PREPARE WAR by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 18, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 32.

"PREPARE WAR."

By Editor

SOME writers and speakers on religious topics are careful to say that they "are not alarmists." We suppose that some of them mean by this that they are not giving a false alarm, while others do not wish to be understood for a moment as looking for evil to come out of this "glorious civilization;" "no, no; the days may be evil, the times ominous, but out of it all comes human peace, prosperity, and glory"!

The true watchman of God, in these days, is an "alarmist." There are dangers that threaten the church and the world. God has pointed out these dangers in the "more sure word of prophecy." He has bidden his messengers to "cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins." Isa. 58:1. Again he says: "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand." Joel 2:1. These are among the messages of alarm which God has given, and the faithful man of God will herald them to the world.

The cry of "peace" has ever been a popular one. The false prophets cried it in the times of Jeremiah and of Christ, but destruction came, nevertheless. God, who kens the future as the present, declared that the false prophets would cry, "Peace, peace," in the last days, and the cry is resounding from pulpit, platform, and press, as predicted. It requires no little daring and courage on the part of a popular minister to preach the truth; therefore, the majority preach the peace not of God. They might see the sword coming, and warn the people; but it is easier to close the eyes to the dangers that menace the world, and to preach the cry of peace, which lulls to slumber.

Never were the nations of earth so well prepared for war; and never were men more assiduously preaching, not the peace of the gospel of Christ, but a universal peace among the nations. Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage voiced this sentiment in a Memorial day oration at the Midwinter Fair, San Francisco. He said:—

There never will be another great war on the earth. Arbitration will take the place of war—glory to God and peace.

Upon this, one of the noted writers of today, a keen observer of men and nations, and one well versed in the history of war, remarks in the Examiner of June 3:—

This is the language of fools. Preparations for war have never—in so far as history can inform us—been made on so gigantic a scale as now. Never, in historical countries and historical times, have so many men been kept under arms, at so great a cost; never have weapons of war engaged in their invention and production so earnest and wide attention, and held so large a place in the industries; never have so great and expensive war ships been built and launched; never, in time of peace, in short, have men so sedulously prepared for war. It may seem to the clerical intelligence that all this is without significance,—that it is done for fun,—men of sense take another and more sober view of it. Within the last forty years Europe has had no fewer than five great wars, and America one; and there have been a score of others as fierce, if not so destructive. Indeed, the last forty years have been the bloodiest forty years of the bloodiest century known to history. For only seventeen years has Europe been spared the spectacle of two or more powerful Christian nations tugging at one another's throats. Seventeen years is a long time in the life of Dr. Talmage; it impresses him. In the life of civilization it is hardly a pulse beat. Perhaps Europe and America will be ready seriously to "hail the dawn" of universal peace when they shall have had time to get their breath and bind up the worst of their wounds. In the meantime, whatever attention they can spare from their lungs and lesions they give to reloading.

The criticism is its own defense. It bears in itself sufficient evidence of its good sense, to every intelligent, candid man: And what we wish to point out is this: the very facts stated concerning the preparations for war were predicted by the prophet of God more than twenty-five centuries ago. Says the prophet Joel (3:9-14):—

"Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles: Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up; beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about; thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe; come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision; for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision."

The above scripture declares the time of the application of this prophecy. It is at "the harvest," the end of the world, or age (Matt. 13:39), the second coming of Christ (Rev. 14:14, 15), the time when the great day of the Lord's wrath is near (2 Peter 3:10). At that time the multitudes of earth, agitated as never before, are in the valley of decision as never before. Then it will be that the earth will be prepared for war, and the great battle of Armageddon will be fought. See Jer. 25:15-33; Rev. 16:16-21. "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?" Amos 3:7, 8. "When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, . . . and they shall not escape." 1 Thess. 5:3.