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ARMAGEDDON

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 8, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 49.

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ARMAGEDDON

RUSSIA is massing an army of 50,000 preparatory to entering the province of Manchuria, China; Japan is preparing to oppose Russia in Corea; Menelek, with 100,000 men, is marching toward Bhar-el-Ghazal, to force Italy and France to a definite boundary settlement; Mad Mullah, leader of a rebel faction in India, has crossed the Swat River and engaged the Indo-British forces; and the rebellions in China are still unsuppressed.
The foregoing represent open hostilities in different parts of the world. And in addition to these it must be acknowledged that every other nation on the face of the earth has the task on her hands of seeking to avert war, while she is at the same time straining every resource to prepare for an inevitable struggle at arms.
The Bible plainly tells of the evil spirits that will gather the nations of all the earth to the great battle of Armageddon. And it should be a subject for deep reflection as to whether we are not even now living in the actual presence of this momentous work.
It has long been the boast that this is the great age of Christian civilization, and that wars would soon be a relic of the more barbarous times of the past; but this boasting has all been human. God’s Word has held out no hope that this present evil world would ever become too good to take up arms. But, on the contrary, it has said that there shall be “wars and rumors of wars,” and, furthermore, that the very last days will be especially distinguished by the great tumult of angry strife.
And the fact should not be lost sight of that the nations that are making the most colossal preparations for war are the very ones that claim the highest and most perfect “Christian civilization.” But, seeing the inconsistency between their boasts of Christianity and the war spirit that prevails, the pretext is given that all the fighting now by these great civilized powers is in the “cause of humanity.” And no doubt when the world’s armies march to the great battle-field of Armageddon, they will be so deluded by the evil spirits that they will have inscribed on their banners, “We are doing it all in the cause of humanity.”