What of War?

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Mar 21, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 12.

Let us therefore inquire, seeing that He knows the end from the beginning, if He has declared aught concerning the war preparations in these latter days. Unhesitatingly we reply, He has. We will quote but one passage at present; namely, Joel 3: 9-14:

Proclaim ye this among the nations; prepare war; stir 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. Haste ye, and come, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves together: thither cause Thy mighty ones to come down, O Jehovah. Let the nations bestir themselves, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about. Put ye in the sickle; for the harvest is ripe: come, tread ye; for the wine-press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great,

Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! for the day of Jehovah is near in the valley of decision.

Surely we may easily see in this prophecy the following predictions: (1) That there will be great and wide-spread preparations of war among the nations far and near, so that even the weak ones will prepare, and say, "I am strong." This world-wide ambition will be persistent, insistent.

2. It will be an all-absorbing ambition. The pursuits of agriculture, the things upon which the life of the people depends, will become secondary to the preparation for war. Money needed for relief of the needy, for promotion of industries, for development of land products, will be expended in improved implements of war. The prophet talks in the language of his time. It was then swords and spears; it is now mighty guns and battleships, aeroplanes and torpedo-boats, mighty explosives and submarines. But, they are drawing from depleted treasuries, the resources of which ought to be used to make life easier.

3. The prophecy declares that the great culminating war will be fought in the East, in the Holy Land perhaps, in the Valley of Jehoshaphat ("the Lord judges"), where God will visit upon the nations the fruit of their folly.

4. All this war preparation will take place when the harvest of nations is ripe, when the day of Jehovah is near, when the multitudes of earth are deciding the great moral questions placed before them by God's last great threefold message of Rev. 14: 6-14. Jesus declares, "The harvest is the end of the world," or age. Matt. 13: 39.

Are these predictions fulfilled? We do not need to answer it. The great mass of newspapers and journals of years teem with affirmative responses. Every yearly budget of every nation responds with an emphatic YES. Improved muskets, improved multiplying guns, improved shells and cannon, improved, more sensitive, and more powerful explosives, greater and mightier battleships, and a hundred and one other things, all affirm with mighty emphasis that the prophecy of the ancient seer is fulfilling before our eyes.

What of Peace?

Have the peace cry and peace conferences been predicted by the "more sure word of prophecy"? They have abundantly. Here is one of the predictions made by the son of Amoz, seven centuries before Christ: "And it shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of Jehovah's house shall be established on the top [margin, "at the head"] of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And MANY PEOPLES SHALL GO AND SAY,

"Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. And He will judge between the

nations, and will decide concerning many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Isa. 2: 2-4.

Let us note some of the particulars:

1. It is a prophecy of the latter days, the same as the one quoted above from Joel.

2. It declares that among the religions, great and small, of the world in the latter days, the religion of Jehovah, Christianity, will nominally occupy the highest place concededly by the nations.

3. That because of this, nations will turn to it nominally; for a nation, a government, can turn to it in no other way.

4. That because of this, many peoples (representatives of nations, see Micah 4: 2, peace congresses of nations), shall SAY, shall utter this prophecy of peace. Mark that the prophecy does not say the nations will beat their swords into plowshares or spears into pruning-hooks; it does not say that they will learn war no more; but that there will be many who will raise this peace cry and appeal to the nations to do this very work.

5. But that the nations will not yield to God, to the righteousness and peace of Christ, even tho they profess His name, is indicated by the prophet's earnest appeal and the sad statement which follows: "O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of Jehovah. For Thou hast forsaken Thy people the house of Jacob, because they are filled with customs from the East, and are SOOTH SAYERS LIKE THE PHILISTINES, and they STRIKE HANDS with the children of FOREIGNERS." Read the remainder of the chapter. The peace cry is not in "the light of Jehovah;" it is a cry based on compromise and error.

Is this prophecy fulfilled? Yea, verily, it is abundantly fulfilling, even as that of Joel, before our eyes, in its every particular. God offers peace on the great and substantial basis of righteousness. He has peace — it waits — "to him that is far off and to him that is near;" and there is healing in the peace; but "there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." Read Isa. 57: 19-21. The King of Peace is King of Righteousness, and the children of peace must be children of righteousness; for "the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever." Isa. 32: 17.

We sympathize with the peace lovers and peace promoters; but the peace for which so many long will never come, even tho all the world fast and pray for it, until there shall be the intensely greater longing for righteousness, the righteousness which Jesus Christ alone can give to the man who forsakes his sins and who walks in the light of Jehovah. Peace congresses may meet, nations may federate, churches may pass resolutions of concord and amity, Mr. Carnegie may win popular applause by giving a paltry ten million to promote peace; but there is no peace with God save by righteousness. All the patchwork of all the peace looms of the world will not save from the awful Armageddon which the sure Word of God has predicted, for which the nations are preparing, and to stir them up to which the demons of darkness are abroad among the rulers of nations. See Rev. 16: 13, 14, 16. Those who hope in the world's cry of peace, will find themselves disappointed. When it is most hoped for, it will vanish like a dream of the night. For "when they are saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, . . . and they shall in no wise escape." 1 Thess. 5: 3.

But, reader, there is a noble warfare to which God calls every soul — the warfare against the flesh, the world, and the devil, fought out with weapons not carnal, under the captaincy of Jesus Christ. There is a peace which "passeth understanding" to him who will surrender all to God and arrange himself under the service of the King of Peace. The effect of that righteousness and peace is eventually "quietness and confidence forever."