated Press despatch: “Pope Pius to-day sent a note to the German ambassador at London, asking the powers to remove Palestine from the control of the Turks, and thus save the Holy Grail, or take such measures as will in future protect pilgrims to the Holy Land from Moslem outrages. The pope asked that the note be read in an ambassadorial conference.”
Again, a missionary writing from Constantinople during the recent war waged against Moslem Turkey by the Balkan States, gives the very motive of the Crusades as the mainspring of the war. He says in part: “This war has been called a crusade made by the four combined kingdoms, or a continuation of the Middle-Age campaigns of Occidental knights toward the east. As a support of these campaigns, there is the same power which proclaimed the Crusades against the heretics, namely, the Papacy.”
Compelled to wait impatiently, by force of circumstances, the beast system is all too eager to be supported by the powers in crossing swords with Islam, doubtless all unconscious that the field where the religious supremacy of “the Holy Land” will be finally tested, prior to the setting up of “the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,” will be the Armageddon of prophecy.
Much proof might be produced to show that Islam is likewise eager for the fray, but the space of this article will not permit.
The World Almost Ready for the Battle
The writer will not attempt to describe the modern agencies of destruction adopted by the armies and navies of the nations, nor to draw a pen picture of the appalling slaughter which might result from their use in a single engagement. Every one knows that there never was a time in the history of the human family when, so far as the engines of war are concerned, “the kings of the earth and of the whole world” were prepared as now for battle. Nor was there ever a time when facilities existed for the transportation of men and munitions of war to a central battle-ground as now. In addition to the great navies, all the modern passenger steamers could be requisitioned and employed as transports to hasten soldiers and supplies to the world's prophetic battle-field.
When all things are ready for Armageddon, the sealing of “the servants of our God”—the making up of the subjects of Christ's kingdom—will have been completed, and the angels will cease to restrain the winds of war. Rev. 7: 1-3.
The writer is as anxious for universal peace as are the most ardent of the present peace prophets. At the same time, he has more confidence in “the sure word of prophecy” than in fickle, unstable humanity, and therefore does not expect a reign of universal peace until the Prince of Peace establishes His everlasting kingdom in this world, and that upon the ruins of all earthly kingdoms. In this event is the only hope of peace; and to be prepared for citizenship in His kingdom, we must permit Him first to rule in our hearts, and therein subdue all hatred, enmity, malice, murder,—in short all that pertains to the war spirit,—and implant instead that Spirit that will enable us to love our enemies as ourselves.
Let us remember that a few peace treaties have not accomplished that which only the gospel of Christ can do; namely, eradicate the war spirit from the hearts of men. “The causes which are rushing the world on to Armageddon outweigh all the efforts of men for peace.”
Napoleon and Prophecy
It is not a pleasant thing to blight the hopes of men, but hopes not established upon the prophetic word of God are without solid foundation. The mighty Napoleon, prompted by personal ambition, once tried to break one line of God's prophetic word. That small por- tion of the Word which he unconsciously tried to break, reads thus: “Iron is not mixed with clay” (Dan. 2: 43)—which, as explained in the prophecy, means that the nations of Europe can not be welded together into one nation. The result of his misguided, abortive effort brought two new metaphorical words into the language of civilized nations, namely, “Waterloo” and “St. Helena,” which signify defeat and despair.
Eternal defeat and despair is the doom of all who oppose God's prophetic word. Were it not for the sure word of prophecy concerning Armageddon, and our belief that the only hope of universal peace is the sublime event of our Lord's second coming, we might fall in line with the peace advocates. But when “the Lord hath spoken, who can but prophesy?” Not a single detail of God's prophetic word has ever failed. Therefore Armageddon is as sure to come as is the sun to continue to shine; and we humbly believe that in our effort to center the hopes of men in the coming of Jesus Christ, for universal peace, we are on the optimistic side of the question.
In conclusion, we say that Armageddon will not be the result of a sudden impulse. Sentiments, religious, racial, and national, which have been growing and strengthening in the hearts of men for generations, will, ignited by demon-wrought miracles, reach their explosive point in that prophetic battle.
The Banner of Safety and of Triumph
There is one religious body in the world, scattered abroad among all nations, proclaiming a gospel message, preparatory to the home-gathering to take place just beyond Armageddon. They are not included in the prophecy as combatants, for they do not belong to either “the dragon,” the “beast,” or the “false prophet” system. Their inspiration comes, primarily, from the commission of their Leader, which reads, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” They have a significant banner—not a physical cross of wood or gold, elevated upon church spire, or worn outwardly upon the bosom; and yet, as expressed in the inscription written upon their banner, they have living faith in the efficacy of the one great Sacrifice, offered upon a Roman cross. Their trust is founded in a crucified and risen Saviour, rather than upon a superstition centering in the instrument of wood upon which He was crucified.
They have not created the inscription written upon their banner, but rather have chosen it because of their desire to be loyal to Heaven. The inscription was designed by their Captain over eighteen hundred years ago. It reads, “The commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14: 12.
To fortify the hearts of His people for the events coincident with the world battle, when men's hearts will utterly fail them for fear, Jesus has sent this message: “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” Luke 21: 28.
The fact that all of the natural causes now exist to produce Armageddon, and that all11physical preparations therefore are rapidly progressing, ought mightily to strengthen the faith of God's people in the early fulfilment of the prophecy, and stir their hearts anew to do their appointed work in heralding “this gospel of the kingdom,” “to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people” ere the curtain finally drops upon the history of the human race in the glorious event of our Lord's return.
“In the power and light of His sure word of prophecy it is possible, nay, it is easy, to withdraw our affection from the world and from the things that are in the world. In that light we may view with perfect tranquillity the disintegration of all that is connected with this present visible order of things; for tho' the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, nevertheless we who believe the word of God, ‘look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.’ 2 Peter 3:13.”
