p. 3 | Inciting to War by Ellet Joseph Waggoner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 26, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 33.

Inciting to War.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

It does not augur well for the prospects of peace, when leading church teachers declare that the three conditions of justifiable warfare are,—the command of the prince, a just cause, and a good intention—and that the first cause “relieves the individual soldier from all moral responsibility for his military action,” that “it is lawful for Christian men at the command of the magistrate to wear weapons and to serve in the wars;” and, even worse still, that “in war men have the opportunity of rising to higher levels of virtue than they would have thought possible of attainment.” Such teaching is not calculated to make men acquainted with God as the One who “maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth.” He who “hath the power of death, that is, the devil,” has, by means of his skill in passing himself off as an angel of light, attained to a very prominent position as a religious teacher, so that counsels of war and death are largely supposed to be a part of the Gospel of life and peace. E. J. W.