Periods of Significant World-Wide Peace
By George W. Reaser
The Iron Hand of Pagan Rome — Universal Peace for the Message and Work of the First Advent — International Peace Decreed for the Time of the Second Advent Message — That Message Finished, Then Armageddon T least in a twofold sense, there was a fulness of time for the manifestation of the Son of God in our world. First, sin must run its course sufficiently long to demonstrate the utter helplessness of the whole human family, without the provision of a Saviour, able "to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him." Second, "as the soil must be prepared before the wheat is sown, so before the kingdom of heaven could throw up its shoots, there was needed a kingdom of this world where the nations were neither torn in pieces by violence nor were rushing after false ideals and spurious ambitions. Such a kingdom was the empire of the Cæsars — a kingdom where peaceful men could work, think, and speak as they pleased, and travel freely among provinces ruled for the most part by Gallios, who protected life and property, and forbade fanatics to tear each other in pieces for their religious opinions." "Had Europe and Asia been covered with independent nations, each with a local religion represented in its ruling powers, Christianity must have been stifled in its cradle." (J. A. Froude's "Cæsar — A Sketch.") SUCCESSFUL ROMAN ARMIES AND WORLD-WIDE PEACE
It will be remembered by every student of history, that Julius Cæsar came into the world in one of the most stormy epochs in all earth's history. The world was almost devastated by wars. The chief object of the deadly strife was to settle the disputed question of the supremacy of the world. The arms of the Romans were finally victorious. Even after they had vanquished all rivals, the question of equal rights of citizenship must needs be settled by resort to arms at the very heart of the empire. Descriptive of this social war, the historian says: "The veteran legions, which had conquered the world, now faced each other on the battle-field. The struggle cost three hundred thousand lives."2The final outcome was a reign of universal peace. Tranquillity settled down upon an erstwhile storm-racked world. After the passing of Julius Cæsar, the next of the Cæsars to take the throne of world empire was Augustus. "The Augustan Age (31 B.C. to 14 A.D.) was one of general peace and prosperity." "Wars having so nearly ceased, and interest in politics having diminished, men turned their thoughts more toward literature, art, and religion. The birth of Christ, the central figure of all history, occurred during the wide-spread peace of this reign." (Barnes's "General History.") Myers's "General History," pages 278, 279, substantiates the same historical fact. He says: "It is preeminently worthy of note that it was in the midst of the happy reign of Augustus, when profound peace prevailed throughout the civilized world, . . . that Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea." "Never before, perhaps, had the civilized world enjoyed so long a period of general rest from the turmoil of war." NO SERIOUS WARS DURING CHRIST'S FIRST ADVENT WORK
Even Palestine had been the scene of a disastrous war a short time before the Saviour appeared. Speaking of the prevailing peace in the land of Palestine when "the fulness of the times was come" for His first advent and His work, the Rev. John W. Mears, in his book "From Exile to Overthrow," says: "For the time being, however, the country was at peace. It is remarkable that during the life of Christ, . . . no serious trouble between the people and their foreign rulers broke out. The quiet which was necessary for His various journeys, His works of healing and beneficence, His discourses and teachings, His selection and training of the apostles and laying carefully the foundations of His church, prevailed. The narrative of the evangelists presents a tranquil scene, a succession of attractive pictures, in striking contrast to the bloody and tumultuous events which crowd each other in the pages of Josephus. It is as if the nation was enjoying a short reprieve, a last golden moment of opportunity, when it might recognize its Messiah and by repentance and humility escape its threatened doom. [See Dan. 9: 24.] . . . "It is clear that under opposite circumstances no teacher of piety and peace could have accomplished his mission in Judea. In a previous generation, under the jealous and bloody Herod, the career of Jesus would have been immediately cut short. Under a succeeding generation, when the whole land trembled with forebodings of the great civil war, there could have been no peaceful gatherings on the mountainside to listen to the Beatitudes, to the model prayer, and to the sweet parables of the kingdom; no wonderful draft of fishes, and no discourses to the multitudes from the fishermen's boats drawn up on the shore of the sea of Galilee; no quiet feeding of five thousand with a few loaves and fishes when every large gathering meant rebellion and war; no time to let the words and deeds of the great Teacher sink deliberately and diffuse widely through the hearts and minds of the people, like a gentle rain, or for that solemn march of events which gradually led to His death, and gave it the dignity of a great epoch, the grandeur of a divine sacrifice for a fallen race." — Pages 256–258. We will quote one more extract referring to the prevailing peace when Christ was born: "Finally, as a central point in the history of all time, in the midst of the brilliancy of the Augustan Age, while Cicero, Sallust, Virgil, and Horace were fresh in the memory of their still living friends, with Seneca in his childhood and Livy in his prime, the empire at its best, and Rome radiant in its growing transformation from brick to marble under the guiding rule of the great Augustus Cæsar, there was born in an obscure Roman province the humble Babe whose name far outshines all these, and from whose nativity are dated all the centuries which have succeeded." — Myers. WORLD-PEACE TO ALLOW PROCLAMATION OF SECOND ADVENT
If a time of universal peace was necessary for the accomplishment of His mission at the first advent of the Messiah, does it not naturally follow that similar conditions must prevail to give favorable opportunity for the heralds of His second advent to accomplish their Heaven-appointed work? And if Heaven overruled to bring about political conditions in all the world so that Christianity would not be "stifled in its cradle," is it not logical to conclude that "He who ruleth the kingdoms of men" will interpose to restrain the nations for a time from engaging in the battle of Armageddon, and thus produce conditions favorable for the very last proclamation of "the everlasting gospel," before the curtain shall finally drop on human probation? HOLDING THE WINDS FOR THE SEALING WORK
Happily we are not dependent simply upon logical reasoning to sustain this fact. It is clearly foretold by an inspired writer. Describing conditions to prevail for a time before the gathering of the "kings of the earth and of the whole world" for the last premillennial battle, upon the field of Armageddon, he says: "And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth [restraining the elements of warfare and deadly strife]. . . . And I say another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, . . . 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 inquiry may be raised, What is indicated by this sealing work? The answer, in brief, is that by the preaching of the gospel, souls are born into the kingdom of heaven, and these are sealed by divine agencies, for eternal life. We are actually living in the time when heavenly agencies, commissioned to restrain the war spirit of the nations, are holding the winds — delaying the marshaling of the nations for the greatest death struggle in all earth's history, so that the servants of our God may be sealed for eternal life in the kingdom of glory. Then in what work ought every child of God to be engaged? Every Spirit-filled heart will answer, "I must be about my Father's business," — "I must devote every God-given talent to the winning of souls." "Who knoweth," fellow Christian, "whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"