Will Wars Cease When the Present Titanic Struggle Is Over?—Is there Any Means of Knowing? Is there Any Light in the Prophecies?
By GEORGE W. REASER
FOR nearly forty years, the writer has been one of a group of students who, basing their faith upon Bible prophecies, have believed that the epoch just preceding the second coming of Christ would be a time of distress of nations, a period marked by the most gigantic and terrible wars of all the world's history.
It really was somewhat of a test of faith to preach this theory for four decades, in the face of the "peace and safety" doctrine voiced by many of the scholars and leaders of thought among the nations.
WILL TERRORS STOP THE FIGHTING?
While the peace advocates have received a rude shock in the outbreak of war among so many great nations of earth, yet already the cry is taken up in effect that "the destructiveness of the present war will so terrify the world that this will be the last in the history of the human race."
This argument is closely akin to the declaration made during recent years that the "tremendous armament of the nations is positive assurance that none will dare to declare war."
A single quotation of prophecy should be ample to convince the believer in the Bible that the world's history will close with the nations embattled against each other. In Rev. 11:18 we read, "And the nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that Thou shouldst give reward unto Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear Thy name, small and great; and shouldst destroy them which destroy the earth." Thus practically coincident in point of time are the anger of the nations, the judgment of the dead in the courts above, the bestowal of rewards for the righteous, and swift destruction to be visited upon the destroyers of the earth.
Numerous parallel expressions of prophecy might be quoted, but the one given will suffice for the present.
MUST NOT INDULGE FALSE HOPES
With intense desire for peace, yet we could not join in holding out false hopes of disarmament when the prophetic forecast declared that terrible wars awaited the inhabitants of earth. However, we have no desire to reproach the advocates of peace, even though their prophecies have failed. The one thing that we desire to investigate at the time of this terrible world crisis is, Will the dire results of the present titanic struggle teach the nations such wisdom that they will "learn war no more"?
MUST END BEFORE ARMAGEDDON
If the present war terminates in the prophetic battle of Armageddon, then the curtain will have dropped on human probation, and the nations, "destroyed by the brightness of His coming," will not again be embattled until after the millennium. It does not, however, seem possible to the writer that there will be continuous war until Armageddon, but at least a brief period of peace for the finishing of the proclamation of the "gospel of the kingdom," which must go with added impetus because of the fulfilment of prophecies in the present war and in other impending events.
LITTLE BAVARIAN BOYS PRACTISING THE GAME OF WAR
No well-informed person will say that the present war is Armageddon, for the field of operation is not located in the right continent, neither are the combatants those mentioned as participants in that great prophetic battle.
The antagonists upon the field of Armageddon are "the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet," and the field is in the northern portion of Palestine.
THE CHRISTIAN WORLD INVITING ARMAGEDDON
Armageddon is not only certain to follow the present war in the very near future, but even now the so-called Christian world is justifying the assembling of the powers for that battle in which "the kings of the earth and of the whole world" will be engaged.
This justification is not only freely presented from the pulpit, but is taken up editorially in some of the leading journals of the land. The two points mentioned by way of full justification of the struggle, are, dispossessing the Turkish nation of Palestine, so as to carry to completion the plan of "the return of the Jews" to their own land, and, second, to make Jerusalem accessible to the Christian world.
On October 7, 1913, the late Pope Pius X addressed a note to the powers, asking them to remove the Turk from Jerusalem, thus voicing the sentiment which prompted the Crusades.
OUGHT TO DESIRE PEACE
It would seem that every sane person ought to desire a condition of permanent world peace. But according to the prophetic forecast, the nations of earth will be controlled by the war spirit rather than by the spirit of the Prince of peace, until earth's history shall close in the sublime event of the second coming of Christ; for it is written that "the spirits of devils, working miracles," will "go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty."
In full view of the present dark picture of the world from the standpoint of human devices and plans for world peace, how bright, how hopeful, the prospects for the soon coming of the Prince of peace, who will gather the subjects of His eternal kingdom from this war-stricken world, and take them to that home "where none will molest or make afraid," and
"Where no storms ever beat on the glittering strand,
While the years of eternity roll!"
