Review and Herald, Vol. 93, No. 55. (11/6/1916)

Review and Herald

Nov 6, 1916

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Nov 6, 1916

What Do These Things Mean?

By George B. Thompson

The Great World War

In the year 1914 there suddenly burst upon the world the most terrible war which has ever been known in the history of the race. Ever since sin darkened the world there have been wars and rumors of war, but at no period has the earth been so convulsed with war. We indeed look out on a troubled sea. About fourteen nations, marshaling the greatest armies, equipped with the most destructive implements of death ever brought upon a battle field, are today locked in a death grapple. The toll of men and money is appalling.

For years the nations have foreseen a bloody and calamitous contest. Diplomacy has apparently averted the cataclysm for a time. But the volcano has continued to smolder, threatening international eruption. While diplomats have been at work, the nations have been arming for the inevitable.

Years of Preparation for War

Preceding the present war, one writer says, “Every war office in Europe went over its plans of strategy. Every plan of mobilization was scrutinized. Every nation took account of its stock, of its munitions of war, and of its financial strength. The nervous strain of keeping the peace, with millions of soldiers ready to fight at any time, seemed to be exhausted, and the people began to ask if it were possible to prevent the flames of international jealousy and hate from bursting forth into strife, with practical anarchy and chaos as the price to be paid for it.”

The earth is being drenched with the blood of the flower of manhood among all the nations. A suspense and dread grips the world, and men are asking what these things mean. Has this unprecedented condition a special meaning? Is it Armageddon? Is it a herald of the day of God?

The Outlook

Conditions are indeed strange and dark and perilous. The affairs of the world are turned out of their regular channel. Men are standing dumb before the tremendous and sudden changes which have come into the affairs of the world, and there is a grave apprehension in the minds of men that we are on the verge of some terrible and hitherto unknown events which will overturn the very foundations of society, and usher in a new order of things. The situation is such that the editor of the Springfield Republican was led some time ago to say:—

“Writers who can tell a stupefied world what this fearful portent means, who can throw light on the great fundamental problems of the race, and give some hint as to its destiny, will have an attentive and even anxious hearing.”

Five years ago Sir Edward Grey, addressing the members of the House of Commons, said:—

“It is really as if, in the atmosphere of the world, there were some mischievous influence at work which troubles and excites every part of it. . . . Some countries are in revolution, others are at war. . . . Really it is as if the world were indulging in a fit of political alcoholism, and the best that can be done by those of us who are in positions of responsibility is to keep cool and sober.”

A War of Extermination

Now the great war is on, a war toward which so many have looked with almost stupefied apprehension. The magnitude and spirit of the world-wide struggle is not paralleled in the history of man.

Writing of the devastating struggle now going on, Mr. Taft, ex-President of the United States, says: “Nothing like it has occurred since the world began. It is a cataclysm. The future looks dark indeed.”

Harper’s Weekly declares: “The most critical moment in the world’s history is upon us. That is the stark truth. . . . Events are transpiring to stun the stoutest mind. We are at time’s meridian.”

President Wilson said recently that “the world is on fire,” and no man “knows what a single week or a single day or a single hour may bring forth.”

Of the present war Rudyard Kipling says: “This is not a war of victories, but a war of extermination. . . . Universal ruin awaits us.”

Civilization Committing Suicide

What a change has come over the earth in a few short years! Thrones have been overturned. Kings have fled as fugitives to other kingdoms for protection. Millions who were enjoying the blessings of family and national life have been plunged into poverty, sorrow, and mourning. All the values of modern civilized life have undergone an amazing change and shrinkage. The grip of the human race on the world has been greatly loosened. Civilization seems to be committing suicide. A dread and a pall hang over the hearts and minds of men.

What It All Means

What does all this mean? Is this the last great war foretold in the Scriptures, which ushers in the second coming of Christ? Is the great day of God at the door? Everywhere—on the street, in the drawing-room, in the hotel lobbies, on the trains—we hear the questions repeated. “What do these things mean?” “Is this Armageddon?” “Is this the fulfilment of the Scripture?”

We are glad that while the heavens are lurid with the flame of war, while horror grips a stupefied world, and a dread of what may yet come to pass unnerves humanity, the Lord has told us the meaning of all these things. We are indeed entering into that dim twilight zone where time will soon dissolve into eternity. Man’s day of probation and of preparation for eternity is drawing near to its sunset. The coming of the Judge of all the earth draws nigh. These things tell us that Armageddon is not far in the future. The terrible conditions which trouble the world are forerunners of the day of the Lord, and speak to us in the clearest tones that the history of this planet, cursed by sin, is almost finished, and that Christ will soon come, when God’s people will experience the realization of that blessed hope which is to be fulfilled in the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Great Lines of Bible Prophecy That Focus Their Light on Our Day

God Will Send a Warning

Hitherto when a great event was about to take place or some judgment to be visited upon the people, the Lord has seen fit, as a token of his love and care, to send a warning to the world. He warned the antediluvians that the flood was coming. He sent a warning to Sodom and Gomorrah before the rain of fire fell from heaven and blotted them from the earth because of their sins. When the first advent of our blessed Lord was impending, the voice of the forerunner was heard in the wilderness of Judea in fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah. So again, when the greatest of all events is near at hand and a final period is about to be placed upon all earthly things, the Lord will once more, in his mercy, send the inhabitants of the world a warning, calling them to repentance and to make preparation for this great event. And the wise will understand, and be looking for his appearing. "Yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day; we are not of the night, nor of darkness." 1 Thess. 5: 2-5. "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Heb. 9: 28.

