Is It Peace? by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 25, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 42.

Is It Peace?

By Editor

WE receive from time to time circular letters and appeals from peace organizations, accounts of meetings in the interests of peace, etc., etc. We need not say that we sympathize with the noble souls who are working for the peace of the world, for the disarmament of the nations, for arbitration in the settlement of difficulties between nations. Doubtless some wars have been avoided by arbitration, which ought to commend itself to every man in private and in public life. Would to God that the principles of peace might triumph. But to be true to our convictions and to the teachings of the Old Book we have no faith in the triumphant issue of the peace movement. We have reasons for our want of faith, among which are the following:

1. While we have all this splendid peace talk we have at the same time such stupendous preparations for war as the world never before witnessed. The vast expenditure of means increases from year to year. The nations' representatives meet in peace congresses, talk sweetly of peace, and their respective governments appropriate additional millions for constructing bigger guns and building bigger battle-ships.

2. This very condition for these very days is predicted in the Word of God. Read the prophecy of the son of Pethuel, uttered eight centuries before Christ:

"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. . . . Let the nations bestir themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat. . . . 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." Joel 3:9-14, A.R.V.

The great God not only predicts the universal, unparalleled preparation for war, but His Word also predicts the great conflict of Armageddon, the universal strife to which the war preparations are trending. See Jer. 25:

15-26; and Rev. 16: 14, 16. The war will come, for God has declared it.

3. The very cry of peace is itself a precursor of war. We are told in Isa. 2: 2, under the figure of mountains and hills, that in the last days the Christian religion will be exalted above all others, even as was the religion of Jehovah in the time of the Exodus and in the days of Solomon. An ungodly world, thinking to make a gain of godliness, noting the strength of so-called Christian nations, will turn to Christianity nominally, and then unite in a great peace cry. The reader will note that prediction of peace is by the many people, and the prediction of God is that the many people shall proclaim a groundless peace.

"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. 2:3, 4.

But what does God say of the people who raise this cry? — It is that God has forsaken His people, "because they are filled with customs from the East, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners." Verse 6. And the remainder of the chapter is a graphic setting forth of the humbling of man and the exaltation of Jehovah of Hosts. Referring to this very time the apostle Paul thus warns us:

"For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, . . . and they shall not escape." 1 Thess 5:3.

The world can not know peace till it knows righteousness; for true peace is found only in righteousness. Men can obtain righteousness only at the feet of Jesus; but that they will not do. Peace will come, however, when Jesus Christ shall come, wipe out the wicked nations of earth, raise the righteous dead of all ages, cleanse and purge the earth of sin, and reign with His own. Then "the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever." Isa. 32: 17. And in Christ Jesus there is peace for every soul now. Rom. 5: 1.