p. 576 | Are Misleading Us

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 14, 1915

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 36.

“Are Misleading Us”

BENJAMIN IDE WHEELER, president of the University of California, in a recent address in San Francisco before the Navy League, said: “People who tell us there is no peril are misleading us. This is a time to have no doubts. The situation is clear. We must prepare ourselves. The citizen who does not willingly take his part in the national defense does not deserve the name of citizen.”

There are some strong voices in the world that are earnestly calling men to refrain from the war hysteria of the time, and to enter into the sane relations with each other that will establish and perpetuate peace; but these voices are well-nigh drowned by the clamors of other men who in frenzied tones are calling the nation to provide a gun for every man and to train him to use it.

In this “age of civilization” and of the “brotherhood of man,” in which we have been so earnestly told that we “are too wise and humane to fight,” these conflicting voices calling for both peace and war may be confusing unless our vision has been rendered clear through the prophetic word of the divine Father. The Lord has promised us, in His sacred Book, to hold the winds of strife until the breaking point of Armageddon’s war is approached. But the war storm will be held only till the divine message of warning can be given, and then the winds of war will be permitted to blow; and we may conclude that God is using the strong peace advocates to make war a shame and a disgrace, as it ought to be. On the other hand, those working to build up militarism are preparing the world for Armageddon, as was foreseen by the prophet.

We may hope, and we have reason to believe, that the influences for peace under the power of the divine Father will yet give us a little period of tranquillity before Armageddon finally comes. Yet when that time of peace is reached, the world will be in one of the greatest danger periods in all its history; for the same prophecies that reveal the holding of the winds under the influences of true peace movements, guided by the Prince of peace, also foretell a false peace movement that will lead the world into believing that it is in a time of perfect safety, when sudden destruction is ready to break over it.

If there ever was a time when men needed to know their Bibles for themselves, and to make devout and careful study of the prophetic portion of the sacred Book, that time is now. In the world all is confusion. There is unrest, anarchy, and distress rising on all sides of us; but by him who knows God’s word, this confusion is clearly understood. He knows what it means, and he sees beyond the confusion the bright hopes and substantial realities that are to be given to all the loyal and true when Jesus comes.