| News and Views | April 1940 |
Does God Not Care?
“And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.”—Revelation 18:21
LOOMING large in the news parade of these hectic days of world disorder is the trend of events affecting religion and religious organizations. On both the Catholic and Protestant fronts religion is decidedly on the defensive and in many instances even retreating. Often the involuntary retreat of religious forces is accompanied by severe persecution and physical suffering.
In the Catholic world, more particularly, epoch-making events are transpiring. Seldom, however, are these events of an encouraging nature to the system which throughout the centuries has occupied such a prominent position in world affairs. So disquieting and tragic is the outlook for Catholicism that according to informed sources it is seriously affecting the Pope’s health. Rene Krauss, writing in Liberty Magazine, describes the Pope’s physical condition as follows:
“Pius XII is suffering from shock induced by worry over the world unrest. He is saddened by the failure of his peace efforts and by the fear of atheism’s spread. He imposes the severest penances on himself for the world’s ills. Of course all this contributes gravely to his condition.”
Mr. Krauss further informs us that an exalted visitor in Rome asked if the Pope, in doing penances through fasting and sleeping upon the floor, is trying to force world peace by a hunger strike a la Ghandi. Replying to this inquiry Mr. Krauss says,
“When the Mahatma starves, he is trying to impose his will on some adversary, usually the viceroy of India; and each time that his minimum demands are net, he returns to his normal way of life. The Pope, on the contrary, has no adversary and no minimum demands. He is not trying to wrest concessions from any of this world’s viceroys or dictators. When the Holy Father does penance, he is dealing with his God alone.”
Mr. Krauss further explains, in his article appearing in Liberty, that when the Pope prays and starves it is for the purpose of reconciling God with humanity. We do not question the Pope’s sincerity in staging a hunger strike in order to exact concessions from his God, but we simply can’t sidestep the question which is intruding itself upon millions of minds today as to just who the Pope’s God may be, and why he apparently is turning a deaf ear to Papal pleadings.
In pondering over what may be the reason for the Pope’s present dilemma, it occurs to us that the answer may be found in one of three directions. First, is the Pope making intercession to the true God? Second, is the God whom Papacy is endeavoring to impress, willing to give heed to the frantic petitions that are now being offered to him. And third, if willing to come to the rescue of his long-established empire in earth, is he able to give successful battle to the invading hordes of the dictators and thus put to rout the enemies of religion that for several years past have so successfully trampled down the church in one after another country in Europe?
In the Scriptures we are reminded of the fact that there are gods who lack the ability to answer the pleadings of their worshipers. We recall the dramatic story of Elijah and the priests of Baal. Elijah issued a challenge to these priests calculated to convince them and their followers that their god, Baal, was utterly unable to hear, much less to answer their petitions. Elijah suggested that an altar be built and a sacrifice placed upon it and then let the priests of Baal call upon their god to send down fire to consume the sacrifice. If their god failed to respond to their supplications then Elijah would call upon Jehovah.
The challenge was accepted and the test made. All day long the priests of Baal agonized and called upon their god to answer them, but their pleadings were in vain. Meanwhile Elijah mocked them, suggesting that they cry a little louder, for Baal may be sleeping, or perhaps he had gone on a journey. When Elijah called upon Jehovah, the true God, immediately fire came down and consumed the sacrifice.
We are not suggesting that the priests of Baal are the prototype of the present system of Catholicism. We are relating this incident merely to emphasize the fact that at times the prayers of ardent religionists are not answered because the god to whom they pray is not able to answer. This suggests a possibility in the subject under consideration which might be considered with profit.
It may sound shocking to some to suggest that the great and powerful Roman Catholic system does not represent the true God. We believe, however, that the present predicament of the church, and the apparent failure of God to protect its interests, is sufficient justification for at least bringing up the subject. In the examination of the question we are not concerned with individuals. What we want to know is whether or not the system itself, with its doctrines and practices of both the past and the present, is in harmony with the teachings of the Scriptures. If it is not, then we are forced to the conclusion that irrespective of the sincerity and devotion of the individuals concerned, the system itself does not represent the true God, and if it does not, then we have found the answer as to why the supplications of its advocates are not heard, and the papal empire is permitted to be destroyed.
