PEACE OR WAR-WHICH?

Pacific Press Publishing Association

FromSigns of the Times, Harvest Ingathering Number

PEACE OR WAR—WHICH?

Are We Approaching a Warless Age?

Will Peace Finally Prevail?

THE most surprising shock that ever came to the human race was the war that broke out in Europe in July, 1914. In the World's Work for June, 1912, Dr. David Starr Jordan had said: "War is dying. It dies because it cannot pay its way. It dies because, through the spread of education and the demands of commerce, no part of the civilized world can afford to engage in a life-and-death struggle with any other part." "In our belief, whatever the apparent provocation of noisy speech or hectoring diplomacy, we shall never see another war among the great nations of Europe. There is too much at stake." Dr. Jordan's language is representative of the general teaching previous to the furious war that involves so much of the world.

As early as 1816, a peace society was organized in Great Britain; and the American Peace Society was organized in this country in 1828.

In the International Peace Congress held in Paris in 1849, Victor Hugo gave expression to his dream of "the United States of Europe" and "the United States of America" joining hands to guide the world in the general upward path of peace and progress.

The thought that groups of men could secure international treaties and international combinations that would insure permanent peace in this world has been one of the leading themes of the last half century.

There are some eight hundred peace organizations throughout the world, if we take into account the subsidiary and allied branches that are working with the national and international peace societies that have been formed.

There are twenty-eight journals devoted exclusively to the promulgation of peace.

Representatives of over one hundred thirty peace organizations met in Brussels in 1910 and organized "the Union of International Associations."

PEACE PROPHECIES SHATTERED

"THE American School Peace League" and "the Inter-Collegiate Peace Association" are organizations that are working to have the abhorrence of war taught in all the schools, from the lower grades on through to the university. The School Peace League of Great Britain and Ireland has a similar object before it.

In 1910 Mr. Carnegie established the "Endowment for International Peace," with a gift of $10,000,000 in securities, the market value of which at the time was $11,500,000.

"The World Peace Foundation" was established in 1913, with a gift of $50,000 annually from Mr. Edward Ginn.

In the early part of 1914, Mr. Carnegie established "the Church Peace Union," with a gift of $2,000,000.

The Federation of Churches has a Peace Department. Socialism and the labor organizations affirmed, in strongest language, that they would never permit another war.

Such was the powerful array of peace organizations and peace propaganda when the great war tornado burst upon the world in 1914, and in less than a week had gripped practically all of Europe, a large part of Asia, and many dependencies scattered throughout the world.

The world was suddenly disillusioned. It was aroused from its dream of peace. Every theory that had ever been advanced in regard to this "warless age" was utterly shattered.

FORETOLD 2,600 YEARS AGO

ONE of Israel's ancient prophets had said: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in 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 the Lord, 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 the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: 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. You will ask, Does not this text say that the people shall "beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks," and that "nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more"?

Observe that this is what God foretold that the people would be saying. "Many people shall go and say" these things, but the Lord had not authorized them to speak thus. People were even quoting this text as evidence that we would have a "warless age"; but any one who will note the text carefully, will see that it was telling what "many people shall go and say," but not what the Lord had authorized them to say. What a striking fulfillment of an ancient prophecy has been this tremendous peace delusion that has been sweeping over the world!

The prophet Micah (chapter 4) presents a prophecy very similar to the one quoted from the second chapter of Isaiah, only Micah says that "many nations shall come, and say" these things concerning peace. Thus do we find that God would emphasize the fact that "the people" and "the nations" "in the last days" shall be talking peace. But are they warranted in such teaching?

WORLD-WIDE WAR PREPARATIONS

WE have a very clear picture in the Bible of what God Himself teaches on this question of war conditions: "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." Joel 3: 9-13, A. R. V.

This is Jehovah's word to the nations. It is the exact opposite of what the "many people" are saying. They are to beat their "plowshares into swords" and their "pruning hooks into spears." Even "the weak" among them are to say, "I am strong."

Another Scripture prophecy reads: "And the nations were wroth, and Thy wrath came, and the time of the dead to be judged, and the time to give their reward to Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear Thy name, the small and the great; and to destroy them that destroy the earth." Rev. 11: 18, A. R. V. This scripture shows plainly that when the Judgment day is imminent, then "the nations" are "wroth."

And again we have this word: "I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits, as it were frogs: for they are spirits of demons, working signs; which go forth unto the kings of the whole world, to gather them together unto the war of the great day of God, the Almighty. . . . And they gathered them together into the place which is called in Hebrew Armageddon." Rev. 16: 13-16.

Thus do we see that the Scriptures very clearly teach that terrible wars, under the wrathful influence of demons, will be characteristic of the last days. And at the same time, how plain are the scriptures which show that the great mass of the people will be saying that they are not going to have any more war, that they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and that nation shall not lift up the sword against nation!

GREATEST DELUSION

WHILE this last half century has been the great time of peace societies and of peace talk, yet all the theories have been based upon mere human civilization. Account has not been taken of the underlying facts of the wickedness and the grasping greed of the age, which must inevitably result in war. Instead of recognizing that the building of Dreadnoughts, submarines, and guns of terrible and terrifying destructiveness, is an unmistakable token of the war spirit of the age, they had taught that these great facilities for destruction were really "peacemakers."

The war storm that broke in 1914, however, has only temporarily dispelled the delusion; for men are talking now, stronger than ever, that we must have an international combination which will forever end war. And more than ever, the many people and the many nations are saying: "Never again!" "This destructive war of Europe must never be repeated." The foremost men of the earth do not seem to observe the fearful inconsistency that they manifest; for some of the leaders in the international movements to enforce peace throughout the world are also the leaders in the "preparedness" program. The United States, as well as the rest of the world, is gripped with the "preparedness" idea. Preparedness for war is the great theme before this nation. It subordinates almost everything else. And now, more vehemently than ever before, is taught the doctrine that we must arm in the most tremendous and the most awful fashion in order to insure permanent peace.

A greater delusion than has ever swept over this world will be the peace movement that grows out of and follows the European cataclysm of war; for, speaking of these very times in which we are living, the apostle Paul says: "When they are saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall in no wise escape."

The most frightful war that all the ages have ever witnessed lies just ahead of us. It will be something still more dreadful than what we have seen in this volcano and tempest of wrathful strife that has devastated Europe. The great Armageddon that the prophecy already quoted from Revelation shows will engage the kings of the whole world is yet to break upon us. It will come as a "sudden destruction," as foretold by Paul; and it will come when the mass of humanity, even more intently than previous to July, 1914, will be saying, "Peace and safety."