p. 3 | IS IT WAR OR PEACE?

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Feb 8, 1905

IS IT WAR OR PEACE?

THE following letter has come to us; it refers to an important living question, and speaks for itself:

I have just read your article in the last SIGNS OF THE TIMES, under the heading, "Prepare War," with much interest, and I am moved to ask how you harmonize Joel, whom you quote, with the declaration contained in Isaiah, second chapter and fourth verse? On the face, they seem to be in conflict, especially with your interpretation, that the statement as found in Joel applies to the last days, wherein he says, "Prepare war;" while Isaiah says that in the last days, "they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and . . . neither shall they learn war any more." I believe in the second advent, and, not only this, but that it is near at hand, but sometimes I am troubled at these apparent conflicts, and this is one of them. I hope you will be able to explain this satisfactorily. Yours in the love of the Master, E. B. R.

We place these two scriptures from the American Standard Revised Version side by side, that the reader may see the contrast:

Joel 3:9-16. "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 men 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 winepress 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. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. And Jehovah will roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake; but Jehovah will be a refuge unto His people, and a stronghold to the children of Israel." Isa. 2:2-6. "And it shall come to pass in the latter days, that the mountain of Jehovah's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. "And many people 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. "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 soothsayers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners."

The difference is not great between the versions. The Revised Version clearly shows that the original words rendered, "heathen" and "Gentiles," simply means the nations of earth. Please note the following: 1. Both of these prophecies are predictions of the latter days. The one in Isaiah expressly declares this; and this is emphasized by the remainder of the second chapter, which so clearly presents before us the revealing of God's glory in-judgment.

2. If the reader will study the second chapter of Joel, he will there find the prediction of the latter rain, the outpouring of the Spirit of God in the last days, upon a church and world ripening for the harvest.

3. The expression, "And it shall come to pass afterward" (verse 28), is translated by the apostle in Acts 2, "And it shall come to pass in the last days." Then follows the declaration of the great outpouring of the Spirit, manifest in specific gifts, and the darkening of the sun and moon, and the falling of the stars, precursors of the great day of the Lord.

4. The apostasy of the professed people of God is next noted, and then the proclamation of war, the last great harvest, and the impending day of God.

This prophecy in Joel is easily understood. It clearly indicates that the war fever shall spread everywhere, involving all nations in its intoxicating madness (See Jeremiah 25); that the very weakest will prepare for war, and say, "I am strong." Moral principles are also involved, because God's armies of invisible ones are engaged. The culminating result will be the great battle of Armageddon, fought in the very closing days of human strife. Rev. 16:13, 14, 16. It is at the time of the harvest of earth, the end of the age, when Christ, the Reaper, shall come. Matt. 13:39; Rev. 14:14-16.

As the result of the moral principles involved, consequent upon the proclamation of the great threefold message of Revelation 14, "multitudes, multitudes" are in the valley of decision, with the judgments of the great day of God impending.

All these things are everywhere manifest. The spirit of War revels and rages and raves among the nations. On the least provocation or no provocation, it flames from the press, and is fulminated from pulpit and platform. It has been estimated that every laborer of Europe bears, upon his over-burdened back, a soldier, War budgets pile mountains high. Since the International Congress of Peace, one of the bloodiest wars of modern history has been waged by the very emperor who gave impulse to the Peace Congress, and now that empire is aflame with internal discord and strife. The spirit of War rides on triumphantly with the spirits of Greed and Pleasure, and the fulfilment of the prophecy is evident to all.

The Peace Cry.

But what of Isaiah's prophecy? Well, what does the prophecy declare?

1. That the cause of God—Christianity, represented by the mountain of Jehovah's house—will be recognized by the world as superior to all the other religions of earth. That recognition is a fact to-day. The nations are turning to it, even as Japan. This recognition and acknowledgement of Christianity's superiority have confirmed many in the false theory of the world's conversion. But while the religion of Christ is recognized and acknowledged as superior to all others, there is no acceptance of its fundamental truths—self-denial, salvation only through Him, peace in His imputed and imparted righteousness, separation from the world unto God. Men and nations hope for superior greatness, attainments, power, and influence by accepting the form, and ignoring the living fact of the personal Saviour from personal sin and sinning. The great lesson is lost upon the selfish heart which the majority of human nature will not yield to God. The crown, the fruit, the goal, are desired; but the cross, the sowing, the race, is despised and shunned.

2. Therefore the second part of the prophecy refers to the false cry of peace; but mark, dear reader, it is not the prophet of God which proclaims the peace message, but the prophet declares that "many people shall go and say." The people say that we will make Jerusalem a center; the people say that God shall judge between nations; the people say that swords shall be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks; the people say that nation shall not lift up sword against nation, and war shall be learned no more. But all the facts, as well as the message of God's prophet, belie what the people say, even tho the people do declare that Jehovah hath spoken. Micah 4:4.

If our querist, and all others, will but recognize the sources of the two predictions, all will be plain. It is what the prophets of God declare on the one hand, and what the "many peoples" and "many nations" declare on the other; and all the facts confirm the prophets of God.

Moreover, because God's own apostate people are engaged in this false message, which lulls to slumber while Satan lures to ruin, the prophet declares that God has forsaken His people "because they are filled with customs from the east—[the old oriental philosophies and idolatries]—and are soothsayers like the Philistines." And then follows the awful revelations of the day of God.

What We May Expect.

And God's children may confidently expect that the great deceiver who originated the false prophecy, and who has thereby deceived many honest souls, will perpetuate it and endeavor to fulfil it. The Congresses of religion, in which Christianity is placed on a level with the great historical ethical cults, are to be expected. The peace conferences, national and international, are to be looked for. It may be expected that an international tribunal to decide "between nations" shall be erected, whence decisions shall be rendered by the head of this high court of peace. It would be a most reasonable thing if Palestine should be confiscated because of the misrule of the Turk, and Jerusalem chosen as the central seat of the great peace tribunal. Who would be the human head of this tribunal?—He who claims and has claimed for centuries the headship, both temporal and spiritual, of the nations—the Pope of Rome. And, lastly, it may be expected that the few who see God's truth, and make clear the deceptions from His Word, will be persecuted and driven out.

Then would the deception of Satan be complete. Then would earth's false siren-song of peace by proclamation be heard throughout the world. But "there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." Isa. 57:21. "And their course is evil, and their might is not right." Jer. 23:10. Grim-visaged war still sits enthroned in the unregenerate hearts of men, and, while the soothing song of a false peace is heard, Armageddon breaks upon the world. For "when they are saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, . . . and they shall in nowise escape." 1 Thess. 5:3.

But God does not forget His people, to whom all these things are precursors of Christ's coming. They are a "little flock," persecuted because of their faithful message of peace only through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen: "In that day, saith Jehovah, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted; and I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and Jehovah shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth, even forever." Micah 4:6, 7.