EXAMINING THE DOCTRINES
The Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death. (Rom. 6:23) This apostolic statement is in full harmony with the Genesis account of the creation and fall of man in which we are informed that because of Adam’s transgression there came upon him the sentence, “Dying thou shalt die.” Contrary to this, the Catholic position is that the wages of sin is not death, but torment. For all heretics—willful sinners—this torment is eternal in a fiery hell. For others it is of varying duration dependent upon the depth of sin and the amount of money that is paid for masses by surviving relatives and friends.
As for the cancellation of sin, the Scriptures teach that this is accomplished through the death of Jesus. The Roman Catholic Church teaches Jesus must be re-sacrificed, over and over again, times without number, in the service of the Mass, in order that sinners may have their sins properly atoned for. And even with the alleged repetition of the sacrifice of Christ as represented in the emblems of the mass, still, according to Catholic dogma, sins are not entirely remitted, for it is in order that they may be further atoned for and washed away that purgatory is provided after death. All of this, therefore, is quite out of harmony with the teachings of the true God as they are found in their purity in the Holy Scriptures.
The Scriptures teach that the Kingdom of Christ was not to be established upon the earth until His second coming. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that through the Pope as the vicegerent of Christ, His Kingdom has been in operation all down through the centuries. The claim has been that through the arm of the State civil authority has been exercised by divine right and with divine blessing. The teaching of Jesus on this point means that the kingdom which is established Without Christ’s authority and before His coming must of necessity be a counterfeit arrangement.
Thus we find that on the fundamental issues of Scriptural truth the Roman Catholic Church is out of harmony with the definitely outlined plan of the true God. There are many other points of divergence from sacred truth on the part of the Papacy, but these three will suffice to establish the fact that fundamentally the Roman Catholic Church is not the true church of God. Not being the true church it cannot properly claim protection from the true God.
Papacy claims that the Catholic Church was first headed by St. Peter. Yet Peter did not share the views of the Catholic Church. Peter declared that the world must wait for its blessings until the second coming of Christ. One of the apostle’s sermons is recorded in Acts the third chapter, and here he explains that following the second coming of Christ there would be ushered in times of restitution of all things, and then he adds that these times of restitution have been foretold by the mouth of all God’s holy prophets since the world began.
This outline of the manner and time in which divine blessings of salvation are coming to the world is quite out of harmony with the dogmas of Papacy. Not only so, but when Peter assures us that his viewpoint was that proclaimed by the mouth of all God’s holy prophets since the world began, it places practically the entire Bible in opposition to the Papal viewpoint. Papacy claims that the Millennium taught in the Bible is in the past; that it was a period of one thousand’ years during which the popes at Rome, through the civil power of the State, reigned supreme throughout Europe. If the Papal doctrine on this point is correct, then Peter was in error in stating that the time of the Kingdom blessings is to follow the second coming of Christ.
UNCHRISTIAN PRACTICES
False doctrine inevitably leads to false, unchristian practices. It was so with Papacy. Claiming that the Kingdom of Christ was operating through the Pope as the Vicegerent of Christ, the next logical step was to attempt an enforcement of the laws of Papacy which were erroneously misconstrued to be the laws of God. It was logical also to conclude that if the hierarchy was the true Kingdom of God, then its laws must be inspired and it would be remiss if not exacting the full penalty from those who should violate those laws. Thus one step of error led to another with the result that the pages of history record the terrible atrocities that were practiced upon the alleged violators of the: kingdom laws, called heretics.
Out of this erroneous setup there arose the practices of the holy inquisition, the alleged holy war of the Crusades, burning heretics at the stake, etc., etc. We cannot here trace Papacy’s persecution of everything resembling reforms, liberty of conscience or political freedom. Suffice it to say that this persecution ex, tended to every country where Papacy had a footing.
Neither will we here particularize all the awful, sickening, soul-harrowing tortures, inflicted on some of the Lord’s jewels because of faithfulness to their convictions. It is estimated, by those who seemingly have given the subject thorough investigation, that Papacy, during the past 1,300 years has directly or indirectly caused the death of fifty millions of people. And it may safely be said that human and Satanic ingenuities were taxed to the utmost to invent new and horrible tortures, to provoke the political and religious opponents of this powerful system, alleged heretics being pursued with tenfold fury.
Besides the common forms of persecution and death, such as racking, burning, drowning, stabbing and shooting with arrows and guns, Papacy’s representatives meditated how the most delicate and sensitive parts of the body, capable of most excruciating pain could be affected. Molten lead was poured into the ears, tongues were cut out and lead poured into the mouths; wheels were arranged with knife blades attached, so that the victim could be slowly chopped to pieces. Claws and pincers were made red hot and used upon sensitive parts of the body. Eyes were gouged out. Fingernails were pulled off with red hot irons. Holes by which the victim was tied up, were bored through the heels. Some were forced to jump from distances onto long spikes fixed below, where quivering with pain, they slowly died. The mouths of some were filled with gunpowder, which, when fired, blew their heads to pieces. Others were hammered to pieces on anvils. Others, attached to bellows, had air pumped into them until they burst. Still others were choked to death with mangled pieces of their own bodies.
Some of these awful atrocities would be quite beyond belief were they not well authenticated by secular and reliable history. They serve to show to what awful depravity the human heart can descend, and how blind to right and every good instinct men can become under the influence of false, counterfeit religion. The spirit of this false anti-christ system degraded and defaced the world as the spirit of the true Christ and the power and influence of the true Kingdom of God will elevate and ennoble men’s hearts and actions.
Nor is this attitude of the Papacy toward alleged heretics any different today than it was during the heyday of its reign back in the Dark Ages. Up until the very time that its power was destroyed in Poland, for example, liberty-loving students of God’s Word who wished to proclaim their views for the blessing of others, found themselves bitterly persecuted and in some instances actually put to death by Papal authority.
GOD’S VIEWPOINT
This, then, is the system which today is decrying the persecutions that are being leveled against it by the dictators of Europe. It is for the perpetuation of this system that the present Pope is fasting and praying in the hope of inducing God to come to its rescue. But, is God interested in perpetuating this system of ignorance, bigotry and intolerance? Reason answers, No! Obviously the true God could not be concerned about perpetuating this system, and it is becoming increasingly apparent that whatever god it truly represents is quite unable to care for his own in this great judgment period that is coming upon all nations and classes of the earth. Apparently the true God has caused the handwriting to be written on the wall against Papacy as well as against all false systems, civil and religious.
But we should be very sympathetic toward individuals and groups that are involved in the world’s distress. Men generally conduct their lives in harmony with their political and religious viewpoints. In the unchristian practices of Papacy both past and present, we have an illustration of how error of doctrine produces unrighteousness. Men may speedily be led into every form of cruelty and oppression, if first they can convince themselves that in the exercise of such depravities they are the more like God—imitators of God. Papacy teaches that God will torment His enemies forever, hence the more torment they can inflict upon those whom they allege to be enemies of God, naturally the more like God they prove themselves to be.
In view of this, the wonder is that men are as kind and as moderate as we find them, with all of the terrible false ideas and doctrines concerning God’s plan for mankind with which Satan has blinded and deluded them through the Papal fountain of error, leading them in a course congenial to their fallen nature.
PAPACY BEING DESTROYED
Doubtless Papacy will continue efforts to regain her lost prestige among the nations of the world. And there is a slight possibility that she may be temporarily successful in a measure along this line. But aside from this possibility of a brief restoration of power, the Scriptures make it plain that the system is doomed to final destruction.
Knowing this, it is not difficult to understand and properly interpret the experiences now befalling this counterfeit system of religion that has so long masqueraded as God’s kingdom on earth. As an example of the methods being used by European dictators to undermine the influence of Papacy and to destroy her hold upon the people, we quote from a recent article published in the New York Times, dated at Rome, March 16:
“Religion has been banned from the schools, communism and atheism are being taught to the Polish youth, the clergy has been reduced to abject poverty and the people are being starved into acceptance of communism.”
This information, according to the New York Times, was contained in a two thousand word statement by August Cardinal Hlond, Primate of Poland, in which he describes the conditions of the church in Soviet-occupied Poland. A summary of the Cardinal’s statement based on information which he said had reached his chancellory is as follows:
“In Eastern Poland there were, at the time of the Soviet invasion, ten Catholic Dioceses with nineteen Archbishops, 5,500 secular priests, 5,000 regular priests, about 4,000 parishes with 8,000,000 faithful, including 5,000,000 of the Latin Rite. The church was flourishing as nowhere else in Europe. The Bolseviki arrived with a definite program: the destruction of religion in Eastern Poland to the same extent as in Russia, where nothing has remained of the hundreds of churches and priests.
“The policy adopted is to avoid massacres and other barbaric methods in favor of others more subtle and efficient, already tested by experience. As a consequence, the Russians seek to undermine the importance of the church, to degrade the clergy, and above all, educate the youth to atheism and communism. For this reason there are no organized massacres of priests. The few cases so far recorded were due to local communists. There has been, for instance, the case of a Soviet officer ordering that guns be aimed and fired at churches, but all excesses were soon stopped.
“The propaganda for atheism is done through slogans coming from Moscow. It is not so gross as in the early days of the Soviet regime. Atheism is preached scientifically. Repugnant blasphemy has been replaced by skillful skepticism, which is instilled especially into the children. The banning of religion from schools is applied gradually. Young Communists are instructed to mix with the Polish students and to apostolize for Communism. The cross is, in some cases, permitted to remain in school rooms but it must be placed between portraits of Lenin and Stalin.”
Thus the destruction of Papacy and the loss of her children continues. But let us not suppose for a moment that this implies the destruction of true religion. We venture to say that in many instances the very ones who are now so enthusiastically undermining faith in the Roman Catholic Church and persecuting those who still insist upon adhering to its dogmas, will, when the time comes, rejoice to learn about the true God. Doubtless many of these when the Kingdom of Christ is established in the earth will be first to acknowledge the King of kings and Lord of lords, and to worship Him in spirit and in truth.
As already suggested, let us endeavor to be sympathetic toward all the individuals and groups involved in the present struggle among the nations. Both the persecuted and the persecutors are where they are, religiously and ideologically, because they are worshiping false gods. The Catholics, on the one hand, are worshiping, and throughout the centuries have worshiped, a god of torment, a god of exploitation, a god of war, a god which to them lies waiting to torture his enemies forever.
The Bolsheviks and other Dictator-controlled groups, on the other hand, are worshiping a god of political state power. To them as to the ardent religionists of Europe, their god can do no wrong. These false gods obviously are opposed to each other hence their worshipers are at war. For the time being the state-god of power is triumphant. Soon, however, even the god of state-power and militarism will also be destroyed. Then the true God of love will become known and worshiped by all mankind when the knowledge of His glory fills the whole earth as the waters cover the sea.
Irrespective of any temporary power that Papacy may be able to regain for herself, most writers of note agree that her cause is lost. Commenting on President Roosevelt’s efforts to bring about peace by co-operating with the Vatican, Dorothy Thompson, writing in the New York Herald Tribune recently, has this to say about the power of Papacy and this changing world in general. We quote:
“The United States is putting herself in a ridiculous position. She is joining the Vatican in an attempt to moralize the world. The Vatican is powerless—powerless even to protect the church in any totalitarian country except Italy, where the Vatican lives by the grace of the Fascist Government. The United States is still unwilling to face the fact that the struggle now going on is absolutely bound to change the social and economic structure of most of the world, and will have the most profound repercussions upon this hemisphere from Alaska to Cape Horn before it is over. We are neither militarily nor morally prepared for the world of the next decade, which will not be a comfortable middle class world based on the morals of the nineteenth century, whatever else it is or may become.”
PROTESTANTISM ALSO A FAILURE
Catholicism is not alone in its failure to uphold the standards of true Christianity in the earth. The great Protestant systems of earth are also now standing before the bar of judgment and from many sources are hearing words of condemnation pronounced against them. Some of the Protestant systems of religion are, like Catholicism, church-state arrangements. Nearly all of them, in one way or another, seek to express their views and to use their influence in conjunction with the state under which they exist. Meddling in politics is a habit that most Protestant churches indulge in to a greater or lesser extent.
But there is no authority for this in the Word of God. Jesus told His disciples that He had called them out of the world, and admonished them to remain separate from the world. The Christian is an ambassador of Christ and his business is to make known the glad tidings of the future Kingdom of the Messiah. He is not in any way to be associated with the governments of this world, all of which are to a greater or lesser extent under the domination of Satan, who is the prince of this present evil order of things.
God has never blessed the church’s efforts to meddle in the affairs of the world. We see that in every instance attempts to cooperate in the worldly pursuits of the governments of Christendom have resulted in a lowering of church standards of righteousness. Recently there appeared an editorial in Fortune Magazine, a summary of which was published in the Readers’ Digest of March. The title of this editorial was “The Light that has Failed.” The writer cites a number of examples in which he claims that the church has been led by the world rather than the church leading the world. One of these examples is that of the church’s attitude toward the first World War. On this point we quote from the editorial just mentioned:
“An even more trenchant example of the church’s: failure is to be found in our own time, in its attitude toward war. In 1914 the U.S. Church was solidly opposed to war, which it characterized as un-christian. But in 1917, on the grounds that certain Christian values were at stake, the pastors mounted their pulpits to declaim against the Huns and bless the Allied cause. Such hatred for the enemy as there was in the front line produced no oratory compared with the invectives hurled against Germany by the men of Christ.”
The Editor of Fortune compares the attitude of the church toward war in 1917 with its present attitude ac follows:
“The threat to Christianity in 1917 was far less than the threat from Hitler today. The Kaiser’s regime, despite its militarism, embodied a culture from which neither religion nor certain political rights were excluded. The regime of Hitler is godless, deriving its: strength from the denial of all values except personal power. Yet the men who urged the U.S. soldiers in 1917 to face death against an ordinary emperor, whose chief sin was worldly ambition, now conclude that it would be wrong to fight a virtual antichrist whose doctrines strike at the base of the civilization which the Church has done so much to build.”
In pondering over the significance of this changing position of the church with respect to the subject of war, the Editor of Fortune Magazine concludes:
“How soon could the church again reverse its views on war? The answer would seem to be clear: the pastors will go over to the other side, when, as, and if the people go over to the other side. Their arguments today are the same arguments used by industrialists who urge us to stay out. In dealing with both wars industry has provided a leadership at least as effective, as that of the church. Industry wanted to save democracy in 1917 by fighting: it now wants to save democracy by not fighting. If its point of view is more materialistic than that of the church, its goal is identical. Thus the flock is leading the shepherd. And this; circumstance, if not corrected, will carve itself deeply in human history.
“So long as the church pretends to preach absolute spiritual values, but actually preaches relative secondary values, it will merely hasten this process of disintegration. We are asked to turn to the church for our enlightenment, but when we do so we find that the voice of the church is not inspired. The voice of the church today, we find, is the echo of our own voices. And the result of this experience already manifest, is deep spiritual disillusionment. The effect of this experience upon the present generation is that of a vicious spiral, like the spiral that economists talk about that leads into depressions. And in this spiral there is at stake, not merely prosperity, but civilization.
“There is only one way out: the sound of a voice, coming from something not ourselves, in the existence of which we cannot disbelieve. It is the earthly task of the pastors to hear this voice, to relate it convincingly to the contemporary scene, and to tell us what it says. If they cannot hear it, or if they fail to tell us, we, as laymen, are utterly lost. Without it we are no more capable of saving the world than we were capable of creating it in the first place.”
If it might be said that the foregoing comments are from the pen of a layman who is not in a position to know the real facts pertaining to the church and religion, we quote the following equally condemnatory statement with respect to the church’s failure to lead the nations in the paths of true Christianity, from the pen of Rev. Bernard Iddings Bell, D.D., and published in The Living Church:
“It might be just as well, if the church and its leaders would stop talking and acting as though they were being called upon by the general populace to be molders of national policy in this secular world. It only makes them look ridiculous to the man in the street. Not one of the nations engaged in this present war can, by any legitimate stretch of the meaning of words, be called a religious nation. Not one pays more than lip service, and some of them not that, to the will of God. When skeptical thieves fall out, religious men had best not take sides, but may well ask to what extent they themselves have been mixed up in the gene oral knavery, and do some honest-to-goodness repenting.”
GOD’S OPINION
We have assembled these thoughts and quotations pertaining to the failure of churchianity in order that we may see clearly, from the standpoint of the Scriptures, just why it is that God is not doing anything to prevent the downfall of Catholicism and Protestantism. God is not interested in perpetuating systems that do not honor Him. In both doctrine and practice the great religious systems of earth which are called Christian, actually dishonor the name of Christ, by misrepresenting His teachings and claiming to establish His Kingdom before the time.
The Scriptures make it very clear that the development of these counterfeit systems of Christianity was not unexpected by God. Jesus, as well as the prophets and the apostles, foretold the great falling away that would take place, and of the system of iniquity that would grow up in the earth and be called Christian. Not only do the Scriptures indicate that such a system was to develop, but also foretell its destruction at the end of the age—a destruction that would be precipitated in what the prophet Daniel describes as “a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation.”—Dan. 12:1
One of the most scathing denunciations of the false religious systems of our day is that found in the 18th chapter of Revelation, from which our text is taken. In this chapter the false religio-political systems of the earth are represented in symbol by the term Babylon. The historical circumstances associated with the origin, rise and fall of the literal city of Babylon in ancient times makes it a very fitting picture of the great systems that have masqueraded in the earth as the Kingdom of God. The name Babylon itself originated with the frustrating of the plan for the great tower, called Babel (confusion), because there God confounded human speech. But the native etymology made the name Babil, which, instead of being reproachful, and a reminder of the Lord’s displeasure, to the ancients signified “the gate of God.”
In symbolic prophecy a “city” signifies a religious government backed by power and influence. Thus, for instance, the “holy city, the New Jerusalem,” is the symbol used to represent the established Kingdom of God, the overcomers of the Gospel church exalted and reigning in glory. The church is also, and in the same connection, represented as a woman, the “bride, the Lamb’s wife,” in power and glory, and backed by the power and authority of Christ, her husband. The Apostle John had the holy city identified for him, and telling about it he says, “And there came unto me one of the seven angels saying, … Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And He showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem.”—Rev. 21:9,10
This same method of interpretation applies to mystical Babylon, the great ecclesiastical kingdom, “that great city,” that is identified in Revelation 17:1-6. Here this city is also described as a harlot, a fallen woman. The true church is represented in the Bible as a chaste virgin espoused to Christ, but this ecclesiastical system has, according to the Revelator, committed fornication with the kings of the earth through church-state union, and for this reason is represented as a harlot.
In calling attention to this Scriptural portrayal of false religious systems which are doomed to fall in the great time of trouble in the end of the age, it is not with the thought of condemning all individuals associated with these systems. These counterfeit systems always have and still do contain many faithful souls who are quite ignorant of the real state of affairs. These reverently and devoutly worship God, and not realizing that the systems with which they are associated are fundamentally out of harmony with God and therefore doomed to go into oblivion, these are greatly distressed when they see the judgment of the Lord coming upon what they have supposed to be Christianity.
True Christians should be sympathetic towards all that is good wherever found in this present evil world; but nevertheless, we should recognize that systems which have fostered the eternal torture theory, have promoted wars in the name of Christ, and still would be willing to mix in the political affairs of the world in order to establish a shallow peace, do not and cannot have God’s favor. True Christians will therefore not be discouraged at what many mistakenly suppose to be the failure of Christianity, but will continue to pray for the real Kingdom of God, and for the blessings of peace and happiness which it soon will bring to all mankind.
That the punishment of mystic Babylon will be great is certain. It is written prophetically that, “Great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.” Again, “And He hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hands.” Once more, “Her sins have reached unto heaven, God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her, even as she hath rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works. In the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her; for she sayeth in her heart, I sit a queen and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.”—Rev. 16:19; 19:2; 18:5-7
Papacy, as well as churchianity in general, will make frantic efforts to revive their position of influence and authority in the world, but the prophecies indicate that these efforts will measurably fail. Indeed the present efforts of the Pope to influence the nations in the direction of peace is but a symptom of the grave dangers which the Papacy realizes are in the offing if something is not done to stem the tide of anti-religious forces now sweeping over the European world under the leadership of totalitarian dictators. Describing these efforts of Papacy in her dying struggle for existence, Pastor Russell in his book “Armageddon” written more than forty years ago, says:
“Yes, as the day of trouble draws on, ecclesiasticism will endeavor to use its power and influence more and more to secure its own political welfare, by its control of the turbulent elements of society; but in the crisis of the near future the lawless element will spurn all conservative influence and break over all restraints, the red hand of anarchy will do its dreadful work, and. Babylon, Christendom, social, political and ecclesiastical, shall fall.”
Today we see this forecast being fulfilled. The red hand of anarchy among the nations is already doing its work of overthrowing the systems of ignorance, superstition and prejudice which have long held Europe in their grip. In Revelation 17 we are told of the forces—characterized as ten-horned powers of the beast—which will be used primarily for the overthrow of great Babylon. But that these powers in themselves likewise are unrighteous and will not be used of the Lord except in this work of destruction is clearly pointed out by the statement that they too, once this specific job is accomplished, will go into perdition.
This will prepare the way for the establishment of the Kingdom of God—that Kingdom of righteousness and peace so beautifully illustrated in Revelation 21 as the New Jerusalem which cometh down from God out of heaven. This new Kingdom will bring the desire of all nations. Through its arrangements God will turn to the people a pure language. (Zeph. 3:9) Then God’s name will be fully vindicated. Then all will recognize the justice of the present work of destruction that is overthrowing systems which throughout the centuries have blasphemed the name of God. All will rejoice to know and love the true God. It will be then that the prophecy of Isaiah 25:9 will be fulfilled, when the people, in glad response to the blessing of the new Kingdom, will say, “Lo, this is our God, we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.”