Just as the Lord sent a message warning the people of the coming deluge, so will he send a warning of the coming of the Son of man. "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand." Joel 2: 1. We fully believe this solemn warning is now being heralded to the world, and is fast gathering out a people who are to look for and be ready to welcome the Saviour's return.

Prophetic Utterances

The prophets of God through all the ages have spoken of the coming of Jesus. Through them the Lord has unrolled the scroll of history, and made known the rise and fall of empires, bringing us down through the ages to the time when Christ would come and the everlasting kingdom of righteousness be established. On this great event all lines of prophecy focus.

A Prophetic History of the World

In Daniel, the seer of Babylon, the Lord made known the history of the world to the time when nations shall be no more. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, while lying one night upon his bed, was pondering on the future. By means of a dream there was unrolled before him the history of the world down to the end. In answer to prayer, this dream, which the king had forgotten, was made known to Daniel. It was this:— "Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.

This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth." Dan. 2: 31-35. In Daniel's interpretation of this great metallic symbol, the head of gold was said to represent Babylon. This would be followed successively by the universal monarchies of Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Notice the decline, beginning with gold and ending with iron mixed with miry clay. The mixture of iron and clay indicated division. The iron monarchy of Rome, the fourth and last universal empire, between the years 351 and 476 A. D., was divided into ten

parts. What is next? "In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." Dan. 2: 44. The book of authentic history shows that we have been living for more than fourteen centuries in the feet of this image, waiting for the stone to smite the image and Christ's kingdom to be established. Must God's people wait much longer?

The Four Beasts of Daniel 7

In Daniel 7 the history of the world is again outlined from the days of the Babylonian Empire till the history of the world is finished. In this chapter not only the four successive monarchies, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, are foretold, but also the terrible history of the papal power which should arise, blaspheme God, seek to change his law, and wear out his saints. For more than a millennium of years this terrible power waged its relentless warfare. It almost extinguished the light. Day was turned into night—the world's midnight. For exercising the right to think, and to worship the God of heaven as their conscience dictated, millions of God's faithful people were slain by every means that the minds of men inspired by devils could invent. "But the judgment," says God, "shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." Dan. 7: 26, 27. Blessed judgment!

This line of prophecy also is complete. We are waiting only for the beasts to be slain, and for the saints of the Most High to take the kingdom and reign forever.

Time of the Judgment

In Daniel 8 we have the prophecy of the 2300 days, or years, beginning in 457 B. C. and ending in 1844 A. D. This prophecy fixes not only the birth and the crucifixion of Christ, but locates as well the beginning of the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary, or the investigative judgment. The prophet gives the following sublime description of the opening of this heavenly tribunal: "I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened." Dan. 7: 9, 10. Since 1844, or for more than the allotted span of human life, this work of the investigative judgment has been going on, and the final work of Christ as priest has been carried forward. This work must soon end. In the type the cleansing of the sanctuary was a comparatively short work. Then probation will close, and the Lord will descend to receive to himself those who through faith in the merits of Jesus' blood have been found worthy.

In Rev. 14: 6-14 is found that great threefold message, announcing the opening of the judgment, the fall of Babylon, and the warning against the beast and his image. This message has already girdled the earth. It calls upon all to worship the true God, to render obedience to his precepts, and to prepare for his coming.

The Eastern Question

Then there is the Eastern Question,—the driving of the Turk from Europe, and the consequent scramble for his territory. The prophecy concerning this power is found largely in the eleventh chapter of Daniel. Speaking of this power, the revelator says, "The sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared." Rev. 16: 12. For many years the drying up of the power here symbolized by the river Euphrates has

been going steadily forward. Today she holds but little territory in Europe, and ere long will be forced to remove her capital from Europe. Eventually she will plant the tabernacles of her palace between the seas, in the Holy Land. And what is the next great event? "At that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book." Dan. 12: 1. The eternal reign of Christ and the deliverance of his people were next. This line of prophecy, which is so fast fulfilling, brings us to the time when the kingdoms of earth are destroyed, and Michael begins his reign over a kingdom which shall have no end. Earthly kingdoms will then be carried away like the chaff, and the kingdom of Christ will fill the earth.

What Do These Things Mean?—Extra No. 23

Continue reading: The Signs of Christ’s Coming Fulfilled and Fulfilling