The Spirit of War of the Evil One
It has many times been remarked that all the great preparations for war among the great nations of earth are progressing in the very face of the fact that neither the peoples nor the nations desire war. Yet all are preparing for war in feverish haste, as if existence depended upon it, and few are more eager in the race for first place than America, who ought not to have a menacing enemy in the world. Why is it? Why are the constantly increasing burdens of war loaded upon unwilling peoples? Why the invention and manufacture of the monstrous engines of war in the race for supremacy, involving expenses that mean national bankruptcy and threaten domestic revolution? It is a wonder to thinking men, but not to the student of prophecy. This is what Sir Edward Grey, England's foreign secretary, said: "There are really some people who seem to take delight in suggesting or forming the opinion, from whatever gossip or information they may get from any quarter, that we were near to war; and the nearer we came to war, the greater the satisfaction they seemed to get out of it. I do not say we are peculiar in this respect at this moment. It is really as if in the atmosphere of the world there was some mischievous influence at work which troubles and excites every part of it. We are passing this year through a period of great excitement; it is so still. Some countries are in revolution, others are at war, and in several countries which are neither in revolution nor at war, there are people who seem to delight in discussing how near they have been, or are, or are likely to be, either to revolution or to war in the past, the present, or the future. Really, it is as if the world were indulging in a fit of political alcoholism."—London Weekly "Times" of December 1, 1911. And this is what David Starr Jordan, LL.D., says in the New York "Independent" of November 14, 1912: "Men sometimes speak of the 'dream of universal peace' as a most desirable but quite impossible ideality. . . . Almost any nation could attain it at once by substituting in part a civil tongue for its reliance on army and navy. The real obsession of the world is the 'dream of universal war.' This is the noxious dream of our times." "Obsession" comes from obsidere, to besiege, and is thus defined by the Standard Dictionary: "The act of vexing or besieging, or the state of being vexed or besieged, by some foreign personality, especially by an evil spirit, antecedent to possession. 'Obsession' signifies the influence of an external spirit, distinguished from 'possession' by a demon that has taken up its abode within one." Now listen to the Holy Scriptures of prophecy: "And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils ["demons," A.R.V.], working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." Rev. 16: 13, 14. And the war that follows is that of Armageddon. Verse 16. Sir Edward Grey says there is "a mischievous influence at work," which "excites" the atmosphere of the world. Dr. Jordan declares it to be an "obsession." The Word of God declares that at this very time the "spirits of demons" will stir the whole world to war. Of this wine cup of wrath we are assured by another prophet all nations will drink, some of them, perhaps all, reluctantly. But "if they refuse to take the cup at thy hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Ye shall surely drink." See Jer. 25: 15-33. The nations of earth are in rebellion against God, and the universal war is the fruitage of their rebellion. Much as we desire and love peace, we can not avert the dread war of Armageddon for which the world is preparing, and which is predicted by Holy Writ. "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked."