Described the Inconsistent and Rival Teachings of Both Peace and War — The War Spirit Comes from the Demons — Is Antichristian
By ROSS C. PORTER
FIVE Old Testament prophecies, and the Apocalypse in the New Testament, deal too plainly with the question of last-day war, its causes, professions, and spirit, to be misunderstood.
THE OLD SATANIC AMBITION
Lying at the foundation of enormous armaments and colossal navies of the world to-day there is a cause. That cause is the old satanic ambition for the highest place. As Satan was willing to sacrifice the brightest of the angels, which were the glory of heaven, and mankind, the glory of earth, on the altar of his ambition for the first place in the kingdom of God, so nations to-day are sacrificing the best in their dominions on the altar of military and commercial ambition for first place among the nations.
The cause is definitely declared by the revelator to be "the spirits of devils" gathering the nations and kings of the whole world into an Armageddon of war. Rev. 16: 14-16.
That spirit produces the same effect among nations as among angels and men. It fills them with distrust and bitterness toward each other.
THE ANGRY NATIONS AND THE JUDGMENT
This is further shown in the statement, "And the nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that Thou shouldest give reward unto Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear Thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth." Rev. 11: 18.
Three things are here emphasized. First, the nations are angry. Second, it is the time of God's final Judgment, just before He rewards His people. His people are rewarded at the time of Christ's second advent. Rev. 22: 12. Third, He will destroy the angry nations "which destroy the earth."
Here is an adequate cause for both the present war and the spirit that accompanies it. The angry nations that triumph will come forth from the struggle deluged in blood. They will point their fingers dripping with human gore to their triumphs, and say, "Behold what the unadulterated Bible, the pure gospel, has done for us." The vanquished nations will be jeered. But "God awaits His day. The cannon will not roar forever, the drum will not sound for long, the mocking of Christ's spirit will cease. And then? The Judgment."
PEACE PROFESSIONS AND WAR PREPARATIONS
Three prophecies point out these inconsistencies of peace professions and war preparations. Two of them, Micah 4 and Isaiah 2, after first declaring that they are describing a last-day scene, say: "Many nations shall come, and say:" "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." This is the prophetic forecast of the peace profession of the nations in the last days.
After announcing that his prediction applies in the last days (Joel 2: 1), the prophet Joel says: "Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake 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. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause Thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord." Joel 3: 9-11.
CHRIST ON THE BATTLE-FIELD, AFTER THE PAINTING BY HENRI DANGER
NOT CONTRADICTORY PROPHECIES
These are not contradictory prophecies. They merely foretell that the nations will in the last days be professing peace while preparing for and engaging in unparalleled world war. One prophecy foretells what they will be saying, the other what they will be doing. What are the nations saying? — In the Hague peace councils they are eloquently talking disarmament. What are they doing? The answer is found in the race for naval and military supremacy that has swept over the entire course of peace despite the efforts of738Christian statesmen, peace treaties, arbitration boards, and the Hague tribunals, and launched nations in the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of intelligent, peace-loving citizens in this overwhelming tragedy of war. While professing peace, they are preparing for and engaging in war. Both prophecies are fulfilled in the present conflict.
IS THIS A HARBINGER OF PEACE?
Even in the midst of the present almost Armageddon conflict, nations are saying that "this war is the harbinger of peace. After this conflict shall have destroyed militarism, there shall be no more war." It was on this hypothesis that Lloyd-George, when speaking in Wales in September, said, "Germany's barbarism must be stamped out." The Yorodzu, a Japanese paper, is quoted in the China Press of October 2, 1914, as stating the real issues of the war as follows:
"Shall Germany be allowed to keep up her militarism or not? is the question. If she is allowed, the present war has no meaning. No, German militarism must be crushed. . . . To be plain, the ultimate object of the war should be to reduce the German Empire to the state of a semi-independent nation, in which she will be placed under the supervision of the powers as regards her diplomatic and military affairs."
Profound conclusion! As if the world's woes were all traceable to Germany's militarism! Has not Germany as good a right to seek military supremacy as has Great Britain to seek naval supremacy, or Japan to seek both military and naval supremacy in the far East?
MILITARY ALLIANCES THE CAUSE
It may be added that the marshaling of the millions to slaughter at the present hour is due more to military alliances than to Germany's militarism. If Germany's military power is broken, military alliances will remain as great a menace as before. It was by them that nations were unwillingly dragged into the great whirlpool of war at this time. For what?—For the settlement of a question that the Hague should have settled in a day. Why did it not go to the Hague?—Military alliances swept it past the Hague court into the arena of war with lightning rapidity.
The delusion that German militarism is alone a menace to the peace of Europe, is dispelled by a look at the roll of European nations who have led in wars during the past forty-five years. How does Germany compare with her rivals?
China-Japanese war ............................ 1894-1895
Spanish-American war .......................... 1898
British and Boer war .......................... 1899-1902
Belgian-Kongo atrocities ...................... 1901
Russo-Japanese war ............................ 1904-1905
Nippon-Chosen war ............................. 1907
Norway secedes from Sweden .................... 1907
Austria annexes Bosnia and Herzegovina ........ 1908
French-Moroccan war ........................... 1908-1909
Spanish-Moroccan war .......................... 1909
Portuguese revolution ......................... 1910
Turko-Italian war ............................. 1911
Balkan war .................................... 1912
The only powers of Europe that have not been involved since the Franco-Prussian war are Switzerland, Holland, Denmark, and Germany.
