“WHEN THEY SHALL SAY, PEACE.”
The proposal of the “Great White Czar” for a conference of the powers of earth with a view to disarmament must bring to the devout student of prophecy many things which God has said concerning this very time. He has given us, in the “more sure word of prophecy,” “a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn.” He has revealed the dangers to His people in the past; He will not cease to do it now. He warned the world of a coming deluge. He sent His messengers to save Sodom. Repeatedly He warned Jerusalem, while the false prophets cried, “Peace, peace.” He foretold the first advent of our Lord, and predicted the captivity and rejection of the Jewish people. And “surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets.” He has light for the solemnly important, pregnant times in which our lot is cast. What means now this cry of “peace”? Is the dream of the prophets of peace to be realized? Are the swords to be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning-hooks? Is the note of the czar of Russia the first strain of a melody of peace soon to swell into a grand chorus by all the nations of earth? Would that it were so. Every heart, it seems to us, could wish it; but the true student of God’s Word can not expect it. “Why?”—Because there is no true peace, no lasting peace, apart from righteousness. And the nations of earth are not righteous. No national decree, no international protocol, can make them so. Peace is the effect of righteousness, and righteousness comes only by faith in Jesus Christ. There will be one “righteous nation,” but it will be “the righteous nation which keepeth the truth,” gathered through the Gospel, one by one, from all nations and kindred and tribes and tongues and people. But the nations of earth, which know not the peace of Christ, will be destroyed in the forthshining of Christ’s presence when He comes to reign. But does not the prophet say that in the last days swords will be beaten into plowshares, spears into pruning-hooks, and “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more”? The prophet says that “many people shall go and say” (Isa. 2:3–5), and another, “many nations shall come and say” (Micah 4:2–5) all this; but the prophet also declares because of this false cry, “For Thou hast forsaken Thy people the house of Jacob, because they be filled with customs from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of strangers.” Isa. 2:6, R.V. The soothing cry is a deceptive one. On the other hand, the Lord reveals through7His prophets that the last days will be days of battle and war, of trumpet and alarm, of beating plowshares into swords and pruning-hooks into spears, in preparing for the great conflict of Armageddon, the battle of the day of the Lord. See Joel 3:9–14; Isa. 24:1–3; Jer 4:19–26; 25:27–33; Rev. 16:14–16; and others. There may be lulls of peace and quiet to precede, but the fearful storm is gathering over a world in rebellion against God. Even tho the men do cry, “Peace;” even tho the great powers of earth do meet in conference, and do pledge themselves to disarmament, partial or wholly, and join in a universal world cry of “peace;” yet know, O child of earth, that even this is no evidence of coming peace! God has foreseen that thus they would do; He has foreheard their cry; and He forewarns all—mark the forcible illustration—“When they are saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall in nowise escape.” 1 Thess. 5:3, R.V. There are other warnings of like import in the “more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed.