Is It Peace or War? by A. O. Tait

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 1, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 13.

Is It Peace or War?

By A. O. Tait

THE idea is quite general in the world that we are entering into an era of peace, and that the nations are becoming too highly civilized to resort to the barbarous use of arms to settle their difficulties, but will rather adjust them by arbitration. This belief finds free expression from the pulpit and religious press, and is also taken up and being heralded by many of our statesmen.

But we have noticed in a number of instances that, notwithstanding these high pretensions, if a little difficulty should arise between two nations they would prepare for arms, even though they might try, in some measure, to settle their difficulties by arbitration. A notable instance of this kind is furnished in the trouble that arose a little above a year ago between England and Russia. The matter was settled, for a time at least, without coming to arms, but both nations were making the most extensive preparations in their power for war in case their desires could not be met by diplomacy.

The great preparations for war are poor forerunners of peace. The board of officials, appointed last May by President Cleveland, to "examine, and report at what ports fortifications and other defenses are most urgently required, and the character and kind of defenses best adapted to each," report to the President that twenty-seven ports are in need of immediate increased defense, and estimate that one hundred and twenty-six million dollars are needed to defray the expense. And a journalist, commenting upon it, says: "That the modest sum of one hundred and twenty-six millions of dollars will have grown to nearer a thousand million before that end shall be reached, no one familiar with the history of such undertakings can doubt." Our Government is not alone in this respect. England, as well as the other nations of the Old World, is making vast preparations for war, and expending large sums of money in that direction.

Also note the great improvements and inventions in the line of weapons of war,—accelerating guns that will hurl a huge missile to the distance of twelve miles; dynamite cartridges thrown by means of compressed air to great distances, and exploding where they strike with terrible results; our long range, repeating rifles; mammoth cannons, and numerous other machines of destruction, certainly signifying something besides peace.

The thoughtful mind which is not biased in any way can see that these actions of the nations in standing with drawn swords while they negotiate for peace with thousands of their subjects busily engaged forging weapons for the deadly combat, are presaging anything but a calm. If peace and not war is to be the rule in the future, why this great commotion in preparing for something that will not come? If we are to have peace, why prepare for war? The very fact that such great war preparations are being made is proof positive that when arbitration fails to satisfy, arms will follow. In this respect we are nothing in advance of the time of Hannibal and the Scipios.

Any candid observer must readily see that all the powers of earth continually hold themselves ready for war, and are grasping every opportunity to increase the potency of their arms. Still, notwithstanding these forebodings and great preparations for war, we hear the "peace and safety" man saying that all these preparations will come to naught, and the nations will finally turn their weapons of warfare into implements of agriculture, and war will be forever abolished. And to prove this, they point with great enthusiasm to the way in which England and Russia have settled (?) their difficulties, also the settlement (?) of the Servo-Bulgarian matters, and tell us the nations are becoming too highly civilized and Christianized to fight.

But before jumping at such wild conclusions, when the appearance of nearly or quite every nation on the globe is so much like one great arsenal, let us consider a point, and see if we are warranted in saying we are to have no more war.

"And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God; and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." Rev. 7:1-3. The four angels on the four corners of the earth we consider to have the whole earth in their control. Winds in prophecy denote wars. See Jer. 25:31-33, where a great destruction from the Lord is called a whirlwind. Also Dan. 7:2, 3, where the striving of the winds upon the sea causes the four great beasts to arise, which are interpreted in the same chapter to mean earthly Governments. And since these Governments arose by means of bloody wars, and Daniel saw the winds striving to produce the beasts which symbolized them, it is easy to see that winds in prophecy represent wars.

Then, since the angels are holding the winds, and winds mean wars, there is a reason for all these sudden and unaccountable abatings of the war clouds that seem to be determined to rise. But it will not always so continue. The angels are only to hold the winds till a certain time: "till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads," is the limit, and then they are to be let loose.

That we have reached the time when this prophecy is being fulfilled, and that we are right in applying it here, a little reflection will readily show. The number sealed is one hundred and forty-four thousand. The same company are again spoken of in Rev. 14:1-5, and are to be "redeemed from among men." Verse 4. If they are redeemed from among men, they are not resurrected out of their graves, but are among men to be changed, as Paul expresses it (1 Cor. 15:51-54; 1 Thess. 4:16, 17), without seeing death. Then those who are sealed in this special work are the ones to be alive and ready for translation when the Lord comes. At least ten distinct lines of prophecy, which are being explained from time to time in this paper, are given in the Bible, all of which point to our own generation as being in the last days.

Then the momentous time is reached; the Lord is soon to come; his people are being sealed; the angels are holding back the winds or tide of war till the sealing is done. And when this work is finished, those who are then still engaged in chanting the siren song of "peace and safety," and reveling in the pleasures of this world, will be startled by the loud roll of the trumpet of war. For unclean spirits are going forth to gather the nations to the great day of God Almighty. Rev. 16:14-16; 14:18-20. But that war will be fought by the despairing outcasts who have rejected mercy, while offered to them, and, having the Spirit of God entirely withdrawn from them, they will be fully under the power of Satan to run at his command in the fierce contest.

May we, as men and women of candor and thought, open our eyes to the situation, and see that what we seem to think is peace, is only the holding of the winds by the angels of God till his jewels are sealed. This little calm is only the breathless stillness that moves noiselessly before the great tempest. Flee to the harbor of God's love; seek and find pardon; walk in his precepts, and thus be sheltered from the raging storm of angry nations when they shall engage in a bloody contest among themselves for a little while, then to look up and see him coming who "hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords," from whose presence they must melt away, while he will gather his own to himself, and turn their delighted vision upon the glories of an endless life.