SPIRIT OF MILITARISM UNIVERSAL
The spirit of militarism is as bad in an American, a Britain, a Russian, or a Japanese, as in a German. The spirit of militarism is satanic, and it blights the finer sensibilities of every nation that yields to its control.
TURKEY'S FANATICAL KURDISH CAVALRY
Mr. Liang Chichao, of the Peking legislative council, introducing a motion before that body, gave his view of Japan's military movements, supported by Great Britain, as a menace to the peace of the far East, as follows:
"Great Britain can not be excused for violating our neutrality, because the two nations are allied, and their actions must be concerted. Great Britain went to war in Europe because of her wishes to maintain the neutrality of Belgium. Mr. Asquith has announced in the House that Great Britain's object to join the war is to uphold humanity and civilization, and we respect England on this account. Unexpectedly, Great Britain in the East has been acting contrarily, and using the allied forces to violate our neutrality in Shandong."—China Press, October 6, 1914.
The present war has abundantly proved that enforced militarism in the world is a menace to its peace. Most of the nations engaged in the present conflict desired peace. But they have been led by the spirit of militarism into these vast war preparations under the delusion that vast armies insure peace.
WAR PREPARATIONS AND PEACE
The New York World is justified in its statement that "all the loudly proclaimed pretentions of professional militarists, that huge armaments and incessant preparations for war are the best assurances that can be had for the preservation of peace, are disproved. There never was a time when Europe was more fully armed, and there never was a more needless and wicked war than that into which Europe has suddenly plunged."
Great navies and armies numbering millions are prepared for conquest. They are not kept up to such proportions for a police force. Prophecy says that as a sign of Christ's second advent, nations will talk peace and disarmament, while straining their resources to the uttermost in war preparations. Although men and nations, in the face of the fulfilment of this prophecy, may still cling to the delusion that after the war a millennium of peace will come. Paul declares:
"When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, . . . and they shall not escape." 1 Thess. 5: 3.
HEROES OF PEACE
But there are real heroes of peace who are not possessed with the spirit of militarism. They are putting forth heroic efforts to restore peace and stop this inhuman slaughter of their fellow men. America, Great Britain, and Germany have furnished some of the world's most noble advocates of national and international peace. It requires more heroic courage now to offer peace proposals to the angry combatants than to join them in the great war procession. What would we expect Great Britain and Germany to do in this crucial hour? In response to President Wilson's kindly offer of mediation in the interests of the world's peace, Reuter's telegram of September 19 said, "The English newspapers ridicule the talk of peace."
Why? Is it Great Britain's peace policy to prolong the war until the death-roll reaches millions, for the sake of crushing a military and commercial rival? Is this a "Christian nation's" application of the Golden Rule of the Prince of peace? Alas, militarism has become entangled in the meshes of its own ponderous net! "Judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity can not enter." Isa. 59: 14.
NOT IN HARMONY WITH CIVILIZATION
In its very nature, war is recognized to be hostile to civilization. "The law of civilization is to live and let live, while the law of war is to kill and let kill. They are opposites. They can never reach agreement and harmony. . . . In barbarous times, war was perfectly logical in the way it played its game. It did not hesitate to apply the sword and torch to their accepted ends."3### Prophets Foresaw It All
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Thus it is logical that war destroys life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Civilization protects life, safeguards liberty, and guarantees to all the privilege of the pursuit of happiness.
Civilization regards every man’s home as his castle. It supports business, provides for the poor, suppresses crime, respects virtue, honors morality, regards individual rights, places a high estimate upon human life, embraces peace, enthrones love, and punishes murder.
WAR DEGRADES
War despoils the home, demoralizes business, beggars the poor, breeds crime, outrages virtue, invades individual rights, cheapens human life, scorns peace, turns civilians into savages, friends into fiends of hate, and honors slaughter. If nations were fully4civilized, war would not be tolerated. In proportion as they become civilized, the horrors of war are minimized.
The organization of the Red Cross Society at the Geneva Convention was civilization's protest against the barbarism of war.
WAR IS ANTICHRISTIAN
To be Christian is to be Christlike. Christ refused to bear arms, and commanded His disciples to put up the sword into its place, when it was unsheathed in His defense, because "the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them."
Paul voiced these sentiments in his instructions to Christians: "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds." Christ's doctrine was, "On earth peace, good will toward men." "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven." "I say unto you, that ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." Matt. 5: 44, 45, 39.
On these principles, Christ met the world's issues and conquered. He would permit Himself to be killed rather than bear arms, to slay His fellow men.
If Christ were here to-day, He would not be found yoked up with the great armies of professedly Christian nations slaying one another. He would weep in sorrow and humiliation over their folly, and over the slain who have fallen under the insane delusion that Christ approves of Christians' engaging in these last-day wars, which are inspired and led by "the spirits of devils." Rev. 16: 14.
